Wyrmglow
by Evelos
Summary: A snap of teeth, the flow of blood, beware the warmth of autumn's glow. A hunter rides to face the wyrm, the scourge of lands, a beast of legend, the change of seasons be damned. Within the blinding snow, by teeth and claws of rime and hoarfrost... The dragon, she awaits.
1. Embark

Lightning knelt beside the hearth. She could feel the warmth that leapt and danced across her skin, the glow that chased away the chills of the stone floor, and even the long, silvery chain that dangled between her fingertips.

The flames crackled, climbing up along the dry, twisting branches. They were quite eager for larger bits of wood, yet they only had more time to wait.

Lightning spoke in a low murmur. Her eyes began to narrow in concentration. The fire snapped and swirled against the frigid air, enough to warm the entire room, small as it was.

"Light?"

Lightning took no notice of the voice for a moment, not until she came to a pause in the ritualistic words. "Serah... You should be sleeping."

"I... I still don't think this is a good idea." After a long moment of silence, Serah stepped out from the doorway as quietly as she could. "You _promised_ , didn't you? No more than a couple hunts this season; you could get hurt, _seriously_ hurt... Or worse."

Lightning stared into the flames. "Tell that to the little villages out by the mountains."

"Light..." Serah stepped beside the hearth, before she sat down as well, resting against the stony floor. "We can't stretch ourselves this thin, not for every possible sighting."

"It is really 'we' this time?" Lightning slowly turned over the long silver chain, just to stare down at the rounded pendant dangling from the end, before she moved to place it against the center of her palm. "I didn't think you'd be too keen to head out this late in the year."

"Normally, I wouldn't." Serah frowned. "But you can't really be planning to head out there without backup-"

Lightning almost smiled. "I could be."

" _Light!_ " Serah tried to keep her voice down, but it still echoed against each wall of the tiny wooden house, even into the other rooms. "What the- Did you stick your head in a beehive or something? This is _insane_ , you have to at least bring-"

"Serah." Lightning reached out to flip the tiny pendant between her fingertips. "Do you remember what the missive said? Where the second sighting was?"

Serah chewed at her bottom lip, glancing away. "...Above the mountains."

"And what happens when you make too much noise up in the mountains? When you leave too much of a footprint..." Lightning could feel how the metal began to grow warm against her skin, but if it was from the fire, her own body heat, or even some unknown force, she just couldn't say. "I shouldn't have to tell you that an avalanche would be the least of our problems."

With a short sigh, Serah held her hands out towards the fire, just enough to chase the chill away. "I still think it's too late in the year... And I shouldn't have to tell _you_ that winter is a double-edged sword."

"Only if you don't know how to handle it." Lightning looked over at her sister, glancing at the thin lines of worry on her face. "Don't frown at me, Serah... Listen, the fields are empty, the crops all packed away for winter; we could do with a little extra favor."

Serah laughed just under her breath, but there was scarcely any joy to the sound. "Favor... Favor from who? The other villages? The gods? Our own neighbors would be a better bet.."

Lightning tightened her grip around the pendant. "You never know, these days; it could be a test, something normal... I've seen stranger things happen."

Serah moved to hug her own knees against her chest, staring down at the flames. "Snow thinks that the gods might be gone."

Lightning tried not to grit her teeth. "The lummox would think the sun was gone in the middle of a blizzard... Just take whatever he says with a grain of salt, alright?" She glanced over at the way that Serah was suddenly smiling. "I don't know either; I don't know if the gods are still around, or if they're even listening... But there's one thing that I _know_ is still out there."

Serah's gaze flickered away, towards the floor.

"You should get some sleep."

Serah stifled a tiny yawn. "Oh, you're one to talk! Staying up all night to do some silly ritual, making the whole _house_ smell like incense..."

Lightning glanced down at the small woven pouch that held various herbs, the one that was resting just beside the edge of the hearth. "Better safe than sorry."

Serah shrugged. "Well, let's just get on with it..."

Lightning turned to stare at her. "What are you talking about? You don't have to-"

"I still believe in this stuff too, Light... Just a little." Serah reached up to touch the silver necklace beneath her own nightshirt, and she tugged it off from over her neck. "And, like you said, it's better safe than sorry... Double the effort might just get you back here again in one piece."

Lightning felt a small smile tug at her face. "Thank you."

Serah nodded. She held out her necklace in each hand, gripping the tiny blue pendant between her fingertips. "The hunter rides..."

Lightning closed her eyes, whispering just under her breath. "The hunter rides to slay those who would threaten this land, a beast of fabled cunning and untold strength."

"We ask for your blessing, Divine Etro, your will to bring her home alive."

"To grant my quarry a swift and righteous end, to accept it back into your arms."

"Etro, hear our words."

"Goddess of death, I answer your call... And may you hear mine, as well."

"We guide to your fold to bolster our own, to keep the hallowed balance eternal."

Lightning opened her eyes. "...May you bring me back alive."

* * *

Odin's hooves clattered against the stable floor, pacing back and forth, while he whinnied away into the early morning air.

"Impatient, aren't you?" Lightning soon hoisted up a bale of hay over the wooden barrier of the stable stall, and she almost smiled when Odin reached for it immediately. "I'm just glad you're eating well... We'll be working with rations for a while, or whatever grass we can find for you."

Odin snorted, pawing at the wooden floor, before he nipped along the wispy strings that held the bale in one piece.

Lightning stared at him blankly. "You've had worse."

Odin whinnied again, before he reached for an eager bite of hay.

"That's what I thought." Lightning tugged some of the string away, before she let the entire bale fall down into a feeding trough. "I know Serah's been feeding you apples... She might forget you're a _warhorse_ , but I'm a little more strict than that."

Odin whickered under his breath, munching down on a mouthful of the hay.

"You're not going to do either of us any good if you've gotten soft and lazy over the summer." Lightning stepped away from the side of the stall, back towards the center of the stable. "And it's almost winter, now... You could do with a little reinforcement." She knelt down to lift up a wooden crate, one that had been resting beside a stack of farrier's equipment, though the contents of the container were much more varied and arcane. "You're not a circus pony."

Odin ignored her, even when she started to crush a handful of pale herbs within a clay mortar. Yet when the sharp scent of peppermint touched the inside of his nostrils, he lifted his head with a gentle snort.

"Just making it easier to stomach." Lightning had already taken out various pouches and vials from the box, and she quickly set them down across a small, wooden table. "It's nothing you haven't had before..." She began to mix a few things together, grinding down a wide number of wild herbs, and then some even more unusual materials. "But with the distance we'll need to go, this might feel like more than just a little kick."

A voice spoke from just outside the stable. "Good morning, Light."

She didn't even look up to see who had entered the doorway. "You're getting too good at sneaking up on me."

Hope only smiled to himself, reaching for a short length of rope from a nail on the wall. "Well, I heard you talking to Odin, so it was easier than usual."

Lightning poured out a thin, translucent liquid into a tiny vial. "Everyone talks to their horses."

Hope nodded. "Didn't mean to imply anything... It's just easier to go unnoticed when someone's paying attention to something else." He started to carry the rope over towards a wall of bridles and halters, but he took more than a moment or two to select one from all the rest. "I think Alexander likes it when I tell him stories... Something about the way it sounds."

Lightning looked up to see that Hope was carrying a halter across the stable floor, towards the stall that held Alexander, himself. "Well, he's a warhorse... A charger, they're bred to stay calm in almost every situation except combat, and even then, they'll hardly ever panic or get distracted."

Hope pushed open the door of the stall to let himself inside, before he held up the halter in both hands. "To hunt _monsters_ , you mean."

Lightning bit back a smile. "When the world's not at war, yes."

"Do you think Alexander could hunt?" Hope's voice echoed out from inside the stall. "I think he's even bigger than Odin."

Lightning glanced up when the wooden door began to creak open, and before very long, an utterly massive draft horse was led out with the halter and rope. "Hope, sheer size doesn't account for everything... Think about it, if _you_ were a wendigo, which horse would you try to eat first?" She looked up at the pale palomino hide, and then at wide white blaze that ran directly down Alexander's face. "But yes, with training... He could hunt."

Hope tugged at Alexander's lead, gently guiding him towards the entrance of the stable. "He'd need a rider to do it."

Lightning kept quiet while Hope walked outside with the horse, but it was only a moment or two before he returned again, holding the empty rope in his hands.

"He'd need a rider..." Hope walked over to the window, just to gaze at the way that Alexander was trotting around the paddock, holding his head up high. "And he'd need someone to train him, someone who already knows how to hunt."

"I've already taught you how to shoot game from horseback." Lightning began to pour a pale green concoction into a round glass vial, one that already had a great number of crushed herbs inside. "Ask yourself, do you _need_ more than that? Do you really want to handle anything more dangerous than a stray mountain lion?"

"Well..." After a brief moment, Hope moved to pull up a second chair towards the table. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Lightning handed him a small bottle. "Keep this in motion and don't let it settle."

Hope started to twirl the bottle in his hands, gently turning the liquid over every so often. "Well, stray mountain lions... When someone sees one of those, they don't send for help, at least not all the way across the valley."

Lightning began to stir up a crystallized chunk of mineral against a more loose, fluid sort of mixture, and before long, both of the materials started to dissolve with a quiet hiss.

Hope lowered his voice a bit. "Listen, what if you're out on errands one day, or if Serah's gone at the same time... Even Snow, he's almost always out doing something; what if I'm the only one in the village who can ride a horse like that? What if something-"

Lightning didn't look away from the hissing vial. "We have wards for a reason."

"They don't always work." Hope slowly shook his head back and forth. "If wards were foolproof, they wouldn't be sending for you."

Lightning set down a small bowl of the thick, flickering liquid. "You're a little too smart for your own good, Hope." She waited for the mixture to grow a bit darker in hue, before she gestured for him to hand her the other vial. "Well then... What do you think we should do?"

Hope watched as Lightning poured the pale green liquid into the rest of the bubbling compound, and his eyes widened when a thin, curling plume of smoke rose up from the tiny wooden bowl. "Well, you could... If you ever wanted an apprentice, I mean-" He fell silent when she dropped a handful of herbs into the mix. "That actually smells good."

Lightning let a tiny smile twitch over her lips. "Peppermint."

Hope began to smile as well. "If you ever wanted to teach someone else how to defend this place..." He stood up when Lightning moved away from the table, carrying the bowl in both of her hands. "I mean, I know we aren't a big village... People don't really flock out to parts like this, not with all the monsters, I mean." Hope paused to watch as Odin's head appeared over the edge of the stall. "Is he really gonna drink all that?"

"Yes, he knows what it does." Lightning nodded when Odin moved his head down to snuffle at the edge of the bowl. "Horses can't digest most foods with a high-protein content; they're herbivores, after all..." She waited for Odin to take a sip of the odd concoction. "Just think of this as a supplement, something with about as much protein as raw meat, only it's been turned into a form that he can easily digest and utilize."

Hope stepped up to lean against the side of the stall, watching while Odin drank his fill from the tiny bowl. "But you're not going take him up into mountains, are you?"

Lightning shook her head. "He'll take me as far as the canyon pass, at least, but at this time of year, especially if it's already snowed in..." She reached up to pat along the side of Odin's head. "He's very strong, but a broken leg would be fatal in that sort of weather."

Hope glanced over at the door of the stable. "You'll send him back once you get that far?"

Lightning nodded. "He knows the forest trails inside and out... He'll make it back before our valley sees more than a few feet of snowfall."

"Our valley..." Hope glanced over at the window, where the paddock stretched on into the sweeping fields, before he looked at the tiny village that was nestled in against the side of a sparsely forested hill. "Didn't you say it had a name? Before any of us even got here."

"I only heard it from a nomad, but he said this area was called 'Sunleth', at least back when Gran Pulse was an actual empire." Lightning soon lowered the empty bowl. "He called us 'people of Cocoon', but I can only guess it's because we were new to this place."

Hope reached up to stroke Odin's muzzle, earning a quiet whinny in response. "And you said you came by boat? With Serah, right?"

Lightning nodded. "Our village was called Bodhum before the floods... It even might still be there, if the water ever dried out." She started to carry the empty bowl back towards the rest of the bottles and tubes, and she began to wipe them clean with a small bit of cloth. "The two of us made it all the way across the sea with only rainwater and whatever fish we could spear... When we finally hit shore, I almost thought we'd finally died out there, that it was somewhere in Etro's realm."

Hope tried not to frown at the thought.

"But no... Obviously it wasn't the case." Lightning swiped the rag against the bottom of the wooden bowl. "It had to be some other continent, somewhere with a lot less people." She began to place each of the slim vials back into their proper place in the box, stacking the rest of the flatter bottles against the bottom of the crate. "That very same nomad told us about this place... That it was called 'Gran Pulse'."

Hope walked up beside the table. "But who taught you how to hunt monsters?" He sat in the chair again, staring down at his hands. "That happened before you came here, right?"

"It did." Lightning clipped the box shut. "My father was a hunter, so was my mother." She knelt down to lift up the crate, carrying it back beside a few orderly stacks of boxed horseshoes. "Believe me, Serah and I wouldn't even be here today if they hadn't taught us everything they knew."

Hope stood up again to follow her, only he paused within the center of the stable, and he watched the tiny motes of dust that were floating around beneath the sunlight. "And how long does it take to learn something like that? How to hunt things, like you can..."

Lightning turned to face the doorway, before she slowly brushed off her hands. "To tell you the truth, you never actually stop learning."

* * *

With a thin wooden case in her arms, Serah stepped out along the village path, glancing every which way. "Hey Snow... Are you out here?" She peered up at the tiny house with a wide, thatched roof, before she paused to look at the little flowerbeds out by the front step. "The poor things will get frosted over at this rate..."

"Serah?" A voice called out. "Is that you?"

Serah looked over towards where the voice had called from. "Yeah! Are you out back?"

After only a moment or two, a figure with quite a bit of dirt on his gloves came walking out from behind the house. "Serah!"

Serah beamed at him. "Hey... What are you trying plant this time of year?" She nodded at his gardening gloves. "I mean, unless it's tough enough to survive the cold until spring..."

Snow shook his head. "Not planting, harvesting." He reached for his back pocket to reveal a rather strange looking root vegetable, one that had many little knobs and lumps, and even a thin, pale stripe of color around the circumference. "I'm not sure the name of them, but they used to serve these in those little taverns, the ones you see around other villages... Something like a radish, only sweeter."

"That makes sense." Serah lifted up the wooden case that she'd been carrying. "I brought what you needed, but be careful; Light hates it whenever things get misplaced or broken..."

Snow grinned at her, accepting the tiny box. "I'll be _real_ gentle."

Serah blushed a little. "You'd _better_ , or Light's gonna make you fix them all by yourself..." She glanced at the radish in his other hand. "So, you can really harvest those this late in the year? Are there any more left in the ground?"

Snow began to nod, gesturing for her to follow. "Yeah, if you try to dig them up any sooner, they taste pretty bitter." He soon knelt beside the wide furrows of earth, before he set the wooden case down against the grass. "Watch this..."

Serah waited for him to reach down for a bundle of leafy stalks, before he tugged back a large, pale tuber, almost identical to the one that he had shown her before.

"And they stay fresh for a while, too." Snow handed the root over to Serah. "Just as long as you keep them somewhere real dry and cold."

Serah slowly began to smile. "You want to know how you can earn a little favor with Light?"

Snow paused for a moment, as if he didn't register what she had said as anything even more than a joke. "...How's that?"

Serah pointed at the dark, loamy earth. "I've been packing rations and supplies for her trip all morning, but fresh vegetables? They'd be more than welcome on a long journey like this."

Snow sat upright with a much more serious look on his face. "She's _really_ going out there..? In this weather?"

Serah tried not to frown. "I know, I already tried to talk her out of it." She turned around, gazing at the rest of the humble village, and she tried to mentally count the number of families who had taken up residence beside their own little house. "When Lightning gets dead set on something, it's like trying to yank a carrot away from a mule."

"You think her horse would like some of these?" Snow held up one of the vegetables. "If it's enough like a radish, he might just eat them all before she can..."

Serah giggled a bit. "I'd bet he would..." She leaned back to peer around at the tiny yard, which was fenced in with thick wicker and metal wiring, though the tall flowering plants that surrounded the fence hid most of the material from sight. "She's leaving, before tonight." Serah glanced back at Snow, at the expression on his face. "It's _always_ like this, Snow... She just can't ignore it."

After a brief moment of silence, Snow slowly began to nod. "I know... And I know how it feels."

* * *

The firelight danced along the sleek, silvery edge, flickering against the pale golden filigree, and then even against the handle itself, held tightly within an unwavering grip.

She moved through the motions, a quick step to the side, imagining the sharp, vicious blow that she had avoided only by mere inches. Then there was a returning thrust, the push of steel, a patter of scarlet blood, and she could almost _hear_ it, as if she were really there, fighting off that monstrous foe. The room was much too small for advanced maneuvers, but she could still block and parry, and then return the very same force against her imagined attacker, dealing out retaliation in swift, calculated strikes.

In her heightened state of concentration, it was easy enough to hear the front door swing open, and then the footsteps echoing within the hall, until they came to a halt beside the room she was in. "Gods... Just don't break anything."

Lightning slowly paused, sheathing her blade. "I'm always careful, you know that."

Serah rolled her eyes, before she walked into the room, carrying a rather large bushel in her arms. "Yes, I know, but couldn't you go and do it _outside?_ " She had to step very carefully between the various cases of weaponry, towards the little wooden table near the edge of the hearth. "I've got something for you, by the way."

Lightning twitched a single eyebrow. "And what's that?"

"It's from Snow, actually... So you'd better be nice to him for once." Serah knelt down to set down the large woven bushel against the table, before she reached over to tug at the drawstring ties. "He gave me even more of these than I asked for."

Lightning stepped up beside the table just in time to see a great number of tubers within the satchel, and her eyes nearly widened at how fresh they were. "This is serious?"

"Of course it is." Serah gestured for Lightning to sit down. "I wouldn't joke about something like this." She crossed her legs against the floor, and she almost sighed in contentment from the warmth of the tiny fire. "He said they'll stay fresh just as long as you keep them cold and dry, which shouldn't be any problem with the temperature outside."

Lightning reached out to pick up one of the knobbled roots, and she turned it over in her hands, examining both the texture and quality. "This means he's actually done something useful..."

Serah smiled as she reached over to gently swat Lightning's wrist. "Hey, he's done plenty of useful things! Like keeping the wards maintained-"

Lightning leaned back a bit. "Scaring away a Cockatrice..."

"Cockatrices can be really dangerous!" Serah shook her head. "You should be _happy_ he frightened it off."

Lightning shrugged. "His horse broke part of the damn paddock last year."

"That was his _horse_ , not him." Serah let out a tiny sigh. "He really does _try_ , Light... He _wants_ to help out, he's just, sort of..."

"Sort of moronic?" Lightning took a long moment to think, before she glanced over at all of her weaponry, stacked in slim cases along the floor. "How he ever manages to catch more than a crippled wyvern, I'll never know..."

"He's _brave_." Serah traced her fingertips across the edge of the little table. "And he's got a good heart; isn't that enough?"

After a moment or two, Lightning rose to her feet, holding the hilt of her sword in one hand and the satchel of tubers in the other. "...He'd make a better farmer than a hunter."

Serah rolled her eyes. "Like you aren't good at digging around in the dirt and planting things!"

Lightning almost smiled. "It's one of the easiest skills to learn."

Serah began to stand up as well, before she held out her hands for the satchel. "I'll get these packed up for you... You said you were leaving before tonight, didn't you?"

Lightning nodded, handing over the burlap sack. "Odin's good at traveling in the dark, and I don't see any reason to wait." She watched as her little sister walked back across the room, towards the door. "It's only going to get colder, after all."

Serah paused within the doorway, gripping the satchel with both hands. "You don't _have_ to go... Nobody would think any less of you for sitting this one out."

Lightning stood in silence beside the fire, and after a moment, Serah almost thought that she might have reconsidered the entire event, that she would just stay at home where it was warm and safe, and without the threat of _freezing_ to death, or even worse, but when she caught that glint in Lightning's eyes, the fire to rival even a dragon's breath...

"...I would." Lightning spoke with such steel in her voice, enough to rend away any doubts that she might abandon the approaching venture. "I would think less of me."

Serah looked away. "I'll go get these packed."

Lightning turned back to face the tiny hearth. "Thank you, Serah."

Serah smiled, despite the twist in her stomach, or even the gathering sense of deep, bitter cold, shivering right along inside her veins. "...You're welcome."

* * *

The sun was still resting just above the horizon by the time she'd led Odin over to the main path. Lightning glanced up to see that there was still plenty of light to illuminate the village itself; at least seven tiny wooden huts were sitting side by side beneath the hill. As she looked at each of houses, she could see some of the scattered families that shared their land, a few of whom glanced back at her while they finished up with their daily chores.

Lightning paused in the center of the path, though she held Odin's bridle with a rather loose grip, only because she knew he wouldn't bolt. Her horse had faced at least a hundred monstrosities in his lifetime, but he had never once entertained the thought of leaving her side.

"Light?" The voice came from right behind her. "You okay?"

She glanced back to see Serah, who was strapping on one last item to Odin's saddle, a pale leather backpack that was most likely filled to the brim with supplies.

"Yeah... I'm okay." Lightning reached up to pat along Odin's neck, gently scratching at his skin with the surface of her gloves. "You'll be seeing him again before the first few feet of snow, that's what I told Hope."

Serah tried her best not to look sullen, though she couldn't quite help the tiny creases at the sides of her mouth. "Okay..." She suddenly stepped forward to hug Lightning, just enough that she couldn't see her frown. "You get back _safe_ , o _kay?_ And I'll go chasing after you if you don't... If you aren't back in a couple weeks I'll be _really_ mad, you hear me?"

Lightning returned the hug, releasing Odin's bridle so that she could use both arms. "I'll hold you to that, Serah... There's no monster that won't go running off when you're on the warpath."

Serah fought the urge to scoff. "Sure, but I'd send _you_ running long before they even noticed me."

After a moment, Lightning stepped away with a tiny, yet genuine smile. "Nothing more terrifying than a little sister with a grudge to carry out."

Serah stuck both hands on her hips and nodded, almost fiercely. "And I'll shoot an arrow in your behind if you come back with so much as a scratch!"

Lightning reached up for the horn of Odin's saddle. "Again, I'll hold you to it." It was almost fluid, the way she slid her boot up into the stirrup, swinging herself across Odin's back and down into place upon the seat, before she reached down for the reins once more. "Take care of things here, little sister."

Serah gave Lightning a mock salute, but then, a warm smile finally began to cross her lips, and she had to skip forward just to keep up with Odin's sudden stride. "And _you_ stay out of trouble, 'big sis'!" She couldn't help but laugh when Lightning waved from atop Odin's back, guiding him off into a gentle trot. "I _meant_ what I said about that arrow!"

Lightning glanced back over her shoulder, and she gave Serah a tiny nod, before the pair of them disappeared behind a bend in the path.

Serah stared out into the branches of the forest, already so bare of leaves, and she could just make out the outline of Odin trotting on down the side of the other hill, off into the wilderness beyond.

"...You stay safe." Serah began to wring her hands together, and she felt the urge to reach up and clutch at the pendant of her necklace. "You stay _safe;_ you're going to come walking back to us on that very same road, dragging that dragon's head behind you... Or I really _will_ shoot an arrow in your ass."

She barely even heard the gentle footsteps as they approached from somewhere behind her, but when she felt the touch of a thick, soft fabric against her bare arms, protecting them from the chill, she couldn't help but smile. "She's... She's going to be back before we know it."

Snow moved to the adjust the jacket over Serah's shoulders, before she smiled at her as well. "Listen, the two of you are the most stubborn women I've ever met; I'd eat my boots if death itself didn't get a headache from trying to catch her."

Serah let her eyes fall shut for a moment, before she shook her head with a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and something much more forlorn. "She's going get herself killed one of these days... We both will, but I don't think this is the one to do it."

Snow took a while just to think, and he soon leaned back to watch the bare trees, bending and swaying beneath the strong autumn winds. "I wouldn't tell you that you shouldn't worry, because... I mean-" He paused for a moment, thinking again. "It's not going to _change_ much, you know? She's real careful, Serah... She'll be okay."

Serah kept quiet, before she reached up to tug the jacket a bit tighter against herself. "She will."

Snow smiled at her, and he gestured for her to walk with him. "Hey, you hungry? I've already started up some dinner, so if you'd like..."

Serah stared at the path for just a moment longer, but when it seemed like nothing was going to happen, save for the rattle of dry leaves against the bare ground, she slowly turned to face Snow, to follow on after him. "That sounds good, actually; what are you making?"

Snow grinned. "I showed you those radish-things, didn't I? They can really give mashed potatoes a run for their money."

Serah glanced back over her shoulder again, just once, before she looked back at the tiny village, reaching over to hold Snow's hand. "Thank you, Snow."

He glanced down when her fingertips brushed against his own. "For dinner? It's no problem-"

"No, just for being here... With me." Serah swore that she could hear the drum of hoof-beats, if only she focused hard enough. "It's going to be a long couple of weeks."

* * *

Lightning urged Odin into a faster pace, riding on by the edge of the paddock that ran off along the narrow dirt path. "How are you feeling? It should've kicked in by now."

Odin merely snorted in response.

"Sassy today, aren't you..?" Lightning reached down to pat along the side of his neck, gripping the reins with both of her hands. "It's been too long since we've ridden like this."

His hooves struck down against the sturdy earthen road, practically begging for her to signal him into a gallop.

"Not yet..." Lightning glanced off to the side, at the long, barren branches that would normally hold so many green leaves, but at that point in the autumn, they had all since fallen to the ground. "Once we hit open terrain, we'll run for a bit."

Odin's flared his nostrils in the wind, before he lifted his head at the sudden sight of another horse, one who was moving within the fenced field.

"There's Alexander." Lightning narrowed her eyes to examine the sight beyond the gnarled branches of the woods. "Hope's with him, you see?"

Odin almost turned his head when the other creature began to change course, running up to travel beside them, and they both whickered at each other when the forest gave way to open land.

"Light!" Hope called out from atop Alexander's saddle, and he lifted one hand to wave at her. "Leaving already? Probably a good thing while it's still bright out..."

Lightning nodded at him. "We'll likely pass all the way though the valley before nightfall, maybe enough to reach the plains." She reined Odin back a bit, guiding him to match Alexander's pace. "Listen, I'd appreciate it if you could help Serah with whatever she needs while I'm away."

Hope nodded immediately. "No problem." He simply rode beside her for a while, following along the paddock fence. "But you'll tell us everything that happened once you get back, right? You guys always have the best stories..."

Lightning slowly smiled at him. "I wouldn't think of keeping it to myself." She lifted one hand up to adjust the thick scarf around her neck, which was fluttering on behind her body like a long, scarlet banner. "It's not everyday we get this sort of missive... A full-blown sighting, no less."

Hope tried not to let his face go pale at the sound of it. "You've brought your charms, right?"

Lightning gave him a look.

"Just checking." Hope glanced away with a slight shiver. "Better safe than sorry, right? Without heavy armor, I mean..."

Lightning glanced down at the leather bags that were attached to Odin's saddle, some of which held her combat gear inside. "Yes, I've got all of my charms."

Hope let out a silent sigh. "That's good." He glanced down at Alexander, who was still trotting on beside the fence. "Those charms... I wouldn't even stick my hand in a campfire; I still don't understand how you guys can do it."

Lightning felt a wry smile twitch at her face. "It tickles pretty fiercely, to be honest." She gently tugged at Odin's reins, ushering him to move even slower. "It's nothing like beast fire, though... Even with charms, you're better off avoiding it entirely."

Hope looked up to see that the length of the paddock was going to end in little more than minute or two, and he slowly reached down to pat around Alexander's shoulders. "I don't think I'll have to tell you to be real careful."

Lightning nodded, more to herself than to Hope. "You definitely won't."

"Then... I'll be waiting for you to come back, to decide if you ever want to take on apprentice for this kind of thing." Hope sat up a bit taller against the saddle, looking her straight in the eye. "I know that I'm... I'm not really the strongest when it comes to sparring, or even hunting things, but I can always _learn_ , right? It doesn't take a giant to slay a giant."

Lightning felt a soft smile, then, but she turned her head away to hide it. "Stay out of trouble and we'll see."

Hope urged Alexander forward as Odin suddenly surged back into a trot, but he was cantering again long before they could catch up with his stride. "I _will,_ Light! I'll keep practicing, too!"

Lightning called out over the pounding drum of heavy hoof-beats. "Hey, if I see a pelt on my doorstep by the time I get back..."

Hope grinned, before he reined for Alexander to stop near the edge of the fence. "You will, Light! I'll catch something good."

But she was gone, galloping on past the curve of the earth, behind a wide, grassy hill, and then off into the great unknown.

* * *

Upon the stony ridge, beneath the whirling snow, there was a great amount of fire.

The heat flickered, dancing swiftly against the howling frost and the cold, dark mountain, and then even the thick, jet-black hide, the scales that cut though gale storms in the way that steel moves through thin, human flesh.

A sharp gaze peered out from deep within the raging blizzard, but her eyes never wavered. Even when shards of frost hit down against the wet surface of her pupils, the ice merely melted beneath the great, encompassing warmth, before each droplet of water trickled down against the steely scales beneath.

Tensing, her claws sank deep against the endless drifts snowfall, and she began to speak in a way unknown to almost any other being, in a low, forgotten tongue.

It was as if a great number of stones had cracked against the savage earth, or if a wild blaze had torn even the mightiest tree asunder, racing on out towards the rest of the forest without the mind to scarcely pause.

In a deep, patient tone, she spoke.

 _Approach._


	2. Sister Death

The road stretched on beneath the barren forests, but Lightning seemed content to ignore the various trails that branched off from the main pathway. She kept Odin on course, traveling on through the valley in almost a blur of motion and hoofbeats.

Odin's breath came in steady, yet calculated bursts,though his overall pace was quite astounding. His pale white hide rippled like fine silk with each stride he took, revealing the lithe, pronounced muscles that had been hidden just beneath.

"Don't wear yourself out, now..." Lightning's voice was stolen away by the wind, but she knew that Odin would understand the gentle tug of his reins, signaling that he should slow down. "You'll be no use to us if you pull a muscle, you hear me?"

Odin tossed his head back with a low snort, but he slowly began to ease himself down, running somewhere between a sharp canter and a gallop.

" _Easy_." Lightning kept her gaze forward to watch the road ahead. "Hey, you're not the one out on a hunt, you know."

Odin's tongue foamed slightly at the metal bit of the reins, dribbling off towards the ground below.

"As strong as you are, you're not much use in the mountains." Lightning slowly eased Odin into a turn in the road, but she leaned forward again once they came across a toppled tree. "I just can't have you running around that high up... You're no gryphon."

Odin's muscles tensed, but he cleared the fallen tree without pause, soaring far above the twisted branches until his hooves touched the earth again.

Lightning almost smiled. "You wouldn't know it by seeing that, though..."

The pair of them traveled on with relative silence, all except for the constant drum of hoof-beats and Odin's steady lungs. When she listened closely, Lightning could catch the occasional call of a distant songbird, and sometimes even the low bugle of an elk, but the sounds were far and few between.

As she glanced down at the wooden bridge on the path before them, Lightning tugged Odin to a halt, but after a moment, she urged him to walk forward again. "I think this is spring water..." She drew back the reins again once they had reached the edge of the tiny stream. "I've already got my canteens, but you should drink."

And Odin did so without hesitation, dipping his head down to lap at the flowing liquid.

Lightning listened to the sounds of water moving through Odin's throat, and a sudden memory came drifting back to her all at once. "You were drinking when I first saw you, weren't you?" She slowly reached down to run her gloved fingertips through his long, white mane. "That was it, the summer carnival... Your owner, he was doing you a disservice." She almost scrunched up her nose in distaste. "I remember it, now; he had you drinking some sort of snake oil they sold at the sidelines... Just a show horse."

Odin lifted his head back up to lick the water away from his lips.

Lightning slightly raised the pitch of her voice to imitate what she had heard those years ago. " _'Shiny coat, faster reaction time'_..." She fought the urge to roll her eyes. "I'm not even a trained alchemist, and it sounds like horseshit."

Odin snorted in response.

"No offense." Lightning glanced off to the side, looking down at the wide valley that stretched far below the path, curling on around beside the ridge that would eventually lead back to the village. "It's not often we ride all the way out here, at least not this far..." She raised her wrist to her forehead, enough to block out the glare from the setting sun. "Let's get a little more distance in before we call it a night."

Odin stepped forward when Lightning gently pressed her knees against the saddle flaps, and he began to walk even faster when she loosened the reins.

"We might even reach the plains at this pace..." Lightning gently tapped her heels against Odin's upper belly, urging him into a run. "Haven't been up there in months, now."

Odin quickened his stride into a full gallop, and soon they breezed through each and every bend of the winding path, past scattered fields and forested land, through hills and old, towering trees, until they came upon a rocky cliff-face, one that sheltered their own little valley from the wide, wild world that awaited beyond.

"Steady..." Lightning pulled at one of the reins to steer Odin down a rather narrow path, but he took the change of altitude in stride, having traveled along that very same path many times over before. "Remember the adder we saw last time? Take it easy."

Odin stepped up above every loose rock he came across, navigating across each tiny fault line in the stone. He was careful not to snag his hooves against the brambles that grew from the gaps in the cliff itself, but the occasional twig or tangle would still brush against his hide, scraping his hair ever so slightly.

"Doing alright..." Lightning patted at the side of Odin's neck. "What's that? One of your parents was a mountain goat?"

Odin let out a low, breathy snort.

"Well, unless you start walking right up the side of this cliff, I'll believe you..." Lightning glanced up at the tall stretch of rock, wondering just how much further they would have to climb it. "I don't think the path here gets too narrow, but if there were any rock slides over the past few months..." She looked over at where the stone itself tapered down into a sheer drop, but she could see another path up along the cliffside, but it was one that they would have to double back to climb. "Over there."

At the sudden tug of his reins, Odin slowed himself to a stop, before he felt his saddle become a bit lighter than before.

"This way." Lightning reached up for the bridle to lead Odin onward, over towards the narrow pathway of rock. "I remember this, now... There should still be some grass up there for you to eat, and we can camp out on the plains when it gets dark."

Odin followed after Lightning's lead, and his hoofbeats echoed against the stony path.

Lightning stepped up over a rough patch of weathered rock. "I almost wish Serah was coming along with us... But she's never liked hunting this late in the year." She gripped the length of the bridle between her fingertips, tracing over the worn, yet sturdy leather. "And Hope, he's just too green for quarry like this."

After a moment or two, Odin's nostrils began to flare at the scent of grass.

"It's not that I don't like talking to you; it can be nice sometimes, just how quiet this sort of traveling can be." Lightning moved across a tiny gap in the rocks, before she looked back over her shoulder to make sure that Odin had stepped over as well. "A lot of people don't appreciate that kind of silence, or even notice it."

Odin's ears started to swivel as they neared the top of the cliff, but he still kept calm, following on after Lightning's lead.

"But when the world is this quiet... You hear things you might normally miss." Lightning stepped up towards the end of the stone path, where it curled inwards, up to the grassy surface that stretched on above. "The sound of flying birds, or an animal out in the field..."

Odin walked on beside her, up into the wide, dusty plain, before he dipped his head down to nibble at the tall grass.

Lightning gazed off into the distance, but her eyes quickly honed in upon the surface of a large, rocky form, one that barely even seemed to move, not unless she stared at it for more than a moment or two. "Or even golems... They're pretty quiet, at least from a distance."

The stone figures stood at least three times as tall as the little houses back in her village, and some of them were even taller, so much that she could barely even see them beneath the thick layer of fog. A low, rumbling echo rolled out across the land, and it was amplified each time one of the leviathans took a step.

After a brief while, Lightning slowly shook her head. "Let's get on with it, then." She reached for the saddle again, hoisting herself back up to the seat. "You remember these, right? They won't hurt us as long as we don't bother them."

Odin felt the signal to move forward, and once he had finished chewing on a piece of grass, he started off into the field.

"Must be all those apples she's been feeding you..." Lightning almost sighed. "It's no small wonder you aren't as fat as a circus pony."

Odin tossed back his head with a sharp whinny.

"Says the horse with an appetite for two." Lightning urged him onward. "Come on, what happened to all that running?"

Within moments, Odin had surged back into a steady gallop, striding across the plains with his long legs outstretched.

"There it is..." Lightning whispered each word under her breath, but her voice was swiftly stolen away again by the frigid rush of air. She lowered herself down on the saddle, near Odin's neck, sitting more more streamlined against his sheer amount of acceleration. "Come on Odin, this is _nothing_."

He flared onward again when she loosened the reins even further, and it almost felt as if his hooves weren't even touching the ground, all except for the low, thudding sound of his hoofbeats, still trailing off into the fog. With a deep rumble in his ears, his blood began to sing, rushing all throughout his eager veins. It was all he could do to keep from tossing his head back with a sharp, echoing whinny, yet he knew that it would displease his companion if he happened to startle one of the nearby creatures.

The giants marched on through the plains, blindly following the very same path that they had patrolled for decades upon end, in search of something that likely no longer existed.

Lightning glanced up at one of the colossal figures, and she felt her eyes go wide at the sheer size of it; bits of dirt and ancient moss still clung to the very top of the beast, and some of it had even started to flower, but she knew for a fact that the plant life would soon be killed off by the frost.

The golems seemed pay their visitors no mind, for their pale, stony eyes kept staring out at something that Lightning was unable to see, much less comprehend. She wondered, however, if they might have been created by the same people who once ruled over that very land, or had the giants simply sprouted out from the earth one day, like the pale, tiny flowers that grew from their upper limbs?

There was no possible way for her to know the answer, but Lightning almost preferred it to be a mystery. To her, they were simply gentle, nomadic giants, ones that might deter more troublesome folk by their sheer bulk alone.

"I wonder if they can even see us..." Lightning took a moment just to marvel at the intricate carvings on the giant's limbs, but Odin had already raced up between the wandering golems within seconds, passing on throughout the herd without pause. "Do you think those ones are a family? They always seem to stay together."

She could only watch as the group grew smaller and smaller in the distance, but they soon came upon another group of the giants, ones that had slightly different markings than the rest. "They're just statues, I know... But they're magic of some kind." Lightning stared up at the tall golem who walked on four legs, the one that had a broad, horned head with a beard of thick moss and flowers. "Something made them like this... Made them _move_ , gave them all of those carvings."

Odin let out whinny as he raced on between a stray pair of the giants, passing by without so much as a second glance.

"Do you think it was some sort of deity? I don't know a whole lot about the lesser gods of Gran Pulse, but..." Lightning trailed off, and after a while, she slowly shook her head. "It could have been anyone with enough magical talent, I suppose."

Odin ran on for a while, moving off across the plains at a breakneck pace. He might have kept running for hours if Lightning hadn't reined him back, drawing him down to a halt, for sun had started to disappear against the horizon, casting the fields in low shadow.

"Easy, now..." Lightning lowered her voice. "You're going to pull a muscle if you keep on like this." After a moment of silence, she dismounted, reaching for one of the leather saddlebags. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Odin flicked his ears back and forth, but he kept quiet when Lightning began the process of removing the pebbles and dirt from beneath his horseshoes. She knelt down to use a sturdy metal pick, which would remove nearly all of the dirt itself, before she began to sweep a small, bristly brush across the bottom of Odin's hooves, removing the rest of the debris.

"I'm just glad I can take off my boots and be done with it." Lightning stepped over near Odin's hind flank to clean out the dirt from one of his back hooves. "Imagine if you didn't have me to do this for you..."

Odin glanced around at the field, standing patiently while Lightning tried to remove a rather stubborn bit of rock.

"I've seen people wear down their horses until they're only useful for falling over." Lightning narrowed her eyes as she walked back up to Odin's front, before she moved on around towards his other flank. "That, or more unsavory things... Like glue, or even food."

Odin whinnied when she reached for his second hind hoof.

"You're glad _I_ bought you, aren't you? Much more fun than just running around in circles all day." Lightning used the metal pick to clean out the rest of the dirt from his horseshoe. "Most horses can't say they've faced a manticore and lived to tell the tale."

After she had moved up again to finish cleaning off his last hoof, Odin tried to walk back out into the field, but Lightning quickly reached for his shoulder to make him stop. "I'm not done; you need the saddle off." She reached down to unfasten each of the straps and buckles at his belly, before she finally lifted the entire thing up and off from his back, taking the saddle blanket along with it. "...There."

Odin turned back around to nuzzle his nose against one of her shoulders, which made her reach up to unfasten his bridle as well.

"Yes, you're welcome." Lightning patted the side of Odin's head, before set the bridle down upon the seat of the saddle, which was resting against a rather bare patch of ground. "Go on and eat... I've got dinner here."

Even as Lightning sat down on the ground as well, Odin kept close to her side, and he quickly moved to nibble at the more spiky parts of her hair.

Lightning winced, rolling her eyes at him. "Cut it out." But she made no move to stop him, because she had already started to open a few of the saddlebags, revealing quite a bit of firewood, some metal cookware, and even a slim, bottled concoction that glinted beneath the light of the sunset. "Odin, I'm serious."

A sudden gust of warm breath blew her hair off the side, but before too long, Odin began to wander off towards a nearby patch of grass, content to nibble on that instead.

"Let's see what she packed..." Lightning almost smiled when her fingertips brushed against a folded paper note. "Nothing that'll spoil, let's hope." She soon held up the tiny paper, unfolding it with her index finger and thumb.

 _Light, there's some fresh herbs in the side compartment of this bag, just be careful if you use them once the weather gets too cold. Wilted spices will taste pretty gross, so be sure to use them all up before you move on to the dry stuff._

 _Also, Snow says hello._

 _In the bag with a red drawstring, there's some of that venison from last week, but it's going to go bad if you don't eat it within the next couple of days._

 _Snow says 'hi' again... Hey, do you think you could try to be just a little bit nicer to him once you get back home? It's kind of like ignoring a puppy who just wants to make nice with everyone._

 _Okay, so just be sure to finish those herbs and the venison, and I know that it's a little weird to mention it in person, but try to have fun out there on the road, okay? It's not a crime to just let loose once in a while, as long as there aren't any monsters around. I just care about you so much, and it's really hard to see you being so serious all the time._

 _Light, you should have seen the look on your face when Hope caught that rabbit all on his own last week. It was the happiest I'd seen you in months._

 _You know I love you, sis, and I just want you to be that happy more of the time._

Lightning stared down at the note for a while longer, rereading it over and over again until she could almost picture Serah speaking each word aloud, complete with Snow interrupting her from somewhere in the distance. Slowly, she ran her thumb against the edge of the paper.

The grassland had long since been covered in shadow, and she only had a few rays of sunlight left to set up a tiny campfire, stacking a few of the branches together to form a slightly triangular shape. Lightning took out a bit of blank parchment from one of the saddlebags, before she pushed it down beneath the wooden structure.

With a low, silent exhale, she then uncorked the tiny bottle that had been resting within one of the saddle bags. It gave off the scent of thick pine pitch, but she knew the concoction was much more than that; with only a drop or two upon the surface of paper, she began to watch as the corrosive solution sizzled away at the material, until a thin, wispy bit of smoke curled out from the liquid itself. When she placed it beneath the twigs, the effect was instantaneous, just a sharp flash and a tiny, flickering spark, before the entire contraption came aglow. The flames jumped out from beneath the first sheet, burning away at the thin wads of paper until the branches above had grown alight as well.

"Fire in a jar." Lightning slowly pushed the cork back in against the top of the bottle. "Well, let's see that venison..."

To her slight surprise, the strips of meat were already butchered down into thin sections, small enough to fit atop the set of iron cookware. Lightning reached into her pocket for a slim, folded knife, and she removed a few stray bits of coagulated blood and fat from the meat strips, cleaning them a bit more thoroughly than they had been before.

It was a while before the campfire had grown hot enough to cook upon, but once the flames were snapping rather cheerily at the twigs and branches, Lightning set down a much larger section of wood atop the fire, before she angled the cookware right above that.

Within the saddlebags, a small bottle of cooking oil was resting right beside a packet of herbs, and Lightning soon took both of them into the process. She began to spread out a tiny portion of oil across the surface of the iron, listening as it started to sizzle and snap. Lightning picked up both pieces of the venison again, and she started to rub down a small amount of herbs against each side of the meat, before she lifted the twin slices above the metal surface, carefully setting them down. The meat strips made an even louder sound than the oil, but before long, it began to even out into a dull sort of crackle. She watched the flames jump and pop, gazing down at the tiny embers that would soon rise into the air, floating along until they slowly drifted back down again, only to land against the dry, dusty earth.

Lightning simply waited, watching the dark red meat grow even darker, until she was sure that it had been resting for long enough. With a pair of small metal tongs, she reached out to flip both of the sections over towards the other side, revealing just how much of it had been cooked.

"Serah." Lightning leaned back, slowly turning over the tongs. "I'm sorry if I haven't been... All that enthusiastic lately." She watched each of the flames as they flickered and danced, heating the food up above. "And it's not that I... _Dislike_ Snow, I dislike him very much, but it's more... It's more, that-" She started to grit her teeth, reaching out to turn the meat over again. "He just already has your heart... And I know that you'd follow him anywhere, maybe not without me-" Lightning looked down at the ground. "But you'd give up this place for him... You'd leave it all behind."

From somewhere out in the field, Odin whinnied quietly into the dark.

"...I just don't want to _lose_ you." Lightning mumbled the words against her wrist, leaning forward towards where her hands were resting against her knees, folded up close near her chest. "I don't want to lose anyone, not anymore, not after everything that's happened."

She could feel the cold wind touch against her back, and her hair began to sway back and forth in the breeze. "Back before, dad used to say it was actually braver to admit when you were afraid of something." Lightning closed her eyes for a while, breathing deep. "And I _am_ afraid, Serah... It's just harder to say it whenever we're face to face."

The field grew much darker without the sunlight, and before long, her only source of brightness was the campfire. Yet with the departure of the sun, a wide array of stars began to appear, scattered all across the inky black sky.

"I think we're both afraid." She opened her eyes to stare out into the darkness, up at the tiny pinpricks of light. "And I'm not really sure if praying is going to do us any good..." Lightning reached up to hold the silver pendant from where it dangled loosely around her neck. "But maybe Etro just can't hear us, not when we're so far away from home."

After a moment, Lightning glanced over at the venison, which was starting to look rather well-cooked. "Either way, it doesn't matter, just as long as the charms still work." She reached out with the pair of tongs to lift up each slice of meat, before she set them down on a rounded cast-iron plate. "What _they_ can do... It's something solid, something real." Lightning reached over into one of the saddlebags for a set of smaller utensils. "Something that really _can_ bring us back alive." She tugged off her scarf to set it down beside her lap, so that it wouldn't get in the way when she was eating.

The meal was all said and done with rather quickly, perhaps because Lightning only paused to cut the venison into pieces. When her plate had grown empty again, she took a moment just to look up at the sky, for it almost seemed like the darkness had no barriers; the darkness simply melded in with the earth below, and aside from the glimmering stars and the lone light of her campfire, the world around her would have looked entirely featureless.

She could feel it bearing down again, something infinitely larger than her, Odin, the village, or even anything else she had ever encountered before, whether it was a massive, wandering golem, a territorial nest of basilisks, or even a dragon itself.

Lightning herself was boundlessly small in such a vast, wild world, but she was _alive_. She was awake, aware, and she could grasp out at whatever questions might come to life within such an endless dark, and she could take them to heart even if there were no answers to fine, and she knew that the sun would rise again before too long, that she could continue on her way once more.

Off in the distance, one of the golems let out a low, droning call.

"...We're more alike than I thought." Lightning hugged her knees against her chest again, before she reached for her scarf, threading it between her fingertips. "Neither of us can see where we're going, but we go there anyway... Because we have to."

It was a moment or two before she felt the warmth of Odin's muzzle pushing down on the top of her head.

"Hey, you." Lightning kept her gaze upon the whispering flames. She could feel Odin's steady breath as it moved through her hair, but before long, he wandered forward a bit, past the campfire itself. "You should get some sleep."

Odin snorted into the darkness, before he stepped over towards a tiny patch of grass.

"I know, I should get to bed too." Lightning looked back at the cast-iron plate, which still smelled like venison, and she reached into one of the saddlebags for a stray bit of cloth. "We just can't have any coyotes smelling this... I doubt a bear would be wandering in this sort of terrain, especially this late in the season, but you can never be too careful."

Lightning began to wipe the plate clean, before she bundled it down into a rather airtight compartment within one of her containers, along with the rag itself. Such confinement effectively hid the scent of food, but to be just a bit more cautious, she tugged open a small package of dark, aromatic herbs, before she tossed a handful into the campfire.

The glow was instantaneous, yet Lightning didn't even flinch when the flames flared out into strange, flickering colors, moving in a way that almost reminded her of savage, raging beasts.

She murmured the words under her breath. "Chameleon vine... Mature leaves, specifically." She inhaled, tasting that rich, overpowering scent, one which was both sweet and earthy at the same time. "You smell that, Odin? Most wild animals can't smell anything anything for hours once they get a sniff."

Odin flicked his ears at the sound of his name, but he just kept on munching at the grass, swishing his tail back and forth.

"It keeps the mosquitoes away, at least." Lightning knelt down beside the fire again, making sure that it would stay well-contained while she slept. "They keep buzzing around until the frost kills them off, just like plants." She reached over for a bundled blanket, which was attached to the back of Odin's saddle, yet she soon stood up to spread it out across the ground, pushing away the wrinkles with the toe of her boot. "Sleep well, Odin."

Lightning lifted up another blanket from one of the saddlebags, and once she had sat down to tug her boots off, along with her gloves, she began to spread out the thick woven blanket on top of her body, tucking it down beneath herself so that any wandering insects would have trouble getting inside.

Almost as if on cue, a tiny beetle buzzed past, circling once around the thick smoke of the fire, before it sped off to reach somewhere else in the field.

"...Whenever I'm alone like this, I start talking to myself." Lightning began to trace her fingertips over the edge of the sheet. "I mean, usually Serah's the one who can't stop talking and just go to bed... But when she isn't here, it almost feels too quiet."

Over in the grass, Odin flicked his ears back and forth.

"I just want her to be happy, Odin." Lightning slowly curled up against the softness of the blanket beneath her. "And if an idiot makes her happy... Then there's really not much I can do, can I?" She slowly closed her eyes, breathing in the deep, steady scent of wood smoke and the fragrance of herbs, which still drifted all around the entire campsite. "If he can make her happy, then I won't get in the way of that."

Lightning could hear the constant sound of the wind, sweeping all across the grassland, almost louder the distant thrum of traveling golems.

Once she heard Odin start to snore, quietly droning into the night, she could only utter a single, muffled phrase, before the gentle grip of sleep took her away as well. "But if he ever... _Ever_ hurts her, makes her cry... He's the one who's getting an arrow in the ass."

* * *

She dreamt of the blinding clouds, of the strong, roaring wind, swirling all around her in a torrent of sound and color.

The fear in her stomach twisted and furled inward, until she was sure that she would either pass out from the air pressure, or even the sheer amount of surging, primal terror, but as she continued to fall, toppling down through the veil of mist and fog, she suddenly caught sight of the ground.

Thinking back, she could remember a story that she had once overheard, one which told of the unfortunate people who would die in their sleep if they came to an untimely end within it. The fable raged on against her more rational side of thought, battling on with the part of her that _knew_ it had to just be a dream, that it would all end with her waking up again, that she couldn't possibly die from just thoughts alone, but it all came to a screeching halt when she suddenly glanced skyward, gazing upon the sight that waited within the clouds.

A mighty set of eyes gazed back at her, from the beast soaring so far, far above.

She could see dark wings in the snow, long, rending claws poised against the rest of the massive body, like a giant bird of prey. And then, she could see a narrow, scaly head, sleek and streamlined against the whirling air.

It began with a single spark, just a soft, tiny flicker, echoing from deep within the beast's throat, before there was _fire_.

There was fire, there was _heat_ , there was the sharp bite of frost at her back, and then the sudden flames, whirling around at her front, and her vision nearly blurred at the brightness, the absolute sear of the flames and the wind, the shrieking echo of the sky.

The great wyrm dove down from the clouds, wreathed with sharp, snarling light, before it thrust its claws forward, reaching, _reaching_ for whatever it could possibly grasp.

Lightning instinctively reached for her sword.

Yet within an instant, the dark beast was gone within a peal of deafening thunder, and then sharp, biting hail, before that sudden glow, the soft light that reached out and brushed against her neck, ripping the very words away from inside her throat...

 _Approach._

* * *

She shot right up in a cold sweat, grasping for the handle of her blade.

In the distance, a songbird called out into the early morning air, but it barely even registered in her ears; all Lightning could hear was the mighty shriek and the snap of teeth against her pale, blooded flesh, even the sound of her own steel striking those scales, drawing out blood of its own.

She gripped for the hilt of her sword, sheathed as it was, yet just having the weapon within reach made the entire situation a hundred times more manageable.

But there was no dragon, not just yet, and when she focused her vision upon the sky, she could see that it was nearly empty, with only a handful of scattered, wispy clouds to show for itself.

And the sun, it was already starting to rise.

After a long moment of thick silence and steady breathing, Lightning rose up to her feet, still holding her sword, before she clipped it down against her belt. She moved to roll up both of the blankets, tying them down with a small length of twine. "Odin, we're leaving as soon as I pack up."

In her previous sense of panicked stupor, she hadn't even thought to examine her surroundings upon the ground, only in the sky, so it was no small surprise when Lightning suddenly whirled around at the sound of something massive and solid, something that struck down against the earth. When she finally realized just what had entered the tiny campsite, even at such an early time in the morning, Lightning could honestly say that the current situation had never once occurred to her before.

The golem simply stood there, with a wide, outstretched arm, one that was coated in moss, wild flowers, and at least a hundred droplets of early morning dew. His broad, stony fingertips were a great deal larger than Lightning's own head, but they barely moved more than a few inches per minute, as if the golem was wholly unconcerned with the passage of time.

Lightning simply stood there, gripping the handle of her sword, ready to wield it at only a moment's notice, but when the golem revealed no outward signals of aggression, she felt content to keep it sheathed, at least for the time being.

He merely kept moving his arm on towards her campsite, and she could see his wide, glassy eyes, those that looked so worn by both great age and the elements. There were small, faded gemstones that created the very shape of his pupils, but they seemed quite weathered down as well, little more than shiny, worthless rocks.

To Lightning, it almost felt as if the leviathan had been moving his arm onward for hours, but in reality it was only a minute or two, and before long, he finally began to loosen his fingertips, revealing what they held within.

"What is that?" Lightning could scarcely feel the words against her own tongue. "I've never seen a golem act like this..."

The behemoth had no response. He merely held up the delicate object, but with a sense of gentleness, a kind that she had only seen in the most docile sort of creatures. Between his stony fingertips, she caught sight of a tiny metal device, one that must have once been crafted with utmost care, for the little glass beads that were traveling around the thin wire circles, they were still humming away with a low, magnetic sort of sound. It was almost musical, in a sense, like the echo of wind passing over a lake, whispering on to the rest of the world in a language it might never know.

"Are you... Just showing this to me?" Lightning stared up at the passive behemoth, the giant that stood so many times her height. "Or do you want me to take it?"

Still, the golem had no answer.

Lightning slowly held up her own hand, and she reached out to trace along the petals of a tiny flower, one that grew between the grooves of the giant's thick, rocky hide, and she was careful not to damage it. "I've always wondered what those symbols mean." She glanced at the swirling patterns along his massive knuckles. "Did someone carve them for you? Or did you make them yourself?"

The golem had no words for her, but gradually, he began to tilt his mighty head, staring down at the way she was touching the delicate little flower.

"You don't even have a mouth, do you?" Lightning spoke in a low whisper. "I've never seen a golem eat anything, either, but you still look alive... You even _act_ alive, now that I can see you this close."

She slowly reached up to touch the hollow, magnetic device, and she was almost surprised when it gently thrummed against her fingertips, quickening beneath her touch.

The golem suddenly released his grip, and the little bauble dropped down into Lightning's palm.

Out of the corner of her gaze, she could see yet another of the giants, one with four legs, horns, and that beard of moss and flowers, but when she looked over to examine the sight of it, it merely lifted its head with a low, quiet call, one that echoed out across the plains.

The first golem, the one who had given her the tiny trinket, he turned to face his brethren, before his feet began to tread down against the grassy field once more, causing the earth to tremble with each broad, heavy step he took.

Lightning moved to hold the tiny device between both of her hands. "Thank you."

Neither of the golems had any reply. They merely kept walking away into the mist, droning on with that same sort of strange, harrowing call.

Lightning could feel the trinket trembling beneath her touch, but the little glass beads still rotated on around the hollow sphere, moving along each track of rounded metal.

From where he had been grazing, Odin glanced up at the fading outline of the golems, before he walked over to Lightning's side with a few stalks of grass in his mouth.

"I've never seen anything like that before." Lightning began to turn the tiny trinket over in her hands, but the beads kept moving, spinning on around the metal in constant, circular patterns. "Or _this_ , for that matter."

Odin nuzzled at her shoulder, and some of the dry grass fell against her jacket.

"No, I don't want grass for breakfast." After a moment, Lightning reached up to brush away the leafy little stalks, before she gently scratched at the curve of Odin's muzzle. "I'll eat breakfast on the road... Let's get your saddle back on."

She packed away both of her blankets, rolled up beside the saddlebags, along with the rest of her equipment. Before long, she reached for a rather large canteen to help put out the last few embers of the fire. Lightning poured a bit of water into her hand, before she scattered down it against the hissing bits of charcoal, until every last bit of residual heat was gone.

"Even with the temperature like it is, the field is still dry enough to catch..." Lightning looked over at where Odin had gone back to munching at the grass. "Autumn wildfires are no joke."

Odin merely opened his mouth for another bite of foliage, chewing it down between his broad, flat teeth.

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder just how much you can understand of what I'm saying." She reached down to lift up the stray set of cooking tongs, packing them away in one of the satchels. "Odin?"

Odin lifted his head at the sound of his name.

"You know that at least." Lightning pulled one of leather drawstrings shut, before she reached for the straps of the saddle itself, clicking her tongue against the top of her mouth. "Time to go."

Odin walked over to her side almost immediately, and he let out a gentle whicker while she lifted the heavy saddle atop his back.

"I just need to..." Lightning soon slipped the bridle over Odin's head, fastening it securely in place, before she walked over to examine each of his horseshoes, though they were still just as clean as they had been on the previous night. "Alright, we're good."

Odin let out a quiet snort when Lightning swung back up to the seat of the saddle, and he pawed at the dusty ground, flicking his tail back and forth.

"Just a moment." Lightning moved to fasten her scarf around her neck, before she reached down for both of the reins. "Now we're ready."

At her signal, Odin immediately began to trot, even when Lightning tugged back slightly, urging him to take it slow.

"Come on, we're not racing today..." She reached down to pat along the side of his neck. " _Easy_ , boy."

As Odin trotted on out though the early morning mists, he gradually began to ease himself back into a steadier pace, still enough to make good time, yet not quite as insistent as before.

"We'll make it past the plains today, I'm sure of it." Lightning couldn't see very much beneath the dense, heavy fog, but she still kept a keen eye out for anything that might be lurking there in the haze. "We can take the main road all the way up to that little village by the lake... What was it called again?"

Odin's breath began to glimmer in the crisp, chilly air.

"Bresha, I think." Lightning soon reached down into one of the saddlebags, before she tugged out a wrapped section of thick granola. The snack was little more than harvested seeds, some wild nuts and grain, and then quite a bit of honey to make it all stick together. "I remember walking around the lake a few years ago; the villagers there were worried about some sort of 'water demon' lurking around, but it was just a juvenile kelpie."

Odin moved up to step over a patch of rocky ground, before he stepped back down to the grass below.

"You remember those, right? They'll sometimes look just like horses, a little bit like you..." Lightning took a small bite of granola. "They have a rather distinct taste for mammalian flesh, though."

Odin walked on between a pair of thin, weathered trees, which stood rather silently within the expanse of the grassland, except for the branches that rattled above.

"I wouldn't want to deal with a kelpie anywhere near the water itself, though." Lightning tugged at the parchment wrapper that held the granola in place. "Your best bet it to either lure it away from the shore, or catch it unaware, like when they go out to bask in the sun."

She grew silent for a while, just to finish the rest of her breakfast, but once the sun had risen a bit higher above the plans, and when the mist began to clear, Lightning gently squeezed her knees against the saddle, loosening the reins. "Let's move."

Odin quickened his pace up into a canter, but soon he was moving even faster within the tall, waving grass, and he let out a snort against the damp morning air.

"Come on, boy."

He broke off into a full gallop, and his hooves drummed down against the sloped, dusty earth. Odin tossed back his head with a loud whicker.

"That's it..." Lightning leaned forward in the saddle again, adjusting her grip of the reins. "You're no circus pony."

Odin echoed off across the plains with a sharp, keening whinny, one that signaled the approach of a rather _incredible_ beast, a beast that Lightning had long since suspected was more than just a simple horse.

She'd heard tales of prestigious bloodlines, horses bred alongside more exceptional species of equine, but when she herself had purchased Odin those many years ago, his previous owner had little knowledge of his heritage, so it was virtually impossible to know if he had any sort of unusual parentage.

But when he could run, truly _run_ , when he was allowed to be free and unbridled and wild, she simply _knew_. He was something else, a sheer cut above the rest, and when the two of them grew connected in that mental sense, the primal way that all riders experience on some level, she could _feel_ the sheer joy flowing through his veins, his own equilibrium, the way he was finally at peace with his livelihood, his entire world.

Odin would race, he would race on until he could race no more, but once he was rested, he would race again; he would spit at them, rear and whinny at any manner of monster they came across, simply because he _knew_ that he was far more civilized than his foe. His pride was his strength, but Lightning held no illusions that it might also be his downfall, someday.

She remembered the pain in his eyes when he had been stung by the tail of a manticore, yet he had kept on fighting, carrying her on into battle until the vicious beast was all well and dead, lifelessly twitching upon the forest floor. The antivenom had taken many days to produce, but Lightning had gone with little food or sleep until it was finally complete, and she could still remember the ragged shudder of Odin's lungs, of each long, labored breath that she'd heard as she dozed off against the side of the stable stall, watching her companion slowly start to heal. But then, he was soon racing again without a care in the world, as if he hadn't just been dying of noxious venom only a few weeks before.

Lightning nearly smiled at the memory of how Odin had followed Serah around in that time, begging for more and more apples, until she finally caved in and given him a few. But before long, he had to fake a limp just to get her to give up more treats, and even though Serah had wisened up to his antics fairly quickly, she still gave him carrots and vegetables whenever he would whinny at her from inside the paddock.

Lightning blinked, slowly drifting back to the present. "You might run like a demon... But you _eat_ like a pig." She almost smiled against the racing wind. "But I suppose you need all the energy you can get for when you run like this."

Odin kept galloping across the grassland, and his long, white tail flickered on behind him like a banner, much like Lightning's red scarf.

"The road should be around here..." Lightning squinted at the distant outline of a tall forest, but beyond that, she caught sight of a wide, sprawling mountain range, capped with both thick a snowfall and clouds. "There, that's our target."

They rode on along the sloping fields, until the land began to even out again into another stretch of grassland, and off in the distance, Lightning caught sight of a long, wide road. "There."

Odin turned aside as she tugged at the reins, and he slowly evened his pace back down into a canter.

"We might start seeing some villages before long." Lightning glanced at the dirt road, which had long since been furrowed down along each side by carts and wagons of all different shapes and sizes. "Most people like living near the roads, you know."

Odin began to follow along the flat, sturdy path, flicking his tail back and forth every so often.

"You don't see as many animals out here." Lightning took a moment to look around, and she saw a distant plume of smoke that rose above the highest tips of the trees. "Or monsters, either... They don't last long around hunters."

She led Odin down the road, walking along until they came upon a bend in the path, which soon brought them beneath the dappled shadows of the forest.

"Almost smells like a campfire." Lightning didn't reach for the handle of her sword, but she kept hold of the possibility of hostiles in mind. "We'll see it soon enough."

The road stretched on, winding off beneath the tall trees, until it moved back away from the forest, enough to allow a tiny, flowering field to rest between the road and the much more wooded area beside it.

"...'Ello."

Lightning glanced over to face the voice, and she quickly caught sight of a low tent, a couple of pack mules, and then a rather massive bonfire, which crackled away beneath a large, winged reptile. "Wyvern, is it?"

The old man who sat beside the tent began to nod. "Ah, but just a tyke... Still tore the arm real fierce." He lifted the limb in question, revealing a rather large, reddened bandage. "And you, you've got that look 'bout you."

Lightning tugged out her necklace from beneath the collar of her jacket.

"An, Etro... Interestin'." The old man cracked a smile at the slim, silvery pendant. "You got anythin' for trade?"

Lightning reined Odin to a stop but the side of the road, before she spared a quick glance at the saddlebags beside her. "That depends on what you've got."

The elderly man rose to his feet somewhat shakily, but when he walked over towards a pile of burlap bags with relative speed and grace, Lightning soon recognized the stance of a fellow hunter, no matter how old he might be.

"Wyvern teeth, some claws, of course..." The old man gestured for her to look at what he had lifted up. "But as a follower of ol' Etro, you'd be more in the market for charm materials, wouldn't ye?

After a moment, Lightning dismounted from Odin's saddle, and she carried over one of the larger satchels from alongside the saddlebags, holding it beneath her arm. "I would."

"This, then..." The man reached into a small crate for a thin bottle of something rather bubbly; it was a deep scarlet hue, and the liquid itself, it almost looked as if it was thrashing against the glass with a mind of its own. "Ye don't see too many hydras in these parts... Gotta be _careful_ though, the scent's just as deadly as any high toxin."

Lightning reached out to take the vial between her fingertips with a great amount of care, examining the contents within. "Would you be interested in basilisk hides?" Those she had been planning to fashion into trinkets or even clothing, something that she could sell to the nearby villages, but she kept that notion to herself. "I found a whole nest of them last year, had to cull the herd once their population got out of control, so the scales are softer than most, more workable."

The old man gestured for her to reveal it.

Lightning reached into her satchel, and she soon held up a thick, silky hide, one that had thousands of shining scales along the entire length. As she turned the pelt over in her hand, the scaly surface began to reflect the midday sunlight, and it almost seemed as if the color of the entire pelt had changed.

The old man squinted to examine each edge of the hide. "Well carved, no blemishes or inconsistencies..."

Lightning felt a small smile tug at her mouth.

"Three vials for the lot of them?"

Lightning looked down at the satchel, before she nodded. "Sounds fair."

The old man handed her two more vials, and he started to lift each of the hides up from where they had been resting. "Aye, a fair trade." He soon held a veritable rainbow of pelts, all reflecting the sunlight in different ways. "You just be careful with that blood, now... I _meant_ what I said about the scent; don't breathe it in!"

Lightning looked down at the brightly roiling liquid. "I will, I've worked with similar materials."

The old man looked back up to read her gaze for a moment, before he gave her a solemn nod. "Wouldn't quite do for a messenger of death to kick the bucket on her own spoils, eh?" He let out a loud, hearty chuckle. "Work with it outdoors, if you can, much better to have a breeze to carry the scent away."

Lightning reached up for Odin's bridle. "I'll keep it in mind, thank you."

The old man walked back to sit down in his chair, stroking his hand over one of the basilisk hides as he stared off into the massive bonfire. "So, where're you headed, sister? Out on a hunt?"

Lightning hoisted herself up to the saddle. "There's been a sighting to the east."

The old man paused, narrowing his eyes at the flames. "Dragon sighting."

Lightning didn't even nod, she simply let Odin take a few paces forward.

"Dragon, that's a herald of demise, in itself." The old man suddenly closed his eyes, thinking deep. "You'd best be _real_ careful, sister death..." He slowly shook his head back and forth. "Hell, I might just start praying to ol' Etro, myself."

Lightning glanced up at the trees. "It probably won't come down from the mountains, not unless it needs to hunt." She reached over to strap the empty satchel back down against Odin's saddle, before she carefully began to slip the vials of blood into a smaller, padded container, where they wouldn't be able to break from the jostle of movement from horseback. "But I still wouldn't stop watching the sky."

The old man reached up to tip his hat. "Wouldn't dream of it." He began to listen to the sounds of soft, receding hoofbeats, before he slowly opened his eyes again, staring up into the clouds. "Wouldn't dream of it..."

Lightning clicked her tongue for Odin to walk on, back over towards the road. "Come on, boy."

Odin stepped along the dusty path, but after a moment or two, he lifted his head, as if to comment upon the lessened weight of the saddle on his back.

Lightning shrugged. "I was going to make us some money with those hides, but actual _hydra_ blood..." She patted along the side of the saddle. "We'll need to find a smith in town, someone who can work with silver." Lightning urged Odin back into a trot, then up to a canter again, and they soon passed beneath the towering trees of the forest, illuminated by the pale light of the sun.

"Not many people know about charms these days, much less how to make them..." Lightning began to trace her fingertip across the symbol of Etro, before she flipped the pendant over, gazing down at the narrow, silvery emblem of a lightning bolt. "'Sister death'..." After a moment, she began to smile. "Just a little too on the nose, isn't it?"


	3. Calling

Odin cantered along the path, and he kept a rather steady pace throughout the passing minutes. The time soon blurred off into hours, drifting on beneath the steadily rising sun.

They passed beside think creeks and rivers, over tiny hills and lightly forested land, until the sun itself had risen high up ahead, so much that Lightning could safely assume it was around noon.

"I think we could both use a rest soon." Lightning gently tugged at the reins, and Odin slowed himself back to a walk. "You've probably got more rocks in your shoes than usual; with nobody to maintain these roads-" She suddenly paused when a sharp sound broke the relative silence, echoing off throughout both the grassland and the forested wilds.

Odin lifted his head high, and he slowly swiveled his ears back and forth. Lightning narrowed her eyes, listening. Not a single bird or insect dared to call out in response, and it almost felt as if the wind had ceased to flow, until a sharp, keening cry pierced the very air itself.

"Gryphon." Lightning tightened her grip on the reins. "Sounds angry, something's gone and upset it..." Without a moment's hesitation, she urged Odin back up to a trot. "What do you know... We might just get some compensation, yet."

Odin snorted under his breath, and he made sure not to let his hooves strike any of the stray rocks in the road.

"If it's as pissed off as it sounds, then stealth really isn't an option." Lightning drew her sword, a slim, silvery blade with the round symbol of Etro etched beneath the crossguard. "Let's go."

Odin sped up when she gently at kicked his sides, abandoning the more quiet pursuit for a sleek, predatory pace, enough to close the distance as quickly as possible.

When they turned down the bend in the path, however, Odin nearly halted just to stare at the most unusual sight on the road ahead. A small wooden wagon was resting at the side of the path, while beside it, an utterly massive winged creature kept battering itself down against the narrow carriage door, shrieking and thrashing the poor little cart around.

"Definitely an adult." Lightning fixed her gaze on the longer, curing wing pinions, and at the pale brown markings that indicated a gryphon who had matured far beyond adolescence. "This could be tricky."

But the beast seemed to pay the two of them little mind, even as they approached, for it was honing every last bit of its attention on the tiny window of the cart.

The gryphon's long, hooklike beak flared at the nostrils, but try as it might, it couldn't quite reach its head all the way inside the carriage. It had to resort to snapping and wriggling its neck back and forth, until suddenly, something else screeched. A gout of roaring fire channeled into a sharp, whirling point came pouring out from within the window, only to fill the gryphon's mouth with a wild, rippling blaze, until it had scorched away the very feathers from its face.

Lightning would have winced, had it not been for every muscle in her body going tense, preparing for inevitable impact should the gryphon decide to look her way.

But the creature was howling and rolling around on the dusty road, clawing at the flames that clung to both its feathers and beak. It wailed, thrashing with a long lion tail, and Lightning could see those deadly claws upon its hind legs, rather lionlike as well.

The gryphon tensed, shaking its head to scatter the fire away, yet as it did so, Lightning sheathed her sword to reach down beside the saddlebags for her hunting bow, a small recurve weapon with a strong, reinforced limb.

She watched the creature stiffen and inhale, but once it slowly turned, raising up a pair of long, feathery ears in her direction, she moved to nock a single arrow. The gryphon's beak was stained dark with ash and tiny, glimmering embers, and when it reared its head back, shrieking with rabid abandon, Lightning pulled back with all her strength, letting the arrow fly.

The beast charged.

She signaled for Odin to bolt as well, stowing her bow against her chest with a clip on her jacket, before she unsheathed her blade again with the sound of sleek, scraping metal.

Odin deftly ran past outstretched talons and a huge howling beak, and he quickened his pace back into an all-out sprint once the gryphon took to the air, flapping and sending long gusts of blustering wind all around the dusty road.

Lightning kept her sword at the ready. She squinted against the spray of dust and sandy grit, but when the gryphon lurched forward, she let loose her blade. A mere warning strike, but it was enough to draw solid bloodshed, and she felt the simmering liquid fall down in thick droplets upon her arm, slicing straight through the primary feathers of the gryphon's left wing.

The beast howled again, falling back as Odin kicked with his front legs, but it was quickly able to right itself and take to the air once more, hounding them without pause.

Lightning yanked at the reins to reel Odin back around, and his hooves kicked up thick trails of dirt as he leaned off into the sudden turn. She held her sword close to her body, but it was more than ready to lash out again just as soon as they came within striking range.

Odin barreled past the massive gryphon, and Lightning seared her blade back through the end of the very same wing, before they galloped back around, thundering off against the earth to try and flank the beast once more, but there was a deafening cry, a rapid flurry of feathers and razor sharp claws, before the gryphon was upon them.

Lightning felt her muscles suddenly go loose as she drifted off into that space between time and reality, the split-second calculation, the mere moment that would ultimately drive her to instantly react, to plunge the end of her sword into that massive, glaring eye, crushing it deep within the wide, yellow iris until the steel struck _red_.

The torrent spilled down across her gloves, her arms, over her face, all while the griffon bellowed mere inches from her ear, blindly reaching, clawing at anything it could possibly touch.

She barely even felt the dark talon rip against the side of her arm, but when Odin let loose a sudden shriek, screaming at the claw that had grazed his own chest, he reared up on his hind legs to strike at the gryphon's head with his hooves, and Lightning saw crimson.

Her blade whistled back through the air, severing one of gryphon's long, feathery ears, before she drove it back down within that wide yellow eye, struggling to both keep hold of Odin's reins and not fall backwards at the same time, for he was still rearing up without pause, bashing away with his hooves until the gryphon finally saw fit to shrink back and relent.

"Easy!" Lightning shouted when Odin reared again in a blind frenzy, yet when he lunged forward, tearing off a mouthful of feathers with his teeth, she yanked at the reins, driving him back down to the earth. " _Easy_ , Odin!"

The gryphon hissed and puffed up its feathers to appear twice as large as it had been before, flapping both of its wings to make itself seem even bigger than that.

Lightning held her sword to the side, still gleaming with such fresh scarlet blood, but she did not advance, she merely waited for the beast to suddenly dart away, racing off across the road, into the undergrowth of the forest.

The sound of rapid wingbeats sent tiny shock waves all the way up towards the road, and Lightning tightened her grip of Odin's reins, holding him back.

"Easy." Lightning kept a clear sight of the forest floor and all the dry plant life that kept it shrouded in darkness, but when the sound of distant wings finally died down, she began to loosen her grip. "Easy, now."

Odin frothed at the metal bit of his bridle, shaking his head back and forth.

"It's alright." Lightning reached down to stroke the palm of her glove against Odin's quivering shoulders, before she lowered herself down from the saddle to inspect just how much damage had been done. "We're alright, you see?" She shook her head at the long, yet shallow gash on Odin's chest, stained with dribbling red. "At least most of it isn't yours..." Lightning slowly traced her fingertips beside the wound. "But this is going to take time to heal."

From further on down the road, it was only a moment later that a muffled sound rustled from inside the nearby wagon, sending Lightning into full-alert once more, all with her blade at the ready. "...Hello?"

A muffled voice called out in reply. "Hello?! Hey, who's out there?"

Lightning gripped the hilt of her sword, and she stepped forward with caution in every step. "What magic was that? That sort of fire..."

After a moment or two, the carriage door finally clattered open, before a rather dazed looking man stumbled out. "Never thought I'd get the thing unstuck!" He reached up to touch a tiny cut on the side of his cheek, yet he was holding some sort of large, metallic teakettle in the crook of his other arm. "...Damn gryphon jammed the door."

Lightning took a moment just to look at the usual, puffy sort of hairstyle at the top of his head, and she nearly startled when a small yellow bird peeked out from within.

"Man..." After glancing at Lightning's expression, he shook his head back and forth, and the bird fluttered away, off towards the top of the cart. "Just can't catch a break out here, can we? You're all covered in the stuff..." The man set down his teakettle, and he slowly stretched out his arms. "Gotta give you my thanks, though... Didn't think that sucker was headed back home anytime soon."

Lightning stared at the man for a long while, ignoring the sudden flare of pain within the side of her arm.

"The name's Sazh. Sazh Katzroy." He soon held out his hand with a smile. "You, uh, haven't seen a horse anywhere around here, have you? I mean, not _your_ horse-"

Lightning carefully sheathed her sword, before she took a slow step forward to accept the handshake. "No, I haven't seen one." She realized that Sazh was waiting for her to reveal her name. "Lightning."

"Lightning..." Sazh glanced at the blood that now coated the palm of his own hand. "Wouldn't be the 'Lightning' they talk about around those villages, would you? It'd make sense, with the gryphon and all."

Lightning slowly reached for the wound on her arm. "...It might be." She glanced back at Odin, who almost seemed to be ignoring his own injuries. "Could you try to tell me why the gryphon attacked you in the first place? They can be extremely territorial in certain conditions."

Sazh took a brief moment to survey the damage to his wagon, before he reached back for the teakettle again. "Ah, well, _that_... We were just passing through, minding our own business, when I hear something flapping and fussing around up above, right? So I stop the cart here just to see what all the racket is, and the thing suddenly goes _berserk_ and swoops down, and then, poor Brynhildr..."

Lightning reached for Odin's reins. "Brynhildr?"

"My horse, yeah..." Sazh leaned over towards the side of the cart, and he grumbled under his breath at all of the claw-marks within the wood. "Yeah, she put up a good fight, but the damn thing drove her off, and then it kept going after me, so I had to shut the door tight and just wait the whole thing out."

Lightning opened one of Odin's saddlebags for a pouch of medicinal herbs, her canteen, and a small roll of cloth. "Well, it's much too late in the year for it to be nesting... This could have been a simple territory dispute, one that you got caught in the middle of." She tugged off her gloves and began to wash the blood away from her arms and wrists, simultaneously cleaning the wound on her forearm.

"Guess so... Hey, you sure it's a good idea to just leave that thing out there?" Sazh stood up on his tiptoes to stare down at the forest floor, but it was much too densely overgrown for him to see very far. "He might just come back here again, only with a nastier grudge than any little territory dispute..."

Lightning shook her head. "He won't, and if he does, he's losing the other eye." She began to crush the herbs between her palm and fingertips, releasing a pale, yet sharp-scented liquid. "Gryphons are pretty scarce around this area; you can't kill an adult without reducing the population immensely... If that one lives though the injuries, which he probably will, he can still contribute next spring." Lightning almost hissed when she poured the bitter, stinging liquid against her wound, but she quickly wrapped it down with some cloth, before she walked over to start cleaning off the injuries on Odin's chest.

Sazh rubbed at the cut on his cheek. "Well, I'll take your word for it..." He simply stood there for a moment, before he glanced back over at the forest. "Hey, Brynhildr?!" Sazh cupped his hands to his mouth. "Bryn, where'd you run off to?!"

Lightning started to wash away the blood from Odin's wound. "Do you have a horse whistle?"

Sazh shook his head. "Never needed one... She's not the type to bolt."

Lightning reached for something from within Odin's saddlebags, before she tossed over a small device to Sazh. "See if it works."

Sazh flipped the metal whistle over in his hands, examining the way that it had been crafted from only a single piece of steel. "Impressive, nice design... Where'd you get this?"

Lightning began to crush more of the herbs in her hand. "I bought it from a smith, all the way back home."

Sazh chuckled a bit. "...And where's 'home', if you don't mind me asking?"

Lightning shook her head. "A little village, one that nobody's ever heard of."

Sazh shrugged, before he held up the whistle to give it a tiny puff of breath, sending the keen, sharp sound out across the road itself, all the way down to the forest below. "Well... For a little place like that, it's even more impressive."

Lightning reached out to wrap the end of the thick white cloth around Odin's neck, and then back down to his chest, bandaging up the shallow wound. "I suppose it is."

After waiting a brief while, Sazh sent out another whistle into the air, but when no answer came, he handed the tiny device back to Lightning. "At this rate, I might just have to go out there and look for her..."

Lightning took back the whistle with a small frown on her face. "You'd have to leave your cart out in the open."

Sazh kept silent for a while, before he started to shrug, turning around to face the wagon itself. "Guess I would." He held up his one of his arms, and the tiny yellow bird flapped down to perch atop his wrist. "Or Chocolina here, she could try and guard it for me... She might be little, but she can get real fierce if she needs to be."

The tiny songbird let out a soft, warbling chirp.

Lightning pulled out a rag from the saddlebags to wipe the blood away from her face. "I'll admit, I'm more curious about that fire from before."

Sazh glanced over his shoulder with a grin. "Ah, just a little trick I picked up..." He reached for the teakettle from the ground, and he began to tap his index finger against the handle. "Tempest in a teapot, storm in a teakettle... Just a little bit of smithy magic."

"Smithy?" Lightning brought the cloth down from her face, but there was still a bit of blood smeared across her cheek. "Can you work with silver?"

Sazh walked over to pack the teakettle back down inside his wagon. "If it's simple enough, yeah... Might not be the prettiest jewelry in the world, but if it can be melted down, there's a pretty good chance I can work with it."

Lightning shook her head. "It wouldn't be jewelry."

Sazh quirked a single eyebrow. "What would it be, then?"

"Just a simple design, it's-" Lightning glanced up when the sound of hoofbeats suddenly echoed from the opposite side of the road.

"Ey!" Sazh grinned, running over towards the forest floor. "Bryn, you're alright!"

Brynhildr let out a soft whinny at the sound of his voice, and she quickly appeared from within the undergrowth, walking up to nudge at his shoulder with her snout.

"You gave me quite the scare, missy... Yeah, you did!" Sazh reached up to pat along her broad shoulders, gently scratching at the soft, reddish hair that covered her from mane to hoof. "Almost thought that damn gryphon was gonna finish you off, back there."

Lightning looked up to see Odin turn his head, inspecting the other horse. Though he stood a good height taller than the mare, he was a bit less stout and muscular.

"I'm glad you found her." Lightning picked up the canteen again, trying to wash off the rest of her face with a bit of water. "Is she some sort of draft horse?"

Sazh shrugged as he brought Brynhildr up the hill, guided by the halter on her head. "Yeah, something like that."

Once she had gotten nearly all of the blood cleaned up, Lightning set the rag back down into one of Odin's saddlebags. "Does she normally have a limp?"

Sazh paused to glance at Brynhildr's front legs, before he let out a quiet sigh. "Ah, damn..."

"Mind if I take a look?" Lightning soon stepped over with another handful of medicinal herbs. "Looks like just a scratch, but you still shouldn't let it get infected." She held out the herbs for Sazh to examine, tracing around Brynhildr's wound with her other hand. "If you don't mind me using this on her, it's the best for keeping bacteria out."

Sazh knelt down to look at the wound. "Yeah, go ahead." He watched as Lightning crushed the herbs, spreading out the liquid across the tiny cut, before he reached up to hold Brynhildr steady, so that she wouldn't try to kick or bite at either of them. "It's alright, Bryn, Lightning here, she seems like she knows what she's doing."

Lightning bit back a chuckle. "Appreciated."

"No, really!" Sazh reached up to pat at Brynhildr's neck when the horse let out an impatient snort. "You took care of that gryphon, didn't you? Not a whole lot of people around here could do something like that."

Once Lightning had finished spreading the herbal liquid down into the wound, she rose back up to her feet again, glancing over at the forest. "Some people can... Hunters can." After a moment, she slowly held out her hand for Brynhildr to snuffle at. "You asked if I'm the one they talk about, and like I said, it's possible."

"So, you're a hunter, then..." Sazh eyed at the sword on her belt. "Or it sounds like you are, at least, but are you the sort of hunter that I'm thinking you might be?"

Lightning stepped back when Odin nudged at her shoulder from behind, but she almost smiled when he moved to sniff at Brynhildr's muzzle, nickering under his breath. "That would depend on what kind of hunter you're thinking of."

Sazh chuckled when Brynhildr back snorted at Odin, blowing air at his nose."Well, the kind who might swear a blood oath to a certain sort of deity..." He slowly began to grin. "The same kind who'd need something made from silver, only for something other than jewelry."

Lightning reached for Odin's reins. "Sounds like you've got it all figured out."

"Maybe not all of it..." Sazh reached up to lead Brynhildr back towards the wagon hitch. "Well, Lightning-"

"Light's quicker." Lightning led Odin up the hill as well. "Whichever you prefer."

Sazh nodded. "Well then, Light, I've got a proposition for you, so long as you're in the mood to listen."

Lightning paused when they reached the road again, and she began to watch the way that Sazh was guiding Brynhildr back into the wagon harness, attaching her to the cart again.

"I'm not sure my if poor old heart could handle another gryphon attack." He laughed under his breath again, gently tightening one of the woven straps of Brynhildr's harness. "And you see, I've got a schedule to keep... My son's been waiting in the village down the road here for _months_ now, and I'd rather come back home to him in one piece."

Lightning began to loosen her hold on Odin's bridle, so that he could lower his head down and nibble at the wild grass near the edge of the road. "You live around here?"

Sazh shook his head. "No, but a friend of mine's been watching after him; I've been on a little business venture over the past few months, you see." He gestured at the carriage. "I'd also like to get all of _this_ back in one piece... If we're traveling in the same direction, I can try to take a crack at whatever smithing work you'd need, in exchange for a hunter's protection."

Lightning glanced down at her sword. "Which village do you need to get to?"

Sazh reached up to scratch behind Brynhildr's ears. "Bresha, it's a little settlement, only it's next to this _really_ big lake-"

Lightning nodded before he could even finish. "Deal."

Sazh grinned. "And lucky for you, I've got some spare silver..." He watched as Lightning swung herself back up to Odin's saddle, before he made his own way over towards the seat of the wagon. "Although it might be better to take a slow pace at first... It's a poor horse who has to run around right after he got himself all dinged up."

Lightning glanced over to see the fluttering yellow songbird, who had since started to fly around the carriage in circles. "...I think we can agree on that."

Sazh gently flicked Brynhildr's reins, and the mighty horse stepped forward once more, pulling along the heavy cart with what looked like no effort at all.

They rode out along the winding path. While Lightning took a slight lead with Odin, Sazh kept Brynhildr to a slow, yet steady pace, just enough to keep up with the way that Odin was suddenly refusing to take it slow.

"Come _on_..." Lightning exhaled sharply when Odin began to toss his head up and down. "It's not a competition."

"Spirited one, isn't he?" Sazh was already rummaging through a small wooden box, propped up on the seat beside him. "I can see how a horse like that would end up with a hunter."

"He's just too proud for his own good." Lightning tightened the reins, drawing Odin back down into a steady walk. "It's always been like this."

"Well, a horse and his rider should be alike, shouldn't they?" Sazh soon lifted up a tiny bar of silver, before he began to test the weight of it between his hands. "And hey, you sure aren't slacking with that arm, are you?"

Lightning bit back a smile. "...I've had worse."

"I have a feeling he'd say the very same thing." Sazh looked up at the road to make sure he wouldn't have to steer Brynhildr for a while. "Alright, could you maybe try and describe what sort of structure this thing's gonna have?"

Lightning reached up into the pocket of her jacket, and she soon held out a tiny silver trinket. "The most important part is the inner chamber; it has to be completely and _permanently_ airtight just as soon as you close the hatch." She slowed Odin down a bit so that she could hand the charm over to Sazh. "If it looks complicated at first glance..."

Sazh let out a low whistle. "Well, would you look at that."

Lightning soon lifted up another charm, one that was flickering slightly beneath the light of the sun. "They're not as complex as they look."

Sazh took the second charm as well, before he down reached into the wooden box to retrieve a rather small magnifying glass. "Interesting..." He turned the silver device between this fingertips, examining the way that it almost looked like an imploded coin at first glance, but then he noticed that there was indeed a tiny chamber within the very center, somewhat hidden by the outline of Etro's crest. "And it needs to be silver, right?"

Lightning nodded. "The followers of Etro have an affinity with silver; it just doesn't work with any other kind of metal."

"And how _does_ it work, exactly?" Sazh ran his fingertips over the edge of the tiny circular disc, where strange, decorative gaps almost looked to be patterned like hollow blades, or even feathers. "You just stick stuff in there, and..?"

Lightning glanced away to hide her smile. "Oh, it's pretty interesting what happens after."

Sazh sat up straight in the carriage seat. "Hey, don't go hoarding secrets on me, now..." He rolled his eyes when she still kept silent. "Come on, even if I promise not to spill the beans?"

Lightning kept her gaze on the road ahead. "Swear on your life?"

Sazh shrugged, before he let out a quiet sigh. "Yeah, if it's really that important."

"It depends on what's inside." Lightning reached into a different coat pocket for yet another charm, one which knew held both a drop of her own blood and the hair of a mystical beast inside, a creature that she had briefly held captive many years before then. "This one, for example... When I hone all of my focus on it, it can cloak me in near-invisibility."

Sazh's eyebrows almost went skyward. "Serious?"

"Dead serious." Lightning flipped the little disc between her fingertips. "You ever wonder why most people still think unicorns are just a myth?" She suddenly pressed at the center of the charm, and within almost an instant, her entire body went translucent. "It's because most of the time, you don't really _see_ them."

Sazh waved both of his hands over his eyes, before he started to chuckle. "Well, I'll be damned."

"It doesn't last for long, though..." After a moment or two, she held up the charm again, squeezing at the central chamber once more. "Usually it's only for a few minutes, but if you get lucky, some of them can go well over an hour."

Sazh blinked when Lightning suddenly became visible again. "Useful little things, aren't they?"

Lightning reached back down to tuck the charm into her pocket. "It takes a blood pact to activate, like you said." She paused to feel shifting wind, how it brushed some of her hair to the side, before she reached up to tuck away the strands behind her ear. "But if you're not the squeamish type..."

Sazh held up his hands with a quiet laugh. "I won't have to get mixed up in it, will I? Just crafting the things, that's all..." He squinted at one of the charms again, before he placed it down beside the small bar of silver. "Well, once we stop for the night, I'll try and see just how much I can do."

As they traveled onward throughout the day, Lightning briefly envisioned the three vials of hydra blood, which were still resting inside one of Odin's saddlebags. The process of mixing her own blood with that of another being was already somewhat risky, as more often than not it tended to interfere with the pact itself, unless she took great care not to perform any missteps in the ritual. And the fact that hydra blood was deadly even upon inhalation... She almost considered scrapping the entire idea.

But then there was that _itch_ , the same sort of nagging feeling that would crawl right under her skin whenever Serah brought up the idea of abandoning rather dangerous quarry. It tingled in her veins, uninvited and unsettling, and it simply wouldn't leave, not unless she drove herself forward again with all the strength she could muster, chasing on after whatever goal she'd sought to complete.

Sazh spoke up after a while. "You okay, Light?"

She snapped back to attention. "Yes."

Sazh glanced at the sky, gesturing at the afternoon sun. "We've been going for a while, now... It'll be getting dark before too long."

Lightning looked down at Odin, who had finally settled into a more relaxed sort of pace. "Well, would you rather set up camp near the woods, or somewhere out in the open?"

Sazh glanced up at the more wooded area, at the forest which lay just ahead. "Which would you recommend?"

"In this time of year, somewhere open." Lightning looked away from the towering forest. "There's still food for animals in and under the trees, but out on the plains, the grass is almost completely dry, and the smaller animals are starting to hibernate... If we want the safer option, we'll find a flat spot off the side of the road, one that isn't entirely visible to other travelers."

Sazh nodded. "Makes sense."

Lightning glanced at the hilt of her sword. "I can fend off more than a couple bandits, but if we run into anything worse..." She shook her head at the thought. "Monsters are one thing, but a group of humans, desperate enough to rob you blind... That's a whole other sort of beast."

"Believe me, I've been on the raw end of that deal." Sazh looked back at his cart, and he almost frowned at the memory of ragged highwaymen, those who would demand coins or other valuable goods in exchange for relatively unharassed passage. "I've lost a good deal of money to that sort of folk."

Lightning peered out over the long winding road, over towards a flat stretch of land, which was nestled in beside a dry riverbed. "A few years ago, we found out that there was a bandit hideout near our village." She turned Odin towards the side of the path, to better examine the possible campsite. "And let's just say that negotiation was swift... We picked the better hiding spot."

Sazh chuckled a bit. "You've got family out here?"

Lightning nodded. "Yes, my sister." She drew Odin to a halt, scanning the road for any hint that there might have been recent activity in the area. "There's also a boy who acts like my brother, and I'm almost fond enough to call him that."

"Ah, family can go far beyond blood." Sazh signaled for Brynhildr to stop as well. "I once knew a man who I thought of as a brother, but I haven't heard a word from him in years."

Lightning gently tugged at Odin's reins, steering him towards the edge of the road. "The world hasn't been very kind to that sort of thing." She thought back to the sharp scent of dark, briny seawater, of the little rickety boat that would teeter at even the slightest hint of rough waves. "I don't even know if the people who stayed behind... The village I grew up in, if they're even still alive."

Sazh lowered his voice to a murmur. "Not much you can do, either way..." He winced when the cart rattled a bit, easing its way down the hill. "Just gotta roll with the punches, you know?"

Lightning soon swung down from the saddle again, before she reached up to shelter her eyes against the light of the sun. "And what about you, you said you were going back for your son?"

Sazh nodded. "Dajh, yeah... He's turning eight next next summer."

Lightning walked out along the flat stretch of grass. "Happy birthday."

Sazh laughed, stepping down from the seat of the carriage. "I'll give him your regards."

Lightning reached up to hold Odin's bridle, and she started to unclasp each of the buckles until it came loose, before she walked over to do the very same with his saddle. "My sister and I, we made a blackberry cake for my birthday last year... It took _forever_ just to pick enough wild berries, but we managed it."

Sazh began to unbuckle Brynhildr from her harness. "Never tried blackberry cake before."

As she carried the saddle over towards a patch of ground without much grass, she almost frowned at the notion of her less-than-savory remaining rations, mostly hardtack and such, and things much less sweet than the memory of cake. "It was just about the best damn thing I've ever tasted..."

Sazh let out a quiet laugh. "Well, with a recommendation like that, I might just have to hunt some down." He reached up to pat Brynhildr's neck, and she soon walked away from the loosened harness, wandering off into the field. "Heck, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it."

Lightning knelt down to search for the metal hoof pick in Odin's saddlebags. "Do you have anything we can cook? We could pool rations together if we have enough."

Sazh stepped up towards the side of the carriage, and he tugged the door open with a nod. "Just a moment."

Once Lightning had finally found the pick, she almost smiled when she saw the yellow songbird land right atop Odin's head. "Careful... He's not a ride for the faint of heart."

The little creature just chirped at her, hopping around between Odin's ears.

"You're a brave one." Lightning knelt down again to lift up one of Odin's hooves, before she started to clean away all of the pebbles and dirt. "Just wait until I brush him tonight; you'll have more than enough hair to make yourself a nest."

Sazh called out after a moment, but his voice was slightly muffled from inside the carriage. "Hey, Light?"

Lightning glanced over her shoulder. "Yes?"

"How does soup from beef stock sound?" Something heavy knocked against something else, somewhere inside the wagon. "We can just toss in whatever else we have."

Lightning knelt down beside one of Odin's other hooves. "Sounds good."

Before long, Sazh returned with an armful of various things, a rather large cast-iron pot and several packages beneath his arms, and then even some cooking utensils, but he quickly moved to set it all down on the flat patch of dirt near the carriage. "I'm pretty sure I have enough stock left..." He held up an wide, opaque container, shaking it around with both of his hands. "Should be enough."

Lightning stepped over towards Odin's third hoof. "Does Brynhildr need her shoes cleaned?"

Sazh shook his head. "No, she's unshod, at least for the time being... She got a nasty infection from the last farrier I tried, shows what you get for bargain prices."

Lightning tugged a rather stubborn pebble out from Odin's shoe, before she cleaned out the rest of the dirt. "I'm going to brush Odin down later tonight." She stepped over towards the fourth and final hoof. "If Bryn needs it, consider it a trade for trying to make the the charms."

Sazh shook his head. "Nah, she'll be alright 'til we get back to Bresha." He was carrying a bundle of dry firewood down from the carriage steps. "Dajh loves helping out with all that stuff, you know... Kids and their 'horsies'."

Lightning soon stood up again, patting at Odin's shoulders to let him know that she was done. "Yeah, sometimes I have to get up early just to keep Hope from doing all of the stable work before I can help..." She turned back towards the makeshift campsite, noticing the slight hint of confusion on Sazh's face. "Oh. Hope, that's his name, the boy I was talking about."

"Ah." Sazh had already started to stack the firewood into a square sort of pattern, and Lightning noticed that he had a box of matches tucked right inside his shirt-pocket. "Good name for times like these."

Lightning walked over to where she had put down Odin's saddle, before she reached down into one of the satchels for the parcel of tubers, the very same ones that Snow had grown. "My sister... Her friend seemed to think that these taste like radishes."

Sazh smiled. "Sounds good, start chopping them up if you like."

Lightning reached into one of her pockets for her carving knife, before she flicked out the flat of the blade, resting it against the palm of her hand.

Sazh smiled to himself. "Doesn't sound like you think too much of her 'friend'..."

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the edge of the knife, but she only began to peel one of the tubers. "He's a _moron_."

Sazh held back a quiet laugh.

"And not just a moron, a _reckless_ moron..." Lightning moved to cut the stem away from the pale root vegetable, before she started to slice it down into smaller, somewhat square sections. "But for some reason, he makes her happy."

Sazh struck a match against the side of the box, igniting a tiny flame, before he lowered it down beneath the wide stack of firewood. "You know what they say... Love is blind."

Lightning grit her teeth. "It's moronic."

"Love often is..." Sazh watched as the fire began to dance beneath the wooden framework. "Sounds like she might be a younger sister?"

Lightning nodded.

"Well then, at some point... She's got to start make her own decisions, even if they turn out to be mistakes." Sazh reached over into one of the packages for an onion, and before long, he held up a small pocketknife against the stem. "Now, humor me for a moment... Tell me how you go about hunting a monster, or even just fighting something; how do you first start to face it?"

Lightning placed a handful of the chopped tuber against the dry burlap sack. "The first step is to know your enemy, know the way it navigates the environment, how it reacts to certain changes, things like a sudden, unknown threat."

Sazh frowned a bit. "Maybe I'm using the wrong sort of metaphor..." He began to slice away bit of of the onion, peeling back the skin. "Alright, I think I've got it: have you ever gotten hurt out on the hunt? Like if something hit you, only in a way you didn't expect."

Lightning slowly nodded.

"And did you ever get hit in quite the same way again?" Sazh nearly chuckled at the look on her face. "I bet you didn't... You _learned_ from it, took that mistake to heart." He moved to cut the onion in half. "But would you have learned the same sort of lesson if someone had just pushed you out of the way? You probably wouldn't have realized the mistake unless you were paying attention."

Lightning reached for another tuber. "What are you, some sort of advice guru?"

Sazh quietly laughed. "Oh, no... Just a cranky old dad, one who's learned a lot after he had to man up and raise his kid right."

"He's lucky to have you, then." Lightning started to slice the second tuber apart. "I've seen a lot of kids without... Without guidance, over the past few years." She paused for a moment, gazing down at the edge of her knife. "I told you about Hope... We found him one day, half-starved, wandering out in the woods; he'd barely even talk to us until we gave him enough time to recuperate."

Sazh almost frowned at the tale. "I'm glad he found his way to you."

"He seems much happier these days." Lightning looked over to see just how much the fire had grown, how it warmed away the subtle chill from her skin, chasing off the cold autumn winds. "He's been trying to get me to mentor him for hunting more dangerous quarry... And all that comes with it."

"Your pact, right?" Sazh set down the slices of onion, before he leaned over to position the kettle within the crackling fire. "You don't really think a kid would be ready for that sort of thing, do you?"

"That's the problem, I don't." Lightning looked down at her feet. "He's too young for that much responsibility; he can learn to hunt without it, but it's only a matter of time before he tries to convince me to teach it to him."

"So, you just put on a stern voice and tell him 'no'." Sazh held up a jug of water, and he slowly poured some of it out into the pot. "It's not cruel to keep those things to yourself, not if you think it's too much for him to handle."

Lightning bit back a smirk. "...What happened to 'let them learn their own mistakes'?"

Sazh narrowed his eyes with a smile. "You're just a little too sharp for me, missy." He reached for the bottle of semi-solid beef stock. "Well, I'll put it this way... If you see a child sticking his hand into the fire, you can always tell him 'no', that it's going to hurt like hell, but if he's dead-set on burning himself... You don't let him keep his hand in there for more than a second or two."

Lightning watched as Sazh began to stir the warm water and stock together, but she kept silent, mulling over the thoughts in her head.

"Don't go all quiet on me, now..," Sazh waited a while, just stirring at the pot, before he reached for the thin rings of sliced onion. "It'll all work itself out in the end, and you've got your sister, right? You aren't alone."

Lightning pulled her jacket a bit tighter against herself. "It's hardly ever as simple as it sounds."

Sazh nodded. "But you always can take it one step at a time." He gestured for her to add the bits of chopped tuber into the mix. "And even the most daunting sort of things... They all look smaller in hindsight."

Lightning watched as Sazh tended to the pot, and for a long time, she said nothing, and simply sat there with a blank expression on her face. She watched the yellow songbird flap her way up towards the top of the cart, before she watched the sunlight slowly start to fade, setting somewhere on the horizon behind her. As Lightning kept silent, a million thoughts and problems swept right back into her mind, but when the rich scent of food started to drown out the smells of the wind and grass, and when Sazh poured out two bowls full of the brothy soup, handing one over to her, it almost felt as if her mind was starting to clear.

"It'd taste better with actual beef, but beggars can't be choosers..." Sazh handed her a slim metal spoon, one that had his initials etched into the base. "Eat up before it gets cold."

Lightning nodded. "Thank you."

Sazh began to smile. "It's no problem."

Lightning looked back up at hill which led back towards the road, and then at the tall, distant trees, which were still swaying back and forth beneath the wind. Lightning took a long moment just to think, watching the world around her, until she finally decided to take a sip of the broth.

"Tastes alright to you?" Sazh was poking at one of the cooked tubers with his spoon. "It's better than what you can get in most inns, I'll tell you that."

Lightning took another sip, tasting both the onions, the beef-stock, and even the subtle flavor of the root vegetables, before she slowly started to nod. "It's more than alright."

Sazh grinned. "Glad you think so." He ate another spoonful, and before long another, and it soon occurred to Lightning that he might be eating quickly so that he could examine the silver again, and even possibly work on creating a whole new charm.

Lightning looked back at her bowl and ate silently, but when she glanced over towards where Odin was trotting around, guiding Brynhildr towards the best parts of the field for grass, she had to hold back a laugh.

"Alright then, while the flame's still going." Sazh soon set down his empty bowl, tugging a pair of heavy mitts over his hands to lift the cook-pot away from the fire. "Ever seen a smith at work out on the road? It's a whole different show than a forge..."

Lightning shook her head.

"Well then, watch close." Sazh reached for the stray metal teakettle, before he gestured for Lightning to move back a bit. "It can get a little dicey, so keep your distance."

Lightning stood up to carry her soup bowl a short distance away, but she kept eating even as Sazh began to prepare a tiny workstation beside the campfire, and she watched as he set down both his own bar of silver and the charms into a metallic dish.

"It looks like a simple enough technique, but this might take me a couple tries..." Sazh lifted his teakettle up before the fire, and Lightning braced herself, before a sharp gout of flame came roaring right on out, filtering itself down from the spout.

" _Wild_ one, isn't it?" Sazh chucked at the screeching, boiling kettle, at the swirls of fire that almost seemed to move in time with the way he clenched his hands, gripping down upon both of the handles. "Watch the firewood."

Lightning could see that the logs had all but burned away, and instead, the flames had almost taken on a life of their own, twisting and morphing themselves down into a compact layer of heat, before they evened out into an almost docile sort of blaze, one that seemed more than content to obey the man directing them.

"Alright then." Sazh reached for the thin silver bar, before he set it down inside the dish of a strange, standing contraption, which he quickly propped up above the makeshift forge. "Now, we wait..."

Lightning could only sit and watch during the lengthy process of melting the silver down, which began to glimmer and shift above the white-hot heat, until it had finally grown malleable enough to be bent. Lightning grew more attentive when Sazh held out a pair of tongs, pinching off some of the silver from the rest of the melted bar.

Sazh worked without speaking, moving each layer of the molten metal around with the end of his tongs, until it was little more than a flat bit of silver. He had donned an iron helmet and a thick set of protective gear made from woven cloth and sturdy leather braces, and it must have done wonders to keep his skin from growing too hot beneath the blaze.

Lightning watched as Sazh used a smaller set of tongs to stretch out the chunk of metal into a longer strip, and she swore that he must have been using some sort of magic just to shape it so delicately.

Sazh stared down at the silver from behind the grates of his protective helm, and before long, he reached for a tiny set of pliers, ones that were able to shape the necessary sort of chamber inside the charm itself. He pinched out a rather slim bit of the metal, but as he shaped it back and forth, turning it in and over on itself, it was soon no larger than his fingernail. Sazh tried not to blink as he formed the snapping contraption, one that could permanently be sealed with just a bit of pressure when it had hardened, but once it was all said and done, he finally lifted up the entire device, lowering down it inside a small bucket of clear liquid.

Lightning listened to the sudden hiss of metal, but it was actually a rather a gentle sound, and it didn't last long.

"Alright, this won't be sturdy enough to handle for a while..." After a moment, Sazh held up the charm again, revealing that it had become a bit darker in hue, less molten than before. "How does it look?"

Lightning stepped up beside the bucket, careful not to get too close to the heat of the forge. "Interesting... I think you embellished it a little, near the edges."

Sazh chuckled. "Gotta leave your signature on your work, don't you?" He soon turned the disc over with his tongs, just to show off both sides of the contraption. "I wouldn't put my initials on something like this, so you get feather patterns."

She could see them, then, each of the tiny, delicate markings near the edges of the coinlike device. They were indeed placed in the shape of feather vanes, and they varied in both shape and texture, depending on how fast the metal had cooled.

Sazh glanced back at the forge. "So, you think this'll work, or should I melt it down again?"

Lightning took a moment to think. "I'd have to test if it can snap shut."

Sazh nodded. "Then I'll start on a couple more of them, but like I said, it won't be cool enough to hold for a while."

Slowly, Lightning reached into her pocket. "How hot would you say it is?"

"Unless you've got some pretty good gloves-" When Sazh caught sight of yet another charm, he blinked as Lightning pressed down against the center. "What's that one do?"

"A certain amount of fireproofing." Lightning held out her free hand out towards the newly-forged charm, touching it against her palm. "It depends on the temperature and source, but I've been able to grab things right out from the embers with this."

"Sounds nifty..." Sazh walked back towards the forge with his tongs. "Just play it safe, okay?"

"I will." Lightning turned the charm over against her skin, gazing down at the tiny compartment beneath the hatch. "I already have a feeling that this is going to work."

"So what's the next step?" Sazh had already pulled off another section of molten silver from the bar. "Blood magic, voodoo rituals, animal sacrifice, the works?"

Lightning fought the urge to roll her eyes at him. "Hardly... You might not even notice it." She stepped over towards Odin's saddle, before she tucked the fire-charm back down into her pocket, replacing her grip along a vial of the bright, restless hydra blood. "I do need to warn you, though." Lightning held the vial up in one hand, watching the way that it licked against the sides of the glass. "This is one of the most toxic substances you can find in Gran Pulse or anywhere else on the continent, so I'm going to get a good distance away before I open it."

Sazh nodded. "Sounds good... Again, just be careful."

When Lightning turned to face the sunset, she felt a small flicker of fear in the very pit of her stomach, but it was quickly urged away with steady, constant footsteps. There was just enough light left in the field for her to find a fallen tree, one that stood well within reach of the strong, gusting winds, and Lightning walked over to sit down upon it. She looked at the vial, and then over at the empty charm, and after a moment, she set both of them down against her lap.

"Divine Etro..." Lightning murmured the words just under her breath, slowly tugging her pocketknife out into the open. "I offer to you this symbol of my loyalty, my pride as your free messenger." She didn't even wince when the narrow edge of steel bit down against the side of her thumb, drawing out a tiny droplet of blood. "I ask only for your boon, your blessing to aid me in my travels."

The tip of her blade brushed down against the metal compartment, smearing the droplet of blood across the round, silvery interior.

"I give my life force freely and without grief."

Slowly, Lightning reached over to uncork the vial, before she held her breath as tightly as she possibly could. The liquid scarlet danced, rumbling up and leaping towards the top of the bottle, but she simply poured out a small amount into the opposite side of the compartment, before she snapped the entire thing shut.

With a blurry, almost spinning sort of vision, Lightning forced herself to push the cork back down inside the glass. She rose up to her feet, striding as far away from the site as she could, before she finally gasped in a fluttery breath, dropping down to her knees. Her skin went rather flush from the lack of air, the threat of toxic exposure, and even the physical tension that such a ritual would always draw forth.

She could feel it even then, the primal force stirring deep inside her veins, within her bones, the ancient magic that she knew was still very much _alive_.

"Thank you..." Lightning whispered the words, almost hoarse and breathless. "You're still there, you're still listening."

There was no audible answer, but when the new charm, the one that she hadn't even realized she was clutching so tightly, as it began to grow cool against the palm of her hand, back down to its natural temperature, Lightning _knew_.

Her ritual had been accepted.


	4. Prey

They spoke long into the late evening, even when the moon began to rise above the horizon, casting a gentle glow across the plains.

"And you don't see too many goldsmiths these days, but the ones who do often work with silver, too, and some of them even start to specialize in gemstones." Sazh was holding one of the newly-forged charms, carving something down into the side with a metal chisel. "Me, I started out as a more of an all-purpose sort of smith, fixing up whatever folks in town managed to break."

"Did you apprentice under another smith?" Lightning was busy moving a brush across Odin's neck. "I've heard that's how most craftsmen start out."

Sazh shook his head. "Self-taught, always have been." After a moment, he held up the tiny charm against the light of the campfire, which had since died down into a simple flame again. "It's how you become more adaptable... You know, a whole lot of grand masters never even _learn_ new techniques just because they're afraid to experiment."

Lightning plucked out a bit of grass from Odin's mane. "When I was nearly a teenager, my parents only gave me the basics of taking down a monster... Tracking it was a different story, they'd stay close by while we were moving on a trail, but if it was my turn to engage it, they'd tell me to approach in whichever way felt most natural."

"No wonder you scared off that gryphon..." Sazh reached out for one of the empty charms. "Chasing around monsters as a kid, you must've gotten in a whole lot of practice."

Lightning brought the brush down across one of Odin's shoulders, cleaning away the bits of dust and dirt from the road. "That was their job, basically... They protected the village from whatever wandered out from the forest or sea, and the other people we lived beside, they did everything they could do to provide things for us." She reached to move the brush up across Odin's back. "Processed goods, you know, things we didn't know how to make."

Sazh stared down at the tiny, rounded symbol that he was carving; it was a simple circular design at first, but it had long, curving marks at either side, forming the crest of Etro. "I've seen a quite a few hunters who do the same... Almost every village could use one, you know."

Lightning nodded. "That's why I'm out here; some of the villages out near the mountain-" She reached up to point at the tallest ridge, one which rose high above the distant forests. "Most of them don't have many resident guardsmen, or even non-specialized hunters... They send out missives whenever something particularly dangerous is sighted in the valleys, or otherwise."

"So you're out on a hunt right now?" Sazh flicked away a small bit of silver into a collection bin, where several other shavings had already fallen. "Unless you're out for recreation... But at this time of year-"

"I'm hunting, yes." Lightning moved the bristly brush past the bandages on Odin's chest, careful to work around them. "The report was too serious to ignore."

Sazh frowned a bit. "What was it?"

Lightning paused, picking out the stray bits of hair from the bristles of the brush. "Do you really want me to tell you?"

"Not with that tone of voice..." Sazh laughed and shook his head. "Ignorance is bliss, they say."

Lightning reached up to gently scratch behind Odin's ears. "Just keep watching the sky; if you see a shadow, don't even stop to think." She moved the brush back against his neck. "Just run."

"...I'll keep that in mind." Sazh rose to his feet, dusting off his jacket, before he held up one of the tiny silver charms. "Tried to copy it as best I could."

Lightning moved to look at the little symbol, the signet that was carved just above the hydra's blood. "It's excellent."

Sazh smiled, handing it over to her. "Glad you think so; I'll get the rest of them." He stepped back past the campfire, towards the small pile of silver trinkets. "The price of silver's been at rock bottom, you know, so this is no skin off my nose."

"How long has it been like that?" Lightning went back to brushing Odin's shoulder. "I haven't needed new charms in years, now."

"Quite a while, actually..." Sazh knelt down to pick up the rest of the silver charms, before he carried them all over towards Lightning. "People just don't have the money for it, you know? World's been a mess ever since the Pale Sea started rumbling."

Lightning closed her eyes at the memory of choppy, rising saltwater. "It's all just going to take time."

"We can hope." Sazh held out a handful of silver. "We can _hope_ , and we can work for that future.. Just takes some elbow grease."

Lightning reached out to take the charms. "Then I hope you're right."

Sazh chuckled quietly, before he turned back towards the campsite. "That makes both of us."

* * *

As time whispered on, the sky soon stretched out above them, glittering with more stars than Lightning could ever count, and far, far beneath it, she could hear the crickets sing. She held a charm between her fingertips, and even in the dark, she could still see its soft, tiny glow. It wasn't the kind that could illuminate her surroundings, but it still gave her a certain anchor point, something she could hold on to.

Sazh started to snore from somewhere off in the distance, most likely tucked away in his sleeping bag near the carriage, but Lightning had chosen to set her own blankets down near the top of the hill.

She could hear Odin and Brynhildr whinnying from somewhere in their sleep, but it was still a soft sort of sound. Lightning turned to see the hazy outline of a standing horse, one who was swaying gently beneath the wind. Odin would often sleep upon his side in the grass, but most nights he would stand upright, ready to react on a moment's notice if needed.

Lightning felt her eyelids slowly start to close. The wind had brushed some of her hair to the side, but she'd already tugged the blanket over the rest of her body to keep the chill away. She took a deep breath, yawning quietly, before she brushed her index finger against the silver, circular symbol.

Long ago, when she had been only a child, her parents would teach her the stories of Etro's realm. It was the hallowed land, home of the dreaming, and even of those that had since departed from the mortal world. The goddess of death took every soul back into her arms, watching over them all from afar until they were ready to join her yet again. Her parents always seemed to talk about Etro as if she was an old, dear friend, and it got to the point where Lightning started asking when they were finally going to introduce them to each other. She remembered it clearly; her father just began to laugh under his breath and slowly shake his head back and forth.

 _The goddess is invisible to us._ Her mother had knelt down, still holding Serah in her arms, who was only just an infant at the time. _She gives us many blessings, but we'll only get to meet her in person once we've left this world behind._

At such a young age, the concept of death was more than a bit hazy, but Lightning had been quite persistent, hounding both of her parents for the answer to what they had said before; how could they all possibly leave the world?

 _Death... It's just something that happens to everything, eventually._ Her mother had been sitting beside a tiny pond of rainwater, gently rocking Serah back and forth in her arms. _We live our lives within this world, and when we're done, we die and move on to the next._

She only truly understood on the day that the village butcher had forgotten to close one of the windows, and the memory of a swiftly beheaded chicken lingered deep in her mind for many years to come.

Back in the waking world, Lightning barely even realized that she had drifted off into a dream, slumbering beneath the steady autumn breeze, within the dusty field.

The moon slowly disappeared over the mountains again, but as it faded off into the night, heavy clouds began to roll out over the sky, cloaking the stars in darkness.

As she curled up in her sleep, breathing quietly, Lightning didn't even notice the first tiny snowflake that touched down upon her hand.

* * *

There was someone standing out in the distance.

The mist swirled all around her, coating nearly everything in a dull, dark haze, so much that she could barely even see the figure start to move, but it was only moments before a set of eyes stared back at her, gazing deep into the dream.

 _Are you frightened?_

Lightning kept perfectly still. While she could feel the words that had been spoken, understand their meaning, they hadn't been said out loud. In fact, if she had been just a little more aware that she was dreaming, she might've realized that it wasn't even spoken in a language that she knew.

It merely drifted in like a breeze, warm and gentle against her face, even when a thin droplet of blood came trickling down from whoever had touched the very top of her forehead.

 _I can barely-_

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to even look back at the strange cloud of darkness, the figure that hovered all around her, brushing up against her body, yet only for brief instants, as if frozen in time.

 _-too far, I can't..._

But _where_ had she heard it before? There were simply no memories to call on, no hints that she might possibly follow. It was just a strange, distant voice that wasn't actually a voice, a circling paradox that made her head ache.

Something touched the top of her forehead again, but she didn't dare open her eyes to see what it was.

 _Please-_

Lightning shook her head back and forth, willing herself to just wake up, or even fall back into dreamless sleep, anything but this foggy realm of such perpetual confusion, of the voice and touch, the scent of blood and _fire_...

She opened her eyes and stared into the flames.

A sharp, unblinking gaze stared back at her, but before she could scarcely hone her vision on the figure it belonged to, she was stolen away into the dark.

* * *

Above the grassland, the clouds rolled on, hiding the first few hints of sunlight.

Lightning woke to a cold morning wind, and when she slowly opened her eyes, she was greeted by a world of gray and white.

When she took a moment just to breathe deeply, she could smell both the tang of woodsmoke and frost, but when she slowly rose up into a sitting position, she caught a hint of something else, something that almost smelled like bread.

"Morning!" Sazh called out from down below the hill, tending to the little campfire. "First snowfall of the year, isn't it?"

Lightning looked down at him with a nod, before she tugged one of the blankets a bit tighter against herself. "It might melt before too long... But even then, more always comes."

"True." Sazh glanced back at the flames. "Found some goodies back in the cart, take a look." He gestured at the thin metal tray above the fire, and at the steadily rising clump of dough, which gave off the scent that Lightning had smelled before. "Not exactly blackberry cake, but still..."

Lightning almost smiled. "It looks a little like flatbread."

Sazh poked at the edge of the tray with a small pair of tongs. "It's just a certain sort of bread-dough; if you keep it airtight, it'll last you for months until you bake it."

Lightning moved to gather up her blankets, her gloves and boots, before she started on down the hill, soon standing beside the campfire. "Smells nice."

Sazh already had his own blanket draped over his shoulders, and the little songbird was huddled up beside his neck. "Always good to eat some breakfast before you hit the road again." He reached out with the tongs to poke at the surface of the bread, testing to see if it had been cooked for long enough. "And we've probably got a day's worth of riding before we reach Bresha, and with all that snow on the road..."

"Will the cart have any trouble with it?" Lightning sat down beside the fire, holding her hands up to savor the warmth. "It's not too deep yet, at least."

Sazh glanced over at the wide wheels of the carriage, before he reached back with a pair of oven mitts to lift the tray up and away from the fire. "I think we'll do alright, and like you said, it might even melt as the day goes on." He soon set down the tray on the ground, and he began to slice up the bread with a knife. "And Brynhildr, she's pretty good with the cold."

Lightning spared a quick glance at the pair of horses, and she felt a smile on her lips when Odin kicked his hind legs up into the air, prancing around in the fallen snow. "Odin's not too bad in it, either."

Sazh handed her a plate with half of the bread. "Still pretty hot, so be careful."

Lightning looked down at the somewhat flat slice, though it was still rather puffy for the most part. "Thank you."

Sazh took a tiny bite of his own portion, but he quickly set it back down to cool again. "Yikes... Should take my own advice, shouldn't I?"

Lightning gave him a small smile. "Hard to wait, sometimes."

Sazh nodded, fanning at the bread with his hands. "You're telling me... Can't wait to be back to three square meals a day, no more of this 'roughing it' business." He took another bite just as soon as it had cooled down. "Camping out on the road, it's fun and all, but sometimes you really just miss the little things."

Lightning thought back to those soft, cozy hides in her bedroom, and then the little trapdoor in the kitchen that kept their food storage down to a cool temperature, and she even thought back to the tiny hearth in the main living quarters, the one that kept the entire house warm. "I know what you mean." She reached up to pull the woven blankets a bit closer. "It's always nice to get back home."

They ate breakfast in silence, but when Odin came trotting up with a clumpy bit of snow on his nose, Lightning couldn't help but smile, and she reached to brush it away from him. "Are you having fun?"

Odin snorted, and his breath turned to a shimmering mist in the chill.

"Silly horse." Lightning soon set down her empty plate. "He acts like a foal sometimes... Just a kid again."

Sazh looked up at Odin and smiled. "Can't fault him for that, can we? No harm in goofing around in the snow."

It was only once they had both packed their supplies, saddled up and on the road again, while the wagon was clattering on against the snowy ground, only then did Odin start to act in a more serious manner. He swiveled his ears back and forth, listening for any hint of life in the utter silence, in the wide, frigid world that waited all around them.

"Glad Bryn didn't break the harness when she ran..." Sazh was sitting back in the carriage seat, looking down at the woven straps of leather and cloth that kept Brynhildr attached to the wagon. "Hell of a lot of luck, but I'm more surprised it didn't leave much of a mark on her."

Lightning spoke up. "There are two types of gryphon attacks... Territory, which is mostly just puffing and fluffing their feathers, grabbing at each other with claws, but not to deal damage; it's just a threat display to scare intruders off." She took a moment to think back to what she had read about gryphons. "The other type is for survival, which can get a bit more bloody... But I think he was just trying to get us out of his territory at first, so he probably won't come back for another fight." Lightning peered up into the falling snow, feeling it brush against her face, only to melt down into tiny droplets of water. "That species, they hibernate for most of the winter, and in late autumn like this, he's more likely to go after easy prey and stock up for the cold."

"Glad to hear that." Sazh was whittling at something with his pocketknife, some sort of stray tree branch he had picked up. "I've never seen one that close up before... Quite the story, isn't it?"

Lightning turned to look out at the wide, grassy plains, which were slowly starting to disappear behind far more forested land. "Yesterday I came across some of the golems who wander out there." She tightened her grip on Odin's reins. "They seem pretty peaceful, but still... It's almost _breathtaking_ to see something like that right in front of you."

Sazh glanced at the plains as well. "Always wondered how those things worked... Some kind of advanced geomancy or something."

Lightning reached down into one of Odin's saddlebags. "It gave me this, before it left." She held up the tiny humming device, which almost resembled a hollow globe. "But I'm not sure what it does."

Sazh squinted to examine the strange contraption. "Mind if I take a look?"

Lightning made Odin slow down so that she could hand over the tiny bauble.

"I've seen similar trinkets..." Sazh turned it over in his hands, watching the tiny glass beads as they circled endlessly around the outer hemisphere. "Only they were used by 'diviners' to find water under the ground, fish in the lake, stuff like that... It was mostly fake of course, unless they got lucky, but this doesn't look like it's _pointing_ in any particular direction." He lifted the sphere up towards the sun and the snowfall, just to see how the colorful beads would filter each ray of light. "Certainly interesting, though... And it looks like the work of an artist."

"How do you think the beads are moving around it so consistently?" Lightning pointed at the device. "I didn't think that glass could be magnetic."

"I don't think it can be." Sazh lowered the sphere again. "But if it's magical, all bets are off..." He reached over to hand it back to her. "I'd keep it around for good luck; maybe it'll turn out to be useful."

Lightning nodded. "It's not much of a burden, at least..." She set it back down inside the saddlebag. "The golem seemed pretty confident about letting me take it, but you can never tell what those things are thinking."

Sazh went back to pushing his knife along the branch, carving something down into the surface. "I once met a peddler who had a little companion made of stone; it couldn't talk, couldn't do much but walk around and get your attention, but the _look_ it'd give you... It was definitely sentient."

Lightning looked back at the road, before she suddenly tensed at the sharp, pungent scent drifting out from something in the distance. "Sazh, stop Brynhildr..."

Sazh did as she asked. "What's wrong?"

Lightning felt her arms stiffen, and the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. "Stay here."

Sazh almost thought to protest, but when Lightning swiftly swung down from Odin's saddle and handed him the reins, he merely let out a sigh, keeping both of the horses to a halt.

Lightning inhaled. She walked slowly, stepping over each tiny drift of snow, each loose rock, until she finally reached what was rather messily splayed out at the side of the road.

Pale, glassy eyes stared out at nothing, unable to witness the fate that had befallen such a massive, shaggy creature.

Lightning knelt down, and she traced her hand beside the trickles of blood, the marks of blackened ash, the claw lines that dug so very deeply within that soft, wrinkled hide. She stared at the wide curving tusks, and the long, leathery nose that had been torn to shreds between them, even the eyes, which had been partially gouged out.

"Not a quick death." Lightning murmured each word to herself, and a twinge of both sadness and fear crossed deep within her chest. "Efficient, yes... But not quick."

The beast had been ripped nearly in half, covered in claw-marks and burns. She could even still see remnants of its intestinal track, but most of the organs had been likely been eaten or dragged away, while the rest of the entrails were covered beneath the reddened snow.

"Light?" Sazh called out from back upon the road. "Hey, what is it?"

Lightning moved her hand up towards the creature's eyelids, easing them shut. "Gran Pulsian forest mammoth, a recent kill..." She shook her head, slowly. "This was either done by an adult wyvern, a rather organized wendigo pack, or..." She shook her head again, not wishing to say it out loud.

The carriage soon rolled up beside her, but Lightning stayed beside the creature for a while, murmuring something under her breath.

Sazh thought that he caught the words 'Etro', and 'return', though most of her words were much to quiet for him to determine.

"We shouldn't stay here for long." Lightning rose back up to her feet. "After a kill like this, scavengers move in quickly, and they can be even more dangerous than predators if they're hungry enough."

Sazh held his nose, wincing at the stench of stripped flesh and atrophy. "Surprised the buzzards aren't picking at him already."

Lightning wiped away a bit of blood from between the fingertips of her glove. "The kill's fresh, likely just last night or even early in the morning." She hoisted herself back up to Odin's saddle. "Think Brynhildr can handle a faster pace?"

Sazh gently flicked the reins. "We'll see."

Their conversation faded down into silence, for Lightning was far too busy watching both the forest and skies for any hint of danger, and the road had grown much more narrow and winding, stretching on into the forest, far away from the wide open space of the plains.

They moved on beneath the barren, towering trees, over bridges and sharp bumps in the road, until the woods grew so dense that Sazh could barely even see the light of the sun.

"Bresha won't be far now." Lightning gripped the hilt of her sword, scanning the forest for any small movement or sound, but all she could see was the slowly falling snow. "Maybe an hour or two."

Sazh nodded. "I've gotta thank you for sticking with me... I wouldn't want to run into whatever did _that_ , back there."

Lightning nodded back at him. "You have my word; I'll see you to the village gates." She was holding a charm in her free hand, beside the reins of Odin's bridle. "It'd be dishonorable to do anything different."

"You're an honest one." Sazh glanced at the charm that Lightning was holding, one of the ones he had created just last night. "I mean it, Light, most folks wouldn't stick around in a place like this, especially with such a quick horse... They'd just take the goodies and run."

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the forest floor. "Then 'most folks'... They're not the sort of people you want to have around."

Sazh tried not to sigh. "Like I said, beggars can't be choosers."

Lightning said nothing in response. She merely peered around at the surrounding forest, just as silent as the falling snow.

Sazh reached for his branch again, and he slowly started to chip away at the wood and the pale white bark. "Hour or so, we'll be there..."

Lightning kept quiet for a long while, just listening to the quiet thrum of hoof-beats, before she lifted her chin to stare at the sky, or what little she could see of it between the gnarled branches. "Do you live in Bresha, Sazh? Or is your son just waiting there?"

"Nah, we've got a little house further on, but we've been staying there for a while, yeah." Sazh shook away the stray bits of wood shavings from what he was carving. "Hey, if you ever need any more charms, just look me up."

Lightning nodded to herself. "I very well might."

They both drifted back into silence, but Lightning could feel the tension slowly unwinding from her shoulders, and she was able to relax against the saddle, prompting Odin to calm down as well.

"You just take care of yourself, alright?" Sazh waved the branch at her. "If you're hunting what I think you are... If you're after whatever might've killed that poor old mammoth-"

Lightning whispered the words under her breath. "I'm after a dragon."

Sazh paused, as if the notion had stolen his voice away, before he slowly cleared his throat, leaning forward in the seat. "Most people say they're extinct."

Lightning stared at the road ahead. "Most people aren't hunters."

"I'd trust your judgment better than most people." Sazh picked up his knife again, peeling away a bit of bark from the branch. "Not like we can really tell how many are left out there... Reclusive bunch, aren't they?"

" _Very_ reclusive." Lightning reached up to hold her necklace. "That's why it's so urgent; a dragon sighting can only bring death... It'll just bring one after another, unless someone's able to stop the entire cycle beforehand."

Sazh stared down at the half-finished carving, at the image of a galloping horse with so many legs, one that twisted around and around the long height of the branch and then back again.

"Like I said before, watch the sky." Lightning reached up to turn the pendant over in her fingertips, before she let it fall back down beneath her jacket. "But I really hope you don't see anything at all."

Sazh smiled to himself, but it was much less carefree than before. "That's something else we agree on."

They rode onward, and within an hour, the flakes of falling snow had taken on a more rainlike form. With each droplet that came whirling down from the sky, the little snowdrifts on the road began to melt, but they were replaced just as quickly by frigid puddles, which began to freeze over almost immediately.

"Ah, just our luck..." Sazh sighed, tugging up the hood of his coat to shelter both his head and hair. "We should be there any minute, at least."

Lightning lifted her hood up as well, revealing the thick plumes of white hide that kept the inner layers well-insulated. "That's winter for you."

"Winter." Sazh frowned at the pattering sleet. " _Winter_ can go back to wherever it came from in the first place."

Lightning smiled to herself. "There's always spring."

"Yeah, after months of cold and dark, and then all the icy roads and shoveling snow..." Sazh winced when the little songbird burrowed down even further into his hood, seeking warmth from inside his coat. "I'm already turning into a grumpy old man, aren't it?"

The songbird chirped against his neck.

"Thought so." Sazh sighed, leaning back against the seat of the carriage. "Right on time..."

Lightning looked up to see the edge of a wide, glassy lake, before she caught sight of the village that was nestled just beside it, shaded beneath the boughs of the tall trees. "I'll see you to the gates."

"You aren't going in?" Sazh flicked at Brynhildr's reins. "With all this sleet..."

"It's only going to get worse as time goes on." Lightning shook her head. "I've made a good distance so far, but I need to keep moving."

Sazh tried not to frown, but he merely nodded, steering Brynhildr down towards a fork in the path. "You're a brave one, Light... And I meant it, look me up if you ever need anything." He glanced over towards the village gates, before he looked back at Lightning, at where Odin was lingering near the edge of the path. "And stay _safe_ , you hear?"

Lightning only watched the carriage as it rolled on past, before she nodded, more to herself than Sazh. "Same goes to you."

Sazh leaned off to the side of the wagon seat, waving his hand back and forth. "Now, ride fast, Light! I'll be cheering you on from back here, I swear it."

Lightning smiled, before she lifted her hand to wave once, just above the brim of her hood. "Good luck, Sazh."

She watched the carriage approach the mighty wooden gates, and once they had creaked open, allowing Sazh to enter into the village proper, Lightning nudged at the sides of Odin's saddle, leading him onward.

They passed beside the wide, quiet lake, but when Lightning glanced over at the surface, she could see that it was already starting freeze. "Cold snap, you think?"

Odin's breath misted in the frigid air, glittering all around his mouth.

"We should get moving." Lightning urged Odin to a canter, and they passed beside the curve of the lake, traveling even further into the wilds. "If we can reach the mountain pass within the next day to so, before the snow gets too deep..."

Odin moved on, running beneath the bare trees, down across the forest floor and into a narrow groove in the earth, likely formed there by an ancient riverbed.

"It's almost strange, just the two of us again..." Lightning reached up to adjust her hood, tugging the red scarf just a bit closer towards her chin. "But we'll make better time at this pace."

They rode on over the rocky terrain, over fallen logs and around tiny cliffs, until the lake was all but left far behind in the distance. When Odin came upon a rather steep hill, one that was covered in a light layer of sleet, he quickly paused for directions from his rider.

"That's a tricky one." Lightning gripped the reins. "We'll go around, can't risk another injury on either of us."

Odin whinnied when she turned him towards the side, down a much more gradual incline.

"I'll check that scratch on your chest next time we stop." Lightning tightened her grip when Odin slowly began to make his way down the shallow slope, careful not to lose his footing. "It might need another dose of medicine, we'll see."

Odin exhaled against the frigid air, but he blinked several times when a sharp gust of wind came blustering past his face.

"Nearly there." Lightning glanced at the way that the forest around them was rather clogged with tall, stony ridges, but the trees still grew on between them, unhindered by the rough terrain. "We'll have to take it slow until we find another road."

Odin shook out his mane to clear most of the snowflakes away, but one could barely tell the difference with his pearly white color.

"It's cold, I know..." Lightning reached down to pat Odin's shoulders. "I can stop to put on your blanket, if you like."

Odin walked out along the forest floor, but he never paused.

"Stubborn horse." Lightning glanced down at the designs on her own jacket, the pale embroidery that Serah had once woven there into the thick, gray hide, stitching it together one cold evening many years in the past. "It's only fitting, though." The pelt itself was rather waterproof, and the same applied to blood; she could just run a rag over the surface and wipe most of it away.

They rode beneath the gnarled trees, the sharp rocks that rose in jagged ways, towering far above them. The forest was mostly silent beneath the falling snow, but the occasional scrabble of a small rodent caught Lightning's full attention, even if it was only just a mouse or squirrel.

After all, size was a poor indication of deadliness.

The day passed on in a blur, and the rocks grew more and more dense between the trees, until the flora could scarcely find any earth to grow from, and the stone was nearly all that was left.

The wide walls of a canyon stood tall beneath the dark, cloudy sky, but as Odin approached the edge of the ridge, beneath a small alcove in the rock, Lightning gently tugged him to a stop.

"Time to rest..." Lightning swung down from the saddle, and she felt how her boots scraped against the light cover of snow. "Let's get you your blanket."

Odin let out a quiet yawn, shaking his mane back and forth.

"I'm tired, too." The constant vigilance of watching their surroundings had soon taken its toll, and Lightning was just about ready to sink down against the stone canyonside and sleep, but there was still work left to be done before she could rest. "You did good today, Odin."

Odin kept still while she unbuckled both his saddle and bridle, and a moment later, when Lightning unfolded a thin, yet insulated blanket from within the saddlebags, he let a low, trilling whinny, nudging at her shoulder with his nose.

"I know, I know..." Lightning almost began to laugh at the insistent friendly nuzzles, but she quickly turned around to drape the blanket up and over his back, tying it down near the front of his chest. "I still need to check out that scratch, so don't thank me just yet."

Odin soon stopped moving so that she could inspect his wound again. The cut itself was rather shallow, but it was still a significant enough injury to make Lightning pause, tracing her fingertips beside where the blood had started to scab over.

"It might leave a scar..." Lightning stepped over to take something out from the saddlebags, before she walked back over to Odin with another handful of herbs. "But it doesn't look infected, just raw."

Odin's ears went flat when she dabbed a bit of the herbal liquid into the wound, but he didn't try to avoid the stinging pain. The scent was rather strong and bitter in his nostrils, and he nearly started to paw at the ground.

"There." Lightning replaced the bandage with a fresh cloth, tying it down in a knot. "Now, your hooves."

Odin kept quiet while she cleaned each of his horseshoes and unsaddled him, but by the time Lightning had finished, he walked over to nuzzle at the top of her head, nibbling on her hair.

"Odin..." Lightning gently scratched at the bottom of his chin. "I never know if that's a compliment or not; my hair isn't grass."

Odin whinnied quietly, nudging at the side of her head.

"Alright, alright." Lightning nudged him back with the edge of her wrist. "I've got to get a fire going before it gets too dark." She almost paused Odin suddenly began to lower himself down against the stony ground, laying there with his hooves right beside his body. "That can't be too comfortable."

Odin merely nibbled at a stray, leafless plant, one that was growing out from inside a crack in the canyon wall.

"Suit yourself." Lightning reached into the saddlebags to set down one of her blankets, spreading it out across the dusty ground, before she reached in again for a few sticks of firewood. "The branches back there are probably too damp to gather up." She glanced over at the distant forest, but she could barely see beyond the stone ridges and heavy snow, still gently falling down from above.

Odin leaned himself back against the canyon wall, resting his eyes for a moment.

"Don't fall asleep yet; you haven't had dinner." Lightning reached up to pat the side of his neck. "Fresh vegetables, compliment of Snow..." After a moment or two of silence, she slowly shook her head. "Serah's been seeing him for a while, now."

Odin flicked off a bit of frost from one of his ears.

"A few days ago... She told me that she wanted my blessing for a union, only in the future." Lightning uncorked the bottle of corrosive fluid, her liquid fire starter. "A union... And she's serious about it."

Odin closed his eyes again. He soon breathed in the scent of combustion and smoke, and once he opened his eyes again, he could see the tiny, glowing campfire that his companion had created.

"My sister's growing up..." Lightning reached into the saddlebags again. "She's growing up, and I'm not ready for it."

Odin whickered when Lightning gave him one of the raw tubers, and he began to chew it between his teeth, noisily crunching away.

"She'll be twenty-three next year." Lightning stuck one of the vegetables upon the end of a slim metal fire poker, before she held it out above the flames. "Would you believe that some children are wedded off as early as fourteen? Sometimes they don't even get to meet the spouse beforehand... It's all political."

Odin nudged at her arm for another tuber.

"You only stick around for the food, don't you?" Lightning gave him another piece anyway. "But to be honest, I'm glad our village didn't benefit from arranged unions; people only ever got together for personal reasons." She turned the vegetable over on its side, adjusting the thin metal poker. "I wouldn't want to have been with someone, not at that age... Even now, it's just not a priority."

Odin munched down on the second tuber, before he started to whinny under his breath.

"I've never really met anyone, that's all." Lightning watched the flicker of fire, the glow that kept the darkness at bay, the warmth that almost made her body feel revitalized. " _This_ , being out on the trail, moving further every day, hunting... This is who I am."

Odin lowered his head to try and grab another vegetable.

"Sneaky horse..." Lightning gently swatted at his broad shoulder, but she soon handed him another tuber. "Although, I suppose there isn't much grass left out here." She leaned off to the side, resting against the smooth stone wall, before she held up the roasted vegetable, lifting it away from the fire to cool. "Just don't come crying to me if you get a stomachache."

Lightning watched the heavy steam drift off the edge of the tuber, where it was still stuck to the end of the fire poker. "We'll need to get up early tomorrow, get moving again; it's not a good idea to keep still for very long in the cold." She slowly took a bite of the cooked vegetable, and she found that on its own, it actually tasted more like a plain potato than a radish. "...I can see why you like these."

Odin was still chewing on one of the tubers, but his ears would twitch whenever she started to speak.

"I wish you could go with me, the whole way there." Lightning took another tiny bite, and the steam rose out into the falling snow, drifting off from where she had bit down upon the vegetable. "It's different when you're on your own."

While she felt herself relax against the canyon wall, Lightning kept silent as she ate the rest of her dinner. Odin would occasionally nudge at her hands her for more tubers, and she tossed over more than a few, listening to him crunch and crush the soft material between his teeth.

When the sky grew dark and starless, Lightning finally let her eyes fall shut, breathing deep once more. The snow fell in tiny, glimmering flakes, but whenever they hit the ground or other such surfaces, they would dissolve back down into droplets of water. Odin's snout was soon coated in them, and he snorted, shaking it all away.

"Get some sleep, Odin..." Lightning was dozing off against the canyon wall, warmed by the heat of the fire. "We have a long way to go." She inhaled to taste the scent of woodsmoke and snow, before something nudged at her shoulder again. "You've had enough to eat."

Odin kept on, nosing and poking at her side, until Lightning opened her eyes to give him a rather sharp look.

"Odin."

Odin persisted until she moved away from the wall of canyon rock, but as soon as she did so, he nudged her in a completely different direction, towards the side of his own shoulder.

"What are you trying to do?" Lightning rolled her eyes when Odin tugged at her jacket with his teeth. " _Odin_..."

But he still wouldn't stop, not until she was resting against one of his warm, broad shoulders. When she finally leaned back against him, dozing off again, he lowered his own head to the ground, closing his eyes as well.

"That blanket wasn't enough, huh?" Lightning sighed, leaning her head against his fuzzy neck. "You're one clingy horse."

Odin whickered quietly.

"I'm not about to freeze out here, not with my jacket... You don't have to worry." Lightning couldn't help but yawn, while each breath that Odin took made her hair shift slightly, splayed out against his pale white mane. "Sometimes you act more like a puppy than a horse." She reached over to scratch behind his ears, where his head was resting against the stone. "Sleep well, Odin."

Odin kept silent. With each steady heartbeat, each breath, beneath the gentle touch of snowflakes, they both drifted off to sleep, warmed by the glow of the fire.

* * *

She could see it again, the very one she had dreamed of, within a cloak of both shadow and mist.

 _Are you frightened?_

Lightning kept her gaze upon the distant, drifting eyes. Even as she stared at them, she could never quite make out more than a detail or two, and even when she could, it just seemed to slip away within a mere instant, sinking back down into the depths of her dream.

Something brushed so softly beneath her chin, and those sharp eyes, the strange gaze peering back at her from within the darkness, it burned itself into her mind.

 _Please, just tell me..._

She watched a droplet of blood slide down across her own shoulder.

 _-can't find you-_

Lightning shivered once, stifling it with a shake of her head.

 _-find me?_

But her eyes had slipped shut, and yet again, she was gone.


	5. Departure

Lightning woke to the sound of wind drifting throughout the canyon walls, but when she opened her eyes, the world was still dark. Odin kept on breathing beside her, sleeping there against the rock, but when she turned over, resting the side of her head upon his shoulder, he let out a low snuffle into the air.

"Still asleep?" Lightning stared down at the dozing horse, at the way his head was resting atop where she had set down one of her own blankets. "Glad you've been getting some rest."

In his dreaming state, Odin must have been chewing on something, for his mouth moved around with the imagined motion.

"I've been having dreams, too." Lightning reached out to pat at the side of his neck, twining her fingertips into his mane. "Must be all the travel... An active imagination, you know?"

Odin's ears flicked back towards her voice, and with a quiet snort, his eyes drifted open.

"Sorry." Lightning gently scratched behind his ears. "Didn't mean to wake you up."

Odin just watched her for a while, before he lifted up his head, yawning against the damp morning air.

"If you're ready to get going..." Lightning trailed off with a soft yawn of her own, and she slowly rose to a sitting position, reaching for her canteen. "I'll get ready to go too."

Odin watched while Lightning moved to splash out the last few embers of the fire, and when it was only a pile of wet ash and smoke, he rose up to his feet, stretching out his legs and neck.

"We'll get to the next valley today, just as soon as we clear the canyon pass." Lightning yawned again, packing up her supplies into the saddlebags. "But then, once we reach the base of the mountain..."

Odin snuffled at the bag of tubers.

"Yeah, you can have a few." Lightning opened the woven bag to hand him one, before she went back to packing. "Just be glad you don't have to climb the mountain with me."

Odin started to crunch the fresh tuber between his teeth, flicking his tail back and forth.

"I made sure to pack my warmer gear." Lightning opened one of the bags, the satchel that held her combat garb. The pale white hide was extremely well-insulated, yet it was also flexible enough to maneuver swiftly in a fight, not to mention scaling mountainsides. "There's no telling just how cold it'll get up there..." She reached down to trace her fingertips over the soft, almost fuzzy material, before she slowly closed up the satchel again.

Lightning made quick work of packing up, and soon she was strapping the saddle back down on Odin's back, before she held up the bridle to fasten it around his face. "We can eat some more once we get out of the canyon... I just want to be in the open again, less chance of getting ambushed."

When he caught the concern in her tone, Odin moved to nuzzle at her shoulder.

"It's alright... We did pick a good spot to sleep." Lightning glanced up at the natural alcove in the rock, before she tugged on her leather gloves, reaching for the saddle horn. "But once we start moving, we're going to make more noise, so keep your eyes open."

Odin stepped forward when she loosened the reins, swiveling his ears back and forth.

"There should still be some grass for you once we clear the canyon." Lightning reached into one of the saddlebags for a small piece of hardtack and a strip of cured meat. "And if there isn't, you can have a few more of those radish-things."

Odin began walking along the bottom of the canyon, but whenever they came to a slightly lower shelf of rock, he would always pause, careful to step over it in a way that wouldn't make him trip. The snow was still falling down in small, gentle flakes, but the stone surface beneath his hooves was more than a bit slippery and wet.

Lightning finished her breakfast rather quickly, and she examined their surroundings as she ate. Far above, at the height of the canyon walls, she occasionally caught sight of small, skittering creatures, squirrels and delicate mountain deer, which were much smaller than their cousins who dwelled in the forest. Their tiny cloven hooves could grip the rocks and cliffsides, and they would hop from stone to stone, seemingly fearless of the height.

"I remember teaching Serah how to climb rocks and trees, things like that." Lightning thought back to the time that Serah had been hanging from her knees up in the branches, cursing both herself and her older sister for not teaching her how to get down first. "Back when I was a kid, mom and I... We'd go out and explore the beach; she taught me how to climb the cliffs near the shore."

Odin looked over at a small, skittering mouse, one who was likely searching for somewhere warm to burrow down and wait out the snow.

"Even when they were slippery from the high tide, we'd go out and climb." Lightning lifted her hand to brush away the soft snowflakes from the top of her hood. "There were little hermit crabs and periwinkles, even fish if we stayed quiet enough not to scare them... During the tide, the ocean would wash them up into the shallow holes in the rock, and they'd have to wait for another high tide to get back down."

They rode along a low, sloping stretch of rock, which was coated in a thin layer of snow.

"I think mom would have liked you." Lightning smiled softly at Odin. "I think dad would've, too... We didn't have horses out on the islands, though." She reached down to scratch at the side of his neck. "There were goats, sometimes small mules, but no horses, not unless visitors brought them over by boat. Even then, they didn't stay for very long... I bought a whistle one day, because even if I couldn't have a horse on the island... I still wanted one in the future."

Odin began to slow down when one of his hooves touched upon a narrow patch of ice.

"Those visitors, they used to tell stories about the mainland, how it was _hundreds_ of times bigger than Bodhum or any of the other villages." Lightning looked up at the canyon walls, and then at the sky, which was covered in dark gray clouds. "People used to joke that with the islands, kids would learn how to swim before they'd even learn how to walk, and sometimes it was true." She glanced back down to see that the stony path began to curve off to the side, following the flow of a river that no longer existed. "I remembered reading something similar in a book, about how children on the plains would learn to ride horses before they could walk... But I'm not really sure if that one's true."

They rode beneath the gentle snow, and for a while, everything but Odin's hoofbeats went entirely silent. Lightning reached up to touch the scarf on her neck, still slightly stained with gryphon blood, but with the red color, it was mostly unnoticeable.

"When they... When it came to the island, and-" Lightning paused, gripping the fabric between her fingertips. "After they _died_ , and then once the water started to rise, we just took the boat and left."

Odin lifted his head at the tone of her voice.

"It happened years apart, but it all still feels like one big blur." Lightning kept watching the canyon walls, but her vision almost started to blur as well, fading back into memories. "There was barely anywhere to run the first time... The ocean, we would have died without it, but the next time, it nearly killed us instead."

There it was, in the corner of her mind, the heat that had once billowed across her skin, and then the cold sting of bitter saltwater.

"Serah was right... This is a bad idea, but I _have_ to, Odin." Lightning felt her fingertips tighten around the reins. "I can't let that _thing-_ It can't be this close to anyone."

* * *

There had once been a great amount of fire.

A shadow drifted in from above the sea, falling across each the straw houses, above the villagers reeling in fish for those bustling market stalls, and even the children playing in the sand, but then, it was gone.

The world had grown silent for only a moment, utterly still and serene as the shadow passed over the ocean tide, before the island was lit ablaze.

She could still remember the way Serah had simply frozen in place, gazing up at the fiery maw of the beast, the creature with far more scales than anyone could possibly count, but when the creature itself crashed down amid the blaze, lifting its mighty head, embers dribbling down across its chin...

A girl had died there within the flames, but Serah was immediately dragged away, beneath the falling boughs of straw, blackened by flame and the swirling, drifting ash, tugged down into the breadth of the sea, the very liquid that could save them, could chase the fire away.

It had died when her parents swiftly struck down against those thick green scales, the hide that looked like seawater, shimmering so brightly beneath the sun. It had died when they fell against the sand, when those massive teeth hit home and didn't even pause, simply moved to the next victim, rending bodies in two.

A part of herself was left upon the island when she felt the water crash against her skin, grasping Serah's hand with a grip that eventually bruised. Even when her lungs started to scream within her chest, when those glossy bubbles drifted out and away from her mouth, rising up into the great green surface above, she simply drifted there within the steady current, unwilling to rise as well.

They were simple algae before a vast, great whale, so small and unaware, brushed aside like specks of dust, like nothing at all. Just a simple curiosity, one that could easily be slain.

The creature left only red streaks in the piles of blackened sand, and when it finally rose again, circling their little island, moving off towards the next, only then did she care to rise.

Serah had flailed, coughing up lungfuls of seawater and brine, and she could still remember the way that she constantly shivered, crying great amounts saltwater of her own. She had kept her hold, despite the tightening burn in her own lungs, within her own throat. She had held Serah close, just letting her sob and sink her forehead down into her shoulder, clinging to her arms like a child again.

Had it even been that long ago? She could remember how small her sister had been in their mother's arms, cradled off to sleep by the songs of the ocean, of the great spirits that slept beneath the Pale Sea, just waiting for the day they could return.

When she finally rose, the sand nearly scorched the bottom of her feet, but she walked on.

There were no buildings, only piles of drifting ash. A stray animal hid beneath a thick layer of it, quaking down to its whiskers.

Serah had spoken something then, just a whisper, to ask her sister what was going to happen next; where were their mother and father, where had they gone and hidden? When would they come back, as well?

She knew of course, she had seen it all and gone utterly still, but those trembling words, they kept her standing, kept her from simply bolting back down into the sea, or even worse, kneeling to sift through the ash, through the charred, crumbling dust of all that had been left behind. The survivors, those who had run away, they were wandering back, but nearly none of them dared to make a sound.

A day later, beneath the fronds of a thin tropical forest, out on the beach, she had watched Serah toss and turn in her sleep, resting on her side against the sand.

When she looked far above, the southern stars were starting to appear, just like they always did, but when she stared at them, it was with a much different gaze than before.

A sharp fork of light flickered against the distant horizon, beneath the dark, churning clouds.

She was holding a small blade, one that she had found sticking out from a pile of ash. It had been her father's carving knife. Though it was slightly melted beneath the dragon's flame, the edge was still sharp enough to gut a fish.

At that moment, while she sat there beneath the growing wind, gazing out at the distant storm, she couldn't possibly know that the same bit of steel would someday come striking down with such furor, piercing the eye of a beast with scales like seawater, nor that she would savor every last twitch the dragon made, so blinded and helpless beneath raw human ingenuity, and the sharp, lingering bite of vengeance.

Lightning had peered deep inside the creature's eye, staring down into an unreadable mind, the one that had thought to take away her family, her home, and the girl who had died in the fire. Yet when she realized that it had been the very catalyst, the event that had driven her to that point, given her sorrow a purpose, a new name...

It began with fire, and it ended in steel, just as fast as a single, flickering spark. She cut the mighty throat that had once held such flame, such _power,_ with only a half-melted knife, still sharp enough to gut a dragon.

She had become a bringer of death, and her will, it would come crashing down upon any who killed indiscriminately, silent and swift.

* * *

The canyon pass stretched on for miles, and by the time that they came across a roaring waterfall, the sun had nearly risen up above the stony ridge.

"Let's let you drink." Lightning led Odin down towards the base of the pool, one that flowed out into a narrow little river, bordering the path ahead. "I could use one, too..."

While Odin dipped his head down to drink at the clear, frigid liquid, Lightning swung down from the saddle with a canteen in hand. She soon knelt beside the water's edge, dipping the end of the bottle down beneath the rippling surface.

"There was a storm once, when we were out on the sea." Lightning waited for her canteen to fill, before she lifted it up to drink deeply. "We could barely even hold on to the boat, and the waves capsized it over and over again... Serah and I just had to swim back and grab hold, but we lost so many supplies."

Odin kept drinking, thought his ears swiveled, listening to her words.

"I remember losing it for a moment, just cursing it all... Shouting up at the rain, like it'd help somehow." Lightning took another sip of water, only a bit slower than before. "I just kept thinking: how could the world keep doing this to us? We'd lost everything, then we built it back up, but then it happened again, and _again_..." She moved her canteen back beneath the water, filling it to the brim. "It rained for days... We could just open our mouths and drink it within seconds, it was falling that heavily."

Odin lifted his head from the pool, before he moved over to snuffle at Lightning's shoulder.

"I realized that at the rate we'd been going, we would have run out of fresh water anyway... Back in Bodhum, we had to rely on ponds full of rainwater, or get it from the lake on the island just next to ours." Lightning began to cross her legs beneath her, resting there for a moment. "And even though we lost almost all of our supplies, we both held on to our spears..." She stared down into the crashing water, the white spray near the edge of the pool. "We caught fish, used the jugs that floated back up to the surface for rain, and we made it all the way to the very end."

Lightning reached up to stroke the curve of Odin's chin. "And you, you're a very good listener."

Odin whickered a bit, snorting softly under his breath.

"I know a lot of people wouldn't consider a horse to be one their best friends, but you... You're something else." Lightning soon stood up again, before she reached over to hug Odin's neck. "I know I've never met a better horse."

Odin let out a low whinny, nuzzling at the back of her head.

"And I don't want you to worry about me." Lightning closed her eyes. "You, or anyone else... I've faced a dragon before, and I've _won_ , so I know what I'm doing out here." She slowly moved away, reaching up to hold the side of his leather bridle. "I tracked it down, you know."

Odin kept still while she climbed back up to the saddle again, and he walked forward when she nudged at his sides.

"I tracked it down, across the entire world, the whole damn planet..." Lightning narrowed her eyes to remember such a thing, and she felt the blood start to simmer in each of her limbs. "But in the end, it was pride that killed it."

Odin stepped on alongside the broad, whispering river, careful not to get too close.

"When I finally tracked it down... It just looked at me like I was _insane_ , like it was laughing." She felt the urge to touch the handle of her sword. "It was like a big, lazy cat who had suddenly confronted by a mouse, and I killed it because it didn't take me seriously."

They rode beneath the rising sun, across the winding path of stone, until the canyon walls began to widen. There were patches of grass growing out between the cracks in the rock, but they had been coated in both snowflakes and rime.

"We should be getting close..." Lightning looked around at the wide stretch of stone, before she looked back down at the river, flowing onward. "If we just follow the water, there's a good chance we'll find a village later on."

Odin kept moving along the canyon floor, and it took little less than an hour before they finally came across the end of the ridge, facing the cliffside that led down to the valley below. Lightning looked up at the faint glow of the sunlight, at the way the rocky ground became steeper and steeper, and before long, Odin was standing beside yet another waterfall, only it was roaring down near his feet instead.

"Well..." Lightning leaned forward to stare down at the sheer drop, holding the reins just a bit tighter than before. "I don't remember this much of a climb, but some of the canyons split off into different trails; we must've taken a different one than last time."

Odin adjusted his weight from hoof to hoof, but he only moved forward when Lightning loosened the reins, guiding him down along the narrow path at the side of the cliff.

"Just don't look down, Odin..." Lightning suddenly felt the stone wall scrape gently against the side of her arm, but it still sent a jolt of pain through her wound. "Ah, _damn_..."

Odin lifted his head at her tone.

"It's alright." Lightning cursed under her breath, grabbing at the bandage with her other hand. "It's alright, just hurts."

They kept on traveling down the pathway, even when the trail wound off and away to follow the curve of the rock face. Once the road became a bit less narrow, Lightning brought Odin to a stop, and she dismounted to lead him the rest of the way.

"Like I said, just don't look down." She could see the treetops far below, covered in a layer of frost and tiny snowdrifts. "We'll be there before you know it."

Odin followed after her, nickering under his breath.

"It's like the cliff back at home, isn't it?" Lightning stepped down across a small gap in the rock, before she looked back to watch Odin step over it, too. "Only a whole lot taller..."

Odin followed on behind his companion, and he wondered for a moment why she always became so much more talkative whenever they were attempting something scary... Not that he would ever admit to being a bit frightened of heights. While he could only understand certain phrases that she said, things like his name, or simple words like 'easy', 'stop', or 'stop eating all of the apples you damn silly pig', he still found himself enjoying the conversations, even if he couldn't quite follow along.

"See, we're halfway there." Lightning kept her hold of the bridle, guiding him onward. "You're doing a good job."

Odin's ears perked forward at the soft tone of her praise, and he let out a whinny into the morning air. The sound echoed all around the cliffside, down into the forest below, where a small number of birds took flight.

"If you did that up in the mountains, we might've be fifty feet under an avalanche by now..." Lightning slowly shook her head. "I'm almost glad I'm headed up there alone."

Odin just kept walking, swishing his tail against the falling snowflakes.

"I've seen them happen from a distance." Lightning stepped down onto a wider ledge, one that led all the way down towards an earthen slope, stretching out near the forest floor. "It's like watching a storm rolling out over the ground, or a giant wave of water... Only it's solid snow."

Odin paused, waiting for Lightning to climb back up to the saddle.

Alright, let's go." Lightning lowered herself as Odin took off into a steady run, galloping on down beneath the snow-capped trees. "This way, Odin..." She tugged the reins to direct him over towards where the river had been, and the sound of a rushing waterfall soon came within earshot.

Odin raced between the tree trunks, and his outline became little more than a white blur within the deep, misty grays of the forest. His hoofbeats echoed out through the hollow woods, and though there was very little snow on the ground, he could still feel the difference in terrain, how the cold earth made every step feel sharper. With the evergreen trees towering above, most of the snow had likely been caught within their branches, for every so often a snowdrift would fall, thumping down against the forest floor.

"This place smells like pine..." Lightning inhaled, catching the rich, earthy scent. "I almost wish we had more of these trees back home."

Within a minute or two, they came upon the river. The tiny shoreline was covered in many small rocks and stray pine cones, so Lightning kept Odin a good distance away, so that he wouldn't get too many pebbles caught in his horseshoes.

"Do you remember that year when the river flooded down in the valley?" Lightning watched the passing shadows of each tree, and when she exhaled, her breath turned to a white mist in the cold. "It was that rainy month... Messed up the whole flow of things for a while."

Odin ran on down along the riverside, galloping steadily beneath the trees.

"At least it sorted itself out... The fields were so marshy for a while, though." Lightning glanced up through a gap in the forest to see the tall white mountains with high pointed ridges, far above the valley they ran upon. "And there it is..."

As they kept moving throughout the woods, those mountains were quickly shrouded again by wide boughs of pine, so Lightning looked back at the ground. "Nearly there, aren't we?"

Odin could hear the strange tone in her voice, the very same thing that always meant they would be parting ways before long, and he almost considered slowing down. It tugged sharply at his heartstrings, because Odin knew from Lightning's recent attitude that they were out on a hunt, but if he wasn't there to help her, to bring her on out into battle upon his back... He could feel her petting his neck again, and everything suddenly felt a little bit better. His friend was still here, and he was still helping her along, so there was no real reason to fret.

"You'll be back home before the first few feet of snow." Lightning fought the urge to repeat the phrase again, gripping the reins. "Just stay out of trouble and move fast... Serah should still have some apples saved away."

That tone, again. Odin lowered his ears.

"Just don't eat too many." Lightning smiled against the cold, bitter winds. "Can't have you getting so lazy again, can we?"

Odin kept running, even though every part of him was begging to just turn around, carry her _away_ from whatever was making her sound like that, away from whatever was lurking out there, but his loyalty and obedience won the battle yet again. Was she leaving for somewhere he couldn't follow? She would be back again, right? Odin had no possible way of knowing, and the worries kept buzzing around his head like summer flies, enough that he almost shook his mane out instinctively. He could only hope to himself, praying that she would keep close to his side for as long as she possibly could.

Lightning watched the river as it flowed on down a slight slope, rushing across the narrow, damp patches of grassland between the forests. They moved on, across hills and bends in the earth alongside the river, until Lightning looked up to see a pale plume of smoke rising out from somewhere beneath the trees.

"A town, you think?" Lightning would have her answer soon enough, because when they rode beyond the next bend in the river, a tall, rumbling grain mill stood just above the water's surface.

Odin snorted at the sound of it, but he kept moving onward, before Lightning signaled for him to slow.

She simply waited there atop the saddle for a long, quiet moment, debating over the idea that she should ride into town for a meal, and possibly a bedroom if they had an inn, one that might even have enough water for a warm bath...Or if she should just keep riding onward to her destination, saving the money she had brought with her.

"What do you think, Odin..?" Lightning watched the distant outline of her fellow humans, ones who were walking all around the tiny town, though she doubted that they could see either her or Odin through the trees. "We have enough supplies to get us there without stopping."

Odin just looked over at the river, and then at bridge beside the mill.

After a moment, Lightning shook her head. "No... It's too important to stop." Lightning slowly led Odin off to the side, walking back into the trees again. "As much as I'd like it, it's just not as crucial as preventing any possible attacks." She lowered her voice and signaled for Odin to run. "If that thing goes after the people here..."

Odin could sense the urgency in her tone, so he raced on just a bit more swiftly than before.

"It's the same thing I told Serah." Lightning squinted against the soft flurry of snow, leaning down with each of Odin's strides. "A dragon attack, the average death toll..." She slowly shook her head. "No, we need to move _fast_."

And Odin did just that, galloping off beneath the tall, snowy pines, further into the valley below.

* * *

The day moved on in a haze of pine trees and ice, for they only paused around midday to eat a quick lunch, before they set off again for the rest of the afternoon. Yet before long, far above, the sun began to set somewhere beside them, beneath the tops of the trees.

"I've never seen the frost set in this quickly..." Lightning stared up at the growing darkness, and then at the mountain ridge, which still waited far above the forest. "It's going to be a long winter, isn't it?"

Odin had slowed down to a slightly gentler pace, trotting on through small drifts of snowfall.

"We didn't have snow, back in Bodhum." Lightning spoke quietly, just under her breath. "It's near the earth's equator, so it almost never gets more than a little chilly... We had storms, though." She leaned down beneath a passing branch, guiding Odin towards a more open part of the woods. "But never snow."

The valley stretched on for miles in each direction, covered in thick evergreen pines. Lightning could see the stony peaks every so often, and as they grew nearer and nearer to the point where the land itself began to rise, shifting off to open fields of rocky snow, she knew they would probably reach the mountain pass before the end of the day.

"You'll behave for Serah, won't you?" Lightning reached down to tap at the edge of Odin's shoulder. "Just until I get back... I'd better not hear about you giving anyone trouble."

Odin snorted quietly.

"I'm serious, Odin." Lightning stared at the sloping hills, at the stony ridge that would lead them up towards the passage between each of the mountains. "There's always a chance with every hunt... Something could go wrong, get too far out of control, and if that happens-" She paused, forcing the thoughts away. "Just be good for Serah, and don't fuss if she won't give you apples."

They rode onward, across the rising terrain. The snowfall had slowed itself down to just a flurry, and Lightning could barely even feel it against her skin.

Once they had reached a flat stretch of rocky ground, one which wound up towards the base of the mountains, Lightning pulled Odin to a stop, before she glanced down at the saddle. "Alright." Dismounting, she reached for the satchel that held her stronger gear, and she signaled for Odin to wait while she moved off behind a tall patch of rock.

Her jacket was the first thing she removed, but her undershirt kept most of the cold away while she unpacked a sweeping white longcoat, one that had soft, nearly patternless fabric against the pale hide beneath. The hood of the new garb, it held an adjustable mask inside that could protect her lower face from the chill. She began to trace her fingertips over the fabric, before she tugged the entire jacket on over her shirt. Her trousers were soon replaced by much heavier pants, which were padded in case she might slip and fall against the ice, though they were more than flexible enough for her to move unhindered within the snow. Next, she tugged away her gloves, and she pulled on a thicker pair with insulated fur inside, before she flexed her fingers once or twice.

Lightning looked down at her boots, before she unlaced the pair of them, reaching for a much sturdier set made of the same hide as the rest of her clothes.

When she finally rose, standing there within the soft flurry of snow, her entire figure was nearly indistinguishable from the pale realm of winter, for her rosy pink hair had been well-hidden beneath the white, billowing hood.

"Alright." She was but a ghost walking across the frigid rocks, moving with barely a sound, and even though her coattails flapped back and forth in the wind, they were just as quiet as her boots. "Odin, come here."

He did as she had asked, even when she reached up for the backpack that had been strapped upon his saddle, taking it away. She slung it up and over her shoulders, before she reached for her bow, which she placed down over both her back and chest, with a drawstring quiver snapped to her belt. Beside that, Odin could see her sword, still sheathed upon the scabbard of her belt, with a wide multitude of slim knives attached there as well.

"You stay _safe_ , and I will too." Lightning reached up to drape the reins back over towards Odin's saddle, making sure that all of the satchels were well-shut. "Before I forget..." She took out the small container that held the two remaining vials of hydra blood, and then the strange device the golem had given her, and also all the charms from her other jacket, before she began to pack away the rest of her clothes into the saddlebags. "I'll see you soon."

Odin looked down when Lightning tied her bright red scarf around his neck in a bow, so that Serah would hopefully realize that the blood on it hadn't been hers. She patted Odin's neck for the last time that day, perhaps that month, before she turned away, facing the mountainside.

Odin stood still for a moment, just to watch, but when Lightning began to walk forward, up to the jagged rocks, he couldn't help but move on after her.

"No, Odin." Lightning paused, reaching for the straps of her backpack. "You know the way home."

Odin's ears went low, and he nickered against the wind.

" _Home_ , Odin." Lightning glanced over her shoulder, trying to smile. "It's time for you to go home and rest... It's my turn to carry the hunt."

Odin watched as she started to move again, before he lowered his head down, standing there with the lightened saddle on his back, without her weight to bear.

"...Odin, go home."

He blinked against the flurried snow, but before long, he slowly turned away, walking back into the valley again.

Lightning stared down at him from atop a rough patch of stone, before she closed her eyes, and then turned back around. "I'll be back, Odin... I'll come back as soon as I can." She couldn't stop the twinge in her heart, but as she made her way up the narrow, rocky passageway, off into the height of the mountain trail, Lightning felt her previous worries melting away within the dark.

She was truly a ghost in these halls, far within the wildest reaches of the land, and the threat of her quarry drew forth almost the entirety of her focus. There was still a dragon to hunt, yet before that, a thousand other obstacles were waiting in her path.

The mountains stretched far into the sky, and as she walked on beneath their shadows, careful not to make more than a mere whisper of sound, Lightning thought back to the mammoth she had seen, gutted at the side of the road. Most beasts were absolutely terrified of flame, but a few had grown to utilize it as humans had, especially those with capable enough minds and opposable digits. A wendigo, for example. They ran in small, coordinated packs, although one could occasionally spot a loner or two, yet they were much less willing to encounter a human when in solitude.

It was only then that she saw the wide, faded tracks, the prints that were gradually being covered up by the falling snow, before she caught the scent of rotting flesh. Lightning knelt down in an instant, hiding there behind a tall rock, and she began to listen with all her might.

A low grunt, and then so many deep, yet ragged breaths, until she heard a sharp snarl and the sound of wide, crashing antlers, before the mountain pass went silent for a moment. She could smell it long before she could see anything, the thick scent of a predatory beast, before a long, narrow face came into view.

His eyes were wet globes of sheer white, with a small, pale pupil in the center. He had the long, slavering teeth of a wolf, yet he walked upon two legs, and he had hands like a primate would have. Long, deerlike antlers crowned the very top of his shaggy head, but this one in particular had lost one of his horns in the recent fight, and he was limping away, clutching at an open wound on his chest.

Lightning could see the stubby little tail behind makeshift rags of clothing, for even a wendigo could grow chilly at night, but the beast had nothing to cover his upper half, just a short white pelt of fur. She kept utterly still against the side of the rock, gripping down on the handle of her sword.

A low snarl echoed out from somewhere by where the previous fight had ensued, and the injured wendigo turned around, gazing back at where his fellows likely stood, before his gaze suddenly settled upon Lightning's face.

She didn't even have the time to unsheathe her blade, for an immensely larger creature came barreling forth, spraying snow and slush in every which direction as he charged forward, knocking his antlers down against injured beast. The smaller one howled and rushed to clamp his teeth down upon the attacker's arm, clawing and scratching at the broad, heaving chest just above, but when a massive set of jaws suddenly came snapping out to crush at his windpipe, forcing the very air away from his throat, his arms went utterly stiff.

Lightning felt her blood run cold.

There were wide red streaks upon the snow, saliva dribbling down from those sharp, bestial fangs, and the larger wendigo, he began to snarl and bray, tipping his antlers back with a sharp, ragged howl.

Several smaller creatures came bounding out into sight, yet they didn't catch a glimpse of her, for they were quite intent on watching their leader crush the severed skull of a dissident between his mighty hands, and he soon held up a fractured, bleeding brain between his short, yet pointed claws.

The leader let out yowl, before he tossed the pale organ far out of sight, stomping against the snow with both his hands and fists. The others circled out around their fallen brother, hooting and jeering at the sight, until their leader saw fit to lift up the corpse and fling it away as well.

And then, like a flash, they were gone. She could see them racing up the height of the trails, over steep, rocky cliffs and sheer drops, clinging on against the stone surface with their claws.

Lightning kept very still, waiting silently for what felt like hours. She just sat there in the dark, until she was absolutely sure that the pack had moved far, far away into the mountains. With a slow, shallow breath, she rose back up to her feet. She stepped out across the rocks, towards the one that been left behind, still bleeding out against the snow.

She knelt down beside the fallen beast, and her hand hovered just above where his skull had been crushed. "...May you return to Etro's arms, and may the goddess watch over your soul." Lightning let her eyes slip shut for a moment, silently repeating the words in her mind. It was the very same phrase she offered to any fallen being, no matter if it was just a mere animal or something much more monstrous.

Lightning slowly stood up again, before she began to brush away the gathered frost from her knees. "I might have to say the very same thing to your pack."

The dead wendigo simply laid there, half-covered by the falling snow.

"Let's just hope I never see them again." And with that, Lightning was off, traveling past the cracked bones of another large creature, one that they had likely been fighting over, scattered all across the frigid rocks.

Within a half hour of climbing across the stony ridge, she came upon a steep opening in the mountainside, one that led down to the long, wide slopes of the lower hills. Lightning paused, before she stepped up along the barrier of rock, beside the field itself, setting her feet down into the deep white drifts of snow. The snowfall went up to her waist, but the drifts were thankfully more than thin enough for her to move relatively fast, yet each time her arm brushed against the surface, she could feel the sting of her bandaged wound.

At her face, her breath was a thick, constant mist, but she kept on, trudging further up the mountainside. Far above, she could only just barely see the highest of the peaks, which were well-hidden beneath the cloud cover, and even then, what she _could_ see was so very, very far away.

Lightning forced herself just to stop and breathe for a moment, despite the way the air felt so thin and fleeting in her lungs. She reached for one of the straps of her backpack, tugging it down halfway to reach for her canteen. The water ran cold over her lips, down through her throat, but Lightning kept drinking until she could drink no more, before she capped the top and stuffed it back down inside her pack.

She could see the thick storm clouds rolling up from the valley, rising in great waves of mist, and by the time she reached the end of the low slopes, catching sight of a few trees much further up the mountainside, the fog had rolled in all around her. There was barely any sound but the howling wind, the crunch of snow around her waist and legs, and then even her own sharp, ragged breath, but all of it suddenly paled, withering away before the might of the dragon's call.

It was almost immediate, and she reacted within mere seconds, silently regarding the keen roar that cut right through the air like so many echoing blades. Lightning ducked down within the powdery snow, forcing herself to keep perfectly, _utterly_ still, hidden inside that endless blanket of white.

The sound rang out again, passing off along the entire mountain range, and in the corner of her gaze, just past the snowflakes upon her eyelashes, she saw a massive shadow drifting across one of the ridges far above.

As slowly as she possibly could, Lightning reached for the charm that could make her translucent, but when the shadow disappeared above the fog, spiraling off towards the very peak of the mountainside, she let the silver trinket drop back down into her pocket. Far off in the distance, yet another call echoed out into the sky, but Lightning forced herself to move on through the slope, until she finally reached the sparse cover of trees.

A tall, narrow pine stood just beside the stony ridge, and she let herself slump against it, up to her throat in snow. The wind bit down upon her face and neck, so Lightning began to tug the white fabric over her mouth, breathing deeply. It smelled like the thick, cottony substance that she and her sister would often gather from the grasslands, when the summer sun had risen so high above the horizon, when the world was green again.

She could remember her own little valley, the land that a nomad had once called 'Sunleth', for the sun did seem to favor those rich, verdant woods and the long blue rivers that held more salmon than anyone could possibly count. Lightning thought back to those tiny, delicate flowers, the fields that stretched on farther than she could see, and the warm, gentle wind that could send so many colorful petals up into the air, dancing slowly within the breeze.

Lightning could see herself standing there again, only she wore a thin blue shirt, not the garb of winter, while Serah ran on ahead, leading a small white horse behind her. Her sister would gently chide her for lagging behind, then swing up upon the steed's back without so much as a saddle, using his short gray mane to guide him around. It was much a smaller beast than most, yet he was fast and precise, quite like Serah herself. His lower body was a soft gray, like his mane, but most of his hide was covered in white splotches, and his face was rather pale as well.

Lightning began to remember the day they that had once celebrated together, when she led the creature out from the stable and up to their door. She had expressly forbidden Serah from access to the stables, at least for a little while, until the day finally arrived when she could bring the small horse out to greet her, a surprise on the dawn of her birthday.

Serah had teared up, of course, gently hugging the creature around his neck, before she breathlessly asked for his name. Lightning only shook her head, and she told her sister that the swift little steed didn't have one yet, that it was for her to choose instead.

After familiarizing herself with the horse, 'Mog' was soon decided to be his name, because of the old fairy stories that they had both heard of creatures called 'Moogles'. The little animals were something firmly steeped in fiction, yet still real to Serah all the same.

Lightning opened her eyes again, wishing for all the world that her sister was right there beside her, that they were riding across the plains on their horses together again, Serah with her hunting bow, keen eyes trained upon their quarry... But all she could see was the whirling frost.

It was a world of deep, endless white, and while she could rest her head back against the bark of the tall conifer pine, Lightning knew it might be weeks before she saw her family again.

* * *

She scarcely dreamed that night, but what she did see was rather unlike the voice from before.

The figure was still there, yet it was staring off at something else, something other than herself. Even though Lightning couldn't see those sharp eyes anymore, she knew somehow that they were searching through the mist, but for what, she didn't know.

She could see the figure start to pace, standing all alone in the dark, but they were glancing around, never pausing. There was something almost futile to the gesture, something Lightning couldn't quite put into words, but it made her heart twinge all the same.

Lightning glanced away, before she squeezed her own eyes shut.

There was a long, mournful sensation, and it was almost a sound, yet not quite audible. It ran deep into her veins, beneath her skin, shaking her right down to her very bones, to the core of her heart.

Someone was lost, and someone was searching, yet when she was finally able to force herself away from the dream, into the dark again, it still stung just as sharply as before.

* * *

Lightning opened her eyes, and for a moment, all she could see was the snow.

Her vision slowly began to focus, still a bit blurry, but she could see the distant valley below, only a strip of faded gray against the horizon. She looked at the frost all around her, and then up at the pine tree above, before she slowly closed her eyes again. The sun was rising from behind a different mountain peak, but she could barely see it beyond the clouds.

Lightning rose again, standing up, before she trudged forward throughout the snow. "Alright..." The words hissed softly against the fabric of her mask, and she had to tug it away after a moment, once she had taken out a strip of dried meat from her backpack.

The world around her was almost entirely muffled by wind. She slowly bit down on the dry jerky, walking further up the mountain as she did so. The minutes slipped on by, all drifting together, until she reached the top of the ridge, which led to yet another slope of snow.

"Gods." Lightning finished her breakfast with a quiet sigh. "It just never _ends_..."

The field was covered in coarse, dry shrubs, but the fog from the previous night had frozen over into the phenomenon known as hoarfrost. Needlelike crystals clung to the branches and twigs, and as she walked on between them, the few that she touched crumbled down into chunks of dry, shimmering powder.

Lightning kept on throughout the snow, up the mountainside. She walked across the sloping field, up to the next ridge, which rose so high above her. The face of the rock was almost completely vertical, but she could see several ledges that she might be able to cling upon with the pads of her gloves, and Lightning began to do just that. She traveled just as silently as she could, for an attack while she was vulnerable would surely cripple whatever chances she had left. Yet each step was a fight in and of itself; with the wind blustering mercilessly against her body, and the howl of frost crystals that got caught in her eyelashes, stinging her eyes, it was almost too much to bear.

But when she finally grasped down on the very top, the icy ledge that led up to the next stretch of land, when she was able to hoist herself up, collapsing down against the snow to catch her breath... There was the scent of rotten flesh.

Every muscle in her body went utterly rigid, before Lightning raced to her feet, brushing the fingertips of her gloves against the limb of her bow, and then the drawstring of her quiver.

There, off in the distance, a lone wendigo was yanking at the head of a squirming snowshoe hare.

Lightning slipped down into the deeper snow, submerging herself in the world of white, though she couldn't help but wince at the echoing sound, the long wail that the creature made, before it all went silent again. She kept herself completely still, because from what she could remember from studying the nature of wendigoes, all sources agreed that they were attracted to rapid movement and sound.

And as the hare finally went silent, bleeding out against the snow, the wendigo held up the severed head in his hands, clamping his teeth down against it. He soon paused to glance around at his surroundings, still chewing away at his quarry.

Lightning didn't recognize this one in particular, for he had a dark sable pelt unlike the pale grays and whites she had been before, and he looked a bit smaller than his peers. Perhaps he had wandered up from the valley? She briefly remembered that certain varieties of wendigo could shed the color of their coat with the changing seasons, just like the prey that he happened to be devouring, but she had no way to tell for sure.

Lightning could only watch as those savage teeth struck down, ripping away both fur and muscle and tendons, and it almost felt like her own breakfast would see the light of day once more. But she had seen much bloodshed in her life, so much in fact that when the wendigo ripped out that tiny, bleeding heart, she barely even winced when it was crushed between his fangs.

Several minutes passed before the beast finally ate his fill, and once he had finished cleaning off the blood from his claws, it was only a moment longer before he rose up, standing on his hind legs, before he wandered off into the snow.

Lightning still kept very silent, and she didn't dare move an inch, not until the sound of muffled footfalls had long since disappeared beneath the whistling breeze.

It was only then that she stood back up, brushing away the snow from her jacket, before she walked even further into the field. Occasionally her thoughts would threaten to drift away, but Lightning forced herself to stay focused, listening for any possible sound, any hint that there might be something else nearby.

The mountainside grew higher and higher towards the sky, and before the day grew late, she found herself standing beside yet another cliff. Again, she reached up, hosting herself over the jagged, sloping rocks, until she finally reached the next peak, one that had several trees perched within it.

But then, before she could so much as catch her breath, something crashed beneath the branches, racing out from within the shadows; it was all she could go to just step back in time as a mighty elk bolted forth, sending out a thick wave of frost in its wake.

Lightning froze in place, crouching down for only a moment, before the instinctual urge, the one roaring within her veins, it drove her to suddenly run as well.

She could hear them, those footfalls racing through the snow, beneath the towering trees, and with the wind at her back, she caught the distinct scent of smoke, only it was tinged with something absolutely vile.

Lightning practically ripped the bow from where it was resting on her chest, over her head, nocking an arrow from her quiver, before she whirled back around to face them.

There, far off in the distance, stood an entire pack of wendigoes with blunt clubs made of bone, twisted faces, and fiery, burning torches in their hands.


	6. Alive

Lightning felt every fiber of her being tense all at once, and when the wendigo pack stared right back at her, before they all broke into a run, it was all she could do not to shiver. But her arrow flew off without hesitation. With a whistling twang of the bowstring and the dull thump of impact, a sharp howl rang out across the slope, and it was enough to send her running on up towards another rocky incline, racing for more maneuverable ground.

Yet the beasts were just as fast as she could ever be, and even faster in the snow. With long legs to aid them in their chase, they were halfway up to where she was climbing within mere seconds.

Lightning whipped around with another arrow, letting it fly. With the second strike, an eye was taken, and the beast cried out and clutched at his face, but he was swiftly kicked in the chin when the largest of the pack came roaring forth. She hissed out a sharp curse, felt her breath quicken, before she drew her sword with a shout of her own, refusing to back down even when one of the forerunners rushed up to pounce at her with outstretched claws and a blistering torch.

The swing of her blade, _third strike_ , a severed arm at the shoulder, before she felt an incredible force crack down against the side of her hip, and her vision blurred.

The pack leader stood taller than all of the rest, and he began to circle around the intruder with a low snarl, watching as each of his subordinates took a chance at striking her.

Lightning swung out again, and her target screeched, stumbling down to the ground with narrow, yet gaping wound in his chest. She ripped the blade back, watching the whisper of heat drift away from her blood-coated sword, before she wound back around in an instant to block yet another advancing strike, but this one was from the second largest of the pack. She could tell their gender by the antlers; female wendigoes had small knobs at the very bottom of their horns, and when the massive creature came barreling towards her with a torch, Lightning threw herself to the side, avoiding the roaring flame by mere inches.

The wind howled deep in her eardrums, and the constant screeching, the calls and jeers of the predatory pack, it was enough to make her head throb, but she merely rolled away from the fall in one fluid motion, standing upright again with her sword held out at a slight angle.

The leader suddenly cackled, and the rest of his pack went still.

Lightning narrowed her eyes as a trickle of blood dripped down from her blade, staining the snow with deep, dark scarlet. When her gaze fixed upon the pack leader, she could finally see what he was wearing around his neck; a small human skull dangled from a chain of bent wire, likely stolen from a villager's fence.

"You could walk away, right now." Lightning ground her teeth as she said it, never taking her eyes away from the pack, those crouching beasts with such pale eyes, as if they were blank. "You could walk away, go chase after your elk again... And I wouldn't have to kill you."

One of the smaller members of the pack began to hoot and fidget in his place; while he might have been small, he still stood a few feet taller than Lightning herself. He started snapping his teeth together and crouching down against the snow, but before any of his fellows could react, he launched himself forward.

Lightning watched as he dove for her throat, teeth outstretched, but she predicted the strike, for she'd seen his muscles go tense, and she was able to bring down the edge of her sword against top of his neck, nearly severing his head from his body. But before she could wind back and take another swing, the leader suddenly bellowed, reaching out to yank at the hind leg of the smaller beast, before he dragged it right back beneath him, smashing his fists down upon the blooded face of his fellow wendigo.

Lightning's eyes went wide while the rest of the pack shrank away, watching as their leader punished yet another form of dissent, exacting the penalty of death. The big female simply rose up on her hind legs, before she curled her ragged lip, revealing a set of long, yellow teeth; Lightning knew that if she turned around to run, that they would surely be upon the back of her neck in mere seconds.

When the leader finally tore away his follower's head, ripping it back from the wound that Lightning had made, he swiftly hurled it across the mountainside, before he rose back up to his own two feet, coated in dark, dribbling blood. Lightning could only try to breathe, and she could only watch as the pack leader stared back at her with those wide, blazing eyes, even brighter than the snow beneath their feet.

And then, he clacked his teeth together with an echoing snap.

The pack surged together and ran out all at once, but even as she struck her blade down through the neck of one, another began to claw at her side, nearly ripping right through the tough hide of her jacket, while yet another one took a sharp swing at her head, striking it only once, but it was more than enough to send her reeling.

Lightning fell, and while the impact was lessened by the padding on her clothes and the snow upon the rocks, she could only struggle to sit up, raising her sword aloft just as one of the pack came rushing down to snap at her throat, only he cried at the sudden jab of steel within his belly, which was pushed all the way up through the back of his spine.

She pushed her attacker off, shoving him away, and his body writhed as she stumbled back to her feet, but another blow came whirling out through the heavy snowfall, and she fell yet again, losing hold of her sword.

The leader snapped his fangs, and the pack went silent again.

Lightning struggled to grasp for the handle of her blade, but when she finally reached it, a clawed fist went so tight around her neck, and she felt herself being lifted, held out above the howling wind, within the snow that fell in sharp, stinging flakes. The pale white eyes stared right back at her, gazing up from what felt like only inches, and the breath began to leave her throat in muffled, gasping chokes.

Slowly, the leader tightened his grip.

Lightning's protective mask nearly fell away from her mouth, and her vision swam with the sheer amount of pain, crushing her neck, her voice, until her body was suddenly hurled off through the air.

The back of her skull hit the bark of a tree, far below the slope she had been standing upon, and at that very moment she realized that even if she _could_ manage to stand up again, that fact that she was without her sword, slumped out in the middle of the snow and unable to move much faster than a jog...

Her backpack had fallen beside her.

With a hand that just wouldn't seem to stop shaking, and as the wendigoes slid back down the incline with ragged howls, showing their teeth and snarling, she felt her fingertips tighten around a small metal device. And as the pack came barreling through the snow, Lightning thrust her arm forward, and the beasts went utterly silent.

She was holding it, clutching it there between her hands, but the tiny glass beads kept whirling all around the track, so she occasionally had to move her fingers to let them past. At least a dozen pale eyes stared down at the rapid circles, mesmerized by the movement that repeated over and over, and then over yet again, endlessly rolling on down the thin metal lines.

Lightning felt a thick trickle of blood running down the back of her neck, but as she held the sphere aloft, holding the constant gaze of the wendigo pack, with their leader at the very forefront, she moved her other hand, slowly reaching into her backpack again. Lightning kept careful not to draw their gaze away from the device, and as she watched each of those pale pupils move in circles, following the beads, she held her breath as tightly as she could, and then uncorked the cap of a vial.

She hurled her hand forth with bright scarlet claws, with the thick, rippling blood that almost seemed to scream when it was finally released, snaking out to grasp, grapple and burn away at the shaggy white hides of the wendigo pack, the creatures that had made one fatal error too many.

As she stumbled away, holding her hand against her mouth, she could hear the screams and wailing cries, the ragged howls as she struggled just to keep herself from breathing it in, staggering there beneath the frenzied, thrashing din, before she stumbled back up to her feet.

The ridge was just within sight, and she forced her trembling legs to climb back up the way she had gone before, towards where her sword was still resting upon the rocks, and only then did she finally let herself breathe in a cold, gasping breath.

Below her, writhing around in the snow-covered field, the smaller beasts had fallen with to the ground with twitching arms and rapidly foaming jaws, instantly debilitated by the toxic fumes. The one with knobs on her antlers, she was clutching at her eyes, and at the blood that stuck to almost every inch of her face.

But their leader, he was still howling and braying about, clawing away at the substance on his pelt which had burned his white fur to cinders, before it sank further down to destroy the muscles just beneath.

Lightning gripped the hilt of her sword, narrowing her eyes as he finally turned to face her, and she winced at that ragged, deafening screech as he ran back up the hill, claws outstretched.

But she had a certain something in her pocket, a special little charm that could turn her nearly invisible if only she had the time to reach it, and upon the very height of the ridge, she knew she had more than enough.

The wendigo felt his fingers clamp down on nothing, and as his rugged flesh fell away in large, hissing chunks, he could only spin around in circles, searching, gazing around endlessly for a figure that was no longer there, no longer within sight... Not until a long, silver blade suddenly came jutting out from the softest curve of his stomach.

Lightning merely knelt there, holding her breath, before she slowly tugged her blade away from the back of the fallen beast, from where she had thrust it right down through his spine. She rose to her feet, limping off into the snow.

She didn't dare breathe again, not until the wind had all but blown away the fumes. "May you return to Etro's arms..." Her voice suddenly cracked, and she sheathed her sword again, grasping at the flow of blood upon the back of her head. "May the goddess..." Lightning felt her hands go numb. "May the _goddess_ -"

She was on her knees then, and her gaze spun, simply unable to see through the constant whirl of white, the snow that blew all around her, until she closed her eyes, forcing herself to keep breathing through the pain. "May the goddess watch over your soul."

* * *

It was that certain state between dreaming and otherwise, the time when she found herself splayed out beside her backpack, resting in the shelter of a small, shallow cave.

She was dimly aware of the blood-soaked cloth, the one that her head was propped up against, and even of the various bruises that were likely forming deep beneath her clothes, but her mind had long since wandered somewhere distant, somewhere so very far away from where her breath could barely even touch against her lips, where her neck and hands burned with a thousand pinpricks.

It was long, _long_ ago, before she had become Lightning, when it was just her mother, her father and Serah, still barely old enough to walk on her own. They were all together again, beneath the warmth of the southern sun, and she couldn't see a single speck of snow on the beach.

Serah was babbling on about something, just a toddler stumbling around and reaching down into the sand for for seashells, before she would carry them back to her parents, giggling away.

She could hear the roar of the ocean in her ears and the sound of the wind against the beach, but when she slowly opened her eyes, she could see nothing but the dark, and she could feel nothing but the blistering pain in the back of her skull.

Lightning simply waited beneath that long, frigid darkness, and when she finally closed her eyes again, her entire world went utterly numb.

* * *

She woke again to the sound of strong winds, to the howling breeze that swirled all around the mountainside, tossing a sharp flurry of snow into the depths of the tiny cave.

Lightning felt herself go rigid, for there was an odd sound caught in her throat, something she couldn't quite remember wishing for. In time, she rose up again, lifting her hand against the blooded welt on the back of her head, before she felt her hood drop down against her jacket.

"Hey... Now I've got a story for you, Hope." Lightning reached for her backpack, slowly grasping for a thin roll of cloth. "I've got a story; it's about a girl... She never knew what was good for her, and one day, she got herself into big trouble." Lightning lifted the cloth in shivering hands, even with the gloves that kept them insulated. "People, they called her crazy... She would tell them that she was after a dragon, Hope... She was after the sort of thing, the sort of monster that can wipe out whole villages."

The wind kept wailing on into the soft morning light, and she could see a thin glimmer of frost just outside the cave.

"She was... She _had_ to have it, though." Lightning started to tighten the bandage against the back of her skull, tying it down beside her forehead. "She had to let her parents, she had to... She had to let them know that she didn't forget."

Lightning slumped back down against the bottom of the shallow cave, cold and entirely deadened, before she moved to grip her hands along the frigid surface of the stone, clenching her jaw. "I've got a story for you... It's about a girl, a girl who stopped going by the name Claire."

* * *

Beneath the distant sun, the waves crashed down against the sand of an archipelago, before a small, yet sturdy boat hit the sand with a dull thud.

There was a man near the oars, dressed in striped clothing with a bandanna on his head, and he was idly picking at something beneath his fingernails. "You'll be gone for long?"

A woman with pink hair stood near the bow of the rowboat, one hand braced upon her hip, gazing out at the island shore. "Maybe." She was in her late teens, rather spry for her age, and more than a little headstrong, at least more than most of her peers might appreciate. "Might not come back at all... Wait a few days, but if you see a big shadow, run into the trees."

The young man merely shrugged.

"Remember... You get the other half once we get back to the mainland." She reached into her pocket to lift up a pouch of coins, stepping down from the boat as she did so. "I don't want to come back and see that you've lost your nerve."

The man laughed, before he twirled a small, narrow dagger between his fingertips. "I'll pry it from the damn dragon if I have to..."

Lightning had already started to walk out across the beachfront with her hand on the hilt of her sword, which was attached to her belt with only a loose bit of cloth. She fought to keep her arms from shaking in anticipation, before she put on a stern, stony face, and she crept just beyond the sand into the dense, tropical jungle.

Hundreds of insects whined along in the thick, misty air, but she kept on traveling throughout the forest, across tree roots that spanned wider than her own body and cliffs the height of buildings. She climbed, growing closer and closer to the center of the island, until she hauled herself up against the very peak of a mossy cliff.

Lightning stared down at the emerald island chain, so very much like the ones from long ago, far back in Bodhum. And there it was... On the tiny isle to the south, simply basking against the sand.

Lightning narrowed her eyes. The blood in her veins grew hot, and she almost felt dizzy from the rush of pent-up emotion and nerves. She grit her teeth together, stepping forward, down towards the other side of the sloping terrain.

She moved throughout the forest without making more than a hint of sound, and by the time she had reached the shores again, into the shallow water that led off to the next island, the sun had almost started to set.

Lightning crept out through the lapping sea, up to her knees in the shimmering liquid, and she wondered for a moment why it wasn't a pale green like the shores back at Bodhum. But that thought was pushed aside with the crashing waves, and when she finally stepped back onto the warm sand again, gripping for her sword, she began to hone all of her attention on the long, twitching tail that awaited just beyond the curve of the beach, behind a dense amount of greenery and palm trees.

She could hear a steady, rumbling sound, and she could feel the way it nearly shook the beach with each long breath, even though when she finally saw it, the beast was the very picture of serenity.

A slender green neck was tucked up beside his chest, and his wings, those digits on his upper arms with such leathery webbing between them, she could see each tiny scale along his thumb claw.

Lightning crept on within the undergrowth, feeling the damp, mossy ground beneath her feet, for she had gone barefoot to keep from possibly alerting the beast. But there he was, just sleeping there against the beachfront, and after a moment or two, his tail curled out towards the water's edge, drifting back and forth with each wave of the tide.

Lightning slowly drew her sword, before she lunged.

The dragon jolted awake when something suddenly struck down against the back of his head, but when he rose up to his wings and hind limbs, snarling and baring his teeth, he suddenly paused, just to stare down at whatever had attacked him.

Lightning held her sword up, ready to block whatever strike he might make, but it never came.

The beast merely made a series of sharp chuffing sounds, and his chest muscles expanded with each breath, before he set down the curve of wing digits against the sand, almost like fists.

Lightning grit her teeth, and waited.

The dragon stared down at her with those glimmering eyes, _daring_ her, keeping perfectly still to see just what such a mere thing was possibly capable of, until something he had never felt before bore down against one of wings.

Lightning yanked her sword back and struck yet again, cutting a long gash into the dragon's more vulnerable flesh, just along the bottom of his chest. And with that, one of the first serious injuries that he had ever felt before, the beast flew into a rage. Mighty teeth snapped down just inches away from her chin, but she had dodged, landing a light strike against the bottom of his jaw, but it only drew a slight trickle of blood.

The dragon reeled back and lifted his wings aloft, battering and flapping at the air just to push her away, make her move back, and Lightning nearly tumbled off along the sand, had she not grasped at his tail, still damp with seawater, and she then severed the very end of it with her sword.

A ragged howl, before she felt her shoulder cry out in pain, torn with the end of a wing-claw, and then even larger talons struck forth, but those she was able to deftly avoid, darting away across the soft, reddened sand.

Strike after strike, no matter how small, even as the beast sent out a roaring gout of fire across into the sand, she kept on running, landing blows whenever she possibly could. She had trained for months on end with several species of wyvern, those that could harness flame just as easily as a dragon, but nothing could prepare her for that sheer amount of heat. It was a stunning amount of fire, an inferno that left the sand beneath it as long strips of glass, blackened and twisting, until Lightning had to run for clearer ground, for the smoke soon became too thick.

She could remember it still, the way the two of them had been standing back there, gazing up at that very same beast, how her mother had simply lashed out on instinct, slicing the very end of her blade across the dragon's neck. But when she fell, caught in throes of such deadly fire, and when her father stared up into the roiling blaze, cradling his wife in his arms...

Lightning turned to face the beast for only just a moment, before she surged back into the fray.

The claws on each digit of his wings, so much like _hands_ , now that she could see them up close, she would watch them as they grazed against her arms to draw forth bright crimson blood, but she could scarcely feel the pain, and she merely slashed out again, hacking at one of the shorter digits near his thumb claw.

And the dragon bellowed out into the sky, before he brought his head down, jaws flung open wide and more than willing to snap her body right in two, but then, when he was readying that first tiny spark of heat in his throat, the fire that could grow out to such great height, he realized that his head was bleeding.

Lightning had swiftly ducked beneath the snapping fangs and _climbed_ , perching herself atop the very curve of his snout with her blade buried deep into the apex of his skull. The glittering scales that jutted beside each edge of her steel, they were impervious to most weapon strikes, but when the space between them was struck at just the right angle... The results could very well be devastating.

The dragon could only wait while that gleaming sword, the blade in his _brain,_ began to make his entire body tremble, shutting down.

With her free hand, Lightning reached up to clutch the deep gash on her shoulder. The burns on her skin were starting to blister and sear, and she had to choke back a small yelp when the beast went crashing down, falling off to his side with her sword buried deep into the top of his head.

She landed on her back in the sand, and the impact forced her to cry out, but she quickly stifled it with a long, muffled groan, grasping at the deep wound upon her shoulder.

The dragon's body twitched, and his eyes swiveled back and forth, until one of them was able to train itself upon her face.

Lightning stared back at the beast, before she slowly rose to her knees and began to inch forward. After waiting a long moment to make sure he couldn't reel back and bite her, she reached out to touch the pale, thin scar at the base of his throat. It had healed over the years, growing to be little more than a wrinkle within his scales, but the line was significant enough to make her pause, remembering yet again who had put it there.

The edge of mother's blade, sharp and shining. She could remember the keen whistle as it swung forth beneath the onslaught of fire.

Lightning narrowed her eyes, before she pressed her fingertips deep against the mark.

The dragon's gaze flicked away, and then back at her face, glaring at her expression. She could see his very life bleeding away from within those sharp yellow eyes. _You... I remember you._

She drew back immediately, because the words hadn't even touched her ears... No, they had simply registered inside her mind, and she quickly realized that they hadn't even been _words._ They were just thoughts in their most raw, primal form, a language that anything with sentience could understand.

The beast stared back at her, but she could feel no more of that strange connection, the way he had spoken directly into her mind, not until she touched the scar again.

 _The little ones... You ran into the sea._

Lightning narrowed her eyes, and her fingertips nearly trembled.

 _I should have killed you when I could._

Lightning felt the blood rushing in her ears, rumbling louder than any beast or thunderclap. "Then why _didn't_ you?"

 _Mere human tongue? You poor, simple thing..._ The dragon let his eyelids droop a bit. _I simply chose not to pursue such quarry... There were more, just a short flight away, and I preferred not to have my scales stink of algae._

Lightning grit her teeth so hard that her gums rang beneath the pressure, but she merely stiffened her entire body, shaking her head.

 _But I see now that it was a grave mistake._ The dragon's eyes fixed themselves upon her own, gazing deep inside her, into her mind itself. _Imagine, if I could just go back..._

Lightning fought to keep her voice under control. "It hardly matters now."

 _That, we can agree._ The wyrm felt his eyelids start to drift shut once more, and he could barely lift them again. _It's screaming inside your thoughts, within your touch... You want to know why._

Lightning felt her face flush from such reined in fury, and even slight surprise at the boldness of his statement. "You _burned_ them all... There was no reason, no benefit-"

 _There_ _ **was**_ _a reason... Can you possibly claim that you have never stepped upon a hill of ants?_ With his last few shreds of energy, the dragon rumbled, baring his long, mighty teeth. _That it has never occurred to you to hunt for sport? In immortality... There is little else to experience but sport._

Lightning finally started to smile. "...Immortality."

 _Your day, it will come._ The wyrm fought back a tremble, bleeding from every deep wound. _As will the day come when you look upon wild beasts, or perhaps your fellow man, and simply kill because you are able._

Lightning's smile fled, and she gripped down upon the satchel at her belt. "It won't."

The dragon simply waited for his last few breaths to fade, for the blood in his veins to cease, still flowing out in small torrents against the sand.

"No... It's only going to be monsters like you." She tugged open the tiny drawstring, before she lifted out a small, sheathed knife, one with a handle that glinted in the sun. "I'll only kill when I have to... Only when it's for the better of humanity."

His great yellow eyes drifted up towards the edge of the blade, watching as Lightning drew it away from the leather sheath.

"Do you recognize it..? I don't think you do." Lightning still held the dragon's scar, but she gripped her other hand along the handle of the blade, still somewhat distorted from a great fire, long ago. "A dragon's flame, it can burn hot enough to melt metal... But there are always those who survive."

The dragon stared back into her gaze.

"We survive _because_ we're small... Because we might be weak, because we die can easily." Lightning shook her head, and it made the silver pendant brush softly against her lower neck. "May you return to Etro's arms-"

The dragon rumbled again. _Enough._

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "May you-"

The dragon's gaze flicked to the blade. _Enough!_

Lightnings suddenly snarled, crying out, and she dug her fingernails down into the softened, ragged scales, the scar that her mother had once placed, and with a savage strike of her father's own knife, she finished what they had all started so many years ago.

The blood rolled out in great waves, and Lightning would have been swept away if she hadn't grasped for the dragon's neck, striking down at it again, and then again and again, until her arms were trembling deep within that flow of scarlet, and the dragon, his sharp eyes finally went blank.

Lightning felt the heat of the saltwater sliding down her cheeks, but she lifted the knife, bringing it down yet again. "May you return to Etro's arms... You _fucking monster!_ " She sank the steel back down into his windpipe, watching the inner sparks fly and the sudden burst of both fire and ash, but she kept slashing down against the dragon's throat without hesitation or pause. "You... You _took_ them for _nothing!_ "

The great tide of swelling blood began to ebb away, flowing off in gentler waves, but with each strike she took, each severed vein slashed open by the small, distorted knife, more and more was able to escape.

"You _killed_ them!" Her voice cracked and her hands trembled against the hilt, bringing it down yet again. "You killed them, for _nothing..!_ "

The sea rolled on, whispering away in the distance, crashing back against the shore.

"You killed them..." Lightning's tone went as blank as the dragon's gaze, and she leaned away, coated in thick red blood. "My parents, the village... They're dead, all because you were bored."

The wyrm was utterly silent, bleeding out against the sand.

"If that isn't the most _pathetic_ thing I've ever heard..." She reeled back and drove the knife down one last time, deep into the dragon's clouded eye, into the round, black pupil, before she stumbled away, back up to her feet, leaving the blade behind her. "Go to fucking hell."

Her footprints left tracks of scarlet in the sand, but as she drifted off along the beach, blinking up at the setting sun, a whispery, manic laugh suddenly left her lips. "It's done... I did it, it's over." Lightning reached up to yank the necklace away from her throat, and the chain dangled within her bloodstained hand, while the tiny pendant twirled back and forth. "It's _finished_..."

Her back hit the sand with a dull thud, and her eyes slipped shut, hidden against the glaring light of the sun. The adrenaline left her body with only a sense of dull, throbbing pain, and for several minutes, she could only lay there, sprawled out against the beach, feeling both utterly in awe of her own accomplishment and overwhelmingly pathetic.

She barely even noticed the gradual rise of the moon, how it slowly traveled beneath the light of the sun, but when she felt the silver chain go so cool between her fingertips, she slowly opened her eyes to see a pair of sandaled feet.

Whether it was mere delirium, or simply the mind of an exhausted warrior, one who had slowly lost her will to move, she would never know. But when the image of a pale, ever-shifting face stared down at her with such a gentle, yet heartbreaking frown... Lightning couldn't stop the tears that rolled down over her cheeks.

Something touched the very top of her head, and she felt her eyes slip shut, fading away into sleep. But someone was suddenly holding her, whispering in a language that she would never know, yet she could feel it so clearly in her blood, in her bones, that she would still be alive even after everything that happened. It told her that she had everything in the world to live for, and that the bitter feeling, the one made her feel so dead inside, that it would all come to pass someday, only that she _had_ to hold on.

She still had to fight.

Lightning opened her eyes to the sight of a million stars shining down on her from above. Her pendant was resting against the center of her throat again, and it felt so cool against her skin, as if it had only just been placed there. She could feel the dried blood clinging to almost every inch of her body; it stuck to her flesh like a coarse, heavy glue, and she reached up to touch her own shoulder, the one that the dragon had cut.

Nearly an hour passed before she rose back up to her feet, padding down across the sand, into the pale blue waters below.

Lightning stepped out into the sea, down into the water that could cleanse away the aches, the blood, even the ashes of the past, and when she felt the touch of salt against her face, felt the sudden warmth building in her chest, that she was still _alive-_

She gripped the pendant between her fingertips, floating flat on her back, and suddenly, just for a while, all was right within the world again.

Lightning knew she would soon return to the little boat and find her way back to the mainland, but for that night alone, she would simply bathe there in the moonlight, within the vast open sea, with her eyes wide open.

Etro's voice had echoed in her mind, and even if she'd never mention the very idea to anyone, never speak of what had happened just an hour before, it was an experience she would never forget.

* * *

Lightning sat beside the whispering snow, just beneath the mouth of the cave.

At the back of her head, the wound throbbed on, and the rest of her her body was hardly better off, but when she stepped out into the wold again, into the wind, she felt the sharp surge of adrenaline, the force that could drive her onward despite the pain.

It ran deep inside her veins, and she knew that the presence was still there. She was a daughter of both bloodshed and death, but she was also so very, _very_ alive.

She would keep that life until it was torn from her grasping hands, until the day finally came that her quarry was strong or clever enough to steal it from her. Lightning would _live_ , she would live and die by that wild chase, and on that day, she was ready to hunt.

Before every kill, she would spend time observing the prey. It could take days, or even weeks, but Lightning prided herself upon the fact that unlike certain hunters she knew, she was able learn nearly everything about a creature's habitat and behavior before they even formally engaged in combat.

Her wounds still stung as she climbed closer and close to the upper peaks, but Lightning bit down against the fabric of her mask and ignored it, pacing herself as she trudged through the snow. It could have been hours before she reached the highest slopes, or it might have been an entire day. Beneath the dark cover of clouds and the constantly falling snow, she couldn't tell if it was morning or noon, evening or night. But when she finally reached the top of the ridge, against the slope that went on for what felt like the entire mountainside, when she caught sight of the dark, graceful shape that moved across the snow like glossy silk...

Lightning kept completely still, simply peering over the rocks, virtually invisible within the snow.

If one was to ask what the difference was between a dragon and a wyvern, it would be said that most wyverns would only grow to be around the size of a large horse, and that they had skin which looked more like small, colorful feathers than scales, not to mention a significant difference in the temperature of their fire.

But a dragon... A dragon could grow far beyond twice the height of a horse, with a wingspan longer than most buildings. The full breadth was rarely seen, however, only when they were flying; when a dragon walked, it also utilized its front legs, which were the wings, but they could also function as ground-treading limbs. They had strong hind legs, of course, but walking bipedal meant that they would have to carry those huge wings, and using them as front limbs was simply much more efficient. And that notion was exactly what Lightning saw. She watched the largest dragon that she had ever seen before, examining how it moved across the thick drifts of snow with all four limbs, idly gazing down at the valley beneath the clouds.

The beast itself was jet black, and Lightning could see twin horns upon its head that looked almost silver in a certain light. It had an almost strange look about it, the way it kept staring off into the distance, almost as if it was looking for something far below.

Lightning herself kept completely silent for a while, before she moved as slowly as she could. She walked away, off to the side, careful to keep herself hidden beneath the tall ridge of rocks, until she was able to climb over the snowy incline above where the dragon was standing, up towards the tall trees at the very top of the hill. She noticed a small dip in the snow, just below the slope, which she could only assume was a cave, most likely large enough to accommodate such a beast.

The dragon let out a soft, quiet yawn, laying against the snowdrifts, before it set down its long, slender head atop the curve of a folded wing.

Lightning began to crouch beneath the base of a tree, silently thankful for the sharp scent of pine, one which would hopefully hide her own presence.

And before long, it was time to observe, to wait for the exact moment when she could strike. The dragon was dozing quietly beneath her, yet Lightning simply needed time, for she needed to be absolutely sure that the odds were in her favor.

And so, she would wait.

* * *

She had many dreams throughout the next few days, but each time the voice would speak to her again, brushing against her skin in an almost gentle way. And even with such a strange image of blood, Lightning ignored it.

It would try to coax her, urge her into finally speaking back to it, and later on, it even tried the same tactic, ignoring her for a while, until the pressure grew to the point where it could no longer stay so silent.

 _Are you frightened?_

The same phrase, over and over again... And yet she had never decided to answer it.

It slowly lifted her chin, tracing soft circles into her flesh.

Lightning closed her eyes once the sharper pair bore down into her own, and in that moment, she knew. The image of a dark beast, wild and ravenous... It was all lurking just beneath the surface, and the dragon was well aware.

It would touch the outer realms of her mind, trying to soothe away the anger and tension, but Lightning kept herself back, held up a wall between herself and each hint of the shadows, every touch, until she could see the figure start to visibly recoil whenever it drew near.

She was ice, and she was fire, and just like the beast who could invade her dreams, seeking to soften her for the kill... She also was death.

Lightning stared back into those sharp green eyes, the very same that she had seen upon the beast in her waking hours, but she would show no fear.

* * *

The evening was shrouded in thick clouds, and Lightning could barely see the sunlight behind the frost. She sat within the soft, deep snow, chewing upon one of her last few sticks of jerky. The dragon was nowhere to be seen, but the creature would always make rather loud wingbeats whenever it returned, so Lightning was content to just sit back, gently rubbing at the wound on her skull.

And with her other hand, she chewed on the dried meat again. No more than three days had passed, for she'd been counting them down in her head, and yet still, the dragon hadn't noticed her presence. Lightning thought that it might have been way that her clothing didn't smell like much of anything, or the way that the pine-trees gave off such a strong scent, or even because she could simply duck down beneath the snow and become practically invisible, even without using the silver charm.

She had observed quite little of the dragon's behavior, yet what she _had_ seen was more than a bit unusual. For one, the beast never seemed to bring kills back to the cave, but it did occasionally return with blood all over its snout, so Lightning could safely rule out the idea that it wasn't eating. Secondly, whenever the dragon actually went inside the hollow opening beneath the hill, it never stayed for long; it always came back out within an hour or two to stare down at the mountain again, hardly straying from that one spot between the snowdrifts.

When it did decide to rest, Lightning could see the snow melting away from beneath the dragon's body, for it must have been exerting quite a bit of inner heat to combat the frigid terrain. Unlike reptiles, she'd once read in a well-regarded tome that dragons were warm blooded, much like birds and wyverns, and that the seclusion of such high mountains made them a popular resting ground, even with such extreme temperatures.

Lightning watched the snow as it fell down in constant flakes, and she wondered for a moment if the dragon might have attacked any of nearby villages recently. Back home, the missive told of an entire stretch of farmland being torched, but because no fatalities had been reported, it was likely a territorial display, one meant to frighten rather than harm. But it was with that very question, and the memory of her own little village, it made Lightning pause, thinking that she might just have to get the whole affair over and done with before long, even if she wasn't presented with ideal conditions.

The snow at the bottom of the hill was extremely deep, and it would make combat more than slightly treacherous. But from where was hiding, Lightning could see a stony ridge that made up part of the inner hill, and it didn't look all that slippery. If she could keep her balance and fight atop those rocks, she might just come out of the battle somewhat unscathed.

Or she could avoid melee entirely; the top of a dragon's head was indeed resistant to a sword strike, but those tiny gaps between each scale... She knew very well just how much they could be exploited to her advantage, especially with an aerial attack.

Lightning stood up slightly, gazing down at where the dragon usually slept, which was right beneath the curve of the hill. A small smile tugged at her lips, before she lowered herself back down against the snow.

There would be time soon enough, and her supplies were running thin. While she could melt the snowfall within her canteen for water, unless she was able to hunt for game or find another source of food, she would be fresh out within only a day or so.

The next opportunity, that would be when she struck.

* * *

The stars began to appear behind the dark clouds, and the moon cast a pale glow upon the mountainside. Dark wings flapped against the bitter wind, before a sleek, massive shape passed over the light of the moon. Lightning kept very still, gripping at the handle of her sword from beneath the snow.

The dragon touched down upon the snowbank with a dull thump, and its back claws sank into the ground, before both of its wings began to fold. Lightning watched silently, waiting for the beast to lay down and sleep, but it seemed to be taking its sweet time looking down over the cliffs. Minutes ticked by into nearly an hour of silent waiting, before the dragon finally settled down, all curled up within the snow.

Still, Lightning waited. She waited until each of the gentle breaths began to grow slower and slower, yet she didn't dare move a muscle, not until the soft sound of snoring echoed out from beneath the hill, only then did she rise up from deep within the frost.

Her blade was just as silent as her footsteps, and after she set down her backpack beside the stony terrain, she slowly began to walk forward.

A fall from that great a height would normally injure an ankle, or worse, but with her planned trajectory, and with the way the dragon's head was resting in the snow, which would hopefully break the impact of her fall, Lightning was more than ready to begin.

She stooped down to her knees, crouched atop the jagged stones, before she slowly lifted her sword.

The beast slept on, but it twitched every so often, surely dreaming.

Lightning took a deep breath, and fell.

The wind whipped through her hooded hair and against her skin, the only part of her face still uncovered, for her mask and hood kept only her eyes from being concealed. As she dropped, holding her sword to strike down, it was only a matter of time before the dragon was dead and bleeding.

But she had miscalculated.

The tip of her blade did indeed crash down against the narrow space in between those scales, but as it hit the very outside of the dragon's head, surely disorienting the beast, her sword merely ricocheted off the sturdy skull, drawing out a sharp snarl and a reflexive gout of flame.

Lightning toppled off to the side, still gripping her sword, gazing out wide eyes, for she had never seen a creature so resilient. As she fell down into the snow, readying herself again with her sword held up high, she finally began to stare deep into those sharp, gleaming eyes... Into the wide, verdant green, the gaze of an unmatchable beast.

The dragon rose up with a low hiss, but when it narrowed those eyes, staring deep into Lightning's own, for some reason, it paused.

Lightning could feel her heart hammering so loudly against her chest; she had never seen the creature so close up before, and it was nearly twice the muscular bulk of the beast who had haunted her village. But _why_ did it hesitate? It simply stared down into her eyes, as if it was trying to see beyond the mask, beyond the hood, before Lightning realized that such hesitance would give her more than an open opportunity.

She swung, drawing blood, and the dragon recoiled in shock.

Was it merely testing her, like the other one had done? Lightning stepped back for the inevitable burst of fire, but it never came. The dragon simply shrank away a bit, snarling, yet it still gazed deep into her eyes.

Lightning glared back at the beast, before she let out a sharp shout and struck again, rending along the softer scales of its wing, and then again, until the dragon finally lunged back at her, snapping against the air beside her head.

She had dodged, but even with all that extra space, the strike surely would have missed even if she had kept still. Lightning shouted again, though her mind was reeling, racing, pent up with the question of _why_ , why was the monstrous creature holding back? Why did it seem so reluctant to fight her?

But she kept on, until the beast finally began to follow her up towards the rocks, snarling and biting down on the air, but still not enough to actually strike her.

She found greater maneuverability on the stones, better chances to swing again and dodge back, and when she finally grazed the inside of the dragon's mouth, slitting the very top of its tongue, only then did she feel the heat of fire. Her clothing nearly caught, but Lightning rolled to the side, crashing down within the snow-covered stones until she was upright again, able to swing up her sword just beneath the dragon's eye.

The dragon's wings flared violet, and a long, shattering howl sent her stumbling back along the rocks, before a sudden strike from a wing pushed her right down to the earth, and she fell flat on her back in the snow.

Lightning narrowed her eyes, struggling to stand, and she felt the pain on the back of her skull begin bloom anew, so with a soft snarl of her own, she reached up for the pendant at her neck. "Now you've done it..."

The dragon froze when Lightning's arm stiffened, twitching there beside her sword, hissing and crackling with some sort of pale, flickering energy, and when she let the necklace fall, reaching down to hold her blade with both hands, only then did the electricity surge.

It was _lightning_ incarnate, and with the charm dangling beside her neck, her entire figure jolted with unbridled power; her sword hummed with each rapid lunge, and as she struck down, crashing against those dark scales, the pitch black of night, the dragon nearly reeled and collapsed beneath the onslaught of static coursing down beneath its hide.

Her blade struck again, and then again, until the rocks were stained with blood from nearly every angle. Lightning felt the wound on her arm open up with each motion, but she was far too lost, drifting on with each swing of her whistling sword, each tiny quiver that sent her body to such unbelievable lengths. In the very back of her mind, she knew the consequences, the way that such power would always take its toll over her, but if the beast was quickly slain, then what difference did it make?

If she passed out for a moment from the sheer transfer of energy, so be it. Her quarry would soon be bleeding out upon the snow, and the valley would be safe again, and she could begin her journey back home, back to where her family was waiting.

The dragon, it was the only obstacle that remained.

And yet, as she swung out her blade once more and the energy slowly began to wane, it was in fact her own sheer focus that would ultimately be her undoing.

The beast finally snapped, bleeding and breathless; it _finally_ surged forward with a sense of true might, true intent to harm, and within moments, Lightning both felt and heard the deafening sound of scales crashing down against her chest.

She couldn't help but gasp, yet Lightning lunged down with her sword, spearing it deep within the dragon's wing, before she was knocked back against the rocks with an even sharper blow, pinning her there.

She felt the curve of the wing, each of the digits that formed a veritable fist, and she could feel them pressing down, tightening against her lungs. It crushed the wind from her chest, the very fury from her blood, until she was struggling back and forth, thrashing against the scaly wing for dear life, reaching even just for a single shred of air.

The dragon only rumbled, half-hidden by the whirling snow.

Lightning choked on her own breath, her own voice, before she glanced down, gazing at the dragon's wing claw, the thumblike digit that had pressed itself down against her neck and lungs, forcing her to keep still if she wanted to breathe, to release the hilt of her sword and let her arms fall aside.

She wondered for a split second why the beast hadn't simply leaned forward a bit, using its massive strength to crush down on her rib cage, pushing until her entire body was just a blooded mess against the rocks, but the thought was lost in a lack of oxygen and the sudden, flaring warmth, the sparks that she could see flickering behind such long, pointed teeth.

She was going to die. It occurred to her for just a mere instant, so fast that she didn't even notice the tears streaming down her face. She would never see her sister again, she would never hear Serah humming while she rode on horseback beside her, she would never be able to go back home, never go out into the woods pick wild blackberries again, never see Hope take down his first truly dangerous beast.

The dragon snarled, long and loud.

She would never be able give Snow her blessing to take Serah's hand in union, she would never ride Odin again, she'd never find her way back home, never, _never_ again...

Lightning felt the will to fight leave her body like a shattered ghost, like a deep, shivering wound, a lone figure in the dark. Within mere moments, her vision went utterly black, and she fell silent from sheer exhaustion.

The dragon stared down at the sight of it, before she herself started to slowly ease back, to release the human beneath. It merely slumped beneath her wing, resting against the rough stretch of stones.

And the dragon, her anger bled away within mere minutes, and the beast slowly tilted her head to the side, gazing down with such a sharp pair of eyes. She stared down at pale, faded skin, the little face that had lost nearly all of its flush, and she could feel those small, jittery breaths just beneath her wing... And even the tiny heartbeat, flickering every so often against her scales.

She slowly eased her wing away, and tiny human went limp against the rocks.

The dragon lowered her head down, before she angled her wing digits to pick up the unconscious figure, gently cradling it in the soft, dark webbing of her wing.

She watched as the white hood suddenly fell away from Lightning's head, and she blinked her great green eyes, staring down at the head of soft, rosy hair, and then at the pale face, where those lips were starting to turn even paler from the cold.

The dragon paused, before she held up the human to rest just beneath the base of her own throat, towards the warmth of her inner fire. In her state of total unconsciousness, Lightning went completely limp against the webbing of the wing, though her eyes almost seemed to flutter beneath her eyelids.

The dragon's mighty heart pumped with a renewed sense of speed, and for a while, she simply held the little human against her chest, warming away each and every trickle of solid ice upon her face. She knew that she was holding an entire life against her wing, a story written along those lines of blood, deep in her bones, and even those ragged little breaths, but it was a tale that the dragon might never fully hear; even with her vast amount of strength, if the human did not will it, it was unknowable to her.

After a while, Lightning shivered in her sleep.

It was many minutes before the dragon found her voice again, the language she had nearly forgotten over the ages. "So many years..." She kept Lightning close against her chest, before she set her other wing down against the snow, using it as a limb to push herself forward. "So many years, and you make us do _this_."

Her voice almost felt strange to herself, hissing out across the tip of her tongue with only a slight bit of flame. "We didn't... We didn't have to." The heat that gathered against the roof of her mouth was just as thick as the snowdrifts beneath her feet. "But now you're _here_... You're here, but you're hurt." She could feel the warm blood welling up from Lightning's wound, seeping out from the back of her head, before it began to pool out against the dragon's wing. "No, don't you _die_ on me, not after all this."

The dragon walked on beneath the constant flurry of snow, battling both the fierce winds and the howling, biting frost, but she kept her wing tucked up against her chest, enough to protect Lightning's body from the cold. "Etro won't have you, not yet..."

She ducked her head down beneath a low layer of rock, and with a quick push of her hind legs, she had disappeared though a thick drift of white, into the stony earth that lay beneath. "Hold on for me." The dragon soon held back a low, mournful sound, squeezing her eyes shut against the frigid darkness, within the cave that was all but invisible beneath a deep layer of snow. "Hold on for me... Just _hold_ on."


	7. Lifeline

_Your day, it will come._

Within the sheer black darkness, Lightning's eyes flickered back and forth beneath her eyelids. Her body trembled, spiked on by dehydration and the toll of such a powerful charm, but even when someone pressed the end of her canteen to her mouth, gently coaxing the water against her lips, she would not drink.

"Come _on_." There was someone right beside her. She could hear that accented tone, the low, yet feminine voice. Even in the state she was in, sweating and burning up with a tremendous cold, almost entirely delirious beneath the fever, she still heard those words quite clearly. "Come on... Dammit."

Lightning could scarcely even open her eyes, but when she managed to force them open, peering up at whatever was around her, she finally caught sight of the strange human figure, the woman kneeling just beside her; she was holding the canteen, keeping it just beside Lightning's mouth.

"You've _got_ to drink." The woman reached up to press the side of her own hand against Lightning's forehead, reaching her temperature. "You've been out for hours."

Lightning's voice cracked, barely above a whisper. "Who are you?"

The blurry image paused, as if she was looking away. "Just someone trying to keep you alive... You can call me Fang."

Lightning felt her eyelids drift shut.

"Will you _please_ drink some water?" She could feel something touching at the bottom of her chin, lifting her mouth towards the canteen. "You've got a real bad fever, and that bump on your head isn't looking too good... Come on, now."

Slowly, Lightning reached up for the thick leather canteen, but Fang just kept holding on to it. After a moment of drinking, Lightning realized that she had left that very same object in her backpack, which had been up by the rocks at the top of the hill.

"Where are we?" Lightning felt herself slump back against something soft, but she didn't open her eyes to see what it was. "I'm not dead, am I..?"

She could hear how Fang tried not to react to the question, either a laugh or a sigh, or perhaps somewhere in between. "No, you aren't dead... But if you want to stay that way, you need to keep drinking." She set down the canteen somewhere nearby, on a surface that sounded like fabric. "...You listening to me?

One of Lightning's hands began to tighten into a fist. "Where is it?"

Fang's voice went low. "Where's what?"

Lightning grit her teeth, but the beneath the sweltering cold and the droplets of sweat that felt so frigid against the skin of her neck, she couldn't help but shiver again, trembling on without pause.

Fang said something, speaking from somewhere beside her, and after a moment or two, she could feel something squeezing her arm with such a warm touch, soothing away some of the ache. "Hey."

Lightning curled in on herself, winching as the back of her head throbbed once more, before her vision went utterly white, even with her eyes squeezed shut.

Fang spoke again, only much quieter than before. "Hey, I'm right here."

But she could see only those endless winding corridors, the tunnel that led to nowhere, at least not until she had fallen fro, a great height. She knew that it had to be a hallucination, her eyes were still shut after all, but when the world almost seemed have to turned right on its head, so dizzying and nonsensical, she couldn't help but wish that she was actually asleep.

 _You don't remember, do you?_

She was floating so far above the soft, misty clouds, weightless and drifting... Before everything went dark.

 _Just get some sleep._

Lightning felt her stomach twinge, fighting against the water, and she felt as if it was freezing her from the inside out.

 _It's going to be alright... Just try to rest._

She was sinking back into the darkness again, beneath the fog, and for once it was a welcome sensation. There was a long pathway of ice ahead of her, but even with bare feet, she couldn't even feel the cold. A lone, towering figure stood in silence. It lingered beside the edge, crowned by a grand pair of antlers and a thousand sharpened teeth. Lightning looked down to watch the surface that stood beneath them, the way those spiderweb cracks trickled out without a sound, breaking the path into a million tiny shards.

She fell silently, flickering away into the dark, and she could see the beast fall beside her. And yet, something clutched around her stomach and the whiplash was instantaneous; her vision reeled, blurring back between total darkness and the sight of someone kneeling beside her, someone she couldn't quite see, but they were suddenly touching at the very top of her forehead, before another hand reached for the bandage on her arm.

 _Don't give up on me, now._

Within her mind, she was lifted, carried away from the void by a strong, yet gentle grip.

 _Your eyes, they're darting all over the place... Tell me what you see._

Lightning felt a tremendous pressure building against the back of her head, and she nearly cried out at the pain.

 _Not with words._ She could see those hands pouring something across her wound, the cut the gryphon had made. Lightning felt the bitter sensation, the frigid ointment that made almost everything go white-hot and searing. It sent a terrible jolt of pain out into her arm, and then up into her shoulder, until she felt even dizzier than before. _Try to tell me with your head, okay? Not in words... Just_ _ **show**_ _me what you're seeing._

Lightning was about halfway between cursing out loud or simply ripping Fang's hand away from her arm, clawing away whatever strange thing she had put upon the blistering injury. The scent made her head whirl, spinning around between the state of consciousness and otherwise, but when she finally fell back against the imagined surface, against the sharp, broken ice, the blood that seeped out from behind her head, she felt something start to drift back and forth between the two of them, like a barrier had been breached.

"Just calm down..."

She opened her eyes to see the elegant profile of Fang's face, but her vision was still much too blurry.

"Shy one, aren't you?" Fang's voice went a little low, and she began to put something else over the wound, wrapping it down with a long, padded bandage. "I just want to understand. You're in a real rough spot right now, so I thought you could use a little sympathy."

Lightning hissed out loud, closing her eyes again.

Fang spoke again. "Can you try to drink some more water?"

Lightning shook her head. "What _happened_ to it?"

A pause, before she let her voice go even lower. "What happened to what?"

Lightning grit her teeth, and she opened her eyes to meet that sharp green gaze. "What happened... To my _sword?_ "

Fang's lips thinned into a narrow line, slowly looking away. "It's somewhere safe... I'll bring it back if you promise not to stab my damn wing again."

Lightning tried to rise up, to rip away the bandage from her arm, but Fang's sudden grip was far too strong, and her wrist was gently pushed back down.

"Why the _hell_ do you look human?" Lightning narrowed her eyes, staring up at the face that was so far away from what she had seen before, so far from the sleek scales, the sharp teeth waiting just beneath. "What kind of illusion..?"

Fang took hold of Lightning's shoulder with her other hand, trying to keep her back. "It's not an illusion, and if you get all worked up again-" She recoiled at the sudden attack upon her own shoulder, the way Lightning had simply _lunged_ , but it was only a moment before she promptly collapsed against Fang's chest from a lack of both hydration and energy.

Lightning bit back a curse, digging down her fingernails into that soft human skin, trying to find the scales underneath, to break the illusion and bring back the creature she had seen before, but she was only rewarded with a small trickle of blood, before Fang managed to wrestle her away.

"Come _on_ now!" Fang let out a sharp hiss of her own, before she reached up towards the tiny blooded marks, massaging the crescent prints. "Why the heck do you keep going on with this? Pretty clear I'm not fighting back, right?!"

Lightning glared at her from where she had fallen back to soft surface, but with the cold sweat that kept trickling down her skin, she felt her vision start to spin again.

"Look, I know you aren't doing so great right now..." Fang frowned when Lightning's gaze began to rapidly flicker back and forth again. "But _why_ are you so hellbent on killing me?"

Suddenly, Lightning turned over and retched the water she had managed to drink before, fighting back a low whimper as her entire stomach throbbed.

Fang fought the urge to sigh. She reached for a stray bit of cloth, unfolding it in her hands. "I'm not going to hurt you, alright?" She leaned over to clean up the watery mess, gently pushing Lightning away. "So how about you stop trying to murder me?"

Lightning's eyes slipped shut again, but her throat and belly were still clenching, as if her body wanted to force her to try and throw up again.

"You're in no shape right now to get that worked up." Fang reached back to check Lightning's temperature again, before she frowned. "Still a fever."

Lightning choked out the words through each shiver. "You're a _dragon_..."

Fang gently patted the side of Lightning's head. "I can be."

Lightning felt her lungs heave, and her stomach did the same. "A monster."

Fang frowned. "Depends on your definition."

Lightning slowly opened her eyes to stare at the bandage on her arm, and at the strange concoction that Fang had spread beneath it. "What did you do to me?"

"Just an old remedy..." Fang started to brush her fingertips over the cloth. "But if you're throwing up like that, it might take a little getting used to."

Lightning closed her eyes again and let out a muffled groan, hissing under her breath.

"So." Fang tilted her head to the side. "Can we maybe not keep going on with the whole 'let's try to kill each other' thing?" She leaned back a bit, glancing at the bandage on the back of Lightning's head. "You really don't remember, do you..?"

Lightning could only breathe raggedly against what felt like blankets, still both sweltering and frigid at all the same moment.

"The best thing for a fever is to stay hydrated." Fang held up the canteen again. "Hey, if you promise not to take another swing at me, I'll get you something nice once you're less likely to hurl it up."

Lightning forced herself to open her eyes again, still resting on her side. "I can't just let a dragon... Dragons _kill_ people, they kill entire villages..."

Fang leaned forward with an expression that ranged somewhere between disappointment and mirth, before she started to whisper softly under her breath. "Have you ever seen me kill anyone?"

Lightning slowly narrowed her eyes.

"On my life, I've never killed a human, at least not one that I didn't have to." Fang reached up to cross her fingertips over her heart, staring down at Lightning. "And you can take as many swings at me as you want... But I won't hurt _you_."

Lightning felt something gradually start to unwind in her chest, but the fury was still burning bright, only a little bit further away than before. The curiosity of a dragon who could take on a human form, one who only seemed intent on tending her wounds... Each question kept whirling around in her head, the way that Fang swore not to harm her, and what exactly had happened to bring her to that point, the possibilities were almost intoxicating. "...And why is that?"

Fang glanced away. "Do you remember anything strange, when you look at me?" She was just sitting there, toying with the edge of her own shirt, one that didn't cover either her shoulders or arms. "Sort of like... Do you remember something about how I look, from somewhere?"

Lightning took a long moment just to examine the human figure, the face that nearly refused to meet her gaze for a moment, until their eyes suddenly locked again, staring back at each other.

"Hey, it's alright if you don't." Fang's voice told a different tale, however, and she slowly leaned back against what Lightning realized was the wall of a cave, lit by the soft glow of a single candle. "But if you don't... Then it's not a good idea for me to tell you."

Lightning glanced down at herself, and then at the thick pile of blankets that she was laying upon, resting there in the center of a very small cavern. "Why isn't it a good idea?"

Fang almost laughed. "The answer to that might do you even more harm..." She shook her head. "If you try to force someone to remember something, or even just tell it to them, it can really mess up their mind... Even if the memory isn't real, it can still get deep inside there and wreck the whole thing apart."

Lightning kept quiet for a while, before she reached up to slowly massage at the back of her head, and she found a different texture of bandage than the one she had applied. "So you're telling me that there's something I don't remember... Something about you?"

Fang shook her head. "I'm not telling you anything that might jostle up that head up even more."

Lightning went a bit limp against the blankets, resting her hands beside her head. "And you want me to believe that a dragon can just take on a human form... And that it doesn't prey on humans."

Fang looked down at her from the corner of her eye, before she lifted the canteen again. "Drink."

Lightning slowly reached for it. "I might throw up again."

"Don't worry about that." Fang's voice went soft. "Just rest for now and get better, alright? You might even start to remember something..." She leaned away from the cavern wall, rising to her feet. "I'll be back soon."

Lightning sipped at the canteen, and she watched Fang walk away, out into the darkness of the cave. "Where are you going?"

Fang paused, standing there with the flickering glow of the candle on her back. "I won't lie, I took a quick look in your backpack; it's behind you, by the way." She glanced back over her shoulder. "Real interesting, those vials..."

Lightning took another slow drink, pacing herself.

"But I'm going to get us some food... Your pack is nearly out." Fang walked out into the shadows. "Try to rest."

And when Lightning's eyes fell shut again, even with the pain in the back of her head and the sting of something strange beneath her bandages, she swiftly fell asleep.

* * *

She could see the sun, and she felt the roar of the ocean in her ears.

The pale moon rose so high above the glimmering sea, and the earth almost seemed to tremble. A great crown of white topped the very height of the cresting wave, that massive, towering thing that cast a dark shadow upon the village.

Lightning had been standing there, waiting there upon the sand when she felt the earth shake. Her eyes were trained upon the water, but they slowly drifted away, towards the tiny boat that rocked against the shore.

She could still remember grabbing Serah's arm again, like so many years before, but that time, her sister didn't hesitate. She didn't keep watching, waiting for the inevitable, she merely followed along in utter silence, hastily gathering whatever supplies she could, until the whole thing came tumbling down.

Lightning struggled against constant roar, the deafening crash of briny waves, but she just put her head down, pushing the tiny sailboat out into the sea, where it bobbed back and forth in the spray.

"Light!" Serah raced down the shoreline with an armful of satchels and bags, before she waded out into the raging ocean. "Light, I've got it all!"

Lightning clambered towards the edge of the ship, but she quickly took hold some of the packages, and then Serah's hand, giving her a swift boost up and over the side. "We need to move."

Serah nodded, reaching down with an iron grip, before she tugged back with all her strength to lift Lightning after her, where they both stumbled against the bottom of the boat.

"Sails are down..." Serah almost reached for the rigging, but Lightning moved out to stop her.

"They'll just get torn apart in this..." Lightning could feel the sting of the rain and the howling wind against her skin, the way the sea was rising up against them, even with such a clear sky above. "Help me push it."

With the sunlight shining on her down from above, Serah nodded, reaching for the one of the wooden poles that could send them out to sea, off into the spray of water and away from the crumbling sand, the earth that slowly seemed to fracture and move.

It took several hours before they lost sight of the shore, and when the sky finally began to darken with heavy, churning clouds, Lightning leaned back against the side of the boat, counting away each of the savage minutes upon her fingertips.

"I've never seen it this bad..!" Serah had to call out above the roaring wind, the rain that started to fall in fierce droplets. "Light, what are we going to do?" She was clinging to the ropes of the mast, holding herself against it as tightly as she could. "Where are we _going?_ "

Lightning caught the taste of saltwater on her skin, and as she spoke, she could feel it trickling down along her tongue. "I don't know."

* * *

The cavern was utterly silent and still, until a soft set of footsteps echoed out along the stone.

"Hey." Something gently prodded her shoulder. "Still asleep?"

When Lightning opened her eyes, breathing short, shallow breaths, she swore that she could still taste the tang of salt and sea.

"There you are..." Fang was sitting right there with her legs crossed atop the blankets. "You probably haven't eaten in hours, have you?"

Lightning's nose twitched at the scent of something strange, yet not unpleasant. "What is it?"

"Hell if I know." Fang was holding up a small package, something wrapped in thin paper and twine. "But hey, if you flash enough money around, people tend to give you whatever you like..."

"People..?" Lightning winced at the deep, coursing pain in her skull, before she closed her eyes again.

"Hey, none of that." Fang reached over to tap at the side of Lightning's shoulder, lowering her voice. "Come on, you can sleep after."

Lightning hissed sharply through her teeth.

"Come on, wildcat..." Fang gently poked at her shoulder again. "I said before that I'd get you something nice, and I did, so the least you can do is try a little."

Lightning reached up to push Fang's hand away, but she had already moved it back.

"Do you feel like you're gonna throw up again?"

Lightning slowly nodded, pressing her face down against the blankets.

Fang started to frown. "I'm... I'm sorry about what happened." She moved forward a bit, before she set the package down against the floor. "I got caught off guard, I let the situation get out of control... And you got hurt."

Lightning shook her head. "I was _hunting_ you... I made the first strike." She squeezed her eyes shut even tighter. "I would've killed you, before I even knew-"

"Hey." Fang lowered her voice. "I'm not handing out any blame here, and neither should you; I'm just apologizing. It's hard to know my own strength."

Something brushed across the top of Lightning's forehead, and she opened her eyes to see Fang's fingertips.

"Fever's going down." Fang smiled softly. "You'll be back to swinging that sword at me in no time..."

Lightning felt her stomach churn again, and a bitter taste swept over her tongue.

"Unless, maybe you'd like to start over?" Fang leaned down a little to catch Lightning's gaze. "Hello, my name is Fang, and I've been waiting just a couple thousand years to say this."

Lightning kept silent for a long moment, before she quietly began to speak. "My name is Lightning."

"Lightning." Fang whispered the word again, almost as if she already knew, like she had said it a hundred times before. "Then it's very nice to meet you, Lightning."

Lightning kept quiet for a while. "...What do you mean by a 'couple thousand years'?" She rolled over on her back, wincing at the sharp pain in her head. "Why were you waiting that long? You act like you _know_ me, but-"

"Lightning."

Lightning went silent again.

Fang held her breath for a moment, before she looked away. "I'd have already told you if it would make any difference... At this point, it'd just make things messier than they already are." She reached for the package again, tugging away the woven string. "But if it makes you feel any better, I can try to tell you how it happened to me, in my own experience."

Lightning looked down at paper that Fang was holding, and then at the fluffy loaf of bread inside it.

"Guess I should start at the beginning." Fang tore off a small chunk of the bread, tasting it, before she quietly spoke again. "Or maybe... I could show it to you."

Lightning opened her mouth to speak, but when Fang suddenly grasped hold of her hand again, the strange, distant sensation was back. It was a sheer rush of thoughts and sounds, images and unusual shapes, like she was suddenly somewhere very far away.

 _This is the beginning._

A single spark of light drifted out into the darkness, and from that light, two more beings were born.

 _That's Mwynn, mother of the gods... We can't really see them, not in truth, but that's where they were. Etro's there, too, and the other one is Bhunivelze._

Lightning could still feel her physical body, how she was resting back on the blankets, but the vision that spanned before her, it quickly grew into a great number of stars, scattered around in the dark, endless cosmos.

 _But Mwynn, she left this universe for the void beyond._ Fang's 'voice' was more than a bit different in her head, but it still felt like the same being. _She left her fellow gods behind, and soon, either her own influence or theirs went on to create both Pulse and Lindzei, deities of the land and sea._

Lightning felt her breath quicken, before Fang's other hand gently squeezed down on her wrist.

 _It's alright, you're only seeing this in your head... We're still in the same place._

The vision shifted on to a tiny planet, deep blues and wide greens, spinning slowly upon its axis.

 _Earth._

Their perspective grew, until they were gazing down upon a wide rise of mountains and the vast primordial sea. Tiny creatures darted in and out of sight, swimming around beneath the clear surface of the water, but as time shifted, moving onward. more and more began to appear along the shore, and a few of them even leapt about, until they took flight.

 _Before the gods spoke to us, we called ourselves wyverns, like those critters you can still see flapping around today... The gods told us that if we could remember our hearts again, that we could live without the fear of dying from old age._

A large beast rose up upon outstretched wings, before it shed away nearly all of its feathery plumage, but in the gaps it left behind, great scales grew out into thick armored plates, and the creature released a thick plume of fire.

 _But most of them... They were pretty damn stupid._

The small dragon leapt around a small encampment, spouting fire and smoke at the tiny wooden buildings, until a spear suddenly bore down upon its back, before another struck into one of its eyes.

 _It made them proud that the gods had favored them over the early humans, but just because they were immortal... They could still be killed, and mankind started to hate them._

There was the very first sword, only a sharp hunk of iron and reinforced wood. A human held it between both of his hands, glaring down at the blooded beast that had dared to attack his kin.

 _They'd forgotten their hearts, the very reason that the gods had given them those gifts in the first place, and it turned them into monsters._ She could feel the way that Fang was growing quieter and quieter, even in her head. _I almost did, just until-_

The vision blinked away, and Lightning could only see the walls of the cave again.

Fang was slightly hunched over, gazing down at the ground. "I think that's enough for now." Her voice seemed very distant, though she hadn't moved an inch. "You need to eat something, even if you still feel sick."

Lightning tried to sit up, but her wound cried out in protest, pounding against the back of her skull.

"Here." Fang pulled the bread into pieces, before she handed over a rather large chunk. "Don't want you passing out again."

"When you were talking about hearts-" Lightning took a small bite of the bread, trying not to let the scent make her queasy. "I don't think you meant the literal kind."

Fang smiled. "Whenever a creature is born, Etro gives it a gift... She gives them a soul."

Lightning almost glanced down at the pendant on her neck. "I know."

"And the _heart_ , that's the part of the soul that makes it unique from all the rest." Fang lowered her voice, leaning back against the wall of the cave. "That's the thing, you know..." She went even quieter, so much that Lightning could barely even hear her. "We're the ones who can walk between worlds, dragged along by something even deeper."

Lightning felt her eyelids grow a bit heavier, but she just kept eating the bread that Fang had given her, still resting against the blankets.

"As I was traveling around here, I heard stories about a woman named 'Lightning', one who operated in this neck of the woods... They'd say she was a hunter of dangerous beasts." After a moment, Fang reached down for her own piece of bread. "But I want _you_ to tell me who you are, Lightning... Who you are in this world."

Lightning could feel her vision start to swim, slowly being taken away by sleep. "I'm just... I'm me." She tried to stifle a yawn, hoping that her stomach would finally calm itself down. "I protect people who can't do it themselves; I hunt and kill things that threaten us."

Fang slowly nodded. "I'd imagine a dragon is pretty threatening."

Lightning almost laughed, before her eyes finally drifted shut. "You have no idea..."

* * *

She wondered how long she'd been dreaming. Time passed by in a haze; one moment she was briefly awake, staring up at the candlelight, before she was off again, wandering out into the dark.

Sometimes Fang would speak to her, but it was never in the same way that she spoke while they were both awake. The thoughts were a bit more simple, but also raw and whole, as if she was unafraid of provoking the wrong response. But Fang did stop asking if she was afraid. The outline of a mighty dragon would simply rest there instead, guarding over the dream for as long as Lightning kept sleeping.

In a moment of relative calm, Lightning traveled out over the long stretch of mist, the shadows that twisted and curled into the dream, before she came upon Fang's figure, only she was human, just sitting there beneath the mist.

 _Sleeping again?_ Fang turned, and Lightning could see the brightness in her eyes. _I'm outside... Looks like a storm's coming in around from the valley._

Lightning stepped a bit closer, further into the dream, and she tried her very best to 'speak' back in the same way. _You're awake?_

Fang nodded. _As long as I have a vague idea of who and where you are, I can communicate like this._

Lightning slowly sat down beside her, and for a long while, she thought of nothing at all. She just rested, letting her mind wander until a vision of home, and of all the horses, her sister and the rest of her family, it all went flooding though her mind.

 _Lightning?_

She barely even realized that the image was drifting outward, no longer just in her head, but Lightning quickly pushed it back into the darkness, before she stood up to move away. _Sorry._

A gentle hand took hold of her wrist, keeping her there. _Don't be... Let me see them._

Lightning kept standing for a moment, just staying there within the mists, before she slowly sat back down, envisioning the tiny village. _My sister's going to be furious if I come back home like this... All beaten up with barely anything to show for it._

She could sense Fang's amusement, not quite a laugh, yet close to it. _Well, we'll get you healed up first._

Lightning stared out at the memory of both Odin and Mog, running around in the paddock while her sister watched them, perched atop the side of the fence. _What happens after this?_

Fang kept quiet for a long while, before she began to project something else into the dream, somewhere high above the clouds. _What do you want to have happen?_

Lightning couldn't quite find an answer, at least not in time, because when she glanced back over to the side, staring at where Fang had just been a moment ago, she realized that she had actually woken up. The tiny candle flickered away into the darkness, and she felt a slow chill rolling down her spine. Fang was nowhere to be seen, probably still outside somewhere.

Lightning looked over to see her combat gear, which was still stained on the inside with blood from when her injury had opened up. She was wearing only her undershirt and the set of short trousers she had kept on beneath the insulated pants, so when a deep shiver shook through her chest, Lightning reached down to tug one of the blankets up and over herself.

At the back of her head, the wound still throbbed. Over the past few days, Fang had been quite insistent on treating it with that same strange ointment, no matter how much it made Lightning's stomach churn.

Lightning could still remember the way that she had phrased it: _'It's the best stuff you can possibly get for an open wound like this. Just quit fussing.'_ Fang was clearly a dragon in that way, one with the persistence to keep applying the mixture. Even when Lightning glared daggers at her, threatening to march right up from the blankets and find her sword again, but Fang had only laughed. The blade was surely well-hidden, but as Lightning kept mulling it over in her head, she realized that she would rather like having it back again, if only to ward Fang away while she was under the effects of a particularly nasty headache. The daggers in her backpack would probably do little more than to make Fang laugh, and the fact that they were designed for human encounters, to pierce unarmored flesh instead of scales, she knew that they were truly a last resort.

And with that thought, Lightning moved over to the edge of the blankets, before she rose up to her feet for the first time in days. Once she was used to being upright again, she began to wander away into the cave, carrying the tiny glowing candle in her hand.

There was barely enough to light the caverns, but she kept on even without it. The pathway started to narrow down into a tunnel, thought it was still quite large, clearly wide enough to accommodate a dragon, one who likely stood taller than her house, at least on her hind limbs. Lightning almost winced at the memory of facing Fang up upon the mountainside, how she almost killed a self-proclaimed: _'somewhat predictable pacifist, unless someone else punches first'_ , and at how she had nearly been slain herself.

While she crept up a short slope of stone, out into the chill of the outer caves, Lightning started to wonder just why Fang had even been looking for her in the first place. If the story she told was true, that she had been alive since nearly the dawn of the planet, then why would she bother searching for a specific human? What could possibly compel her to go and torch an entire field down in the valley, and then fly up to camp out on the mountainside, waiting for one of the resident hunters to venture her way? A day ago, once she had finally worked up the right words to ask, Fang simply told her the very same thing as before, only that there was indeed a reason, but that she should just focus upon healing and recuperation.

As she ventured off into the outer caverns, Lightning rolled her eyes; Fang might have been just as stubborn as herself, but she wasn't nearly as determined to find out the answers. She stepped down into a shallow cave, glancing around for any hints of her sword, or even her bow, but there was nothing but dust and the occasional loose stone in sight. It was only when she walked out into the very coldest of the chambers, the ones that bordered the upper mountain, it was only then that she saw a lithe, yet massive shape drop down into the cave.

Fang turned her head to the side, gazing down at Lightning, before she slowly set her wings against the ground. "Hey, you sure you should be walking around already? If you're still dizzy..."

Lightning almost reached up to touch at the bandage on her head, but she didn't move a muscle. She simply stared up at the beast with such powerful scaled limbs, the only creature that could send the blood searing out into every fiber of her being.

"Lightning?" Fang lowered herself down a bit, before she slowly tipped her head to the side. "Something's up, isn't it?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the long snout, at the slender throat that she knew held such terrible sparks, so telling of the great fire within. It was the very same shape that she had envisioned at least a thousand times, one that she could just tear apart with the end of her blade, ending the threat forever.

"Lightning?"

Lightning suddenly realized that her hands were shaking slightly, tightening into fists.

Fang shook away a bit of snow from her scales. "You're spacing out again."

Lightning tore her gaze away, before she simply strode off into the caverns.

"Hey, Lightning..." She could hear Fang following after her with such large, yet quiet footfalls. "Lightning?"

She just kept walking, barely keeping herself from turning around, from snapping, striking down upon such a narrow, predatory face.

"Lightning."

Lightning finally paused, and her breath was ragged and quick. " _What?_ "

Fang paused as well, before she lowered her whole body to the ground. "Look at me?"

Lightning swallowed back a curse, but she slowly turned in place.

Fang stared back at her with those great green eyes, the gaze of a mighty dragon, the beast that could end her life in only mere moments, had she not seemed so tame. "I just can't get over it..." Fang lowered her head back to look Lightning straight in the eye. "When I'm like this, in this form, why is there so much _hate_ in those pretty eyes of yours?"

Stiffening her shoulders, Lightning didn't dignify the compliment, or even the question, she merely looked away again, standing there within the candlelight.

"I know humans pretty well... You could even say I am one, at least in a certain way." Fang inched forward a bit. "And I know that they don't have much liking of us, but _that_ much anger..."

Lightning turned away again, but her fist swiftly connected with the end of Fang's snout, shaking only slightly. While the gesture wasn't quite hard enough to hurt either of them, it sent a clear signal, a _warning_ , but Fang was hardly one to heed it.

"What happened to you, love..?" Fang lowered her voice, so oddly soft for such a massive beast. "That kind of thing has to come from somewhere."

Lightning felt her chest tighten up, but she refused to meet Fang's gaze, gripping at the candle with her other hand.

"What can I do to make this better?"

Lightning's throat closed up so quickly, and the memories came pouring forth. There were the flames, swirling all around her, the scent of smoke and whirling ash, and then those massive yellow eyes, staring out at here from within the embers, the heat of an infernal fire.

Fang almost reeled away when the pain seeped out into herself, crashing back against her own mind, and she felt her entire body shiver.

Lightning's hand shook once against Fang's snout, before she pulled back, stepping even further into the cave. As soon as the connection was broken, the entire memory blinked away, but Fang just kept sitting there, staring out with a distant gaze, as if she didn't quite believe what she had seen.

"...I killed him." Lightning glared back at Fang's wings, at the long claws upon her hind legs, and even the teeth she knew were resting just inside her mouth. "I put my sword in his brain, and I slit his throat open... And I'd do it again if I could."

There was a long moment of silence, before Fang's voice came out in a rumble. "Good."

* * *

The caverns were utterly quiet. Most of the passages were so far beneath the earth that even the roar of the wind couldn't reach the lower depths, but with the occasional shift of tectonic plates, or even a small disturbance in the snow, an avalanche for example, sharp vibrations would sometimes echo throughout the tunnels.

Lightning grit her teeth, suffering through once such occurrence. The back of her head was already starting to heal up, but the wound was still slightly swollen, and the bruising covered most of the skin beneath her hair. When she reached up touch at it, she could feel the bits of dried blood clinging to her scalp, and it was with that realization, combined with the way that she hadn't had access to a large body of water in several days, it was right then that Lightning realized that she was just about ready hiss against the blankets in frustration.

But it was also right then that Fang chose to make a rather resounding crash from somewhere else in the cave. Lightning narrowed her eyes, reaching up to try and soothe the headache away. After a moment of massaging the back of her head, she relaxed again.

Something else crashed within the cave.

Lightning tried not to snarl out loud, but she rose up atop the blankets, glaring at the rest of the cavern. "Fang, what the _hell_ are you doing?!"

It was only a moment or two before a long, dark snout came poking out from another tunnel, and clamped right between her jaws, there was something most unusual.

Lightning blinked once, gazing up at what looked to be a massive chunk of ice. "What are you doing with that?"

But Fang's voice was muffled against the frosty object, and Lightning could see that her tongue was quite stuck against the surface, and just the sheer sight of it, it was almost enough to make her laugh. Fang narrowed her eyes at the sudden glint of amusement, barely stifled by Lightning's expression. She flicked her tail in a gesture for Lightning to follow, before she moved somewhere else within the caverns.

Lightning stood up to walk after her, all while trying to hold back the laughter, before she paused to reach for the tiny candle."What, did you get thirsty..?" As she followed along, she tried her best not to look much at Fang's dragon form. "Is your tongue really stuck on that?"

Fang shook her head back and forth. They moved further down into the tunnels, past alcoves and larger caverns, before Fang quietly leapt down to a lower ledge, into a more rounded part of the cave.

Lightning stepped over to the edge, but it was much too steep for her to simply walk down from. Instead, she watched while Fang tried to set down the enormous chunk of ice, before a quick gout of flame sent it rolling away from her tongue.

"...Yeah, it was stuck." Fang moved her tongue around in her mouth to try and make it feel not so quite numb. "But that's one of the benefits of fire."

After a moment, Lightning held up the candle so that she could see a bit further into the open cave. She realized that it must have once been a wide underground river at some point, because there was a deep spot in the center that looked just like a dried up pond.

Fang let out a few sparks against her tongue, readying another puff of fire."Haven't had a good soak in ages... All the lakes down there are frozen up already, and it just wouldn't do to heat one up and hop in, not with so many hunters about."

Lightning felt her eyes widen. "Hunters."

Fang only chuckled. "Made quite the spectacle, didn't I? I wouldn't worry, though..." She let out a long burst of the crackling flame, and the chunk of ice rolled down into the dip in the earth, slowly melting down into water. When the frost had been all but liquefied, Fang took a small step forward. "All you really have to do to throw them off your trail is to go and land somewhere, wait a short distance away until they come over, and then fly off in the opposite direction."

Lightning swore that she felt something twisting in her stomach, and she slowly looked down at her feet. "I didn't even... Didn't consider it, there aren't many others who would go after something like that... Like you."

Fang sat down on her hind legs. " _You_ did... But you were a hell of a lot more elusive about it."

Lightning started to trace her fingertips against the edge of her shirt, anything to look away from that gentle, yet piercing gaze, one that watched her every move. "You were looking for me, weren't you? I remember dreaming... It was _you_ , you spoke in almost the same way."

Fang turned to send off another fiery blaze into the water, heating it up to a simmer. "Like I said before... I can call out, try to enter a dream, and I can even get inside it if you don't kick me out." She took a brief moment to dip her front wings down into the water's surface, before she stepped all the way inside, settling herself beneath it. "But in the end, it's up to you."

Lightning moved slightly to dangle her feet over the edge. "If you say so..." She could see the patches of dried up blood upon Fang's wounds, between her scales, yet she watched it drift away into the water, disappearing beneath the surface. "But why does it feel like I knew you, even before then?" She glanced away, up at the cavern walls, at the way they flickered beneath the candlelight. "Not as a dragon... But as _Fang_."

Fang rested the end of her chin just beside the water's edge, but the rest of her body was still almost fully submerged. "Have you been able to remember anything yet?"

Lightning shook her head. "I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to be looking for."

Fang released a quiet sigh, flicking her tail towards the opposite side of the water. "Don't work yourself up over it... You might not even be able to remember."

Lightning began to grit her teeth, before she slowly leaned back a bit. "I wish you would just _tell_ me." She crossed her arms against her chest, staring down at her feet. "If there's something I don't remember about myself, if there's _really_... You said we could 'walk between worlds', but that doesn't make any sense."

Fang closed her eyes. "It doesn't have to."

Lightning tried not to hiss through her teeth. "That's _infuriating_."

"Relax, then..." Fang rolled over, resting on her back. "Just take it easy, we aren't at each other's throats anymore, are we? You won't hurt me, and I won't hurt you, and even if you don't remember, the world's still spinning for us, isn't it?" After a moment of silence, she let her wings unfurl beside her, flexing the slender digits back and forth. "You don't need to know everything all at once, Lightning."

Lightning just kept staring at the cave, at anything else but Fang, yet after a while, she found herself looking down again, at the way that Fang's eyes had fallen shut, utterly content beneath the warm, steamy water. "You can call me Light."

"Light." Fang opened just one of her eyes. "Light... It's nice."

Lightning glanced away again, trying her best to avoid the instinctive urge to find and utilize a defensive weapon, even if there were none to be found.

"The water's getting a little cooler." Fang soon curled one of her wings against herself, bracing it beneath her. "If you want to wash up, feel free."

And the offer was quite tempting, but with the constant low temperature of the caves, even if it wasn't quite freezing, Lightning knew that if she were to get soaked, that the water would eventually cool her core temperature enough to cause real concern. "I wish I could."

Fang turned her head to the side, staring up at Lightning. "What do you mean?"

Lightning gestured at the walls around them. "I don't exactly have 'fire', myself... I'd freeze as soon as I got out."

Fang paused for a moment, before her eyes slightly lit up. "There's a couple of towels in the cave right next to one you've been using."

Lightning hesitated for a while, still dangling her feet over the side of the rock. "I don't think-"

"Are you worried about me being here?" Fang rose up a bit. "I'll get out and look the other way."

Slowly, Lightning chewed upon her bottom lip, glancing away. "Could you maybe... Not be a dragon?"

Fang stepped out from the water and quickly shook the droplets away from her scales. "Does it still bother you?"

Lightning couldn't help but frown.

Slowly, Fang nodded to herself. "Alright... Just go grab the towels, but I've gotta help you get down here first."

And so Lightning stood up, taking a good amount of time to walk down the cavernous hall, until she found the little alcove with a few woven towels inside. She knelt down for a moment, just to look at the strange sort of satchel that was resting beside them, one that looked more than large enough to be worn by a massive horse.

Or a dragon.

Standing up again, Lightning made her way back down towards the larger cave, holding the soft towels against her chest, until she suddenly looked upon Fang's dragon face, which was resting upon the ledge where she had sat mere moments before.

Fang blinked at Lightning. "Hi."

Lightning tried to look Fang in the eye without flinching. "...Hi."

Fang watched the way that Lightning's shoulders were starting to stiffen, how her fingertips dug deep against the towels. "It's alright if you don't want to-"

Lightning took a quick step forward. "No... It's alright." She slowly knelt down beside Fang's face, staring at the way her horns curved up from beside her tiny ear-flaps, which were little more than thin holes at either side of her head. "So, should I just..?"

Fang turned her snout to face Lightning, nudging her chin up and along the floor of the cave. "Just grab on."

With more than a little bit of hesitance, for she just couldn't help but remember plunging her sword down into a certain dragon's brain, Lightning stepped over towards the curve of Fang's head, before she clambered up to perch between her horns. "Just don't-"

But Fang's movement was very slow, carefully stepping over towards the lower level of the cave, until they were standing in the very center of it.

Lightning sat atop the height of Fang's head, clutching at one of the silvery horns, before she gradually began to relax. It wasn't all that different from riding a horse, only around three or more times the height.

"You doing alright?"

Lightning nodded, but she realized that Fang probably couldn't see it. "Yes."

Fang turned towards the water. "I'm going to move again; it might be a little fast."

Lightning tightened her grip, yet when Fang sat down on her hind legs, setting her wings against the ground, it was indeed a little jostling, but she took the movements in stride, until Fang's head was resting there on the cavern floor.

"It's still alright..." Lightning stepped over to the ground, standing just beside Fang's head. "That wasn't too bad."

Fang chuckled a bit, before she let her eyes slip shut. "Still want me to change back?"

Lightning took a moment to think it over, just standing there in the shadowy cave, but after a moment, she shook her head. "I can handle it."

Fang nodded against the floor. "I won't look."

Lightning rolled her eyes, glancing back at the tiny candle, which was still glowing from where she had left it on the ledge. "Grow up."

Fang rumbled with a low laugh, before she moved over to rest on her side, turning to face the opposite direction. "I think I'm your elder by a couple hundred-thousand years or so, at the very least."

Lightning tugged her blouse away, glancing down at the cloth undershirt, which was wrapped in layers against her chest. "You don't really act your age."

Fang flicked her tail from side to side. "I think my human self is mid-twenties, physically... And before you say something clever, that's just double digits."

Lightning shrugged, pulling away the last of her clothes, before she dipped her feet down into the warm, deep pool. "Wisdom comes with age."

"Do I seem wise?" Fang's tone sounded genuinely curious, and she twitched her tail again when the water splashed a bit. "Most days, it doesn't really feel like it."

As she moved down into the pool, Lightning felt the warmth of the water swirling all around her body. She let out a silent sigh, savoring it for a long moment. "You don't seem unintelligent."

Fang laughed a bit. " _Appreciated_..."

"Believe me, I would know." Lightning reached up to wash away some of the dried blood from her hair, careful not to open up the wound again. "Back home, there's someone who lives in our village; I have a feeling he isn't as stupid as he acts, but _sometimes_..."

Fang adjusted her wings a bit. "What's his name?"

"Snow." Lightning cupped the water in her hands, letting it tumbled down over the back of her head. "He's been seeing my sister, Serah."

"'Seeing'..." Fang trailed off for a moment. "And you're okay with letting your sister 'see' him?"

Lightning paused, holding her breath. "It's not up to me, not entirely."

"Might do more harm than good to intervene." Fang twitched her tail again, and it paused just beside the edge of the pool. "Siblings, they've gotta let each other make their own choices."

Lightning reached over to poke the end of Fang's tail. "You sound like you have experience with it."

Fang went quiet, staring up at the walls of the cave. "...Suppose I do."

Lightning almost frowned at Fang's tone of voice, and when she turned to look at her, it was clear that her wings had slumped down more than a bit. "Did I say something wrong?"

Slowly, Fang shook her head back and forth. "No, it's just something I have to fix." She still faced away from the pool, but Lightning could see the clear outline of her eyes, gazing off into the distance. "Light, there's a reason I've been waiting for all of this... Waiting for _you_."

Lightning suddenly went very still.

"Now, I'm gonna tell you one word, and I want you to say the very first thing that comes to mind, okay?" Fang lifted her head up a bit, but she still didn't turn around. "You ready?"

Lightning nodded. "Alright."

Fang closed her eyes. "...Vanille."

It was just a subtle thing, only the hint of a pale image rolling in, as if on a gentle, whispering breeze. But it soon began to grow, filling her mind with the image of someone with so much cheer in her demeanor, skipping around in a place with far more flowers than she could count. "It's a girl, she looks very young."

Fang's eyes drifted open again. "What else?"

Lightning sat down in the water until it was up to her neck, and she focused hard on the vision, the moving memory that drifted all around her various senses. "She actually reminds me of my sister... She seems very happy."

Fang said nothing for a long, silent moment, and Lightning nearly thought that she wasn't going to respond. But then, when a gentle, glowing light began to surround her wings, moving off towards her spine and tail, and then back up to her head, a human figure suddenly appeared where she had been resting.

Fang was sitting on the floor of the cave, only she still faced the opposite wall. "That's Vanille..." She closed her eyes, and she reached up to massage the very top of her forehead, whispering just under her breath. "Lightning, have you ever heard of a l'Cie? _"_


	8. Warmth

Lightning stared off into the distance. "I've heard stories of l'Cie..." She watched the flickering shadows of the candlelit cave, sitting up to her neck in water. "They're branded by the servants of the gods, the fal'Cie."

"Servants." Fang tried to hold back a laugh. "In name only... They're pretty godlike themselves." After a moment of silence, she let her hands drift to the ground, before she closed her eyes tight, thinking back. "Yeah, they brand people and send them out on 'errands', at least with whatever reason might make sense to that sort of insanity." Fang grit her teeth. "You lose, and you get turned into a monster... And not the kind you're probably thinking of."

Lightning looked up at the outline of Fang's face, even though she could barely see it in the dark. "And if you win?"

Fang leaned back on her hands, bracing them against the ground. "Eternal _crystallization_... They say you still dream in there, and that the fal'Cie might just bring you back out for another task someday, but it's all rumors."

Lightning sat silently for a moment, just to think over the problem in her head. "So you're saying that Vanille..?"

Fang nodded. "We were just messing around one day, looking through some old ruins... It was this vestige out on the sea, half-sunken into a little island." With a quiet sigh, she stretched out her legs so that they wouldn't fall asleep. "Vanille got all excited, wanted to explore, and I won't lie, I was pretty damn curious about it, too... Until we realized what was in there."

"A fal'Cie?" Lightning didn't wait for an answer. "It branded her..?"

Fang kept quiet for a long while. "We had to try and figure out her focus, just to win her the better option, at least until I could figure out how to reverse it..." She trailed off for a moment, thinking back once more. "She'd get these visions of a mountain high above the clouds, all the way back on the mainland."

Lightning moved a bit closer to the edge of the pool. "Which mountain?"

"A few days travel from here." Fang kept staring up at the cavern walls. "We _finally_ found it, right before the brand was in the final stage, and then, what do you know? Another fal'Cie, one we had to kill." She slowly narrowed her eyes. "Focus complete... And she turned to crystal on the spot."

Lightning stared at the way that Fang's shoulders had tensed up, and how her fingernails were nearly scraping against the ground. "Then how do we fix this?"

Fang almost glanced over her shoulder. "Light..."

"If you've been waiting for me, then it means you need my help." Lightning walked out from the water, reaching for one of the woven towels. "And now that I'm here... What can we do to fix it?"

Fang didn't say anything for a long while, not until Lightning walked up to sit beside her, all wrapped in the towel.

It took a moment for Fang to find the right words. "I tried to get back into the island vestige... But the way we got in the first time, it took both of us just to activate the outer mechanism." She glanced over at Lightning, at how she was drying off her hair with a different towel. "I've tried for _years_ to get someone to help me with it again, anyone, but there isn't a sailor alive out there who won't avoid the damn place like the plague... Like it's a death wish."

Lightning soon let the towel fall against her shoulders. "Wouldn't it just try to brand you if you got in there again?"

Fang looked away, frowning. "It definitely could, but... Vanille's like _family_ , Light." She tightened her fingertips until they dug down into her own palms. "I'd tear apart the whole place if I could... I'd _kill_ it for her, make the focus not exist anymore."

"Is that really how it works?" Lightning softened her tone a bit, leaning forward. "I'm not trying to argue with you, but just how much do you know about the fal'Cie?"

Fang exhaled, shivering slightly under the force of sudden adrenaline. "Not much, _nobody_ knows much..." She glanced down at the damp bandage on Lightning's arm, and at the way the ointment had leaked out from all the water. "I'll need to patch that up again."

Lightning tried to fight back a grimace.

"Don't fuss..." Fang took a couple deep breaths, trying to calm herself. "If you're really going to help me, you have to get better first."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "I'd rather not be throwing up every few minutes while I do it..." Ever since she had stepped out from the water, the cavern started to feel more and more frigid, and she almost shivered a bit, holding the towel against herself.

"Hey, you alright?" Fang turned back around, before she reached up to feel Lightning's forehead. "Not feverish..."

"Just _cold_." Lightning looked over at her clothes. "These caves, they still feel freezing."

Fang paused for a moment, before she glanced away. "Should we get you back up there? With the blankets."

Lightning nodded. "You'll have to-" She pointed at the upper ledge, at the candlelight. "You know."

Fang slowly rose up to her feet, before she stepped backwards, smiling at Lightning as she did so. "Useful, isn't it?"

Lightning rolled her eyes again. "Just don't get too full of yourself."

She watched that strange, fiery glow appear again, swirling up to surround Fang's entire body, until the dragon shape almost seemed to bloom out into existence, standing there at the very base of the cavern, as if she had never even left.

"But I'll admit..." Lightning swore that Fang was smiling at her, even if that narrow mouth couldn't quite grin in the same way that a human could. "It does seem useful."

"Glad you think so..." Fang soon settled down against her wings again, resting upon the ground. "Just grab your clothes and I'll get you back up there."

Lightning stood up to walk over towards the folded garments, but when she turned to face Fang again, a strange sort of realization crossed her mind. Even though they had only known each other for just a few days, perhaps longer, during the time she had been unconscious, she felt more than ready to offer her help to Fang, even for the benefit of someone else, someone she had never even met before. She felt those thoughts spinning all around each other, racing on for more than a brief moment, until she remembered that it was really just the same sort of thing she had always done. Whenever she followed up on a monster sighting, it was only to aid someone who she probably didn't know and might never even meet.

After a moment, Fang blinked at the silence. "You alright?"

"...How do we know each other, Fang?" Lightning took a slow step forward, holding up the bundle of clothes against her chest. "Who _are_ we?"

"Light, it's all in the past, nonexistent, really." Fang lifted her head a bit, before she angled her neck down, nudging at the top of Lightning's head with her nose. "But we still _have_ it... It's that heart of yours, Light, and not the one in your chest." She slowly breathed in the scent of her, a scent that almost felt like her own, etched so deeply into her mind. "Souls, they all have to come from somewhere... Etro just hands them out."

Lightning soon felt Fang move away, setting her head back down against the ground again.

"You look a little lost." Fang stared deep into Lightning's wary gaze, at the distant look in her eyes. "We'll just take this one day at a time, okay? No need to rush it."

"Alright." Lightning moved towards the narrow spot between Fang's silvery horns, until she was perched up there again. "Let's go."

"You know, it's almost weird to have someone to talk to again." Fang stepped up towards the ledge, climbing over it with both her hind legs and her thumb claws, which gripped tightly against the rock. "Stuff like this, I haven't done it in years."

Lightning felt her stomach lurch at the sudden change in altitude, the swift way that Fang had moved herself back into the upper tunnels, past the flickering candlelight. "Fang, the candle-"

"I'll go back and get it." Fang walked on through the cavernous hall, keeping her head low enough so that neither of them would hit the top of the cave. "I can see really well in the dark... I _have_ to, for night flying."

Lightning grimaced a bit at the idea of doing such a thing, because simply being upon Fang's head when she was walking, it was already more than a bit disorienting.

"Like I said, we'll take this one day at a time... For now, you just need to rest and get better." Fang walked on beneath the darkness, turning a sharp corner, before Lightning felt herself start to descend again. "Can't bring you back home all bruised up, can we?"

Lightning heard the sound Fang's chin, how it thumped back down against the blankets. "I've had worse."

Fang chuckled a bit. "Still makes me want to wince... All that blood, I was a little worried back there."

"It wasn't entirely you." Lightning stepped down to the sheets, and when her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, she could make out the faint outline of Fang's head, which was still resting on the surface beside her. "The cut on my arm is from a gryphon, and the back of my head opened up when I got smacked against a tree."

Fang turned her head. "A tree?"

Lightning nodded. "Wendigo pack. One of them, he got hold of my neck and _threw_ me." She could hear Fang growl a bit, and the sound nearly made her skin prickle. "...It's over now."

Fang closed her eyes, grimacing ever so slightly. "Still pisses me off; those critters run away whenever I get close, but when I'm just looking the other direction..."

"Have they been able to hurt you?" Lightning leaned forward a little. "I didn't think something like that, even a pack..."

Fang shook her head. "No, they just prance around a bit, making a whole bunch of noise." She slowly rose up again, back towards the caverns. "I'll go get that candle."

Lightning watched as Fang moved away for the tunnels, before she reached down for one of the blankets, tugging it up towards herself. She was still covered in a towel, and she quickly slipped her shirt and wrappings back on, replacing her trousers as well.

A short while went by, before a lone human figure stepped out from the cave, holding the candle between her fingertips. "Still feeling cold?"

Lightning lifted the blanket over her shoulders. "I'll be alright."

Fang stepped into the room, and she set the candle down in the spot it had been before. "I've got a question, Light."

Lightning looked up at her. "Yes?"

Fang moved to sit near the edge of the blankets, crossing her legs beneath her. "Your little necklace, there... It's got the crest of Etro on it, doesn't it?"

Lightning glanced down at the pendant on her throat. "It does."

"Then you're a follower?" Fang leaned forward to examine the silvery chain. "I've heard about them, all the rituals and stuff... Didn't peg you for the religious type."

Lightning shook her head. "I'm not very devout, at least not in most ways." She took off the necklace for Fang to see, holding it out against her palm. "I'll leave that to the priests... They can have their sermons, I just need results."

Fang grinned a bit. "Is that what made all the electricity..?" She didn't touch the silvery charm, she just stared at the emblem of a narrow lightning bolt. "I've heard of powers like that, but never so strong."

Lightning traced her thumb against the tiny signet. "The larger ones come with a price... I usually have to sit down and rest whenever I use this one, otherwise I'll pass out." She lifted it back up and over her head. "My parents helped me make it, back when they were first teaching me how to hunt."

Fang watched the pendant as it dropped back beneath Lightning's shirt. "They were both hunters?"

Lightning nodded. "They said that it was how they met... They were born in different places, lived on different islands, and they'd never met each other before, but one day, they ended up going after the same tide-snapper."

Fang quirked an eyebrow at that. "Tide-snapper?"

"It's a giant species of sea turtle... Only they can be incredibly dangerous, even out on the shore." Lightning tried to stifle a soft yawn, but her vision started to drift. "They both went after it; mom ended up punching dad for stealing the last blow."

Fang quirked her eyebrows again, laughing under her breath. "Quite the happy couple..?" She gestured for Lightning to move back against the blankets. "But you know what they say about competition."

Lightning slowly let herself lay back down. "They said it was a lot calmer once they officially got together... But they'd still try to one-up each other all the time." She smiled a little. "Mom would tell us stories about how they used to travel together, going to other places, even the mainland."

Fang smiled as well.

"When I was old enough, dad and I took a trip to one of the largest islands." Lightning slowly closed her eyes. "There was this creature, it almost looked like a deer... It was faster than anything I'd ever seen, and _powerful_ , so we had track it for days; when we finally caught it and took it down, dad made a charm from some of the heartstrings." She touched the chain of her necklace. "He was going to use his own blood, but when I told him I wanted one of my own, he let me prick my own finger so it would activate for me." Lightning opened her eyes again, staring up at Fang. "That's how it works; it has to be blood from yourself, or you can't activate it."

Fang nodded. "Like a signature?"

"Exactly." Lightning let her eyes slip shut again. "He said that I'd done more than half of the work, so the charm could be mine." She took a deep breath. "The animal, it had static running all over itself, and it could make jolts of electricity appear out of nowhere."

Fang tilted her head to the side. "What sort of species was it?"

Lightning shrugged against the blankets. "Nobody knew the name of it... But it had attacked a traveling caravan at one point, and whenever an animal did that, it was common practice to make sure it never happened again."

Fang could hear the drowsiness in Lightning's tone. "You sound like you're falling asleep." She smiled when Lightning tried to swat at her with one of her hands. "But if you're feeling well enough to sass me, you might just be in better shape than I thought."

Lightning opened her eyes, narrowing them at Fang. "What sort of shape do I look like I'm in?" She closed her eyes again. "Yeah, I passed out, hallucinated because I thought I was going to _die_ ; you knocked me down against the damn mountainside... But look, I made it out intact."

She could hear Fang leaning forward against the blankets. "There's no shame in taking some time to heal, Light..." Fang's voice went low and gentle. "And yes, you're remarkably resilient, but everyone has their limits."

Lightning cursed that sudden feeling in her chest, the way her heartbeat kicked up so swiftly. "Don't you have a princess to kidnap?"

Fang laughed. "Oh, maybe if there were any still out there... Not a whole lot of royal maidens left in the world." Lightning could practically sense the smirk on her face. "I think I could do a whole lot better, though."

Lightning covered her face with one of the blankets.

"Grumpy, grumpy..." After a moment, Fang rose up to her feet, still laughing. "Just get some rest, Light... Nobody's going to think any less of you for it."

Lightning waited until Fang's footsteps had echoed off into the caverns, and once she could no longer hear them, she let the blanket slowly slide back to her shoulders. "I would." Her voice was only a whisper on her lips, but it felt so very loud in her ears, so much that she reached up to massage either side of her forehead. "...I would."

* * *

Within another dream, she watched the water swell and rise, before it sank back down again, nearly tipping the boat over on its side. Lightning held a narrow spear with both hands, but the sudden flux of motion sent her to grasp at the side of the ship, and she cursed when another wave billowed up from beneath it, rising off into the air.

She remembered the harsh, freezing rains, the days where it barely felt like there was any difference between night or dawn; it all blurred down into a muddled mess of dark and cold, until she finally stopped trying to track the number of days.

Her hair grew longer and longer against her neck and her back, so much that she simply cut it down down one day, even when Serah protested at the uneven strands. It had simply been a hindrance, one that she removed with little care for aesthetics.

But there was always the numbing cold.

They would sleep in turns. One would watch the sea while the other dozed off into the long, bitter nights, beneath the rain that fell in great torrents.

Lightning stared out at the ocean one day, gazing at the way it flickered with a more gentle sort of rainfall, but the water still made her hair stick down against the back of her neck. She felt the same dullness throbbing inside her body, the sheer exhaustion of watching, _waiting_ for shore.

She could remember it clearly, the way her eyes were just starting to close, but how they suddenly went so very wide when a vast, mighty entity surged right out from the sea, rising up above the frothy waves, until it cast a massive shadow across the sailboat.

* * *

Lightning woke with a start, heartbeats echoing so swiftly in her chest. She could feel the hot sweat trickling down over the curve of her neck, but it was a frigid, chilling sensation, even with the blankets pulled up all around her.

The candlelight flickered on, and after a moment, Lightning rose up, breathing quietly into the darkness. She remembered the rising waves, the crash of a massive animal right against the surface, which sent the sailboat reeling, yet it hadn't capsized the boat.

But overall, she could remember the long, endless _cold_ , almost the same way it felt at that very moment.

Lightning rose up to her feet, stepping out into the shadows with the candle held close. She followed the tunnels for a while, until the cavern floor felt a bit less frigid with every step. Wherever Fang seemed to go, she seemed to make the room feel twice as warm. Whether it was her inner fire, or just the body temperature of such a large- Lightning paused; that just couldn't be right, for Fang was unusually warm even in her human shape.

She soon stepped down towards a larger cavern, one that she didn't remember ever seeing before. "Fang?" Lightning could hear each gentle breath, the slow, gradual sound of Fang's mighty lungs. "Fang, are you awake?"

A quiet snore shook the pebbles on the ground, and Lightning steeled herself, before she knelt down beside the elegant outline of a wyrm's face. "Fang?"

Fang stirred a bit when Lightning touched the top of her snout, but her eyes only opened when Lightning spoke her name again. "...Light?"

Lightning nodded. "It's cold."

Fang yawned, and her whole body stiffened up with the gesture, before it relaxed again, easing back with a long, gentle exhale. "Even with the blankets?"

Lightning tugged the woven sheet around herself. "Yes."

Fang began to flex the claws of her back feet, still dozing slightly. "Hmm... What do you think we should do about it, then?" She chuckled quietly to herself, before her eyes slipped shut again. "If you were just a little more fireproof..."

Lightning glared at her, even though Fang's eyes were closed. " _You_ started this whole thing, so you get to fix it."

Fang only mumbled, rolling over to rest on her side. "I didn't start anything...You came out here on your own, didn't you? I just lit the fire, you're the one who followed it."

Lightning sat in silence for a long while, and even that was more preferable to just walking away, because she could feel the sheer warmth of Fang's body from there.

"What, you want to cuddle, or something?" Fang's voice was heavy with sleep. "Didn't think you were too keen on this whole thing... The dragon thing."

Lightning hissed through her teeth, before she set the blanket down on the ground. "It's not that... It's not even you, it's just _freezing_." She slowly moved towards the curve of Fang's chin, tucking herself right there beneath it, up against the side of her neck. "You... You're just a big lizard."

Fang laughed quietly, and Lightning felt it rumble through every inch of her body.

"A lizard who's _warm_." Lightning yawned against fabric of the blanket, before she tugged it closer to herself, snuggled up beside the curve of Fang's throat. "Seriously, why is that? You make the whole room warmer."

Fang only purred, dozing off again.

"Or maybe you're just a big cat with scales..." Lightning squeezed her eyes shut, and after a moment, she felt herself start to doze away as well. "...Scales and wings." She could feel each of Fang's gentle breaths, feeling the air move up through her neck and into her nose, where it billowed out, making the whole room warmer with each exhale.

Lightning barely even realized that she had fallen asleep again, not until Fang was suddenly sitting beside her, only in a foggy, yet human form.

 _I'm not a cat, Light..._ Fang's eyes were glinting, and she was leaning forward on her hands, only inches away from the left side Lightning's face. _I'm not a lizard, either, but if it makes you feel better to think of me like that, I won't mind._

Lightning felt those words echo against her own thoughts, and she felt Fang's touch brushing at her shoulder, until it was all too much at once; the lack of memories mixed with the fact that she _knew_ this, knew Fang's very essence from head to toe, even though they had only met just days before...

 _You're quiet, Light._ Fang was resting her chin upon Lightning's shoulder, gently tugging them both backwards until she was resting atop her lap. _Does this still frighten you?_

Lightning narrowed her eyes, but she realized that even if she had been quite frightened before, scared witless by the idea of facing her greatest, deadliest foe, only to find something entirely different, she remembered what her father had once told her on the nature of fear.

 _It's much braver to know it, master it._ He had been sharpening the edge of a knife, waiting there with her in the undergrowth while they tracked a rather elusive creature. _Master that fear, and it'll never hold power over you again... It'll be yours to command._

And she knew that the person holding her, bringing back such vivid memories of gentleness, that she was truly a force far beyond what she had first expected.

Fang's breath brushed against the side of her throat. _Now that... He sounds wise._

 _You could hear it?_ Lightning squirmed a little when Fang's arms snaked around her stomach. _You're getting a little touchy..._

 _You want me to stop?_

Lightning inwardly cursed herself.

 _Yeah, I can hear whatever you project in here, not unless you don't want me to._ Fang inhaled, finding that familiar scent again. _And who do you think we are, Light..? Just friends?_

Lightning stared out into the dream. _I'm not sure._

 _Well, you can just let me know._ Fang kept holding her, but she didn't advance, she just kept her arms resting loosely around Lightning's waist. _The past, it doesn't matter anymore... We can make whatever we want out of this, something a lot nicer than getting stabbed, don't you think?_

Lightning tried not to frown, or even smile, anything that could express the sudden heel turn, how she had been mere moments away from killing someone who would leave such a massive impression. She had never met Fang before, that much she was certain of, but the tales that she had once heard of lands before the one they lived in, how certain faiths believed that souls would eventually reincarnate, it was more than enough to make her feel a bit less skeptical about the whole ordeal.

 _It's been real nice to have someone to talk to..._ Fang was drifting off a bit, and even in the dream, her 'voice' was rather exhausted. _I didn't realize I missed it so much._

 _I'm not always the best conversationalist..._ Lightning felt Fang as slumped slightly, and even though there was nothing physical to keep them upright, they merely drifted back a bit, suspended within the mist. _Honestly, stabbing things is more my expertise._

She could feel Fang chuckle.

 _I'm serious._ Lightning turned over, resting on her side, although she was still held close in Fang's arms. _It's hard to make friends with people, when you might never- In times like these, you know?_

Fang frowned slightly. _What do you mean?_

Lightning moved to rest her cheek against Fang's neck, feeling the warmth that lingered there, how it chased away the cold. _The world is a mess, Fang; I didn't see much of it when I was growing up, Bodhum was just an island village and all, but the rest of it... People do still help each other out, but whenever you ride past the ruins of a big city... It's pretty clear what went down._

After a moment or two, Fang closed her eyes. _I haven't really kept up with human things, over the years... Maybe I should start again._

Lightning closed her eyes as well. _Promise to keep me warm like this, and I'll help you._

She could sense how Fang started to laugh, quietly trailing off into the dream. _Is it really that cold tonight? I can't feel most of it._

Lightning nodded. _Very cold... You said it looked like a storm outside?_

 _Yeah..._ Fang tightened her grip a bit, holding her close. _Don't worry, I'll keep you warm._

Lightning felt the corners of her mouth twitch upward, but with her head buried far beneath Fang's chin, she knew it wouldn't even be visible.

* * *

She dreamt of the ocean again.

The pale creatures swam around the ship in circles, gentle giants with hides like silk, behemoths who cared only to feast on plankton. They were more than a little friendly, yet still respectful of the boat; they never swam close enough to tip it over.

Lightning could remember the look on Serah's face, the unbridled wonder at such a massive pod of whales, reaching down to trace both of her hands over their soft, sleek skin.

"What kind of whales are they?" Serah nearly jumped back when one of them breached again, spouting out a thick spray of water from the narrow blowhole at the top of its head. "Oh, Light! Just look at that..."

Lightning knelt near the edge of the boat. "I see it."

Serah reached down to pet the nearest whale again, and it nudged back against her palm, singing a low, almost haunting song.

"At least they don't seem aggressive..." Lightning kept her own hands away from the water, and she focused on watching their every move, just in case one of the whales got a bit too rowdy around the ship. "See the stuff in that one's mouth? Baleen, it means they eat krill and plankton, not mammals."

"Oh, he's just like a big puppy..." Serah giggled when the whale nudged at her hands again, gently asking for her to scratch at his snout. "You should try petting him too, Light."

Lightning grimaced a bit. "...That's alright."

Serah rolled her eyes. "When are we ever going to be this close to whales again?! You might never get to pet one if you don't do it right now."

Lightning let out a sigh at Serah's tone, and she slowly reached out to pet the whale for just a moment. "How's this?"

Serah grinned. "Come on, you wouldn't pet a puppy like that..."

"It's not a puppy." Lightning glanced down at the whale, at the way it was just drifting beside the boat.

"Oh, Light's just being grumpy." Serah reached out to gently scratch the whale's nose, and she smiled when it rolled over, slowly rotating in place. "See, he's trying to be nice."

"He just wants you to keep petting him..." Lightning leaned away from the water, resting back within the boat. "Can I put the sails up again, or do you need to find him a collar?"

Serah laughed a bit, shaking her head. "I can't keep him, can I?"

Lightning almost smiled.

"Alright buddy..." Serah waved down at the whale, patting at his head with her other hand. "You have a good day, okay?"

The whale swam off when they lifted the sails again to catch the wind, but as the boat slowly drifted away, the pale creature moved up to travel beside them, swimming just beneath the surface.

"See, he does like us!" Serah ran her fingertips down across the edge of the water, watching the tiny ripples move out over the waves. "I wish the water back home was deep enough for whales... They'd just be beached if they tried to visit."

Lightning kept adjusting the rigging of the sails. "If we ever hit shore again, maybe you can get an actual pet... Just not a whale."

Serah smiled at her. "Who says I can't get a whale?! We could try to find somewhere near deep water..."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "I think I've had enough of the sea."

Serah shrugged, watching as the whale swam off to join the rest of his pod. "Where would you want to live, then?" She stared down at the ocean, at how it always seemed to be churning, moving up and down, back and forth once more. "Do you remember those stories about the mainland? You can't even _see_ the water from a lot of places... There just isn't ocean everywhere."

Lightning sat back down again, before she began to sharpen the end of a fishing spear. "That's hopefully where we're going to end up."

"I wonder what it's like..." Serah stared off into the distance, into the vast, open sea. "Do you think we'll make new friends there? Maybe we'll even find a city, like the stories."

Lightning tried not to frown. "...Maybe."

* * *

The cavern was pitch black by the time she woke up. Reaching for the candle, Lightning realized that it must have finally burned out, because even when she let her eyes adjust to the darkness, the cave was cloaked in only shadow.

"Fang?" Lightning could still feel those smooth scales beneath her hands, and she slowly followed the flowing pattern, tracing over them until she could picture exactly where Fang was. "Fang, are you awake?"

Fang just kept breathing away, snoring quietly into the dark.

Lightning kept her hands against Fang's face, and she closed her eyes, trying to remember the way that they spoken back in the dream. _Fang?_

It was just a moment or two before Fang stirred, mumbling under her breath.

"The candle went out." Lightning flinched when Fang gently nudged at her side, as if she was trying to cuddle again. " _Fang_."

"Hmm?" Fang yawned, and Lightning could hear the soft, subtle sound as her wings suddenly stretched out, surrounding both of them. "What's that?"

Lightning almost flinched again when one of Fang's wings dropped down less than gently, muffling her voice with a soft curve of webbing. "The candle, it went out..." The weight of it nearly made her fall down, but she kept sitting up, holding the wing away with her hands.

Fang yawned again. "Want me to light it?"

"Yes..." Lightning ran her hands over the soft webbing, and she could feel the way it was almost like an odd leathery blanket, or even the side of a tent. "Can you maybe _move_ this, too?"

Fang slowly drew it away, tucking the wing back against herself. "Okay... I'm going to make a few sparks, just enough for you light it."

Lightning nodded. "Okay."

She could suddenly see the sharp outline of Fang's mouth, the long, narrow teeth beside her tongue, and then the glimmering sparks, the same ones that she could simply breathe upon to create a massive gout of flame. Lightning turned to look at the candle, which had since fallen over against the floor of the cavern. She slowly lifted it up, holding the wick against the sparks.

Fang blinked when the flame suddenly flickered back to life, and she closed her mouth again. "Handy, isn't it?"

Lightning held the little candle between her hands, watching as the light grew even brighter, until it was flickering all around them. "It is."

Fang leaned back again, and she shut her eyes for a moment, relaxing against the stony ground. "Are you feeling any better?"

Lightning reached up to feel the wound on her head. "It's less swollen than before."

"Good..." Fang closed her eyes a bit, just halfway. "And are you still cold?"

Lightning could still feel the blanket beneath her, but she suddenly noticed the goosebumps on her shoulders, prickling down across her spine. "A little."

Fang let her eyes fall shut. "Then get some more rest." She tipped her chin a bit, moving it across the ground. "I'm right here if you need it."

Lightning slowly pushed the blanket back against the crook of Fang's neck, before she settled down again, resting just beneath her chin. "How are _you_ so warm? Is it just the sparks in your throat?"

Fang yawned again. "Dragons just _are_ , Light..." Her breath went a bit slower, before she quietly chuckled to herself. "All the better to cuddle with."

Lightning let out a gentle sigh. "At least it's useful." She tried not to think of the deadly claws on Fang's back feet, or the way her wings had such a strength to them, such powerful strikes. "The best way to get over something... It's really just to face it."

Fang moved her head a bit, opening her eyes. "Is it still uncomfortable?"

Lightning thought upon it for a moment. "It's not your fault; I just keep seeing the side of it that makes everything more difficult." She traced her fingertips over the edge of the blanket. "You're really human underneath, but sometimes... All I can see is the fire."

Fang hummed quietly, thinking it over. "Maybe you can think of it as a better fire? The kind that won't just jump up and burn you."

Lightning shrugged. "I'll try."

"Vanille, she used to be afraid of the ocean." Fang lowered her voice a bit, speaking softly. "Something about falling down, getting lost under there... Took a while, but she got over it, bit by bit."

Lightning felt each swell of Fang's breath against her back, each rumbling word, echoing so gently through her body. "How did she do it?"

"The parts of the sea that went inland, mostly... And the shallows." Fang stretched out one of her wings again, before she tucked it back down against her chest. "We'd just sit near the shore, talking for hours, until she felt comfortable enough to take a few steps in... And then a little deeper the next time, before she was swimming around like a fish."

Lightning almost smiled. "Is she your sister?"

"Not by blood." Fang's tail twitched against the cavern floor. "Dragons, we don't reproduce... We're basically _made_ by the gods, and they don't seem too keen on repeating the process anytime soon." She kept quiet for a moment. "I don't think anyone remembers too much about being a wyvern, or who might be related to who."

"But you can turn into a human..." Lightning looked up at Fang's eyes, but they were still shut. "How does that work?"

"I remembered my heart." Fang tucked her wings a bit closer to herself. "My soul, it'd been human at more than a few points in time, and I figured out how to change back... It's still just as real as the rest of me."

"So you can remember who you were, and who I was." Lightning closed her eyes as well. "Was I someone else, or still me?"

Fang tensed a bit. "You know I can't tell you that."

"Can't, or won't?" Lightning kept herself still, but her heart was racing again, _pleading_ for all of the answers. "How do you know it might mess up my head? If this is just to keep me in the dark-"

Fang moved away, standing up on her wings. "It's _not_." She stared down at Lightning. "It's not... And it _will_ mess you up, because I've seen it happen before."

Lightning stared at Fang's face, at the sheer worry in her eyes. "In what way?"

Fang closed her eyes to hide it, looking away. "We... We tried to force it, tried to remember everything as fast as we possibly could." She shook her head, and her breath grew just a bit faster. "They went-" Fang paused, before she sank down again, resting upon her side. " _We_ went wild... It was like seeing a thousand different lives all at once, so many different people, all with motivations of their own, and the _chaos_ of it... It messed us up."

Lightning rose up to her knees, before she slowly reached out to touch at the space between Fang's eyes, against the large, glossy scales that almost felt like armor. "But you ended up alright, didn't you?"

Fang kept silent for a long while, until she began to think back, projecting the very memory into Lightning's touch.

She could see a lithe, feral thing, a mind fixed only upon survival; the beast would fly, leap, hunt and burn her prey, yet she avoided humans whenever possible, loathing the utter stupidity of her kin. Her brethren would attack the settlements and bring back only scars, blooded wounds, or not come back at all.

 _I'd end up blocking it all out, and only the strongest memories became real... Things like the last few moments before death, or whenever I came close to it._

Fang was crouching beneath the undergrowth of a forest, slinking along in the shadows.

 _And it was over hundreds, no, thousands of years, Light, it didn't just go away overnight... I've heard of humans who never even recovered from the very same thing; they just got more and more addicted to it, searching and_ _ **searching**_ _for more memories, until they finally went paranoid... Killing themselves over the whole thing._

Lightning watched the image of a small human figure, one who slowly knelt down beside the leaves, holding out her hands.

 _But... It can get better if you meet the right person._

A cheery face, only smiles despite the sound of loud snarling, the dragon that flashed such sharp, pointed teeth at her.

 _Vanille, she saved me._

A different memory, one near the top of a flowering hill. A large, dark dragon was resting within the grass, while a smaller figure sat perched atop the height of her back, chattering away about all of the different plants and animals who lived in the fields below.

 _She taught me how to remember the better ones, how to block out the rest._

A small, tawny dragon ran along the edge of a riverbed, flapping out her wings until she flew aloft, gliding out through the breeze. At her side, there was a larger beast, Fang herself.

The memory began to fade, until Lightning was left with only the image of her hand between Fang's eyes, staring deep into her sharp green gaze.

"Have you heard the stories about the old Gran Pulsian empires?" Fang blinked, gazing back at Lightning. "They were obsessed with that sort of rapid growth, divination on the inner heart... How to harness it."

Lightning shook her head. "I don't know very much about them."

"Let's just say there's a reason they died out..." Fang released a sigh, folding her wings a bit closer to herself. "So yes, I _could_ tell you what I remember about you, about who you were, but I won't."

Lightning looked away. "...Alright."

Fang nudged forward, pressing back against her hand. "You've gotta understand... It isn't because I don't want you to know; I just care a bit too much to let you fall down the same hole."

Lightning glanced back into Fang's eyes, at the mind that lingered deep beneath them, but the way her heartbeat kicked up again, it almost hurt to look at.

"It's getting harder and harder not to just hug you right here and now." Fang's gaze had a certain glint to it, but it almost looked lost, unsure. "It's been... It's been real _rough_ , being alone, but I don't want to-"

"It's alright." Lightning leaned forward just a bit, resting her shoulder beside Fang's head. "Like you said, one step at a time."

"Yeah." Fang slowly closed her eyes, but she opened them again when Lightning moved her arms against the scales of her neck, gently hugging them together. "Light..."

"I'm here, too." Lightning spoke just under her breath. "I won't say that I'm not going to try and remember... But I hear you, Fang." She tried not to shiver. "And I'm going to help you save Vanille."

There was a bright glow, a quick glimmer of scales, before she was tugged back against Fang's chest, hugged tightly. "I knew you would."

Lightning couldn't help the way her entire body went tense, frozen solid beneath the sudden gesture, but with the way that Fang merely sat there in the candlelight, holding her close... She slowly, gradually began to relax.

"We're friends, aren't we?" Fang whispered it into the shadows. "We might've started out a bit rough, but there's nowhere else to go but up..." Fang had her eyes shut, remembering the way she had felt so many lifetimes ago, the same sort of feeling when Lightning had shivered, only not from the cold, but apprehension. "We can be friends, can't we?"

Lightning felt her heart twinge, trying to keep herself still. "We can."

Fang smiled, tugging her arms even tighter, but she kept the embrace as gentle as she could, careful not to hurt the wound on Lightning's arm. "Would you like to meet Vanille? She's... She can't really do a whole lot these days, but it still feels like she can listen."

Lightning leaned back just a little, enough to look at Fang's eyes. "You said she turned to crystal?"

Fang nodded. "Eternal life, they say... But no one knows for sure."

Lightning peered out into the distance, held against the warmth, the same sort of wyrm that she had trained for almost her entire life to kill, but when she felt that soft sort of glimmer in her heart, the glow that made everything else drown away, she knew that it would never be the same again. She looked up at Fang with the first hint of _love_ in her eyes, not hate, and even if the fear was still there, trembling just beneath the surface, she had never been one to back down.

"So... What do you get out of this little bargain, then?" That teasing tone was back in Fang's voice, a thick, dragonlike mirth. "Or is this all just out of the goodness of your heart?"

Lightning almost smiled. "You'll owe me a favor."

Fang grinned. "A favor for a favor... Doesn't sound too bad."

Lightning slowly shook her head. "I just wish Odin was still in the valley."

Fang paused. "Odin?"

"My horse." Lightning tapped at the side of her own forehead. "The one I showed you in the dream... If we're going to be traveling-"

"Light..." Fang was still smiling, and Lightning caught a first glimpse of those sharp little edges on her canines. "Why run around on horseback when you can _fly?_ "

Glancing away, Lightning tried her best not to let her voice break, but the memory of such jostling movement when she had rode between Fang's horns, she could scarcely imagine doing the same thing up in the air, tossed around like that. "...No, we're walking."

Fang shook her head back and forth. "That would take _months_... And I don't think either of us have a boat seaworthy enough to get us across the sea to the vestige."

Lightning tried to look away again, but Fang gently lifted her chin.

"One step at a time, right?" Fang kept her voice so soft, coaxing her back again. "We'll start slow... You can ride on my back if you'd prefer."

Lightning felt a small flush of color move across her cheeks, and she glanced down at Fang's human shoulders, imaging the wings that had been there before. "You'd just better not drop me, or I really _will_ stab you."

Fang grinned again. "Maybe I should keep hiding your sword..."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "You want me to help you or not?"

"Yes, Light..." Fang tugged her close again, ignoring the slight little sounds of annoyance. "I want you to help."

Lightning squirmed a bit, before swiftly she turned around in Fang's lap to grab at her wrists, moving them over so she could see the veins in her arm. "Now, that favor... How do you feel about a little donation?"

Fang almost paled. "...Uh."

"I wasn't in any shape to make charms the last time... But I have a few spares at the moment." Lightning savored the sudden sharp turn of the tide, the way Fang tried not to squirm as well, and she gently tightened her grip. "Just a drop or two."

Fang began to bite at her bottom lip in a pout, but it wasn't quite as effective when Lightning couldn't see it. "Just wish you'd asked when I was still bleeding..."

Lightning felt the soft, fluttering pulse that raced just beneath her fingertips. "What's the point of having a dragon friend if I can't get something practical out of it?"

Fang let out a quiet huff, but she still didn't try to pull her arms away. "I thought you already liked me for the warmth..."

"I do, but that's not going to help very much if we're going up against a fal'Cie." Lightning thought back to the sheer electrical power of her necklace, and she could only imagine what dragon blood might be capable of. "If it makes you feel any better, I'd have to prick myself for it too."

Fang moved to hook her chin against Lightning's shoulder, looking down at the chain on her neck. "How do they work, exactly?"

Lightning lifted the tiny pendant. "It's a ritual... I speak it out loud and put some of my own blood inside, before I use a secondary material." She frowned a bit, remembering the charm with the blood of a hydra within it. "That's why using blood is a little more tricky; you can really botch the entire job if it isn't performed correctly."

Fang hummed quietly. "It reacts to the wrong source?"

"Exactly." Lightning turned the pendant over in her hand. "If you were a follower, you might actually be able to use a charm with my blood, but I doubt that I have any latent powers."

"Latent powers..." Fang looked down at her own wrists. "What would mine do?"

Lightning shook her head. "You never know until you test it out." She took a moment to think back to that hydra charm, how she hadn't had the time to properly test it, how it had gone entirely unused. "I've actually got one like that... I'm just not sure what it does yet."

"Do you need help testing it?" Fang glanced over at one of the adjacent caves, at the tunnel that led back towards Lightning's supplies. "I mean, I'd rather not be on the receiving end..."

Lightning gently pinched at Fang's wrist. "Come on, be a good little test subject and stop fussing..." She almost smiled again; the idea of making such a powerful being, a _dragon_ , feel slightly squeamish with only her words, it gave her just an ounce of control, perhaps enough to make being in her draconic presence more bearable. "Or would you rather I do it by myself?"

Fang sighed. "...What sort of charm is it?"

"Hydra blood." Lightning's voice went rather low at the memory, at the sound of hissing flesh, at the way it almost had a mind of its own, burning away at the wendigo pack. "You didn't open any of those vials, did you?"

"No." Fang shook her head. "When something looks that dangerous, I'm not going to muck with it."

"Good." Lightning exhaled in slight relief. "It's one of the most deadly substances in the world..." She slowly moved away from Fang's lap, reaching for the candle again. "And one of the most powerful."

Fang glanced down at herself, before she reached up to fluff at her own hair. "I could kick a hydra halfway across Gran Pulse... 'Most powerful', my ass."

Lightning stood up again, holding the candle between her fingertips. "Then why not prove it..?" She felt a tiny thrill jolt down her spine when Fang looked up to meet her gaze, just as challenging as her own. "We can see which charm is better..."

Fang knew the very nature of a lure, knew exactly the way that she was racing for it, even with the hook dangling right there, but the way it made her heart beat twice as quickly, with how it could possibly make Lightning feel even more comfortable about the whole ordeal...

Fang smiled to herself, before she slowly rose back up to her feet. "Only one way to find out."


	9. Ghost

"Here it is." Lightning held up one the charms, brushing her thumb over the sleek metal edge. "You might want to stand back a bit, just in case."

Fang stepped slightly away, before she sat down against the blankets. "So what do these usually do? Shoot lightning bolts, and what else?"

Lightning turned the charm over between her fingertips. "Well, there's the translucency, certain degrees of heat-proofing... I even have one that enhances my olfactory senses, and not just 'scent' in the traditional way; sometimes it's strong even enough for me to figure out almost everything about the source."

"And what did you have to kill for that one?" Fang leaned back against the blankets, resting beside the wall of the cave. "Something with a pretty good nose?"

Lightning nodded. "Lycanthrope, there was a brief outbreak around a year ago." She held up the hydra charm, gently squeezing at the center. "Here goes nothing."

Fang watched, and she waited, but for a long and silent moment, nothing seemed to happen. "...So."

"Strange." Lightning sat back down upon the blankets as well, examining the charm. "It might be something more subtle."

Fang leaned forward a little. "How do we get it to happen, then?"

Lightning held her free hand up to her ear and quickly snapped her fingers. "It has something to do with the source; hydras have excellent hearing." She shook her head. "Doesn't seem like that, though."

Fang began to mull over the issue for a moment, before her eyes lit up. "Think fast."

Lightning didn't even realize that Fang had jabbed out with her arm until it swiftly connected against her own hand, moving far faster than either of them could track.

" _Damn_..." Fang pressed back against the lithe, steely grip, marveling at the way that Lightning's hand had simply shot upward to deflect the strike. "Looks like reflexes."

Lightning's eyes went very wide. "That... Would actually make sense." She had often heard about the capabilities of certain hydra species, and that nearly all of them could lash out and attack at an incredibly rapid pace, firing off deadly venom from so many alternating heads. "They're certainly fast enough."

After a moment or two, Fang lowered her hand. "Do these ever do more than one thing?" She looked down at the tiny silver charm. "Because if they can-"

Lightning shook her head. "I've never seen one with more than a single function." She carefully set the charm back down inside her backpack. "If you'd like to test yourself against this one, though..."

Fang narrowed her eyes a bit. "This again? I'd knock a silly little hydra across the mountainside..." She let out a quiet sigh, trying not to let herself fidget. "So you just need a little blood, or what?"

Lightning nodded. " _Dragon_ blood, preferably..." She reached into her pack for one of the empty charms, along with her pocketknife. "I'm pretty sure your human form is quite biologically different."

"Yeah, there's nothing too special about it..." Fang cracked a wide grin. "Aside from the obvious, of course."

Lightning flipped open her knife.

Fang swallowed, leaning back against the wall again. "This is gonna _suck_ , isn't it?"

Lightning rolled her eyes, before she positioned the blade beside her own thumb. "Just hurry up and change."

Fang grimaced a bit, but she soon rose back up to her feet, walking towards the emptier part of the cavern, where she could transform without knocking into anything. "...How do I ever get myself into things like this?" It was just a moment before she reappeared again, only in her large draconic form. "It's _always_ a red flag when a cute girl starts asking you for blood samples."

"I'm not _cute_." Lightning narrowed her eyes at the knife. "And I'm not sure if this one is even sharp enough for you."

Fang sighed again. "Just a second." She sat down upon her hind legs, lifting her thumb claw towards her own mouth, where she gently pressed her teeth between a few of her sleek black scales. "You ready?"

Lightning nodded, before she began to prick her own thumb. "...Divine Etro."

Fang listened to those quiet words, to the way Lightning was concentrating so carefully as she spoke, fully immersed in the process of channeling her entire self into the ritual.

Lightning slowly began to spread her blood against the center of the chamber. "I give my life force freely and without grief." She then looked over at Fang.

Fang lowered her wing down, offering the tiny spot that she had bitten, and Lightning took a small amount away with the end of her knife, before she smeared it down beside her own.

Lightning soon snapped the chamber shut, and she closed her eyes as if she was concentrating deeply, feeling something as it rushed right through her veins.

Fang drew her wing away. "You alright?"

Lightning nodded, but she didn't say anything for a long, quiet moment. "It's always a little strange when it works... Makes you feel connected."

Fang lifted her thumb claw up towards her own mouth, trying to lick the wound shut. "I won't have to do any more of that, right?"

Lightning nodded again. "When it works, I only need one sample." She tensed a bit, and she almost shivered, before she slowly held the charm up before her eyes. "I meant it about the connection, though... That's actually what it does; it connects my own blood with the life force of whatever else I place in there, so that when I activate it, I'm able to bond with the latent power itself."

"And what do you think this one will do?" Fang suddenly disappeared in a gentle glow, before she reappeared in her human form. "Fire, maybe?"

Lightning shrugged. "I usually wait for a while before I test it... Just to let it settle into place."

Fang sat back down against the blankets again. "Sounds good." She stretched her arms a bit, glancing at the bandage on Lightning's arm. "How's that feeling?"

Lightning looked down at her wound, before she lifted her hand a bit. "It doesn't hurt too much... I've had worse, like I said."

Fang nodded. "I can imagine, running around all day, hunting things."

Lightning reached out for her backpack again. "It's not every day; only when there's a reported sighting, or if we come across something dangerous."

Fang tipped her head to the side. "You and your sister?"

"Yes." Lightning took out a small collection of dried meat from one of the side compartments of her pack, before she began to unwrap it from a thin bit of parchment paper. "You think _I'm_ resilient? She's a _demon_ when she gets mad enough..."

Fang smiled. "Sisters, they always surprise you..." She moved back a bit, gently leaning against the cavern wall. "Vanille's like that, always surprising."

Lightning sat back as well, before she offered a piece of the jerky to Fang.

"Nice of you." Fang unwrapped the paper cover. "What sort of meat is it?"

"Wild boar." Lightning bit down on the end of her own piece, quietly chewing it between her teeth. "Tastes better than venison."

"I've only had jerky a few times before." Fang tried a small bite, before she slowly started to smile. "Hey, not bad..."

"It can be a lifesaver if you don't have any other source of protein." Lightning closed her eyes for a moment, taking another bite. "Back home, we have to rely on it a lot throughout the winter, unless we have larger cured meats in storage."

"I usually just go for it raw..." Fang laughed at the sudden look on Lightning's face. "Hey, dragon fire isn't that great for cooking things."

"You'd probably just end up burning it to cinders..." Lightning smiled a bit. "Unless you made a campfire instead."

Fang shook her head. "Too much bother for one little thing."

"Really?" Lightning quirked an eyebrow at that. "Haven't you ever had _really_ well-cooked food? I can't imagine it tasting as good when it's raw."

"I don't exactly-" Fang tried to find the right words. "I don't usually get involved with most human things, Light, not unless they're quick and convenient."

"That's... A shame." Lightning glanced down at the blankets. "If you like this, though, you might like what Serah can cook up... She's actually pretty good at it."

Fang took another bite. "Your sister, you said?"

Lightning nodded. "I can cook if I need to, but I think she seems to enjoy it more."

"So you've got you-" Fang counted it on her free hand. "Your sister, two horses-"

"Four." Lightning reached for her backpack again. "Odin, Mog, Alexander, Snow's horse, and a couple of mules for transporting supplies."

"Snow's horse doesn't have a name?" Fang finished her piece of jerky, before she glanced at the residual grains of salt between her fingers. "Doesn't seem fair."

"It's Shiva, or something like that..." Lightning put her pocketknife back down into the backpack, along with the charms she had taken out. "We mostly call the mules by whatever name we can think of at the time."

Fang chuckled a little, before she began to lick off the salt from her fingertips. "Do you guys use salt on a lot of food?"

"It makes most things more bearable, yeah." Lightning tugged the drawstrings shut on her backpack. "You like it?"

"Like it?" Fang smiled. "Usually I've gotta break it out from old formations on the rocks..."

Lightning wrinkled her nose at the thought of it. "That can't taste very good..."

"Where do you get _good_ salt, then?" Fang was eyeing the tiny granules on Lightning's fingers. "You've gotta hook me up."

Lightning thought it over for a moment, before she smiled softly. "Maybe Serah can give you some, if you come over for dinner sometime... She usually buys it whenever she goes on errands."

Fang smiled as well. "I might just do that."

Lightning just sat there for a long while, tracing her fingers over the pale leather of her backpack. "If you do decide to visit, you need to know about one of the younger kids in the village; he's sort of like a little brother to me..." She thought back to the fateful day when she had happened to see Hope hiding in the forest, beside one of the old winding pathways of the woods. Lightning had taken one look at him, at the way he looked half-starved and utterly terrified, before she had ridden right off to enlist Serah's help with approaching him. "He's more than a little shy around people he doesn't know, but he warms up pretty quick... Just be careful, we don't get a lot of visitors."

"Off the beaten path, are you?" Fang glanced down at Lightning's hands again, wondering if she was going to leave the salt there just to taunt her. "But it's alright, I'll go easy on him."

"Thank you." Lightning finally brushed the salt away, and Fang swore it was a damn shame when she did.

"So, when you're feeling up to it..." Fang looked over at the other side of the cave, towards the tunnel that eventually led outside. "Maybe we could try getting _you_ used to a bit of flying."

Lightning tried not to grimace. "I guess so."

"Oh, it's not _that_ bad." Fang leaned over to catch Lightning's gaze again, holding it for as long as she could. "You act like it doesn't sound fun at all."

Lightning shook her head. "It's probably very fun for you... But _I_ can't really defy gravity, now can I?" She reached up to point at Fang's shoulders. "How exactly am I supposed to hold on up there? I'm not ready to go flying off if the wind decides to kick up in a certain direction."

Fang only smiled. "Oh, just a moment."

Lightning watched her stand up and walk out into the caverns, though Fang's footsteps only faded slightly, before they began to sound a bit heavier in the tunnel outside. "What are you doing?"

"Getting something."

"Real specific..." Lightning let out a quiet sigh. "Is this 'something' really going to help us with this?"

A moment later, in her dragon form, Fang stepped back inside with something slung all around her neck, resting against the curve of her back, between her shoulders. "I use _this_ to carry necessities... Blankets, towels, medicine, stuff like that, but I'd bet that you could hold on to the front straps."

Lightning looked up at the strange sort of contraption, and at how some of the straps crossed right around Fang's chest and neck to keep the satchel secure against her back, hooking it right between her wings.

"Well, what do you think?" Fang stepped forward a bit. "Looks pretty sturdy, doesn't?"

Lightning shrugged. "We'll just have to see." She looked away when Fang moved even closer. "No, I'm not trying it out right now."

Fang merely flopped down on the cavern floor, resting her head against the blankets. "I won't move around."

Lightning grimaced at her. "I don't believe it."

Fang grumbled under her breath, before she tucked her wings down beneath herself. "How about now?"

Lightning stared at her for a long moment. "If you _do_ move, we're walking there for at least a couple of days." Slowly, she rose up to her feet, stepping past Fang's head and neck, and then over towards where the satchel was resting on her back. "Where did you even get this?"

"I made it." Fang glanced over her shoulder when Lightning reached for one of the straps, carefully hoisting herself up. "Around every hundred years, I shed most of my scales, so I'd just stitch them together whenever I got bored, and then I bought some fabric for the inner lining."

"That's actually... Interesting." Lightning reached down to brush her fingertips against the soft, scaly surface, and she found that it did indeed feel a lot like Fang's smaller scales, all blending in with each other like skin. "I've made things out of hides before, but never out of individual scales."

"It was a real pain in the ass to make them all line up again." Fang twitched slightly when Lightning moved around, but she still didn't stand up. "But it worked out eventually."

Lightning glanced around at the cave, resting just beside the satchel, between each of Fang's wings. "This is about the same height that I'm used to with Odin... Only more than a couple of feet taller."

Fang turned her head around. "I'm not gonna make horse noises for you."

Lightning reached down to jab at one of Fang's wings with her index finger. "No backchat."

Fang just rolled her eyes, before she looked back down towards the front. "Maybe we _should_ just walk..."

"You're the one who brought it up." Lightning reached for the dark strap around Fang's neck, just to test how sturdy it would be if she suddenly had to grab it. "Changed my mind, let's try and walk around a little."

Fang merely flicked her tail back and forth. "Oh, now _this_ is something..."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Don't be difficult."

Fang slowly began to move her wings out from beneath herself, and she soon stood up on them. "Doing alright?"

When Lightning compared it to riding upon Odin, the height was now at least twice as steep, but she still wasn't nearly as high up as she had been the day before. With the way Fang's body moved, with how she was quite balanced near the center of her chest, Lightning felt much more stabilized between each wing. "Yes... It's alright."

Fang just sat there for a while, until she began to move her hind legs against the cavern floor, rising up a bit higher, until she was fully standing. "Still alright?"

"Yeah." Lightning kept a tight grip on the leathery strap. "You can walk a little if you want."

Fang took a slow step forward, traveling out into the tunnels. "You know, flying isn't all that different, just a bit faster."

Lightning narrowed her eyes a little. "And a bit _higher_... How far up do you usually go?"

"Above the clouds, sometimes." Fang walked off into another cavern, before she moved up towards a wide, rising tunnel. "But we'll start a bit lower, just to get you used to the air pressure."

"I meant what I said about you dropping me." Lightning tightened her grip a bit. "If I have to come back and haunt you as a ghost..."

Fang laughed. "Oh, I don't doubt that... But I _won't_ drop you, Light." She looked back over her shoulder. "If you ever loose your grip, I'll catch you. I promise."

Lightning felt herself relax, but only slightly. "I do think I'd make a pretty intimidating phantom."

"Yeah, you would." Fang stepped up into a steeper tunnel, lowering her head down to duck beneath a low overhang. "Especially if you had your sword."

"I really would like it back..." Lightning nudged at Fang's neck. "That's your hint to cough it up."

Fang sighed. "It's on a different mountain."

Lightning frowned at Fang, nudging her neck a bit more roughly. "Then _you're_ going to go over there and get it."

Fang paused once they'd reached the next cavern, before she sat down again, glancing around. "I'll get it if you go with me."

Lightning gripped at the satchel strap, and she almost started to frown. "I'd have to put on my warmer clothes."

"No problem." Fang stood up again, turning back. "It's just a quick flight, nothing huge."

Lightning frowned to herself. "Lovely."

"Don't be such a sourpuss." Fang walked on through the tunnels, and for a short while they traveled in silence, until off in the distance, the candlelight began to flicker once more. "We'll be able to see better outside, anyway..."

Lightning waited for Fang to settle down on the ground again, before she angled herself to the side, climbing away from one of her wings. "We'll be coming right back, won't we?" She stepped over towards where her combat gear was still resting on the ground, and she almost frowned at the bloodstains inside of the arm, and then down near the back of her hood. "Because if you decide to just keep flying-"

"Come on, Light..." Fang moved to nudge at Lightning's shoulder with her snout. "A little trust, yeah? I'm not gonna do anything like that." She listened to how Lightning exhaled, and she watched the way that she paused for a brief moment, holding the heavy clothes against her chest.

"...Alright." Lightning stepped back over beside the blankets, tugging on her jacket. "You've been... More than accommodating, over the past few days."

"Oh, just trust me." There was a certain gleam in Fang's eyes, a bright flicker that made Lightning's heartbeat kick right up again. "We're gonna have fun."

* * *

Fang's idea of 'fun' apparently included racing around in the snow for a while, just to get Lightning used to the swifter pace.

"Doing alright?" Fang's folded wings made rather excellent front limbs, for she was able to carry herself along through the snow with great ease. "Just let me know if I should slow down."

Lightning narrowed her eyes, concentrating. "No, just keep going." She could feel the steady course of movement, the quadrupedal stance that still felt so familiar, yet different in many ways. Odin didn't have varying limb lengths, and Fang's wings were just a bit longer than her hind legs, so when she ran, there was more than a bit of variation to her strides.

"You're doing great, Light!" Fang leapt down across a wide snowbank, flaring her wings out to slow the fall, before her limbs thumped back down against the snow again. "See, not so bad..."

Lightning gripped herself against the strap, but she couldn't quite find the will to complain.

"Hey, you think you might be ready to try something a little more airborne?" Fang was still running forward through the whirling snow, and she began to lean down against the steady wind. "I'll stay close to the ground."

Lightning almost felt her stomach drop, but slowly, she nodded, grasping a bit tighter. "Alright."

Fang's wings kept pushing herself further and further through the snow, but when she began to race up towards another steep snowbank, instead of simply flaring them out, she rose up upon her hind legs and flapped, kicking off with her long talons. "Just hold on!"

Lightning grabbed hold of Fang's neck with her right arm, but she kept her left hand clamped against the strap, shivering when they finally drifted downward, and then suddenly surged aloft.

Fang beat her wings so swiftly, pushing back against the air until she was soaring around the side of the mountain, and it was only then that Lightning finally peered out over the valley, off into the thick, rolling mist. She could see the way that everything looked so very blue from so high up, even the distant mountains to the north.

"Nothing else quite like it..." Fang had to call out over the sheer sound of wind, yet Lightning could scarcely even hear what she said. "Hold on, Light!"

Lightning curled her fingertips against Fang's scales, before she tried to project what she was thinking through the palm of her hand. _Fang, I can't hear you very well._

 _Sorry._ Fang angled her wings a bit, just to keep them close to the steadily sloping ground. _It can get pretty loud up here._

 _I figured..._ Lightning could feel her heart pounding within her chest, but the warmth of Fang's scales gave her something to grip to, tethering herself there against the sheer solidity of her dragon form. _Can we go get my sword?_

 _I'll have to fly over to the next mountain..._ Fang turned her head to peer at the low, rocky passage that wound down between the peaks, most likely littered with the remains of wendigo ambushes. _You sure you're ready for it?_

Lightning let herself nod against Fang's neck, but she gripped the satchel strap even tighter when they suddenly whirled off to the side, diving on down a bit to face the opposite mountain.

 _You're a natural, Light, don't worry._

 _Do you do this often..?_ Lightning began to grit her teeth when they passed down into a thick layer of clouds, and she could quickly see the numerous water droplets that started to cling against her clothes. _Fly with people, I mean._

 _Never._ Fang flapped her wings to carry them up just a bit higher, before she angled herself down, circling around the other mountainside. _I can just tell... You're not bad at all._

Lightning held on when they dove back down again, and she squeezed her eyes shut until Fang finally thumped against the snowy ground, bracing herself with those wide, flapping wings.

"Well, here we are..." Fang folded her front limbs again. "You doing alright?"

Lightning nodded. "I'm fine."

"Your sword's right down here." Fang stepped out through the snow, walking towards a small overhang in the rocks of the high mountain. "Your bow, too."

Lightning watched as Fang reached out with one of her wings to brush away the thick snowdrifts, until a small, shallow cave became visible within the stony mountainside.

"Think you could go grab them?" Fang glanced over her shoulder. "They're a little farther in, and I'd have to change back..."

Lightning began to climb down immediately, using one of Fang's wings to help herself move towards the snowy rocks. "Are they just sitting there?"

Fang shook her head. "They're behind some tall stones; I made sure it was pretty clean and dry... Didn't want them to rust out here."

"I appreciate it." Lightning crouched down to step beneath the overhang, walking forward until she was enveloped in the sheer darkness, with only the hazy light of the sun to see where she was going. "Are they really far back?"

Fang knelt down to look inside the cave. "Little to the left."

Lightning crept forward until she finally reached a small dip in the earth, right where her weapons were resting. "Found them."

"Okay, so no more stabbing..." Fang moved her head back a little bit, but she still kept her chin against the ground, watching the way that Lightning strapped her sword down against her belt. "No stabbing, and definitely no arrows."

Lightning hooked the bowstring over her chest. "Like I said, it depends on whether or not you drop me."

Fang's nostrils twitched with a quiet snort. "This again?"

As she walked back up from the cave, Lightning pushed at Fang's nose with the palm of her hand. " _Unless_ you manage to catch me."

Fang moved away from the ground, sitting upright again. "Alright then... After all, friends don't stab each other, and they definitely catch each other when they fall."

Lightning started to smile, only it was hidden beneath the mask that covered her mouth, though she was sure that Fang could see the look of it in her eyes.

Fang tipped her head, gazing off towards the other mountainside. "You want to head back?"

Lightning nodded, before she reached up to grab hold of Fang's nearest wing. "Let's go."

* * *

Back within the cave, beneath the gentle candlelight, Lightning scrubbed against rather dark stain in her coat with a dampened rag.

"Should I get some more ice?" Fang was carrying in a small jug of water, before she set it down near where Lightning was resting. "Or is this enough?"

"It should be enough." Lightning reached for more a bit more water to wash away the dried blood from the fur-lined interior, and she felt rather thankful that it was quite resistant to stains. "Thank you for melting it down."

"No problem." Fang stretched out her arms as she sat down, before she yawned quietly, flexing her fingertips. "Feels like we've only been awake for hours."

"What time is it?" Lightning pushed the damp rag towards another patch of blood. "We woke up late, didn't we?"

Fang nodded. "It was probably around afternoon... But hey, we've both gotta recuperate as much as we can." She reached up to rub at the side of her chin. "Your sword's got a real nasty bite to it."

Lightning glanced over at where she had set the blade down, still sheathed within a pale leather case. "It really has to... Try fighting with a dull edge, and it can turn out even worse than unarmed combat."

Fang peered over at the sword as well. "How's that?"

"When you're unarmed, or have a free hand, you can utilize the terrain to your advantage." Lightning swabbed off some of the blood from her jacket, before she reached for a bit more water. "Climbing, using charms, even tossing a vial of hydra blood on an angry pack of wendigoes..."

Fang winced. "Doesn't sound pretty."

Lightning almost smiled. "They weren't very pretty to start with."

Fang glanced up at the wound on Lightning's head. "How's that feeling?"

"Doesn't sting as much..." Lightning placed the rag on the ground, before she started to shake out the water from her jacket. "I should be able to travel soon."

Fang smiled. "It's only a few days of flying if we have the wind on our side, but it might be a pretty long trip to the other vestige..." She looked back into Lightning's eyes, searching for any hint of hesitation. "If you'd like to head back home, first-"

"Serah would never let me do this." Lightning slowly shook her head. "If I come back with injuries like this, even if they're mostly healed, she's going to want details, like how I managed to get back home so quickly without Odin, who the heck _you_ are..."

"We _could_ just tell her." Fang crossed her legs against the blankets, thinking it over for a moment. "'Yes, your sister did try to kill me, but we managed to talk it out after a while'... 'Yes, we're going to go pick a fight with a fal'Cie, but don't worry, I'm also a dragon, and I've already done it once before'..."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that'll fly."

"Maybe we should skip it, then." Fang watched as Lightning opened up the backpack again, rummaging around for something. "But I'll get you back there before too long."

"Serah does mean well, but she can be a little..." Lightning trailed off for a moment. "A little clingy. She worries about a whole lot of things, some of which just aren't worth the effort."

Fang nodded. "Just a sister thing?"

"She's got a motherly side, too." Lightning took out a small bit of hardtack from one of the backpack compartments, and she offered a piece of it to Fang. "Like when we first found Hope, he was... Non-communicative, at best." She took a small bite of the dry bread as well. "We finally managed to coax him into following us out of the woods, but he'd barely even eat, hardly sleep... Serah and I would sit with him in one of the spare houses, and she'd just talk and _talk_ , telling him about everything from the chores we did that day to the color of the sky..." Lightning remembered the way that Hope had been so dangerously thin at the time, how she could almost see the narrow veins pushing at his skin. "She was just telling him about the ocean one day, when he finally started to talk."

Fang smiled, but she just kept chewing at her portion of bread.

"He said that he could remember the sea." Lightning almost smiled at the memory. "For the first time, Serah got him to eat a full meal, and the next day, he started following me around like a stray cat... When he saw all the horses together, his eyes went wider than I'd ever seen them before."

"Sounds like you have a little bit of that side, yourself." Fang peered at the look in Lightning's eyes. "I think most people do."

Lightning slowly nodded. "He's almost like a little brother." She took another bite of bread. "He basically owns Alexander now... Takes care of him every day, makes sure he gets enough attention and exercise."

"One of the horses, you said?" Fang soon brushed away the crumbs from her hands. "Odin is yours."

"That's right." Lightning quickly finished her bread as well, before she reached up to touch the side of her forehead, wincing at the dull ache. "...Wish I still had all of my supplies."

"Headache?" Fang leaned over to examine the wound at the back of Lightning's head, and she frowned. "I could get you some more ointment-"

Lightning gave her a rather sharp look.

"Alright, alright..." Fang held up her hands. "Don't get your trousers in a twist; I'm just trying to get it healed up as fast as possible."

"It does help, but I just ate..." Lightning rubbed at the side of her head. "And I really don't want to throw up."

Fang kept quiet for a while, before she glanced back over at Lightning again, lowering her voice a bit. "Then it might be a good idea to get some more rest... If we're going to leave soon, you need as much energy as you can."

Lightning glanced down at her backpack, and at the stray charms, her pocketknife, and even the strange device that the golem had given her, muffled by the inner lining of the fabric. "...It might be just as cold tonight."

Slowly, Fang traced her fingertips over the edge of the sheets. "I might have a few extra blankets somewhere, you're more than welcome to them."

Lightning glanced away.

"You seemed pretty happy with last night, though..." Fang smiled to herself. "Not a bad way to keep warm, is it?"

Lightning tried to fight away the flush creeping over her neck, and she cleared her throat. "There's nothing weird about sharing body heat in the cold, especially when _you_ have so damn much of it..."

"Nothing weird at all..." Fang's gaze went low, and she tracked each of quick, tiny pulses in Lightning's jugular, almost entirely visible at such a close distance. "Can't have you getting chilly on us, can we? After all, we've got a fal'Cie to kill..." Lightning tried not to blush when Fang suddenly flopped down against the blankets, grinning up at her.

Lightning paused, before she spoke in a very low whisper. "Do you _have_ to make it so-"

"I'm just teasing you." Fang's eyes went incredibly soft, and she started to relax, still watching the slight tinge of redness on Lightning's face. "You're not a tough one to rile up, are you?"

Lightning looked away. "I'm just not used to... It's just been a while since I've been around friends like this." She placed her backpack down against the floor. "We'd sometimes have sleepovers back when I was little, but even when they'd start to poke fun at each other, it was always hard to tell the difference."

"Tell me about them?" Fang reached out to pat her hand against the blankets. "Everyone's got a story... You tell me one of yours, and I'll tell one of mine."

Slowly, Lightning began to settle down as well, resting just beside her. Even without physical contact, she could feel the natural warmth of Fang's body, how it made everything seem so much closer, so much softer than before. "When I was ten, Serah wanted to get her ears pierced from one of our friend's parents; they knew how to do it safely, and all of the other kids seemed to want at least one or two."

Fang smiled. "Earrings."

Lightning nodded against the blankets. "She still wears them... It was a little hard to watch, but there was hardly any blood." She looked down at herself, before she quickly glanced away. "Serah said it didn't hurt much at all, and... She _might_ have convinced me into my own."

"Really?" Fang's eyes lit up. "...Not your ears, though?"

Lightning shook her head. "Lots of girls had it done at that age, earlobes, top of the ear, sometimes a single stud on the nose."

"Do you still have yours?" Fang looked Lightning over for a moment. "Can't be on your face if you do."

Lightning bit back a smirk. "Story for a story; it's your turn."

"Doesn't count as a story if you just leave the listener hanging like that..." Fang tried to pout for a moment, but she soon shook her head, thinking back. "Alright... One day, Vanille and I saw something weird in the woods, but the strangest thing about it was that it'd burned down quite a bit of the forest around it."

Lightning looked up at Fang's face. "What was it?"

"A big, glowing _egg_ , right there in the middle of a huge pile of ash." Fang closed her eyes to remember. "Now, I told Vanille that eggs are pretty damn tasty, but she's this big pile of fluff, so, just my luck... We had to wait around there without even eating it."

Lightning smiled a little. "Did something hatch out of it?"

Fang nodded, opening her eyes again. "Just this little ugly thing, and it was even weirder, because the egg itself was actually beautiful... It ran off pretty fast, but Vanille was sure that it had to have been a phoenix."

"A phoenix..." Lightning thought back to the stories she had once heard of a great fiery bird, a grand symbol of reincarnation. "I've never seen one before."

Fang grumbled under her breath. "Bet it would've tasted _awesome_..."

"You have a very one-track mind." Lightning could both see and feel it when Fang stretched out her arms, resting them against either side of the blankets. "They're probably an incredibly rare species, and you wanted to make an omelet out of it?"

Fang just grinned at her with a quick flash of teeth, before she closed her eyes in mirth. "I've eaten some _pretty_ amazing eggs in my day..."

Lightning sighed. "Remind me not to let you near our chicken coop."

"You keep chickens?" Fang kept her eyes shut, but she soon stretched out her arms once again, resting one of them right beside Lightning. "They're a little on the small side, maybe a decent snack."

Lightning jabbed at Fang's ribs with her index finger. "I keep track of their numbers _very_ carefully."

"Relax, relax..." Fang winced a little. "What about when I come over for dinner? Or do you just keep the hens around for eggs?"

"We keep the roosters separated unless we need fertilized eggs." Lightning thought back to the tiny wooden hutch near the back of the stables, surrounded by a tall wire fence to keep out foxes and other predators. "But yes, if we're low on wild game, we do eat chickens."

Fang opened her eyes after a moment, glancing down at Lightning. "Would telling me about that count as a story?"

Lightning shrugged. "I could tell you about our horses, but working in the stable isn't all that interesting."

"How about riding them?" Fang waggled her eyebrows a bit. "Not nearly as much fun as flying, right?"

Lightning rolled over on her back. "You wish."

Fang only smiled, nudging at Lightning's shoulder. "Come on, I doubt Odin would be upset..."

"It's just a different sort of thing." Lightning stared up at the top of the cavern walls. She watched the candlelight dance back and forth, and she could feel the warmth of Fang's body as it mimicked quite the same thing. "Haven't you ever had a pet, Fang? More than that, like a best friend, only you can't quite talk to them, but it doesn't even matter... You're on the same level, mentally, and they'd never leave your side."

Fang kept quiet for a long while, but when Lightning rolled over to look at her again, she quietly started to speak. "I've never had a pet, at least not in this life."

"I'm sorry." Lightning looked away, but Fang reached over to touch her shoulder, keeping her close.

"Don't be." Fang smiled at her, and even if her own gaze was more than a little distant, Lightning could see the affection in her eyes. "If anything, he's still here with me, just in a different way; I remember things being real similar, long ago... Dragons with wings, dragons without wings." She stared out into the darkness, at the shadows moving just beside the candlelight. "But he had wings."

Lightning kept her voice soft. "What was his name?"

"Bahamut." Fang let her eyes slip shut. "But that... That was a whole different world."

Lightning could feel a strange sensation creeping through herself, a feeling of absolute smallness, the same sort that she felt when she looked out at the distant stars, just a tiny speck against the face of the sprawling earth. "Was it a different planet..? A different universe?"

Fang only smiled.

Lightning tried not to let the feeling smother her, but the sudden tide, the intense, lingering sharpness of doubt, it almost crushed the very air from inside her lungs. She didn't let it show upon her face, but she _knew_ that Fang knew, and that she might even feel exactly the same.

"We're all just floating around in the breeze, Light..." Fang motioned for her to move closer, and slowly, gradually, Lightning did. "No use worrying too much about it."

"I can't help it." Lightning whispered against Fang's neck, suddenly so vulnerable, if only for a moment. "We can do such amazing things, but we're all so _fragile_ ; I've lost too many people, too many friends."

Fang hummed quietly, and she slowly stroked her way between Lightning's shoulder blades. "But you're here."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut. "...I'm here."

"And you will be, right up until you have to leave again." Fang kept moving her hand over Lightning's back, gentle and chaste. "And I'll just keep on finding you."

Lightning could feel it somewhere deep, somewhere that she had always somehow known, yet never fully realized. It filled in the cracks, the many scars from such long, boundless years, so many lifetimes that she couldn't even possibly begin to count them all.

"Light, I've been to the ends of the earth..." Fang smiled against the darkness, feeling the heartbeat that danced right next to hers, the soft breath at her throat, the rhythm that she knew even better than herself. "There's nothing else like this." She pulled Lightning close. "Nothing."

* * *

She dreamt of a solider.

Lightning stood there, donned in all gray with her cuts deep and bleeding, yet she kept on marching to the beat of a thousand footsteps. Her boots sank deeper and deeper into the mud, while the rain pattered down against her back, but she still kept on.

"Sergeant Farron?"

Lightning paused at the sound of her father's surname, a word she hadn't thought of in years; they were barely ever used in modern times.

The voice spoke again, yet the sound couldn't even reach her ears. She could feel those pale, empty eyes searching her own, such a weathered face.

A long peal of thunder sounded in the distance.

Lightning blinked, feeling the wind at her back.

"Do you understand?" A long pause. "...Farron?"

But then she was turning, gazing up at the sleek constructs that flew onward through the dark, hazy sky, a thing that her own world had never even seen, and it send a long jolt of pain through the pit of her stomach.

"Farron!"

Sharp metal, crashing at her side, but she couldn't begin to comprehend what had sent them there, had made them _fly_ at her with such ferocity, burning deep holes inside her flesh, into her heart.

She realized, slowly, that she was staring up from somewhere the ground, deep into that rough, weathered face. Her blood pooled all around her.

 _...Or perhaps your fellow man._

Lightning couldn't even breathe.

 _You will simply kill because you are able..._ Those wide yellow eyes, sharp talons and long teeth, with scales like flowing seawater. _You have done it before, and the cycle will always repeat._

She knew it, then, that she dying, bleeding out against the soft, thickened mud, and as her vision glazed over, staring off into the void, something utterly cold struck down against her throat.

* * *

Lightning choked, rising, gasping, even when something very warm reached out for her arms, and then at her back, she still struggled away.

"Lightning?!"

She shivered and gripped at her own neck, curling over against herself on the blankets.

"Light, _talk_ to me..."

Lightning felt her eyes adjust to the low light, to the tiny, flickering candlelight, down to its last few inches of wax.

"Lightning..." Fang was suddenly there again, pressed up beside her, touching the frantic pulse that raced though her veins. "Was it a dream? I wasn't there for it."

Lightning forced out her words. "...I remembered."

Fang held them both close, resting her chin on Lightning's shoulder. "What did you remember?"

She closed her eyes. "I died."

Fang frowned. "Not the best kind..."

Lightning could feel her heart throbbing against her chest, and she nearly pulled herself away again, perhaps to walk out into the caverns, yet there was Fang's soft voice at her cheek again, drawing back all of the warmth around her, and it slowly eased away the pain.

"You're alright..." Fang just sat there, stroking her hands over Lightning's forearms, down to her wrists, and then out across her hands. "You're alive, Light... And I'm right here, too."

"It felt like _fire_." Lightning stared down at her palms, and at the way Fang was stroking them. "Like I was on fire... Only it went so cold."

Fang nodded. "You don't have to keep thinking about it."

Lightning shook her head, feeling every nerve stand fully on end, wired right down to the core. "There was something loud... It was deafening." She tried to close her eyes, but they only went narrow. "It just... It _killed_ me, but I couldn't even see it."

"Light..."

She felt herself moving, being turned around to face Fang, but she could barely even see her in the dark.

"Light, look at me."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut.

"You're _alive_."

She could feel Fang's heart beating beside hers, pressed up against her chest.

"We're alive, and we're here..." Fang spoke in a whisper, wrapping her arms around Lightning's back. "I'm right beside you."

They were drumming together, one thrum, and then silence, before the other one took up the rhythm again.

"...I've got you, Light." Fang closed her eyes again, gently moving them both back towards the blankets. "It's all just a memory."

Lightning pressed herself up against Fang's neck, breathing just as steadily as she could.

"I think you can see now why you shouldn't try to remember them all at once." Fang kept on stroking between her shoulders. "They're still pretty powerful."

"...Thank you, Fang." Lightning was holding Fang's body with an iron grip, but she didn't shiver again, and her voice was strong. "Thank you."

Fang nodded, before she quietly yawned, wrapping her arms around Lightning's back. "Try to sleep."

Lightning nodded against Fang's throat, before she slowly let herself go limp.

* * *

The cavern was dark, yet silent.

Fang stepped along the path with the satchel on her chest. As she stepped forward on her wings, out into the pale light of the mountainside, a second figure walked alongside her. Lightning stood there, just a ghost in the dark. She had her sword at her belt and a distant look in her eyes, mirroring the clear blue sky up ahead.

"You feeling alright?" Fang paused, before she lowered her head down a bit. "Really, we could take another day to rest, if you-"

"I'm fine." There was no edge to Lightning's voice, but it was both solid and strong. "Let's go... I'd really like to meet Vanille."

Fang knelt down against her wings, waiting for Lightning to climb up upon her back. "...I'm lucky to know you, Light."

Lightning gripped at the strap of her own backpack, before she reached up for the harness near Fang's wing. "I might say the same about you."

As Fang stepped out into the light, beneath the soft, rolling clouds, her hind legs sank deep into the snowdrifts, and she turned her head towards the sun. "Well, would you look at that..."

Lightning lifted her hand to shield herself from the sudden sunlight, but when her eyes finally adjusted, she caught sight of the world below. Great gray forests stretched on from each valley to the next, off beneath the towering mountains, a dark, glazed blue from such a high vantage point. Fang stepped out to the edge, gazing down at the lowlands, at the snakelike rivers frozen from cold, and even the distant sea, only a thin strip of white along the horizon.

Lightning tightened her grip. "You ready?"

Fang spread her wings out to either side of her body, feeling how the wind pushed between each nimble digit, billowing forth. "Always."

Lightning closed her eyes, before she felt Fang leave the earth behind.


	10. Crystal

Lightning could feel each stroke of air as it brought them higher, soaring further and further above the misty cover of fog.

 _Strong breeze today._ Fang blinked against the sharp rush of wind, and she angled her wings to let herself glide down a bit from the clouds, closer to the valley below. _You doing alright back there?_

Lightning leaned forward to press her palm a bit closer against Fang's neck. _I'm alright._

 _Just let me know if you need a break, okay?_ Fang ducked her head down, slowly drifting a bit further, until they could both start to see each of the individual treetops, all covered in thick white snow. _We'll stop and rest once we get some distance in._

 _You said it was a few days of travel?_ Lightning suddenly felt her heart lurch when Fang suddenly dipped to the side, steering them off towards the northwest. _Maybe_ _ **warn**_ _me when you turn like that..._

 _Sorry._ Fang flapped her wings yet again, before she began to glide. _Yeah, it's just a couple of days with good weather, but with all the snow we've been getting..._

 _It might take longer._ Lightning squinted against the long rays of brilliant sunlight, and she almost thought to comment upon how they felt so much brighter at the massive height. _Do you think you're flying low enough for anyone on the ground to see us?_

Fang shook her head. _People don't usually look up in the first place._

Lightning glanced down at the earth below, at the wide misty forests and fields, and even when she started to feel just a bit winded from it all, she only had to look back up at the horizon to feel calm again, and at the distant mountains they had left behind.

 _If you wanted to, once we take a break... I know where most of the towns are around here._ Fang drifted above a rather strong current of wind, and she flapped her mighty wings again, bringing them higher. _I usually just land beneath cover somewhere, wait a minute or two, and then walk out with nobody the wiser._

 _But doesn't anyone ever see you?_ Lightning held tight against the satchel strap around Fang's neck, but she still kept mental contact by using her other hand. _I mean, if you get that close to the ground..._

 _Not really, people aren't usually on the lookout unless you make a whole lot of noise._ Fang turned her head to gaze at the forest below, and then at a stray flock of birds soaring far beneath them. _Even a few days ago when I got us that food, hardly anyone pays much attention to 'travelers'._

 _I think they must be pretty common here._ Lightning watched as a small frozen lake drifted by beneath them, surrounded by hundreds of snowcapped trees. _Lots of people wander around the world these days, even in the winter._

 _That's gotta get really cold._ Fang looked back a bit, glancing at where Lightning was still perched between her neck and upper back. _Are you feeling chilly, by the way?_

Lightning shook her head. _Nothing I can't handle._

 _Alright, but just tell me if it gets to be too much._ Fang turned to face the front again, flapping on beneath the wind. _Am I starting to sound paranoid yet? It's just tough to remember how much humans can handle... Even my human form isn't quite on the baseline._

 _I'll be alright, Fang._ Lightning felt the warmth of Fang's dark scales beneath her fingertips, and she slowly closed her eyes, just listening to the wind. _This is actually... Not that bad._

She could feel a low rumble of laughter, and Lightning gradually leaned forward to rest her cheek against the back of Fang's neck.

 _Not that bad..._ Fang could feel the crisp air in her face, swirling on beneath her wings, and she began to flick her tail back and forth. _Not that bad at all._

* * *

The sun lingered high above the trees by the time they had stopped to rest, softly touching down beside a narrow, frozen river.

As she slid down again from Fang's back, over her wing, Lightning could feel the snow as it crunched beneath her boots. It took a moment for her to regain full balance, and for a second or two, she held on to one of Fang's wings for support. While she had gotten quite accustomed to being so high up within the air, the sudden stability of the ground was more than little disorienting.

"I'm okay." Lightning slowly began to let go of Fang's scales, stepping back. "Just a little dizzy."

With a slight nod, Fang started to walk over towards the edge of the ice, yet with a quick puff of fire, a patch of it began to sizzle and hiss, melting back down into water again. "You thirsty?"

Lightning closed her eyes for a moment, breathing deep. "I've got my canteen."

Fang knelt down to lap at the water with her tongue.

"How far do you think we've gone?" Lightning opened her eyes again to peer around at the tall, silent forest, and then at the bare branches all coated in snow. "I don't really recognize the area."

Fang shrugged, before she lifted her head again, slowly changing back into her human form. "I don't usually measure it in distances, just days."

Lightning glanced over at the way that Fang's clothes didn't cover either her arms or shoulders. "You really aren't cold with that..?"

Fang only grinned, before she knelt down to pick up a bit of snow, only to drop it down upon her wrist.

Lightning felt her eyes go wide when the frost melted away almost immediately, dripping across Fang's hand as mere water, until it fell back down against the ground again.

"Winter, it's not much of an issue..." Fang soon stretched her arms out above her head, before she turned to face the forest. "Think we can find anything to eat out here?"

Lightning reached down into her backpack for the last few pieces of bread. "I'll check the area." She handed over a piece of hardtack to Fang, before she bit down against her own, walking off towards the woods.

"Hey, wait up." Fang took a small bite of her share, but she quickly followed on after Lightning. "You know, I could fly around a little more, try to find something from up there."

Lightning shook her head. "We're not cheating."

Fang rolled her eyes. "It's not _cheating_..."

"No, you're going to be a human today." Lightning turned around to tap at Fang's shoulder with her index finger, but she still kept walking off towards the trees. "At least for the next few hours... We're giving you an education, young lady."

Fang chuckled under her breath. "What sort of 'education'?"

"How to survive out here in the winter." Lightning lowered her voice a bit, and she slowed slightly, creeping out beside the wide trunks of the trees. "First rule, be _quiet_... There's almost nothing worse than scaring off an animal when it was already in range."

Fang nodded, and she quickly mimicked Lightning's stance. "I get memories sometimes, of hunting like this... It's a lot harder than just flying on over."

Lightning nodded, before she reached into her jacket pocket for a certain charm. "I need quiet for just a moment."

Fang leaned over to watch, but she kept completely silent.

Lightning inhaled, before she gently pressed at the center. She closed her eyes, exhaling, and for a moment there was absolutely nothing, only dark... Until she inhaled again, and her world came alive with color. Scents ran in and out of range, winding between the tree trunks, and before long, each and every one of them began to create a distinct network of various pathways, so detailed and precise that Lightning didn't even have to open her eyes to move forward.

The scent of a stray tree made her turn away, for she was tracking the faint, yet steady trail of a certain type of animal, one that she had hunted many times before.

Lightning could hear Fang walking on beside her, but she still kept her eyes shut.

"...Is it alright to talk again?" Fang murmured her words under her breath, stepping over the various twigs and rocks that were scattered all along the forest floor. "What do you smell?"

Lightning slowly opened her eyes. "White-tailed deer." She quickened her pace, but she still barely even made a sound as she moved out against the snow, up and over fallen branches, stepping back and forth beneath the cover of trees. "A buck, by the scent... They always smell different."

Fang followed in Lightning's footsteps, copying the way that she made less than whisper sound. "You've got a better nose than mine; dragons mostly go by sight, like a bird of prey."

"I can imagine, with all that flying." Lightning kept traveling forward, over the winding hills and through small riverbeds, crossing over the frozen water beneath. "I'll tell you when we need to be quiet again."

"Alright." Fang looked down at the bow slung across Lightning's back. "Is the thing from that charm still going on?"

Lightning nodded. "This one lasts longer than most." She stepped above a patch of solid ice, before she turned back to point it out for Fang. "Careful there."

Fang stepped over it as well. "Do you do this a lot? Hunting things, I mean... Not just monsters, but in general."

Lightning smiled to herself. "It's pretty much all I ever do." She reached up to adjust the hood of her jacket, moving the thin white cloth away from her mouth, back down towards her neck. "You might be surprised at just how quickly food can run out even between a small group of people... The best way to keep people happy is with both regularity and variety."

Fang followed after Lightning as she climbed up a tall, steep hill, gripping against the thin trees that covered it from base to peak. "And are you in charge of all the food for your village?"

"Not all of it." Lightning took a moment to inhale another breath of scent, before she quickly changed course. "We don't exactly welcome people who don't help us out in some way... There are a few families who live near us, but they all have things that they can do to help." She took another deep breath, and walked on. "And in return, Serah and I give out the surplus meat we collect from wild game."

With a nod, Fang ducked down beneath a narrow tree, one that had fallen against another tall pine. "What sort of things can they do?"

"Farming, making certain supplies... Clothing, repairs, medicine." Lightning thought back to the little herb garden that she herself kept out in the woods, sheltered within a dark, mossy grotto. "I can handle most of the basics, but it always helps to have people around who can specialize."

"So, life for you... It sounds like you do a lot of work around the village, and then you go and hunt monsters in your time off." Fang knelt down when Lightning signaled her to stop, and the both of them moved to hide behind a rather large rock. "Does that sound about right?"

Lightning nodded, and she began to whisper just as quietly as she could. "Do you see it?"

Fang narrowed her eyes at the long, sloping hills, and at the thick cover of brambles that covered the lowest point of the terrain, before she caught sight of a small pair of antlers, moving so slowly throughout the brush. "Yeah."

Lightning had already taken her bow down and nocked a single arrow. "Second rule... Patience." She gazed down at the distant deer, at how it was just rooting around in the bushes, searching for any food that might remain. "Doesn't matter if you happen to hit it... If it doesn't die within a few moments, you're going to be tracking it for hours, possibly."

Fang simply knelt there within the snow, pressed up against the side of the cold rock, while Lightning hid right beside her, watching the buck move around through the brambles.

"Now, the head moves too much, so unless you have a headlong shot, it's much better to aim for the lungs, the spine, or the heart." Lightning kept the arrow nocked against her bow, but she didn't pull back on the string. "And the heart itself, it's actually right around his armpit."

Fang fought the urge to just change back into her dragon form, to pounce down on the deer before it could even react.

"Look." Lightning's voice barely left her lips, and she slowly drew back on the bowstring. "Might be a clear shot..."

The buck had wandered away from the brambles, stepping back towards the open field. He started to snuffle at the ground again, likely looking for any hints of grass left beneath the snow.

Fang tensed, and she could imagine those long, lithe muscles readying themselves along Lightning's arm, before she fully drew the arrow back.

Lightning inhaled, and the shot flew out.

There was only a brief, keening whine, before the buck swiftly collapsed against the ground. The wound bubbled up with a pale foam, flowing with red, but Lightning just kept sitting there, holding the bow in her hands.

"It was quick..." Lightning didn't even blink, she just watched as the frost finally settled around the field, before the world grew silent again. "Wait here for a moment."

Fang did just that, but she did lean over to watch while Lightning crossed the whole length of the field, kneeling down just beside the fallen animal. For a moment, it almost looked as if she was speaking to it, reciting a few words from memory.

After a brief pause, Lightning let her backpack slide down to the snow from her shoulders. "Fang, come over here."

Fang stood up. "Alright..." She walked across the snowy ground, until she finally caught the scent of blood, and even the earthen, musky smell of the animal it had bled from. "Do I still have to-?"

"Yes." Lightning gestured for her to sit down. "You're a human for the rest of this afternoon, okay? Everything we do, it's going to be like what I do back at home." She reached past her pocketknife for a different sort of blade, one with a sharp hook on the end. "And that means we can't take the entire weight of this, only the essentials." Lightning readied the knife. "Scavengers will get the rest."

Fang nodded. "What do you need me to do?"

Lightning stood up to grab hold of the buck's front legs. "Help me position the hind end downhill; we're going to field dress it."

Fang stood up as well, and she began to help Lightning turn the deer around so that it was laying on its back with all four legs in the air, facing down over the incline of the hill.

"Now... This part isn't very pleasant." Lightning knelt down again with the hooked knife. "Most of it isn't."

Fang simply watched, holding the legs steady while Lightning severed the very bottom of the buck's belly, until she was able to cut a thin line back up towards the chest, slowly tugging out the various organs as she did so, but not before she had reached in to sever the throat.

"Liver and heart, we're keeping those." Lightning was elbow deep in the mess of guts and blood, but she didn't even seem to take much notice of it; she took the knife and severed the stringy material around each organ, cutting them away from the rest of the deer. "You have to be careful not to hit the tenderloins when you do this." Lightning slid the hooked knife forward with what looked like hardly any effort, cutting even further up the buck's chest. "It's a good idea to skin it while the body's still warm... It makes the hide easier to peel back."

Fang nodded. "You've got stuff to carry this with, right?"

"Some all-purpose fabric, yes." Lightning suddenly paused, before she tugged out most of the remaining organs from the cavity, discarding all but a few. "Hey, what happens to your satchel when you change back?"

Fang smiled a bit. "Same thing that happens to my clothes... They're still sort of 'there', just not in the same kind of physical state."

Lightning smiled as well. "Then we might cheat just a little... If you can carry the rest of this once I finish skinning it-"

"What happened to 'being human for today'?" Fang watched while Lightning reached into her backpack again. "Don't go soft on me, now."

Lightning just rolled her eyes, before she held up a much longer knife, one with a slim, curved end. "Hey, if you want to have less to eat, then be my guest." She began near the base of the buck's legs, carefully skinning away the hide from each hind limb, working her way up towards the higher body. "This is more of a learning process... Doesn't really matter how we carry things."

Fang shrugged. "Are we going to take the skin along, too?"

Lightning shook her head. "I don't have any of the supplies that I'd need to properly preserve it, and even if we _did_ try to sell it somewhere, some people don't take too kindly to people hunting around their land." She peeled back even more of the fuzzy hide, moving her knife down towards the upper spine of the deer. "Help me lift it?"

Fang reached for the hind legs again, before she tugged it aloft so that Lightning could keep skinning away the hide.

"We should get a good thirty, maybe forty pounds of meat from this." Lightning moved down towards the buck's back, simultaneously peeling the skin away from beside the chest cavity. "I'd start curing some of the meat if I had enough salt and the time to sit still..." When she finally reached the upper part of the buck, moving on towards the neck, the flow of blood began to trickle down much more steadily. "But we'll just have to make do with what we can get."

After a moment or two, Fang set the hind legs back down. "Sounds like you've got this down to a science."

Lightning almost smiled. "When you've got a group of people to provide for..." She stepped back towards the hind end of the deer, where the outer muscle was now entirely visible. "Alright, watch this."

And Fang did, sitting down beside Lightning while she worked on cutting the creature's body into sections. The smaller parts of the limbs went first, hooves and bones, but they were discarded, and Lightning began to cut the hind shanks down into rather large portions.

"Next, the tenderloins." Lightning moved the knife back down inside the carcass, gently cutting out twin pieces of long, dark flesh. "Get some of that cloth from my pack?"

Fang reached in for the folded fabric, before she held it out for Lightning to set down the meat.

"Tenderloin is really the best part..." Lightning gestured for Fang to spread the cloth down against the snow. "We can cook those tonight."

Fang sat in silence for a while, watching as Lightning worked further towards the spine, sectioning off different parts of the meat, until she was able to remove the ribs and slice away the cartilage underneath.

"Tenderloin and ribs..." Lightning set down one rack upon the fabric. "Sounds good?"

Fang nodded. "Hey, can I try what you did, just then?"

Lightning held up the other side of the rib-cage. "Just let me guide you through it." She handed the knife over, but she soon took hold of Fang's wrist and hand, gently leading her into the process of severing the lower portion. "That part, it's called a brisket bone."

Fang could feel the way that Lightning's hand was moving them both by sheer memory, guiding her own grip forward, down and out from the end of the meaty section.

"Good, let's get the rest packed up." Lightning let Fang hold the knife for a moment longer while she placed the severed bits of meat into the cloth, tying it down in a knot. "Could you help me with this?"

Fang handed the knife back, before she started to pick up the meat as well. "Not as much blood as I expected."

Lightning nodded. "Unless you get a bad gut shot, most of it's fairly clean." She could see the way that most of the blooded mess was seeping down from the front portions of the animal, but after a quick wash, a great deal of the meat would be clean enough to cook that very same day. "Do you want to change back so we can carry all of it?"

Fang set down the last few pieces of venison upon the cloth, before she took a slow step back, quickly enveloped by a glimmer of fire and light.

"Thanks." Lightning lifted up one of the packages, reaching up towards the nearest side of Fang's satchel. "Is there anywhere without other things inside? If the blood seeps out..."

"Left side, lowest pocket." Fang knelt down to let the satchel move to the side, just beside her chest and neck. "See it?"

Lightning opened up the compartment with a nod. "Yeah." She held up the bundle of fabric, before she gently placed it down inside the satchel, reaching for the next. "If we can find somewhere clear enough to start a fire, preferably with a source of water..."

Fang looked back up at the sky, at the long, pale clouds rolling on throughout the afternoon. "Back by the river, maybe?"

Lightning began to pack away the rest of the fabric containers into Fang's satchel, before she put a few of them down into her own backpack. "If we can find a spot without as much dry grass, we'd have better luck..." She slung the pack over her shoulders again. "Come on, we're still walking today."

With a quiet sigh, Fang grumbled under her breath. "Oh, so we can use my dragon form as a _pack-mule_ , but _I_ still have to run around in the snow?"

Lightning tried not to smirk.

"You're lucky I like you..." Fang turned back to her human self with a quick flash of light, stepping forward again. "And you're lucky I'm pretty curious about what you can cook up."

Lightning walked off into the snow, leaving only a small trace of the deer carcass behind, along with the unusable organs. "I think if you didn't like me, I wouldn't even be here right now." She walked on down across the narrow hills, back towards where they had seen the river before. "And all of this, it's good practice."

Fang let out a sigh. "Practice for what? I've been a dragon for _thousands_ of years, and never needed-"

"Practice, for..." Lightning felt her voice trail off, slowly stepping through the snow. "...Do you think we're just going to part ways, after this?" She kept gazing forward, but she never stopped walking down the hill. "I'm going help you kill a fal'Cie, save Vanille, and then what?"

Fang couldn't help but frown at Lightning's tone. "I was sort of leaving it open ended for now." She tried to catch up with her, but she wasn't quite so used to walking around in the snow as a human, and she could barely keep to a steady pace. "Hey, slow down a little?"

Lightning just kept staring at the forest ahead. "I don't make many friends these days, Fang... It's a lot less painful than watching them all disappear."

Fang reached forward, gently grasping at her shoulder. " _Light._ "

Finally, Lightning paused.

"I'm not going to disappear on you, Light..." Fang stepped up beside her, leaning over to look Lightning in the eye. "You think I've been _searching_ all these years, just to walk away once we do a few things?"

Lightning tried to look away, but Fang's gaze drew her back in, freezing her on the spot. "We've only known each other for a few days... You could always walk away."

Fang slowly began to smile. "It's been a lot longer than a few days, and you know it... You were passed out for a lot longer than that, anyway." She reached up to gently tap at the spikier ends of Lightning's hair, toying with the only few strands that weren't hidden beneath the hood of her coat. "Hey, remember what we said about 'one step at a time'? Don't go rushing forward on me, now."

Lightning finally glanced away, but there was a quite a bit more color to her cheeks, and when she walked forward again, her pace was much more controlled.

Fang grinned, following Lightning down the hill. "So, tenderloin and ribs?"

Lightning kept her smile to herself. "If you think you can eat that much."

* * *

The fire crackled up into the cold, crisp air, hungrily snapping at the dry bits of wood they had managed to collect. Above the main structure of the blaze, damper pieces served as an excellent cooking surface, because even when the flames licked at the bark and the frozen moss, the wet wood wouldn't catch alight for more than a moment or two.

"We might have to pick off the bark..." Lightning tried not to frown at the campfire. "Not an ideal situation, but it'll work."

Fang was sitting down on the ground, mixing together some dried herbs, the ones that Lightning had tasked her with preparing. "There's nothing wrong with a little roughage."

Lightning sat down as well, and started to open up one of the fabric packages. "I'll get this cleaned, and then we can season it."

Fang smiled at her. "These actually smell really good."

Lightning looked down at the dry herbs, at how Fang was grinding them into a more powderlike state with her hands and few rocks that she'd washed in the river.

"I mean it, I don't usually bother with stuff like this..." Fang inhaled, sampling the many different scents, from sweet to savory, strong to subtle. "But these, they're something else."

"You can thank my herb garden." Lightning glanced over at a certain patch of the river, that very same spot that Fang had melted down a just few minutes ago, before she walked over towards the edge of it, close enough to clean off the pair of tenderloins. "I do grow plants for general uses, things like cooking, but a lot of them are more for ritual incense, or even medicinal powders."

Fang placed the crushed herbs down upon a small bit of cloth, before she reached for another handful. "You'll have to show them to me, sometime."

Lightning began to wash away the clots of blood from the meat, gently scrubbing at it with her fingertips. "Just as long as you don't step on any of them."

Fang chuckled. "I'll be careful..." She glanced up when Lightning walked back with the cleaned strips of tenderloin. "Ready to start with those?"

Lightning was already moving towards the flames. "Are those herbs ready?"

Fang lifted up the first pile. "Yeah, do we just put them on top?"

Lightning sat down beside the fire, before she gestured for Fang put the fabric on the ground. "Watch this, and try to do the same with yours." She handed over one of the tenderloins, and she then reached for a handful of herbs, rubbing them down into the surface of the meat. "You want it to seep inside and release the flavor while it's cooking."

Fang copied the motion, spreading the mixture of herbs all along the surface. "How do you even start to learn stuff like this? I've never really seen cooking up close... And I don't remember much of it from anywhere else, either."

Lightning looked up at Fang's eyes. "Even other lives?"

Fang shook her head. "There's just a lot of stuff that doesn't carry over."

"Then... I'll have to teach it to you." Lightning held up the slender tenderloin when she was done, waiting for Fang to finish with hers. "My mother and father, they both knew how to cook, and I don't think Serah and I could've gotten past childhood without at least picking up a couple things... I remember when I was eight, mom sat us both down at the kitchen table and taught us how to gut a fish."

Fang chuckled a bit. "With a knife? At that age-"

"It was a _fishing_ village, Fang." Lightning smiled softly at the memory. "Kids as young as six could earn things for cleaning fish down at the market... It was supposed to teach us about life in the future." She soon set down the strip of meat against the damp wooden surface, before she accepted the one that Fang had finished preparing. "It was a wide community, each of the villages would trade with each other for different things... Ours was mostly fish."

She spoke on about the little village, about the sounds of the bustling market, the roar of the sea off in the distance, and even of how Serah had learned to fish with a spear, but every time that Lightning would pause just to see if Fang had grown tired of the topic, she would only nod, waiting for her to keep speaking.

"And then there were the festivals, celebrations on the solstice..." Lightning had already started to prepare one of the venison ribs. "We'd eat dinner with everyone else on those nights, and some people would play music while almost everyone else danced."

Fang was pressing some of the herbs down into the second section of ribs. "Did you dance?"

Lightning shrugged. "Once in a while."

Fang grinned a bit. "And were you a good dancer..?"

"I don't think so." Lightning looked up at the tenderloins, just to see how much they were sizzling beneath the dense, heavy smoke. "It was only when Serah managed to talk me into it... Honestly, I'd rather be near the free food than all the dancing."

Fang laughed. "We probably have that in common... But dancing's not so bad."

"A dragon who can dance?" Lightning stood up to set down a section of the ribs against the damp cooking surface, before she used one of her larger knives to pick up the tenderloins, placing them down onto separate cast-iron plates. "That's something I've never seen."

Fang grinned at her. "Well, let's see how good dinner tastes... I might just get in the mood."

Lightning handed over one of the plates. "You'd better not drag me into it."

Fang shrugged. "I won't drag you into anything.. It's not my style, Light." She smiled when Lightning handed over one of the knives and a small fork. "I'd rather you join in because you want to."

Lightning started to cut up her share of the venison with her own knife. "I appreciate it." She soon lifted up a tiny piece to gently blow the heat away, watching the steam rise off into the cold evening air. "Let me know how it tastes."

Fang had already sliced off a section and bitten down on it, all despite the sizzling heat. "Damn."

Lightning grimaced. "It needs to cool _down-_ "

"No, not that..." Fang smiled at her. "Fire's not much to a dragon, you know? This is pretty good." She started to cut off another piece. "Pretty damn good..."

Lightning fought the urge to cringe at just how much the heat would have burned her own tongue, but knowing Fang, temperature was the very least of her worries.

"You won't mind if I eat the second part in my other form?" Fang was already chewing on yet another piece, long before Lightning's first bite had cooled. "If I'm gonna be flying us around, I'll need all the energy I can get."

"You eat like a starving animal, Fang..." Lightning tried not to laugh at how Fang's plate was nearly halfway empty. "But no, I don't mind."

Fang bit down on another piece venison, grinning. "I could very well be a 'starving animal'... I haven't had much time to hunt things, lately." She looked back at the fire, into the bright, flickering flame. "I might just run something down tomorrow if I can spot it."

"As long as you keep learning how to hunt in the traditional way..." Lightning glanced over towards where she had set down her both of her weapons, before she took a first bite of her own meal. "It might not be as fast or as easy as diving down on something, but I really think you could learn it."

Fang nodded. "Sounds good." She waited for Lightning to finish the rest of her meal, having already wolfed down the share she had been given.

When Lightning stood up to check the venison ribs, she saw a subtle glimmer out of the corner of her gaze, before Fang was sitting there as a dragon again, eyeing the food atop the fire.

Lightning stuck the end of her carving knife into one of the rib racks, lifting it up from the fire, only to set it down upon another thick sheet of fabric. "It might be hard to eat this without hands, Fang..."

But there was a gleam in Fang's eyes, and she simply snapped the ribs up in her teeth, crunching down upon the bones without even removing them first.

"Oh, _lovely_." Lightning scrunched up her nose at the sight. "Think you can eat those without getting a stomachache?"

Fang's voice was muffled for a moment, until she placed part of the ribs back down on the ground, chewing against the rest. "Bones are _nothing_ , Light." She then reached for the other half to scarf it down as well, although she did pause for a while to taste it. "These are pretty good, too."

Lightning began to cut off a single section of her own portion. "Well, I'm not going to be able to eat all of this." She gestured at the remaining ribs. "I have a feeling you could handle another."

Fang moved to fold her wings down beneath herself, resting against the ground. "I could probably handle another _deer_ at this rate." She let out a wide yawn, and Lightning could see those subtle waves of drowsiness in her eyes, in the way that her eyelids drooped just a bit. "But I won't... I'm just a little too sleepy to chase one down."

Lightning nodded. "You did a lot of flying today."

Fang set her head down against the snowy earth, curling her neck towards where Lightning sat. "You did pretty good up there."

Lightning poked at Fang's nose. "I did a lot of _sitting;_ you did all the work."

Fang chuckled quietly. "Well, you tracked the deer... You carved it up and cooked dinner." She stared up at Lightning, before she turned her head back to the side, gazing off into the fire. "I just sort of sat there, maybe did a few things..."

Lightning cut off another piece of the venison. "Guess we're even, then." She leaned back a bit, eating in silence for a while.

Fang looked over at the ribs that remained. "So-"

"All yours." Lightning nearly rolled her eyes when Fang chewed only once before swallowing the whole thing down. "Doesn't that _hurt?_ You probably just got jabbed in a hundred places."

Fang shook her head. "Doesn't hurt at all." She let out another yawn, slowly flopping over on her side. "But food like this always makes me sleepy."

Lightning tapped at Fang's nose again. "And here I thought you were going to _dance_."

Fang mumbled a bit. "...Another day."

"Don't worry about it." Lightning almost smiled at the way Fang's eyes were steadily drifting shut. "Just rest... I have a feeling we still have a long way to go."

Fang nodded against the frosty ground. "It's getting dark."

Lightning looked up at the horizon, but she could barely even see the setting sun through all of the thick evergreen trees. "It is."

Fang yawned yet again, tucking her wings down against her chest. "When you're finished with that, you should rest too."

Lightning took a small bite of venison, still gazing up at the sky, yet it was a long while before she spoke again. "How do you _do_ this, Fang? Live for all this time... Even when you aren't alone, all those thousands of years-"

"Light." Fang slowly opened her eyes. "Time just moves a little differently when you live this." She waited for Lightning to meet her gaze, before she kept speaking in a low, gentle whisper. "A lot of days I don't even _think,_ I just do everything that I need to do for survival... It's a lot like shutting my brain off until something interesting happens."

Lightning finished eating with a quiet sigh. "It almost sounds maddening."

"Sometimes." Fang took a long, yet silent breath. "Back when Vanille... When she turned to crystal, I could feel myself slipping again, like I was inches away from losing it." She stared up at Lightning, at the curious look in her eyes. "It felt like I was _drowning_... But I just stayed there with her, trying to find some way for us to talk again."

Lightning reached over to fold up the fabric that had held the venison, packing it away into a small section of her backpack, along with the plates that they had used. "Did you manage it?"

"Well... Sort of." Fang glanced back at the fire. "And I still get flashes, once in a while, like I can hear her again."

Lightning took out a small pouch of herbs from her pack.

"I _know_ she's still alive." Fang's nostrils flared slightly when Lightning tossed a bit of power into the flames. "What's that?"

Lightning sat down again, watching the long shapes and dancing colors, the wild patterns that twisted all around each other. "Chameleon vine."

Fang inhaled deeply, before she let her eyes slip shut again. "It smells nice."

Lightning tugged the pouch shut. "It'll keep wild animals away..." She soon dropped it back inside her backpack, before she walked away from the fire, towards where Fang was resting. "There's a lot of things I can try to teach you... Herbs, hunting, maybe even how to gut a fish."

Fang's eyes slid open again, but she barely even had time to see how Lightning stepped over towards her chin, tucking herself back into that space right beside her neck, against the softest of her scales.

"Maybe you can teach me how to dance..." Lightning could smell the thick scent of woodsmoke and herbs, and she slowly settled down, breathing in time with the sound of Fang's lungs. "I think we both need something pointless to do... Something fun."

Fang closed her eyes and purred.

"I mean it." Lightning closed her eyes as well. "There's just too much about this that I can't control; it'd be nice to have something I can."

"It's a promise, then." Fang spoke quietly, almost a whisper. "You'll teach me how to be a presentable human... And I'll teach you a few dragon things."

Lightning almost smiled. "What do dragons know that I could learn?"

Fang kept quiet, still rumbling in that same sort of purr.

"Don't leave me in the dark." Lightning poked at Fang's chin. "I don't have wings or claws, what could you teach me to do?"

Fang only yawned. "Oh... I'll tell you someday."

Lightning let out another quiet sigh, but she soon began to relax against the warmth of Fang's neck, savoring how it kept the cold air away. "Not even a hint?"

"It's that second rule, Light..." Fang's voice soon faded out into the dark, into the silent depths of sleep. "Patience."

* * *

She dreamt of a world awash by flowing crystal.

Lightning held a long sword in her grip, and while the steely blade was a rather familiar sight, the shield in her other hand was an entirely different story.

 _Light?_ It was Fang's voice, calling out from somewhere very distant. _Are you remembering something?_

Lightning stepped out from within the shadows, gazing down at the sprawling city below, before her eyes went very, very wide. "I think so."

 _Light?_

Lightning forced her eyes to fall shut. _I think so._

 _Okay... Just remember, it's only bits of a memory._

Lightning slowly knelt down, feeling the sharp minerals beneath her feet, and then under the touch her gloves, before she opened her eyes again, gazing deeply into the long, spiraling facets. "What is this..?"

There was no answer upon the wind, or even in the fabric of her thoughts, there was only the distant drone of a being she knew no name for, something with many smooth metal bits and a strange sort of energy about him.

Lightning felt a stray word brush down against her mind. _Machine._ She stared off into the distance. _Was that you, Fang?_

 _Was what me?_

Lightning slowly shook her head. _Never mind._ She rose back up to her feet, stepping down along the sleek, glimmering surface of the platform, towards the strange sort of encampment that lay below. There were many more of such 'machines' moving all around the crystal, rolling forward and making a great deal of noise, but Lightning kept a good distance away. Some of them had rather nasty looking appendages, and it was more than enough to make her slow down, placing caution into every step.

"Miss Farron!"

Lightning froze, glancing around. "Hello..?"

"Yes, hello!" A long pause. "Are you feeling quite well?"

Lightning took a long moment just to stand there, trying to detach herself from the dream, to go back out into the world where she was still right next to Fang, away from all of the strange, rattling noises and smoke, far from the crystal that swirled up like a great pillar into the sky, but nothing she could possibly manage to think of seemed help in waking herself up.

"Miss Farron?" After a moment, something gently bumped against the toe of her boot. "I can contact the proper authorities if you are in need of any assistance..."

Lightning looked down, and she finally caught sight of a tiny orange machine, one who looked like little more than a square metal box with strange, buglike eyes. "Hello..?"

"Yes, hello." The little robot almost seemed to pause, examining her for signs of illness. "Are you feeling well, Miss Farron?"

Lightning knelt down to get a better look at the little machine, and she quickly noticed a line of strange letters on the side of his metal plating. While she didn't know what the symbols meant, another word began to echo inside her thoughts. _Bhakti._

"Miss Farron?"

"Yes, I'm 'well'." Lightning poked at the side of Bhakti's mechanical form. "I'm just having a little trouble remembering... This is only a dream, you know."

Bhakti hummed for a moment. "I do not believe that is the case."

Lightning stood up again, walking towards the metal platform. "It definitely is." She peered around at the rumbling beasts, the strange things made of metal and shiny tubes, all carving away at the crystal mountainside. "Can you tell me about this place?"

Bhakti rolled forward on a set of rubber tire treads. "Miss Farron, this is the very same mining operation we have been undertaking for _years_ , now... I believe that you might be suffering from the effects of certain chemicals in the air, or possibly dust from the crystal itself." He chirped when she turned a corner, down into a tunnel that went right inside the mountain. "Miss Farron! Please, I believe that you may be unwell..."

Lightning could see her reflection upon every edge, every tiny droplet of gemstone that was scattered across the glassy surface. "I told you already, I'm fine... What are we _doing_ here, exactly?" She knelt down to pick up a jagged bit of the broken crystal, turning it over in her fingertips. "What are we digging for?"

Bhakti rolled up beside her, but his voice went a bit lower, almost forlorn. "...Miss Dia and Miss Yun."

Lightning looked down into the dark, winding tunnel. "Can you tell me what they look like?"

Bhakti turned his eyes to stare at her again. "Miss _Farron!_ "

Lightning frowned at his tone. "Uh, maybe it's Fang, and..?"

Bhakti slowly rolled forward again. "...Vanille."

"Gods..." Lightning rose to her feet. _Fang, can you still hear me?_

 _Yeah._

 _There's a little... Creature, here, I think it's called a machine._

 _Okay._

 _I think his name is Bhakti._

 _Alright, what's he saying?_

Lightning took a slow step forward, gazing down at her own reflection. _He says we're digging for you and Vanille... It's a whole mountain of crystal._

 _Oh, that one._

 _What sort of memory is this?_ Lightning looked back at Bhakti, who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts for the time being. _This world... There's a giant city underneath us._

 _Yeah, not a great time._ She swore that Fang was quietly chuckling. _I mean, it wasn't so bad once we woke up again..._

Lightning could hear her own footsteps as they echoed against the walls, and she just kept walking forward, even when the tunnel began to close in even closer, until she was forced to crouch down just to move. _What happened?_

 _We were l'Cie. We completed a focus._

Lightning tried to push her way through a bit of the crumbling crystal, but it held fast. _What was the focus?_

 _Well, here's a good tip for any future civilizations who might try to start up shop... Never build your damn city over a massive semi-active volcano._

Lightning felt her eyes widen.

 _Yeah, it wasn't too pretty there for a while..._

Lightning went very quiet for a moment, just staring up at the walls, the winding crystals that spread out like massive, crashing waves, rising up like flames. She exhaled, and the sound echoed all around her. Her vision drifted, and then far, _far_ above, she could sense the very apex of the structure, and that there were two statues deep within a hollow of the rock. Hand in hand, they had faced the massive fire together, and the brands upon their skin were now only sharp patches of white, glowing on despite the chill of stasis.

Lightning closed her eyes, but she could still see the image clearly. _I don't like this world... I don't know what any of these things are._

 _Just relax, Light._ After a moment, she could feel Fang's presence move in beside her, but the image of a pale, frozen face, etched into the glossy surface of solid stone, it just couldn't leave her mind. _You've grown up in a place very different from that one; it's okay to feel a little lost._

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut even tighter. _Can you please wake me up?  
_  
Fang was quiet for a moment. _I'll try, but you still need to relax._

Lightning nodded to herself, before she inhaled, breathing as deeply and as quietly as she could.

 _Light?_

She opened her eyes, but there was still nothing but darkness.

 _Light, I'm right here._

Lightning felt it then, the warmth that held her very close, and she let her eyes drift shut once more.

 _We're still asleep..._ Fang's presence was near enough that she could sense it drifting all around her, like wisps of smoke in the air. _But I've got you._

Lightning nodded. _Thanks._

 _You'll get more used to it as time goes on..._ Fang kept quiet for while, just resting. _Trust me, as intense as it feels right now, it all gets a little less confusing eventually._

Lightning felt the embrace tighten a bit, and she slowly moved around to return it.

 _I got pretty freaked out the first time I remembered one..._ She could sense Fang's smile, the way her lips tugged up at the sides. _You're taking it really well._

 _I'm glad you think so._ Lightning almost winced. _It just makes me feel pathetic._

 _Nah..._ Fang's voice drifted off a bit, but she kept as near as ever, holding them both close to each other. _Hey, if you can take on a dragon like it's a walk in the park, then there's nothing very pathetic about you._

Lightning almost smiled. _Strange how it's the more preferable option..._

 _You'll get the hang of it Light, just give it time._

Lightning closed her eyes, and dreamt again.

* * *

She dreamt of a tiny stone house upon the very top a hill, one with a thin plume of smoke rising up from the chimney.

A voice called out. "About time."

Lightning looked up, carrying a large bundle of thatch and branches on her back. "Fang..?"

Fang just stood there, donned in a certain sort of garment that wound all around her body, leaving little to the imagination, yet it was modest enough not to draw more than a slight gaze.

"You, _you're_ late..." Fang smirked just a bit. "No trouble though, right?"

Lightning stared up at the face she had only grown to know over the past few days, but when she looked into those gentle eyes, it was almost as if they had gazed back at her for years.

"Lightning?" The memory of Fang, the person she'd once been so very long ago, it almost hurt to look at the sheer color of her eyes. "What's wrong, Light?"

Lightning let the straps fall down from her shoulders, and she carried the bundle of thatch up towards the house, until she could set it down in a larger pile, just inside the tiny shed.

Fang walked up to the open door, and her profile became illuminated by the setting sun. "...Did I say something wrong?"

Lightning knelt down in the shadows, staring at _anything_ else, at the straw beneath her feet, the tiny cobwebs in the corner, even her own fingertips, trembling with only the absolute opposite of fear.

Soft footsteps, before a warm mouth suddenly pressed at the back of her neck. "Welcome home, Light... Now what's got you all riled up?"

Lightning went very still, gazing down at her hands. "This is a dream."

Fang's arms slid lazily around her waist. "Is that a compliment?"

Lightning shook her head. "You aren't _you_... I'm just remembering it, remembering you." She closed her eyes as tightly as she could. ... _Who_ _ **were**_ _we, Fang?_ But there was no answer within her mind, only her own inner voice.

"Come on now, I've even got dinner going." Fang's fingertips began to twine with her own, guiding her back up to her feet. "You can tell me all about your day, yeah?"

Lightning almost turned around to look at her, and she almost followed Fang out into the field that smelled like wild grass and the distant sea, but she kept completely still, cursing every last cell in her body.

Fang frowned, before she leaned over to see Lightning's eyes. "What's wrong?"

Lightning looked away from the pain, the clear hurt in Fang's eyes, before she tugged her own hands away. "This isn't _right_... I'm not who you think I am." She backed away, moving further into the shed, into the boundless dark. "This is just a memory."

Fang still stepped forward, following after her. "If this _is_ just a memory, then what does it matter?"

Lightning shook her head, before she felt herself run into the wall of the house beside them, trapped against the stone. "Because you aren't _you_ , either."

Fang stopped only breath away, pressing her hands against either side of the wall, as if to trap her there. "You're not making much sense."

Lightning tried to look away again. "I'm sorry."

Fang stared at her for a long, silent moment, just gazing deep into her eyes, until she finally found what she was looking for. "Don't be... You're telling the truth."

Lightning felt her breath catch.

"Who are you, then?"

Lightning almost laughed, but it was a lost, breathy sound. "To _you?_ Someone in another world... Another life."

Fang slowly took her hold of her hands again. "...Still no reason to skip dinner."

And Lightning finally moved forward, following in Fang's path, and she was swiftly led up into the tiny house, past a large black dog that slept quite lazily near the front door.

"Come on." Fang gently nudged at the beast so she could move past him. "We've got company."

The dog merely snuffled a bit, but he quickly rolled over to give her more space.

Lightning found herself being guided over towards a small table with two chairs, until she was sitting down beside the windowsill. "This really isn't-"

"If this _is_ just a memory..." Fang soon carried over something from the oven, along with a pair of porcelain plates. "Then you should let me make it a good one."

Lightning just stared at Fang's face, watching as she sat down at the opposite side of the table. "...Alright."

Fang quickly began to dish out some sort of freshly baked fish, mixed in with what looked like potatoes, carrots and wild herbs. "So, what 'other world' do you come from?"

Lightning tried not to look away. "...A world where you're a dragon."

Fang paused, before she slowly tilted her head. "A _dragon?_ "

Lightning nodded. "I've only known you for a few days, but it feels like a lot longer than that."

Fang gestured for Lightning to eat, before she took a small bite of her own share. "I've known you for ten years."

And she could finally see it, the way that this woman named Fang, this second version of her friend, the way that she seemed slightly older, and even a bit more refined in certain ways.

"Ten years." Fang took another bite of fish, smiling softly. "...And what's that on your hand?"

Lightning looked down at the thin, silvery ring.

"But no... Now that you mention it, you _do_ look just a bit younger." Fang smiled to herself. "Haven't quite grown into yourself yet."

Lightning cleared her throat. "I'm twenty-five..."

"That's still young." Fang reached down to stoke at the big black beast who had fully woken up, who was also sniffing at the fish on her plate. "But you've got time."

Lightning lifted her fork for a small bite of food, even when the dog walked over towards her, licking against the side of her arm.

"Don't fall for it." Fang smiled, shaking her head. "He's already had his dinner."

Lightning slowly moved her hand down to stroke at the dog's huge fuzzy ears, gently scratching at the thick fur behind them. "What's his name?"

"Bahamut." Fang reached for a small pitcher on the table. "But don't let the name intimidate you, he's just as much your puppy as mine."

Lightning glanced back up when Fang set down a glass of something clear and sweet scented beside her plate. "I think you mean he belongs to whoever... Whoever I was."

Fang shrugged. "Not much difference." She quickly snuck a tiny piece of fish beneath the table, which Bahamut scarfed up almost immediately, wagging his tail. "You said this was a dream... Does that mean you'll wake up soon?"

Lightning set her fork back down beside her plate, even when it made Fang sigh. "I might... I'm not really sure." She stole another glance at the silver ring on her finger, and the way it felt as if it had never _not_ been there, it made her stomach flutter. "I've only had a couple memories like this."

"You don't sound very enthused about them..." Fang stroked her palm against the top of Bahamut's head, while his tail thumped repeatedly against the floor.

Lightning tried not to mumble. "They weren't nearly as nice as this one."

Fang slowly smiled at her. "Then I'm glad to hear it, sweetheart."

Lightning felt herself go pale.

"You'll get over the blushy phase, don't worry." Fang set both of her hands down on the table, and Lightning finally caught a glimpse of the matching ring, almost exactly the same as hers. "But it's still nothing less than adorable."

Lightning cleared her throat, before she quickly rose back to her feet. "I think I should... I should really wake up now."

Fang leaned forward with a grin. "Does that mean I won't exist anymore?" She soon reached back to pet Bahamut's ears again. "Or maybe I will... Just as someone else, right?" Fang leaned over to gently pinch at the dog's cheeks, until he tried to jump up and lick at her face. "A _dragon_ , do you believe that?"

Bahamut let out a loud bark.

Lightning just stood there, waiting within that tiny kitchen, within their house, the _home_ that didn't even belong to her, yet it still made some level of herself feel so very at ease, as if nothing would ever be able to harm her within those walls.

After a moment, Fang winked at her from where she was still sitting at the table. "Just make it a good one, alright? ...I've always wondered what it'd be like to meet you again."

Lightning felt her heart twinge within her chest, and she slowly closed her eyes. "Thank you."

"It's no problem, love."

* * *

Beneath the steadily rising sun, she woke to the sound of a gentle wind sweeping down across the snowfall. The fire crackled on beside her, but it was tended to by none other than the one she had once encountered as an enemy, yet had grown to become so much more.

Fang wasn't paying very much attention to the figure just beside her, but when Lightning sat up, yawning quietly beneath the light of the sun, she turned away from the flames. "Morning."

Lightning rubbed the sleep away from her eyes. "...Morning."

Fang leaned back a bit, gazing at the look on Lightning's face. "Everything alright?"

Lightning nodded. "I had another dream last night."

Fang almost frowned. "Was it bad? I should've-"

"No, it wasn't bad..." Lightning reached up to push the hood of her jacket away, feeling the wind move all throughout her hair, brushing down so softly upon her face. "It wasn't bad at all."


	11. Stasis

By the time Fang jumped headlong into the wind, flapping her wings against the swirling winter air, a light flurry of snow had started to fall.

Lightning reached up to tug the mask of fabric over her mouth again, just to keep the snowflakes away. Once it was secure against her face, she reached down to press her hand upon Fang's scales. _Is it any harder for you to fly in the snow?_  
 _  
Depends on the wind and severity, most of the time._ Fang envisioned a dark, whirling storm, showing Lightning the difficulty of navigating through such a rapid and unyielding force of nature. _But the sky doesn't look too bad today._

 _I wanted to tell you..._ Lightning closed her eyes as they flew even higher above the treetops. _The second dream I had last night, you were there with me._

Fang soared on throughout the fluttering snowflakes, flapping her wings every so often. _What was it like?_

 _You were a little older._ Lightning felt herself relax against the curve of Fang's neck. _It looked like we... Like we lived together._

Fang blinked against the whirling snow, but for a while, she didn't share what she was thinking.

 _It was a little stone house at the top of a hill._ Lightning opened her eyes to look down at her hands. _It smelled like wild flowers and seawater._

 _I don't remember that one._ Fang kept on flying, steadily working her way across the sky. _I have a feeling there are a lot of things that neither of us have remembered yet._

Lightning almost frowned, and she slowly closed her eyes again.

 _Hey, don't get all sad on me, now..._ Fang could feel Lightning's sudden emotions running through herself like wildfire, so she sent back a thought that she hoped would reassure her; it was only a mix of much warmer feelings, even the memories she had of them being very close together, huddled up beneath the cold. _Do you want to tell me more about it? What sort of things did I say in there? I'd better have been behaving myself..._

Lightning fought back a tiny smile. _You were very well behaved._

 _That's good._ Fang glanced back over her shoulder with a slight glint in her eyes. _So we lived in a little house?_

Lightning nodded. _And you liked teasing me just as much as you do now._

Fang laughed into the wind. _It's all in good fun..._

 _I know._ Lightning could feel the warmth of Fang's scales, and she slowly opened her eyes to see the ground so far below, the wide, quiet world all covered in white. _It reminded me of the spring._

Fang began to glide down over a rather smooth patch of air, barely moving her wings. _I don't mind the winter too much... But it would be nice to see some green again._

 _It would be nice._ Lightning ran her fingertips over those dark, glossy scales, feeling the gentle warmth that they gave off in waves. _It's just going to take time._

They soon flew high above a certain stretch of grassland, but when Lightning looked down at it, her eyes almost widened at the sight of such unusual rock formations, and then, off in the distance, the small valley surrounded by cliffs. _Sunleth..._

Fang looked back at her for a moment. _What?_

Lightning felt her fingertips curl up against her palm, but she just kept staring down at the little valley, at how the village wasn't even visible behind the shelter of the snowy hills. _We're close to my home._

Fang flapped once, before she started to glide again. _Do you want to..?_

Lightning shook her head. _No, we'll finish this first._ Even as she spoke the words aloud in her mind, she couldn't help but think of her own family, so far below, of Serah and Odin, of Hope, and all the other horses, and then even Snow, at least for the way that he could make Serah smile. _We'll finish what we started... And then I'll go back home._

 _Home._ Fang flapped her wings against the wind. _I haven't thought of anyplace as home for a long time._

Lightning ran one of her hands over Fang's neck. _It's never too late to find one._

Fang flew onward, but she began to give out a certain emotion through her scales, something small, quiet, and somewhat reassuring. Lightning closed her eyes, merely daydreaming the hours away.

* * *

They traveled on until the sun had nearly crossed the entire sky, and by the time Fang finally touched down again, landing quietly upon a rise in the low mountain ranges, the evening had grown more than a bit dark.

"I'll try to find some firewood." Lightning stepped down to the ground, holding onto Fang's wing to keep herself steady. "If you can get some the venison out, maybe crush a few herbs up again..." She looked over when Fang nodded, but the air of exhaustion in her eyes was all too visible. "But, if you're tired-"

"It's alright..." Fang sat down to rest for a moment, breathing deeply. "Just a long way to fly in one day... We'll get there by tomorrow afternoon at the very least."

Lightning walked over to stand beside Fang's face, watching as it enveloped itself in light, before her human form was sitting there upon the ground instead.

"I'm _okay_ , Light." Fang tried to catch her breath, but it was much more than a moment or two before she could hold herself steady. "I just... Haven't flown this far in a long time."

Lightning sat down beside her. "You need to pace yourself."

Fang nodded. "Yeah, I overestimated."

"Just rest for a while." Lightning stared into Fang's eyes, gazing at how distant they looked. "I'll try to find that firewood."

Fang almost tried to stand up and follow after her, but Lightning put a firm hand on her shoulder, keeping her down.

"Come on, Light..." Fang laughed a little. "I'm not going to pass out on you."

Lightning kept her hand steady. "I won't be long." She stood up without another word, walking off into the soft flurries of white.

Fang turned to watch her leave, but it was only seconds before Lightning had disappeared against the falling snow.

* * *

The sharp spray of a frozen waterfall jutted out from the rocks. As Lightning passed beneath it, gazing down at the forest that waited just between the wide canyon walls, she slowly knelt down to look at her own reflection. She wondered, had she always looked the very same way? Lightning narrowed her eyes at the shape of her face, and then even her eyes themselves, at the way they were somewhat distorted against the ice. In another life, had she been any different? She reached out to touch the surface with the fingertips of her gloves, tracing across the lines of frozen water.

From the corner of her vision, something darted away.

Lightning quickly stood, gripping at the handle of her sword. Her breath turned to mist in the heavy cold, yet even when she held it so tight in her lungs, searching for whatever had raced off along the canyonside, she could see nothing but the pale, gentle snowfall. Lightning relaxed slightly, and she walked on again, but she never took her hand away from the hilt of her sword.

The forest below was bordered upon both sides by the tall walls of the canyon, and Lightning could see several other waterfalls that spilled down from the mountains above. The flow of fresh water likely provided a great deal life to the little forest during warmer days, but beneath the chill of winter, the trees were merely sleeping, blanketed by a soft cover of snow.

Something ran behind a tree trunk, swift and translucent.

Lightning froze, but her sword almost whistled as she unsheathed it, readying herself for any possible dangers. Yet there was only a calm, steady silence, until the chill winds swept down throughout the canyon, making the trees creak back and forth.

And there, off in the distance, stood a single, delicate flower.

Lightning kept perfectly still; only her rosy hair drifted in the wind, while she kept her sword steady between her hands. She could see the long green stem swaying in the breeze, and those little orange petals, so untouched by the frost, they were slowly fluttering like tabs of silk.

When Lightning finally moved, it was without hesitation, yet each step calculated, and she kept her sword out, holding it with both hands. At the base of the tiny plant, the snowfall almost looked like it had melted away. She could smell the sweet scent of the flower itself, but it was subtle, hard to catch. Slowly, Lightning sheathed her sword again, before a small, pearly figure peeked out from behind a tree.

She couldn't quite tell what it was supposed it look like, only that the way it moved reminded her of a tiny deer, both swift and utterly cautious as it ran around through the snowdrifts. Lightning narrowed her eyes at the sight of it, but she still couldn't see much beyond the shifting glow, beyond those angular shapes that made the creature appear as a single whole, and yet they always _moved_ , constantly reshaping themselves, until it finally ran off to hide behind another tree trunk.

After a moment of silent, Lightning stood up to leave the flower behind, following the thin trail of light that the figure had left behind for her. She walked across the flat terrain, between the towering canyon walls, until she came across another waterfall, only at the very base of it, Lightning could see the exact same kind of flowering plants.

Pale glowing eyes stared out at her from atop the frozen surface, balanced there upon a pair of thin limbs, before it suddenly shimmered away, far behind the curtain of ice.

When she managed to catch her breath, Lightning knelt down beside the blooming flowers, and she whispered as quietly as she could. "What _are_ you?" She glanced up at the frozen falls, at the thick layer of frost upon the motionless sheets of water, but when she focused closely, peering through the cracks and facets of the solid ice, she finally caught sight of what awaited behind it.

She rose to her feet and turned back.

* * *

Fang walked across the narrow rocks, flicking her tail from side to side. "Wait, what exactly did it look like?"

Lightning shrugged. "Something strange..? It was like a spirit from those one of those old stories."

"Stories." Fang moved forward on her folded wings, but when she caught sight of the forest before them, she lifted her head to examine the thin trees, peering at how they only seem to grow as high as the canyon walls. "It'll probably be dark soon... Let's just see what this is."

Lightning stepped down against the canyon floor, and she waved for Fang to follow. "It's really not that far."

"Alright." Fang moved off into the forest, searching around for any hints of something unusual. "You said there was something behind the ice?"

Lightning nodded. "Yes, but it didn't look natural."

Fang followed after her, past the small flowers that had since wilted beneath the cold, off to the wide waterfall that stood frozen in place.

"See, look at this..." Lightning picked up one of the tiny plants. "They were _alive_ just a moment ago."

Fang knelt down to look at it. "Strange."

Lightning set the flower back against the ground, and she almost frowned at the pale, shriveled petals. "Do you think you could try to melt the ice away?" She pointed at the strange sort of darkness behind the frozen water, and at whatever was glinting there from within. "Without damaging it, I mean."

Fang stepped forward, and she squinted to try and see through the ice. "Well, just don't hold your breath... It's hard to control the amount of heat sometimes." She slowly drew back, and when she opened her mouth up wide, several glimmering sparks fell down across her tongue.

Lightning stepped away when a sharp gout of flame came bursting forth, snapping and hissing against the sleek, frozen surface, until a heavy cloud of wet mist rolled away from the damp, melted ice, leaving a wide gap where the water once had been.

Fang slowly closed her mouth, and the fire was gone.

"It's... A cave?" Lightning peered out into the darkness, and she soon looked upon the glinting item that waited only a few feet away. "What do you think that thing is?"

But Fang's eyes went very distant, and she kept silent for a long while, just standing there beside the pool of melted water.

"Fang?" Lightning reached up to touch the edge of Fang's wing. "What's wrong?"

Fang slowly glanced down at the ground, and at the tiny, wilted flowers. "Sometimes, we did have a home... Most times it was called Oerba."

Lightning looked down as well.

"It was another life." Fang slowly knelt on the canyon floor, resting against her wings. "The flowers, if they weren't all shriveled up, they'd probably look the same as I remember... They'd sometimes grow right up next to the beach."

Lightning knelt down as well. "What do you think happened here?"

Fang just kept staring at the ground. "She's close."

Lightning almost frowned, but even in the steady silence, she just kept close to Fang's side, waiting for her to explain.

"Crystallization... Eternal _life_." Fang began to grit her teeth with a low, quiet snarl, and her spine went rigid. "What did this spirit look like?"

Lightning tried not to flinch at her tone. "It was very fast, almost too much for me to track... I think if it didn't want me to follow it, I might not have even seen it." She glanced back down at the frozen water, and at how the ice that Fang had melted was dripping away, flowing off into the unearthed soil. "But I couldn't really see what it was, even when it was holding still."

It was a long moment before Fang let out a soft, silent sigh, rising back up to her feet. "Vanille is _real_ good at magic, Light... This had to have been her; she can still call out!" Fang quickly stuck her head inside the cave, before she returned with an odd metal device clamped in her mouth, held between those eponymous teeth. "Always wondered where Bhakti ended up."

Lightning felt that same name ringing inside her mind, and she thought back to the strange creature who she had spoken to in the dream. "Bhakti..."

Fang carried the dormant little device back off into the forest, flicking her tail to beckon Lightning forward. "He's probably been sleeping this whole time..." Her voice was rather muffled, but Lightning could still hear it clearly enough. "Little guy wandered right off when we completed her focus; he only told me that he was searching for some other way to reverse it once he came back to visit a while."

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the odd contraption, which almost seemed to be a slim, yet rounded sort of metal disc. She wondered how something like that could even _talk_ , much less 'wander off'.

"Silly little thing... He probably got stuck in that cave and ran out of energy." Fang stepped on between the trees, making her way down towards a small clearing in the forest. "Want to camp over here tonight?"

Lightning shrugged. "It's probably warmer than out in the open." She paused when Fang set down the strange metal object on the forest floor, where it promptly fell over upon its side.

"Problem is... I'm pretty _awful_ with this sort of magic." Fang sat down on her hind legs, before she lifted her wings up a bit, hovering them right above where Bhakti remained lifeless and silent. "What about you, Light? Any talent with it?"

Lightning shook her head. "Aside from my charms, no; most humans don't." She walked back a bit, into the nearby trees, where she started to pick up stray branches, searching for the ones that hadn't gotten too damp in the snow. "What _is_ 'Bhakti' exactly?"

"In this world? Vanille made him." Fang reached down to poke at the metal surface with one of her wing claws. "He's just a little critter who can talk with us, figure things out if he has to... But he's mostly just someone to have a hopefully brief conversation with."

After a short while, Lightning carried over an armful of long branches, before she paused to break down them beneath her boots. "Do you think you can wake him up?"

Fang poked at Bhakti again, trying to provoke any sort of response. "Probably not... Vanille's a lot better at it."

Lightning soon began to arrange the branches into a triangle pattern, before she let her backpack slide down from her shoulders. "Well, when we wake _her_ up..."

Fang lifted Bhakti between her teeth again, angling her head down towards the satchel on her back, and she tucked him away in one of the many pockets. "She'll just be happy we _found_ him." Fang looked forward again and yawned, stretching her wings out against the ground. "I still think it was her, doing all of that."

Lightning thought back to the tiny, faint lights, and the way that the figure had moved almost too fast for her to see. "How do you think she made the flowers?"

Fang shrugged. "How do you think she turned to crystal? Magic can do a lot of freaky stuff."

Lightning held up a small bottle of corrosive liquid, before she poured a tiny bit of it against the smaller branches. "That's part of the reason I haven't looked into magic very much; there are a whole lot of more natural things, _solid_ things, and they can work just as effectively."

Fang leaned back to watch those first few hints of smoke, before the liquid gave way to a tiny, flickering flame. "Magic is just as natural, Light... But I agree, it can be much more unpredictable."

Lightning sat down, resting against the snow. "Is that what a l'Cie brand is, magic?" She stared into the tiny fire, watching how it slowly began to grow, crawling along each branch. "When I was dreaming last night, when you and Vanille were both crystal..."

Fang shook her head. "I'm not entirely sure, but it does seem that way." She set her head down beside the fire, watching it spread. "I don't remember much about being a l'Cie, or whatever else happened back then... They're just like tiny _snippets_ , Light, like lost fragments of memory all floating around in there." She closed her eyes, breathing in the warm scent of smoke. "It's the _emotions_ , they're what you really remember... Not the finer details."

Lightning sat there beneath the soft, falling snow, watching as it began to pile up against the top of her gloves, and even the rest of her clothes. "In my dream, I had a ring on my finger." She glanced back at Fang's eyes, but she then looked away just as quickly, away from that sharp, yet gentle green. "You had a matching one."

Fang stared at her from behind the flames, watching a light flush of color as it crept over Lightning's face, and how it grew even brighter beneath the heavy silence.

Lightning shook her head. "I'm sorry, that was-"

"Don't be." Fang sat up a bit, resting on her wings. "Light, stuff like this isn't really new to me... I've had a _long_ head start on figuring out who we used to be." She leaned forward, moving above the flames, just enough to catch Lightning's gaze again. "But this, _this_ is a whole different life... We can make whatever we want out of it."

Lightning cursed the slight bit of redness in her cheeks, and she tugged the pale white fabric back up and over her mouth, looking away.

"Why do you want to hide it?" Fang stood up, before she walked off to the side, quickly reappearing in her human form. "What's wrong with feeling like this?"

Lightning closed her eyes when Fang sat down beside her, trying not to shiver. "Because, I've never... This has _never_ happened to me before."

"Well, you know what they say about fear." Fang's voice had grown so very close, and her breath suddenly brushed against the side of Lightning's face. "Grab it by the horns, take _charge_..."

Lightning kept her eyes tightly shut.

"And you don't seem like the type to shy away."

It was sudden, rushing down against her eardrums and deep in her heart, that constant rumble of blood and shivering, keening noise. She opened her eyes, staring back into Fang's eyes, at the face that waited only inches from her own. Lightning knew that she could turn away right then and there and walk off into the forest, just to leave the entire thing behind, even if it would nearly kill her to do it, but when Fang reached out to hold one of her hands, gently squeezing her palm through the thick leather glove, she almost choked on her own breath.

"I'm right here..." Fang drew back a bit, staring at the mask across Lightning's lower face. "You don't have to hide."

Lightning closed her eyes again, before she slowly reached up to tug it down. It was only a moment before she felt her own gloves get pulled away, but Fang's hands replaced them, keeping her warm.

 _Are you frightened?_

She could feel it within every part of herself, each word that rang straight out into her mind, touching and seeping down into each of her own thoughts, until all she could do was let her eyes flutter open and gradually lean forward against Fang's forehead, staring out at the human she knew was always there.

 _I'm terrified._

Fang felt something gentle, something pressing carefully against her mouth, and she closed her eyes, before she felt her breath catch.

A shiver ran down Lightning's spine, but she just kept herself there, lips parted and breathing so rapidly, almost breathless, until Fang finally returned the gesture.

 _...I've been pretty scared, too._

Lightning almost stopped, but Fang was pressing back, and she was winding one hand around the waist of her jacket, kissing back with such deep, endless warmth.

Fang angled herself to nip at Lightning's bottom lip, and she smiled at the sudden sound in her throat. "I've been scared that I might lose you."

Lightning tried to speak, but then there was more, that gentle tongue brushing down against her lips, and she let her mouth open again slightly, meeting it with her own. The gesture was so soft, so _slow_ , testing the way that she was able to return it, until she felt Fang draw back to inhale, before she was suddenly tugged forward, pulled up to the very height of her lap.

"Fang-" Lightning looked over to the side, slowly wrapping her arms around Fang's upper back. "This is fast..." She leaned forward to hook her chin over Fang's shoulder, just holding her there, clinging as tightly as she could. "This happened _fast_."

Fang held on her as well, and she moved her arms across Lightning's jacket to clasp them against the fabric. "I know, I know..."

Lightning could feel her heart hammering against her chest, and even though she could scarcely sense Fang's own rhythm, for it was far too sheltered behind the insulation of her own coat, she could feel the steady pulse as it twitched just beside her cheek, thrumming on within Fang's neck.

"But it doesn't feel wrong." Fang whispered each word just under her breath, but she could still taste them on her tongue, the rush of jittering nerves, and then something quite unique to Lightning herself. "I liked it."

Lightning hugged her even tighter. "...I did too."

Fang watched the snow as it fell, drifting all around them, the tiny flurries that would only melt against her skin, but the little drifts soon started to gather along Lightning's jacket, at least until she moved to brush them away.

But when they were gone, Lightning slowly nuzzled back into the crook of Fang's shoulder. "Have you ever kissed anyone before?"

Fang laughed a bit, and her breath went sheer white in the cold. "Not in this life... I can remember a few things, though."

Lightning suddenly leaned back a bit, staring deep into her eyes. "Then I have experience over you."

Fang quirked a single eyebrow, before she moved forward slightly, catching the tiny little sound when she squeezed Lightning's waist. "What's that, now?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes, but she stared back at Fang with only the smallest hint of a smirk. "Certain sleepovers... Some of my friends were just a little more curious than others."

Fang's eyes went a bit wider. "How curious?"

Lightning shrugged. "Nothing quite like this."

Fang visibly relaxed, before her shoulders went slightly slack. "Won't lie, I'm a little jealous."

Lightning shook her head, brushing her nose against Fang's cheek. "Kids get curious... It's natural."

Fang smiled at the soft little touches, and at the way Lightning was nudging along her face, nipping at her jaw.

"It was never about love." Lightning whispered each word against her skin, and her eyelashes began to brush across Fang's cheek. "There was fondness... But it wasn't love."

Gradually, Fang tightened her grip around Lightning's waist. "Do you think this is love?"

Lightning felt her heart twinge. "I think this is a memory... An _echo_ of love." She pressed her forehead back against Fang's cheek. "I think I loved you once before, and I can still _feel_ it on some level... It's small, but it's still one of the strongest things I've ever felt."

Fang smiled. "It's supposed to be small at first, Light..." She nuzzled back, slowly kissing along the side of Lightning's neck, savoring the tiny sounds she made. "We need time to grow into it."

Lightning clung against the silky fabric of Fang's shirt, before she shivered at the firm, yet gentle bites scattered across the side of her neck, until Fang nibbled right on the thrum of her pulse.

"I remember a life when we did live together." Fang murmured it into her skin, carefully tracing her teeth across Lightning's throat. "And I remember ones where we never met... Probably born at different times." She leaned back a bit, staring deep into those soft blue eyes. "I can even remember _not_ remembering... Sometimes I had no idea that I'd ever lived as someone else before."

Lightning kept a tight grip upon Fang's shirt; her hands were bare, and the warmth kept the chill of the snow away.

"But more often than not, I found you..." Fang leaned forward again, melting back into the soft mesh of lips, into the way Lightning's mouth drifted open at her touch. "I _found_ you." She spoke each word between breaths, between kisses. "And we... We made something wonderful out of it."

Lightning slowly flicked her tongue against Fang's, feeling it press over her own, tasting the inside of her mouth.

"Could we do it again..?" Fang almost whimpered when Lightning bit down at her bottom lip, teasing it between her teeth. "Can we _be_ something, Light?"

"Stop talking..." It was just a gentle hiss, yet firm, and Lightning quickly reached for the back of Fang's neck, holding her still. "But before you do, tell me what you think we're doing right now."

Fang stared deep into her eyes, at the way Lightning was leaning forward, using her weigh to press her back. "We're... Making out?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes a bit. "I've only heard that phrase twice before, I think." She suddenly nipped at Fang's neck, silencing whatever words might have arrived next. "But I don't like lingering on the fence for any longer than I need to... I might still be afraid, Fang, but I can handle it."

Fang reached up to push away the hood of Lightning's jacket, before she felt herself get pinned down, pressed into the snow, firmly pushed against the ground.

"This is how I deal with fear..." Lightning touched at the side of Fang's chin, caressing it with her bare fingertips. "I tackle it, master it, and learn everything I can about it."

Fang felt her breath catch, but she couldn't stop smiling, even when the sudden fondness in her heart swelled enough to sting.

"But I can't do all of that to you..." Lightning gripped at the side of Fang's face, before she moved to tug both of her gloves back on. "I can't just take it from you, not unless you want me to."

Fang started to press her hands against the curve of Lightning's back, drawing her back down, only inches away again. "Then we'll do just what we said before... One step at a time."

Lightning felt Fang lean up to kiss her again, and she closed her eyes, shivering at the insistency, at the way Fang was threading her fingertips out through each rosy lock of her hair, fully exposed when the hood had fallen away.

"One step..." Fang broke the kiss to take a sharp, heavy breath, and even with all the fluttering within her chest, how she could scarcely look at the flush upon Lightning's face without rushing back for more, she felt herself trying to hold a steady pace. "Kissing, this is a good step."

Lightning shook when she felt Fang steal yet another kiss, and she almost had to fight back a whimper when her own tongue was swept across again, tangled and _loved_ , pressed against, touched with a sense of deliberate slowness. Fang suddenly inhaled, as if to claim the very breath from her lungs.

"Fang..." Lightning had to pull back, but the little whimpers finally broke free when she tried to breathe in the frigid air. "You're killing me." She pressed her forehead down, resting her nose against one of Fang's cheekbones. "You're _killing_ me, but I don't want it to stop..."

"You look very alive to me." Fang pushed back another lock of pink hair, yet it simply refused to stay tucked away, tickling back down against the side of her face. "You look alive, and colorful... And happy."

Lightning cursed the throbbing pain in the back of her head, but she tried to smile, pressing it down against Fang's cheek so she could feel it. "...I've never hated a headache more than this one."

Fang went very silent for a moment, before she slowly rose back up again, still holding Lightning against her lap. "How bad is it?"

Lightning shook her head. "I don't want to stop."

Fang brushed her thumb over Lightning's cheek. "I won't keep doing this right now, not if it hurts."

Lightning winced when Fang tried to touch at the back of her head.

"How bad is it?" Fang slowly kissed the side of her forehead. "I could put on some more ointment before we eat..."

Lightning shook her head again. "I don't want this to end." She exhaled when Fang tried to turn her body around, inspecting the wound beneath the bandage.

"It's not too swollen..." Fang kept her voice low, almost a whisper. "Let me at least make us some dinner, okay? I don't think this is the best thing for you right now."

Lightning sighed. "You made my head swim."

Fang smiled at her. "Well, I can make it swim even more once you don't have such a nasty crack in it..." She held her hands against Lightning's shoulders, gently squeezing them. "But you've already gotten quite a few kisses today, haven't you?"

Lightning felt only the smallest flush creep over her face.

"Just let me take care of it." Fang nudged their foreheads together again, but she didn't try to kiss her. "You wanted to teach me these things..." She just stared back into those eyes, breathing deep. "So I'll make dinner tonight."

"Just as long as you don't burn it." Lightning felt her eyes slip shut when Fang pecked at the tip of her nose. "No dragon fire, either."

Fang only smiled, before she started to help Lightning with moving away from her lap, down into the snow. "I won't... No cheating, I know."

Lightning slowly opened her eyes again. "I can still help with it." She reached over for her backpack, for the pouches of cooking herbs. "Which parts do you want to make tonight? I can tell you about how long they needs to cook."

Fang suddenly reappeared in her dragon form, and she reached down into her satchel for some of the packaged venison. "Whatever's in this one."

Lightning held out her hands to take the fabric in her grasp, before she set it down against the ground. "Looks like..." She tugged the edge of it open, examining the darkened cuts of meat. "Flank and loins, even the hind legs." After a moment, Lightning held up the punctured heart, which had been resting right alongside the liver. "If you can find a flat rock around here, I can cut this up and show you how to cook it properly."

Fang glanced back at the forest, before she looked up near the canyon walls. "It might take me a minute or two."

"I'll start seasoning it, then." Lightning didn't even flinch when Fang suddenly took off, sending a wide wave of frost and frigid air all around the campsite. "... _Thanks_ , Fang."

But she had already flapped towards the edge of the canyon, climbing up in search of a suitable chunk of stone. Lightning glanced over to see that Fang had already slipped the satchel off, and that it was just sitting there in the snow with a small bit of metal sticking out.

While she began to crush up some of the herbs between her hands, Lightning couldn't help but lean over to examine the strange device, staring at how it almost looked like the big docile horseshoe crabs that she had seen so many years ago, only made out of metal. It had many different joints and sockets, and even a pair of small, beady eyes at the very front.

"How do you even work?" Lightning narrowed her own eyes at Bhakti's slumbering form. "If you were stuck out behind that waterfall... You can't still be _alive_ in there, can you?" But then she thought back to what Fang had told her about Vanille's crystallized form, and she looked down at the herbs on her palm. "If you can hear me, you should really wake up as soon as you can... I think Fang could use someone from back then."

Bhakti kept utterly quiet and still, just laying there inside the satchel.

"She gets pretty distant whenever she talks about Vanille." Lightning reached for her carving knife, before she began to cut down the tender venison heart into small strips. "And if Vanille made you, then Fang might feel a lot better if you wake up." She set down each of the strips against a cleaner sheet of fabric, before she started to season them with the herbs. "Now, what if-?" Lightning paused, before she wiped off one of her hands against another bit of cloth. "Energy... Would electricity work?" She turned to face Fang's satchel. "By definition, it _is_ energy."

Bhakti was still just as silent as ever.

Lightning stood up to walk towards the sleek metal device, and slowly, she reached for the center of her pendant.

* * *

At the very top of the canyonside, Fang was rummaging through a pile of fallen rocks. It was quite a while before she found a rather flat one, one which was also thin enough to let the right amount of heat reach through to whatever they would be cooking. She picked it up between her teeth, along with a few larger rocks, before she turned to face the wall of the canyon again.

In her hind talons, she decided to carry back a few alternatives, just in case the first stone wasn't quite to Lightning's liking, but it took her a few tries just to get airborne without dropping them. But as she soared back down, scanning the forest floor with those sharp green eyes, she almost let the rocks fall regardless. In the corner of her keen vision, she caught sight of Lightning's hunched over form, while the tiny mechanical being was twitching all around, flopping back and forth inside of her satchel.

"Light!" The flat stone thumped against the snow, along with the rest she'd been carrying. " _Light_ -"

"I'm okay..." Lightning suddenly coughed against the dark, swirling smoke, though the tips of her fingertips looked more than a little singed. "That was... Just a bit more than I expected." She looked up to realize that Fang was standing right next to her, and that even in her dragon form, her limbs were quietly shivering.

"What _happened?_ " Fang dropped down to the snow, pressing her head against Lightning's shoulder. "Thought you'd zapped yourself to death, Light..."

Lightning glanced over at Bhakti, before she reached down to wipe away the blackened ash from her own fingers. "It's alright, Fang." There was only a little redness left on the skin of her hands, slightly swollen from the aftershock. "I think he's waking up."

" _Light_." There was a slight snarl in Fang's tone, but it sounded more out of fright than aggression. "Don't _do_ that... Don't scare the hell out of me."

Lightning looked up at the way that Fang was holding one of her wings out above them, keeping the frigid breeze away.

"Was it... Was it that electricity charm?" Fang slowly grit her teeth. "You said it _really_ takes it out of you, right? So don't-"

"Bhakti's waking up." Lightning reached up to touch the side of Fang's chin. "I'm not hurt, okay? It just leaves me a little winded after I use it... No reason to panic."

Fang exhaled, still pressing her head forward. "It just _reminded_ me." She curled her massive wings around Lightning's back, cloaking the both of them in darkness. "There's a whole lot of things I'd rather forget."

Lightning closed her eyes for a short moment. "I'm not just going to die out of nowhere, Fang... I'm a little tougher than that, don't you think?"

It was a long while before Fang eased away, moving her wings back against herself, but when she finally reappeared in human form again, her tone of voice had gone much quieter. "Yeah, alright... Just don't start telling anyone I've gone soft." She gently nudged at Lightning's cheek with the side of her hand. "Everyone gets freaked out once in a while."

Something chirped from inside the satchel.

"Did that actually work..?" Fang turned to look at where Bhakti was laying on his side, before she reached over to pick him up, wincing a little at the weight. "Heavier than I remember." She finally set him down upon her lap and reached for a certain elevated plate on the side of his body. "Hey! Are you awake?"

The little machine sputtered for a moment, before his eyes went aglow within the evening air, gazing out at the world around him. "Hello?"

"Yes, hello." Fang knocked her hand against the top of Bhakti's head. "Time to wake up, buddy."

Bhakti kept very silent for a moment, but when his spindly legs started to try and reach out for the ground, Fang set him down again.

"I am recalling..." Bhakti sat quietly in the snow, before his eyes suddenly spun around in place, until they fixed themselves right on Fang's face, and then off towards the reddened marks Lightning's hands. "Uncertain amount of memory loss... Should I attempt to recover?"

Fang nodded. "Yeah, and try to figure out how you got stuck by that damn waterfall." She glanced back at the scattered rocks in the snow. "I'll get dinner started in the meantime."

Bhakti slowly swiveled, moving in place, but the snowfall began to melt around him once he gave off a bit of concentrated heat. "Waterfall... I do not remember a waterfall."

"You were behind a waterfall." Lightning reached for the pile of herbs again, though she almost winced at the way the liquid stung the raw skin on her fingertips. "That's where we found you."

Bhakti slowly moved up to rest beside where Lightning was sitting. "May I ask your name?"

Lightning tried not to grimace at the way Bhakti crawled around in the snow like a crab, or even some sort of floppy little arachnid. "Lightning."

Bhakti hummed for a moment. "...My sensors indicate that I was struck by the very same force." His eyes swiveled back towards her fingertips. "When I gained visual function, your hands were covered in residual static."

Lightning leaned over to spread the herbs over each small strip of venison heart. "I tried using it to wake you up."

"So you hold command over electricity?" Bhakti chirped again, rising up as tall as he could, just to look at her hands. "Most interesting, that is-"

"Hey, quit bugging her." Fang walked over to pick up Bhakti by his sides, and she reached up to set him back down atop the satchel. "Light's not used to this sort of thing, alright? Go easy on her."

Bhakti hummed at Fang. "My apologies."

Lightning watched while Fang held up a rather large rock to set it down beside the fire, before she did the same thing with another, until she finally set down a thin, flat stone at the very top.

"Does this look alright?" Fang turned to face Lightning. "This was the flattest one I could find..."

Lightning nodded. "When you're cooking the heart of an animal, the trick is to make it happen extremely fast, and absolutely _searing_." She looked at the flames, before she glanced back up at Fang. "Think you could give it a boost?"

Fang looked down into the crackling fire. "Not without decimating the fuel." She chuckled to herself. "Don't you think it's already hot enough..?"

Lightning picked up the cloth with the venison strips. "It probably is." She carried it over towards the fire, before she sat down, waving for Fang to do the same. "Did you clean off the stone, first?"

Fang frowned a little. "With what, exactly?"

Lightning sighed. "The heat should burn away the bacteria, but it might get a little dusty." She handed the cloth over to Fang. "Just put those in the center, and I'll let you know when to take them back off."

Fang reached for one of the venison strips. "Alright... And don't mind Bhakti, he just gets real excited about that sort of thing." She set the first strip down against the rock, before she picked up two more. "Magic and all that."

Bhakti crawled back down from the satchel again. "I was created to pursue the study of magic!"

Fang rolled her eyes. "Here he goes."

"Most believe that magic is the very essence of life itself..." Bhakti clambered across the snow, before he crawled back up to sit upon Fang's lap. "I am utterly objective on the subject of course, but I do see the merit to such beliefs, though I have also seen evidence to the contrary, especially considering the nature of certain human civilizations and-"

"Bhakti." Fang picked him up to face her, staring into his round little eyes. "Come on, you just woke up from who knows how long; I'm more curious to know just how you got stuck in there than to hear all this again."

Bhakti wiggled his legs back and forth until she put him down again. "I do not recall how I came to be caught in such a predicament, only that I was awoken by a massive electrical charge." He hummed to himself for a moment. "I do remember traveling in a place quite similar to what I can see of our surroundings, only there was no snowfall on the ground."

Fang watched as the venison strips began to sizzle against the rock. "You took off pretty quick when Vanille turned to crystal."

Bhakti went very quiet for a moment. "She instructed me to search for another possible solution."

Fang frowned. "You didn't tell me... You remember that? Not at first."

Bhakti looked up at Fang again. "Vanille was very assured that you would try to find your own path, my friend." He settled back down against her lap, watching the warm crackle of fire. "She told me to search for my own solution, and I _did_ try to obey."

"Well, don't worry about it now." Fang reached down to pat the top of Bhakti's head. "You're sticking with us, okay? At least until we go see Vanille again."

Bhakti looked over at Lightning. "Is our companion going to-"

"Yeah." Fang smiled to herself. "Light's coming with us."

Lightning leaned back in the snow, before she gestured at the top of the stone. "Those need to be flipped over." She watched as Fang reached down into the heat without hesitation. "Can't burn a dragon, can you?"

Fang chuckled. "It sure isn't easy." She turned each of the strips over, examining the way they had darkened quite a bit within the heat. "We should get to the mountain vestige by tomorrow, but the rest of the way..." Fang shook her head. "She was branded almost on the other side of the world."

Lightning's eyes widened slightly.

"I'm thinking at least a few weeks until we get to the island chains, then around a day getting down there to kill the damn thing, then around another week or so to get back." Fang leaned back a bit, resting her hands against the snow. "Give or take some time, depending on the weather."

After a moment, Lightning pointed at the venison. "Those should be finished."

Fang started to pick each of them up again, setting them back down on the fabric, until Lightning retrieved the cast-iron plates again. "So, how'd I do?"

Lightning smiled a little. "These don't take a whole lot of attention."

Fang let out a quiet sigh, but there was a tiny smile on her face as well. "Just can't catch a break, can I?"

Lightning handed over one of the forks, using one of her own to pull a few strips of the venison onto her plate. "We'll get you there... It would help if we had an actual stove, some cooking utensils, or a little more variety."

Fang picked up a few of the heart strips as well, and she didn't even wait to try one. "Damn."

"Good?" Lightning lifted a strip with her fork to blow away the steam. "It's one of the best parts."

Fang nodded. "That's amazing." She bit down on the soft, almost buttery piece of muscle, slowly chewing it between her teeth. "Even better than the tenderloin."

Lightning took a bite of her own piece. "I'm glad you like it." She glanced down at Bhakti. "I'm going to feel stupid for asking this, but-"

"Nah, he doesn't eat." Fang set her plate down against the flat surface of Bhakti's head, and he didn't seem to mind. "At least, he doesn't eat food." She pointed near the front of Bhakti's body, at the small metal apparatus beneath his eyes. "Magic goes right in there, and then he's back to his happy little self."

Bhakti kept very still so that he wouldn't tip over the plate. "While the use of such raw electricity was... Unconventional, it was a welcome source of fuel." He looked up again when Fang reached for a bit of food from her plate. "However, my fuel reserves will not last long at this rate, not unless I can gain unimpeded access to solar energy."

Fang took another bite. "That might be a little hard with all the snow."

"Indeed." Bhakti hummed quietly to himself. "I might request that you leave me back at the vestige with Vanille, so that I might be able to rest in safety until more favorable weather can occur."

"We'll see, yeah." Fang leaned back a bit, slowly eating the rest of her meal. "She could probably use the company."

Lightning almost felt her heart twinge at the tone in Fang's voice, and even for the rest of the evening, no matter how cheerful she might have seemed, there was just _something_ there in her voice, even in the way she moved. While Fang listened closely to the instructions on how to cook the rest of the venison, even when she looked at Lightning with such warmth in her eyes, the sensation still hung between them like thick smoke in the air.

It was only when the sky grew dark, and the snowfall slowed to a crawl, only when the two of them had finished eating, curled up against each other beneath a tall, mossy tree, it was only then that Lightning spoke her mind. "...Fang?"

Fang was resting against the ground, in the space that she had cleared free of frost, but she stirred a little at the sound of Lightning's voice. "Yeah?"

Lightning watched the soft glow of the campfire, down to its last few embers. "When I'm facing a problem, I usually don't think of what _might_ happen... Sometimes it's not even can or can't." She looked up at the sky, at the branches of the pine trees, at how the snow was drifting down between them. "But a problem like this... There's no clear end in sight, Fang."

Fang frowned against the back of Lightning's hood, before she moved up a bit to murmur along her ear. "There _is_ an end... We go and kill the bastard who did it to her."

Lightning exhaled, feeling the warmth of Fang's breath on her cheek, over her ear. "I'm only worried that it might have the opposite effect."

Fang paused, and she didn't speak again for just a moment. "You just can't bargain with these things, Light... We tried. Honestly, we _tried_ , but the damn thing just wouldn't listen." She gently tightened her grip around Lightning's waist. "Her brand, it'd gone all the way through the first stage by the time we finally left the vestige."

Lightning slowly turned around, moving in Fang's arms until she could face her. "...I don't want to lose you either, Fang." She felt her eyelids start to droop, but she kept gazing into Fang's eyes, at the distant sort of look inside. "If killing it doesn't work... Maybe Bhakti really can find us an alternative."

Fang let out a silent sigh. "I hope it doesn't come to that."

Lightning watched her for a moment, waiting to see if she would say anything else.

"Let's just keep moving, yeah?" Fang leaned forward a bit to touch her mouth against Lightning's cheek. "We'll go see Vanille, and keep flying on out there... We can deal with these things once we get to them."

Lightning slowly closed her eyes. "Alright."

She could feel Fang smile against her skin. "One step at a time."

Lightning began to drift off into the darkness, gradually falling asleep, but before she could finally nod off, she pressed forward a bit, nuzzling herself against Fang's face.

Fang hummed under her breath. "You can be real sweet when you aren't trying to murder me."

Lightning snorted, almost a quiet laugh, before she swiftly slipped away into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

The snow fell down in heavy flakes again, and Lightning could feel the wind brushing through her hair as she watched the sun rise up above the horizon. The canyonsides grew smaller and smaller beneath the steady beat of Fang's wings, but when she leaned off to the side, flying northward, a small metal creature peeked out from within her satchel.

Bhakti let out a chirp. "I do believe that I recognize this place, now."

Fang called at him from up ahead. "I can barely hear you, buddy!"

Bhakti crept back down into one of the satchel pockets. "...I will tell you later."

Lightning reached out to touch at Fang's scales. _He says he recognizes this place._

 _Ah._ Fang dipped down a bit, gliding along the windy air currents. _Well, we're not all that far from the vestige, maybe a couple of hours... Even less if the wind is on our side._

Lightning looked out over the twisting canyons, off towards the long ridge of mountains that rose so very high up into the horizon. _What's it like, over there?_

She could almost sense the wry, rumbling chuckle from Fang's inner voice. _You'll find out soon enough._

* * *

It was only when Fang touched down again that Lightning realized what she meant.

The vestige rose quite high above where they had landed, carved down into the mountain itself, and there was something quite odd about the way it was utterly choked by bright, flaring crystal.

"This is it." Fang waited for Lightning to move down to the ground, before she reached up over her wing to grab Bhakti between her teeth, even with the way that he started to wriggle back and forth. "Quit fussing..." She quickly set the little machine down beside herself, and it was only a brief moment before she stood there as a human again, striding off towards the wide, metallic archway. "It's right in here."

Lightning tugged her hood down, and she followed close after Fang, while Bhakti quietly scuttled along beside them.

"Now, unless we've got any new residents in here..." Fang reached up to push away some cobwebs from one of the towering, luminous crystals. "Spiders not included, we should be the only people in here except for Vanille."

Bhakti chirped again. "I will remain on the lookout for any signs that could indicate recent activity."

"Alright." Fang glanced around at the sleek metal surface of the walls, how each of the tunnels were covered by what looked to be a frozen liquid, but each strand and cluster was simply a solid crystal that had somehow grown out along the surface. "This way."

Lightning followed her down into a narrow tunnel, but when it grew much too dark for her to see, she reached out, trying to touch at Fang's shoulder. "I can't see in this."

"You won't have to, at least not for long." Fang paused to reach back for Lightning's hand, until she was able to guide her forward, down into the frigid halls. "There's enough light at the end, there."

Lightning felt her boots start to slip a bit against the smooth crystal, but it was never enough to make her stumble. By the time that they reached flat terrain again, she realized that there was indeed a faint glow lingering off in the distance.

Fang walked on, moving down into the echoing caverns, past the crystal that flowed on without much pause, almost as if a great sea had opened up to drown away the very vestige itself.

It was only when Lightning caught sight of the grand hallway, the room that opened up to stand higher than any building she had ever seen, illuminated by the glow of a thousand sharp crystals, spiraling all around the area; it was when she saw the very center of the crystal vortex, that figure caught in an upright pose, standing there with her massive wings held out beside her, it was only then that Lightning realized what it was.

Vanille stood frozen in clear, perfect crystal, locked within the very instant that she'd propelled a great amount of energy at what had only become only a heap of distorted, melted metal, strewn all around inside the solidified flame.

Lightning paused, gazing up at the sight, before she began to murmur just under her breath. "It _wasn't_ water..."

Fang slowly shook her head back and forth, stepping over to stand right beside the motionless figure, the one she knew so very well. "No... Vanille _burned_ it." She soon narrowed her eyes at the broken, ancient fal'Cie, one who remained lifeless within the solid rock. "We would've torched the whole place down if it hadn't all been crystallized."

Lightning blinked when Fang suddenly took on her dragon form, and the motion started to cast even more of a glow upon the room, almost enough to turn everything white.

"Vanille..." Fang stood quite a bit taller than her fellow dragon, her kindred wyrm, but when she knelt down, resting before the crystal statue, it became quite clear that they were the very same sort of beast. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

Vanille's crystal form was utterly silent.

"We're gonna get you out of there..." Fang stared up into the unseeing gaze, the rounded crystals where Vanille's eyes had once shined so brightly. "Can you hear me, Van? I found Lightning... We're going to get you back."

Lightning looked down when Bhakti decided to crawl forward again, stepping on over to stand near Vanille.

"I am not sure if she can truly hear us, but..." Bhakti scurried upward for a moment, before he settled down at the top of one of the flaring crystals, one that rose high up into the air beside Vanille. "I want you to know that while I might have failed in your request to find an alternative solution, I will do everything that I can to assist Fang and Lightning when they return."

Fang glanced over at Bhakti. "Don't worry too much about it, okay? Nobody knows much about the fal'Cie."

Bhakti said nothing, though he did begin to hum again, settling down atop the sharp spire of crystal.

Lightning took a slow step forward, moving out into the wide, sprawling hall, and she stared up at the giants that were once a pure, burning flame, yet they had all turned to stone within only a mere instant; she looked up at Vanille, at the dragon who stood locked inside an eternal slumber.

And if only for a moment, she swore she could see that same sort of flash within Vanille's eyes, the soft glow that had led her on throughout the forest, but when Lightning squinted, gazing up into the deepest depths of the crystal, she knew it could just be a trick of the light.


	12. Memory

"I'd like to stay here for a little while." Fang tugged away her satchel with the end of her teeth, placing it upon the ground, but it was only a moment before she was human again. "I haven't been able to... You know, talk with her, for a real long time." She reached into the satchel for one of the big woven blankets, before held up her arms to spread it across the smooth crystalline floor. "And it's been ages, truly..."

Lightning stepped out into the main cavern, passing between that crystals that jutted out like wild spirals, twisting and swirling up from the ground, but in that moment of time, they were locked in eternal stillness.

"You know, I promised her right before we walked in here..." Fang stared up at the outline of Vanille's face, at the way her horns curled back towards her scales, and then the many frills that ran down over her neck, moving on between each of her frozen wings. "I promised I'd get her back out of this mess."

"And you'll keep that promise." Lightning only watched when Fang sat down on the blanket, still gazing up at Vanille. "You don't seem like one to go back on your word."

Fang slowly smiled. "I try not to."

After a long moment, Lightning stepped forward again, kneeling down beside her. "You _won't_ break it, Fang... We can do this." She kept her voice very low, but even then, it echoed out against the cavern walls, along each curve of the towering crystals. "We'll keep going tomorrow, and we'll make it there."

Fang began to close her eyes, trying to keep her breath from shaking. "Yeah." She almost tensed when Lightning's hand touched the side of her shoulder. "It still feels like it did back then, almost like she's... Yeah, I can still _feel_ it, like she's really here again, but then sometimes, when I just can't-" Fang reached up to rake a hand through her mane of dark hair, squeezing her eyes shut even tighter. "Sometimes it really feels like she's gone."

"Fang." Lightning moved her hand over Fang's shoulder. "Open your eyes... She's right here."

Fang did as she said, looking up at where Vanille had once battled beside her. "She's here."

Lightning nodded. "Can you tell me more about her, who she is?"

Fang suddenly smiled, but it didn't quite reach the rest of her face. "Well, she's... She loves being outside, being in the grass."

Lightning glanced up at the silent statue.

"I mean, it might seem like she's got her head in the clouds sometimes, but... She's just as sharp as any sword." Fang slowly leaned back on her hands, gazing up into the depths of the luminous crystal. "Vanille was so afraid when she got branded; she almost wanted to run from it all, just forget the focus..."

Lightning shook her head. "But she didn't."

"No, she didn't." Fang let out a long, quiet sigh, before she looked back over at her satchel. "But at first, she wanted to."

Lightning moved her hand away from Fang's shoulder. "I'm glad she didn't... If the stories are true, about how it-" She paused, trying to find the right words. "The alternative doesn't seem as pleasant."

"Damn straight." Fang tried her best to laugh, and she rose back up to her feet. "Well... What about dinner, then?" She soon held up the last package of venison. "You hungry? Not much firewood around here, so we might have to improvise."

Lightning grimaced. "Improvise..."

"Yeah, yeah." Fang chuckled to herself. "I'll try to keep it as low as I can, promise."

With a tiny frown, Lightning settled herself down against the blanket, sitting cross-legged. "If you burn it, you're catching us another deer..." She only watched while Fang carried the package over towards a small dip in the crystal floor, but when she shifted back into dragon form, readying a long, sharp bout of fire, Lightning couldn't help but wince.

"Just a little..." Fang stepped back a bit, trying to keep the flame away from the open package. "A little more..."

Lightning looked away.

"Hey, it didn't catch." Fang began to let the fire die down, though she could feel it flickering out along her tongue. "It might not be as tasty as doing it your way, but I don't think either of us want to fly back down to gather kindling..."

"Just as long as you didn't burn it." Lightning tugged down her backpack from her shoulders, reaching inside for the plates, before she pulled her jacket off as well. "Can you just carry it over-" She paused when Fang walked up with several pieces of the venison between her teeth. "Did you have to drool on it..?!"

Fang just scoffed, before she dropped down several of the smaller pieces against one of the cast-iron plates. "Hey, you weren't complaining about my drool yesterday."

Lightning gently whacked at the side of Fang's nose. "You weren't a dragon when we were doing that."

Fang laughed under her breath, before she crunched down on the remaining pieces, chewing them all apart, bones and all. "That would probably be a bit more difficult, wouldn't it?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes, but she slowly felt her lips twitch up into a small smirk. "It's a surefire way to get yourself stabbed again."

Fang let out a soft snort, before she settled down on her wings, resting beside the blanket. "No interspecies interaction, huh? Oh, now I see how it is..."

"No Fang, I'm not attracted to your dragon form..." Lightning ignored that soft little whining sound, and she merely pushed her hand back against Fang's snout again. "What, you thought I would be?" She rolled her eyes when Fang pretended to utterly collapse against the crystal floor. "I'm not getting anywhere near you, not unless you're human again."

After a moment or two, Fang stuck out her tongue. "You're just jealous of my shiny scales..."

Lightning reached into her backpack for one of the forks, and Fang promptly tucked her tongue back behind the protection of aforementioned 'shiny scales'.

"Didn't think so." Lightning leaned forward to cut up one of the venison chops. "And you'd better not try anything else."

"Aw, loosen up, Light." Fang let her wings unfurl against the ground, and she released a rather soft yawn, flexing her hind toes at the same time. "But I don't think we'd have too much fun like this, anyways... Humans are much more useful for that sort of thing."

Lightning tried not to blush. "I never even considered anything else."

Fang laughed a bit. "I didn't either." She listened to the sound of the long knife scraping against the cast-iron plate, before she slowly turned back to look at Lightning's face, gazing at the tiny flush that had crept across her cheeks. "But now that I think about it..."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Not happening."

Fang smiled in that strange, dragonlike way; her mouth could move just a bit, even if her narrow face wasn't quite suited to such displays of emotion. "Oh, it _could_ be _fun_..."

Lightning twirled her knife by the handle. "Not unless you want that tongue of yours getting stuck against the ground."

"Hint taken." Fang rolled over on her back, and her tail twitched slightly against the crystal floor. "You're a fierce one, aren't you?"

"I have to be." Lightning took a small bite of venison, wincing at the way it tasted like ash and a dark, encompassing char. "You think I would've gone after you if I wasn't fierce?"

Fang shook her head against the blanket. "I think that's what I like most about you."

Lightning took another bite.

"You've always got this mix of strength, power and wildness... But you're not entirely rough." Fang held one of her wings up above Lightning's head, cloaking her in shade. "You're soft, too... In a good way."

Lightning looked at Fang's wing. "I wouldn't call myself soft."

"It's not a bad thing." Fang angled the curve of her wing to hug at Lightning's shoulder and chest. "And it doesn't make you any less strong than you are... It just _is_." She smiled when Lightning reached up with one arm to briefly hug back against her wing.

"You just might be the most talkative dragon I've ever met." Lightning abandoned her plate for a moment, just to feel the way that Fang's scales ran down along the length of her wing, tapering down over the digits below.

"Really?" Fang waited for Lightning to let go of her wing again, before she settled it down beside her, against the blanket. "Do you meet a lot of dragons?"

Lightning almost laughed. "No..."

Fang waited for a while, watching the way that Lightning went back to her dinner. She watched how her jaw would move, imagining those blunt human teeth, canines that could be so much more damaging than they looked at first glance. Lightning was truly a tempered storm, Fang had known it since she first felt the end of a blade crack down against her skull. It only solidified when her softer scales were torn right apart, ripped away by such unleashed fury. Fang had seen that burning hate in her eyes, but she'd also found the gentler side; it was there in the way that Lightning would curl up beside her, momentarily vulnerable, and then when that little blush would creep into her skin, even the way that she murmured while she dreamt, likely thinking of something distant. Fang could still feel the sharp bite of flames, and the way both Lightning's heart and mind had cried out when the memory lurched in between them, how it surfaced with such a sudden, frightful insistence.

"You're spacing out." Lightning reached over to touch the scales beneath one of Fang's eyes, tracing the way they ran down beyond her cheek. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Fang looked up at that soft human face, at the way Lightning leaned over to stare at her from slightly above. "I'm just remembering."

Lightning let her other hand rest against Fang's snout, feeling the warmth of those long, steady breaths. "Remembering what?"

Fang grit her teeth together. "How much it hurt."

Lightning moved back when the sudden soft light overtook her hands, but when Fang reappeared against the blankets, staring up at her in a human form, she slowly leaned forward again.

"I'm not proud of my kin." Fang felt her lip curl, and her jaw clenched upon each word. "But it can really mess someone up... All that damn immortality."

Lightning glanced back at the roof of the cavern, at the thin, tiny cobwebs that spanned in between some of the longer crystals. "You don't seem messed up." She watched as small spider crawled across the woven lines, silently traveling towards the other side of the web. "You seem... More human, really, and we're already pretty messed up in the first place."

Fang craned her head back around to look at Vanille's statue, but she could only see those sharp crystal claws. "I think everyone is, at least in some way."

Lightning soon leaned back to pack up the plates and utensils, before she nudged her backpack away from the blanket. "Just imagine if we _weren't_ messed up... Imagine how boring that would be."

Fang almost smiled. "Might not be too bad."

Lightning leaned over to look her in the eye. "Fang, I feel... _Alive_ , whenever I'm out in the middle of the wilderness." She watched the way that Fang's gaze went a little distant. "I feel alive when I'm standing right there on the brink of life and death... If that isn't a little messed up, I don't know what is."

Fang smiled, then, before she reached out for Lightning's hand. "I don't think I'd want it any other way." She grinned even wider when Lightning swatted at her, and then gently squeezed her palm. "You look like you're falling asleep, though."

"It was a long flight." Lightning yawned, stifling it under her breath. "You said it would be afternoon; it was more like _evening_ when we landed."

Fang began to sit up, bracing her hands down against the blanket. "It's been more than a little while since I've flown out here..." She leaned over to pull out another sheet out from the satchel, one that had been woven with a pattern of numerous flowers and tiny leaves. "Let's get some sleep, Light."

Lightning pressed the side of her face against Fang's shoulder. "We'll keep going tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Fang smiled, before she moved to guide Lightning atop the second blanket. "We'll get going again, and we'll fix this."

Lightning settled down, but she soon leaned over to rest her head against Fang's lap, slowly closing her eyes. "Wake me if anything happens."

Fang tilted her head to the side. "Like what?"

Lightning shrugged. "If Vanille does anything... I could've sworn there was something odd with her eyes, when we walked in here."

Fang glanced up, staring into the faceted crystal, the place where Vanille had once looked out upon the world, but she could see nothing there inside the cold, silent stone.

* * *

Lightning dreamt of pale mist in the forest.

The trees kept swaying back and forth, and the dark red leaves rustled within the wind, whispering into the evening. Lightning watched a tiny mouse scurry over the fallen leaves. The little creature darted down beneath a fallen branch, hiding itself away from a passing shadow. She looked up to see a falcon, one with sharp talons, glossy feathers, and a beak lethal enough to rival most knives.

The mouse waited. It didn't move a single muscle, not until the predator drifted away, disappearing above the trees.

Lightning felt the warm breeze drift through her hair. She stared at the way the forest was practically luminous, colored in such deep reds and a rich orange hue, almost like fire. The tiny mouse peered out from the branches, before it slowly crawled out from beneath them. It scampered on across the forest floor, darting every which way, yet it never even saw the talons strike down from behind.

The leaves grew to an even deeper shade of scarlet, both liquid and warm, rich with color. Lightning could scarcely tell the difference between them.

"You could always go home."

Lightning went still when she heard the gentle voice, but she didn't dare speak, not yet.

"You don't have to do anything that you don't want to..." Something moved, peering down at her from deep within the trees. "It's dangerous out there."

Lightning almost reached for her sword. "Thanks... But I can take care of myself."

"Oh, I don't doubt it; you're just very small." The voice went a bit quieter than before. "We all are."

Lightning watched the dark red leaves sway back and forth.

"This is just... It's a _very_ bad path. I can see it." The branches moved slightly, and the figure stepped forward, but they were still hidden from sight. "If you keep going in the same direction, you're probably going to die."

Lightning leaned back against the ground, resting on her hands. She could feel the leaves crunch beneath her fingertips. "I won't die easily."

"I don't doubt that, either... Because you're a messenger of death, aren't you?" A quiet giggle, but she could hear hardly any mirth to the sound. "But is it really worth it?"

Lightning looked away. "I told Fang that I'd-"

"But you don't _have_ to."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "I don't go back on my word."

A long silence, and a strong breeze shook down throughout the fallen leaves, stirring them around in a swirl of light and color. "Is that word worth more than a life..?"

Lightning felt a long line of blood trickle across her throat, down against the thin silver pendant.

" _Your_ life?"

When she opened her eyes again, there was only dark.

* * *

The edge of the woven blanket was pressed up right beneath the side of a crystal, one that jutted up from the floor, beside the massive frozen dragon.

Fang sat cross-legged, running her fingertips through those soft, rosy locks upon her lap. Lightning's head was still resting there, though she slumbered away, oblivious to the crystal cavern, to the way Fang stroked her hair, and even the words being spoken out loud.

"It all started out a little rocky, yeah." Fang gazed up at those motionless eyes, at the second sleeping form. "I _did_ keep looking for her... But I didn't even _see_ her, not until I got a sword knocked right down on my head." She laughed as quietly as she possibly could, looking up at Vanille. "And it took a little while for us to make nice..."

Vanille's statue stood just as silently as the rest of the cave, but Fang kept speaking to her, slowly petting along the side of Lightning's head.

"I know I'm not usually one to worry, but-" Fang frowned at the sudden touch of a wound beneath her fingertips; while it was covered in a fresh dose of ointment, she could still see the raw, reddened skin beneath each lock of hair. "I almost... I almost _killed_ her, Vanille... I kept thinking of everything I was gonna say once I spotted her, but she snuck up, caught me while I was asleep, and then she just kept _pushing_ me... I sort of lost it again for a minute, back there."

Lightning stirred in her sleep, but she didn't quite wake.

"And I know, I shouldn't act like she's fragile..." Fang let out a long, gentle sigh, before she tucked a bit of hair behind Lightning's ear. "She almost killed me, too."

Lightning mumbled something, tensing up, before she rolled over, subconsciously trying to find a more comfortable spot.

"Hey." Fang reached down to squeeze at Lightning's shoulder. "Now _you_ , you're gonna get a neck ache the size of a mammoth if you keep sleeping like this..." She stroked Lightning's arm until those soft blue eyes fluttered open, gazing up from upon her lap.

Lightning inhaled, but her voice was still deeply mired in sleep. "...Fang?"

"Right here." Fang smiled at her. "As much as I find this adorable, you're gonna wake up with a wicked pain in your neck if you don't move over, soon."

Lightning nodded a little bit, before she lifted herself back down towards the blankets, curling up beside Fang's knees. "Felt like I was dreaming..." She felt something soft pushing itself against her shoulder blades, and she closed her eyes again "Wasn't a memory."

Fang rubbed at Lightning's back, trying to soothe down each of the steely muscles into a more relaxed state. "Yeah, you looked a little on edge for a moment." She smiled when Lightning turned over to rest upon her stomach, just to allow her a little more room to work. "Do you remember what it was about?"

Lightning tried her best to think back it, but she almost started to hum when Fang massaged the very top of her back, working her way down with slow, gentle stokes. "...No, not at this rate." She could feel the warmth of the blankets beneath her, the way Fang was soothing away the aches in her back, but when she tried to remember the dream again, it suddenly came back to her in vivid waves. "Autumn."

Fang lowered her voice a bit. "Yeah?"

"It was autumn..." Lightning yawned, slowly dozing off again. "And someone was talking to me."

Fang watched as the tension bled away from Lightning's limbs, and she was fast asleep again after only a moment or two. "Just rest, Light." She watched the steady rise and fall of those lungs, listening to the soft whisper of breath. "We'll keep going tomorrow."

When she looked back up at the very height of the cavern, Fang could see how the fire had once spilled down into small droplets of crystal; they still clung there against the metal walls, just as eternal as Vanille herself, and she couldn't help but stare at them.

"We're going to finish this..." Fang tried not to grit her teeth at the sight of it. "We'll finish it, and then we'll all be together again; I won't let this keep us apart." She frowned when she felt that same quivery sort of bitterness in the pit of her stomach, the kind that made her want to stand back up and strike at the crystal prison itself, burning the walls down with fire, but she simply held herself back, focusing, until a quiet sound drew her away from the edge of anger.

"Fang..?" Lightning stirred again, though she didn't open her eyes. "You awake?"

"Yeah." Fang tried to swallow away the faintest hint of a tremble from her voice, but each word still stung her throat. "I'm... I'm just not doing my best right now, Light."

Lightning slowly rolled over, before her eyes drifted open again. "It's okay."

Fang stroked a hand through that soft pink hair, hissing just as quietly as she could. "I just get so pissed off... _Really_ pissed off."

Lightning sat up on drowsy limbs, blinking away the sleep. "Alright, then tell me where we're going to go from here."

Fang paused. "I already told you... We'll keep flying northwest-"

"No." Lightning's gaze was finally clear again, just as sharp as any blade. "Where are we _going?_ We'll fly again tomorrow, and what will we see beneath us?"

Fang tried not to look away while Lightning crept back up to her lap, only she was sitting halfway upon it, staring deep into her eyes.

"We'll see more mountains..." Fang took a slow, shallow breath. "Some forests, the ocean, eventually, but the coast stretches on for a while."

Lightning nodded, only inches away. "And what will we see once we leave the coast?"

"More ocean." Fang almost tried to close her eyes, but she just kept looking back at Lightning, at the unrelenting look on her face. "We'll see the ocean... Some more land, islands, and then the vestige with that fal'Cie."

Lightning slowly smiled. "Then why are you so pissed off?"

Fang exhaled, before she set her hands down upon the blankets, pressing both of their foreheads together. "Because... Listen, if your own sister- Not that it's ever going to happen, but just say that they were in each other's shoes for a moment, wouldn't _you_ be pissed?" She tightened her grip on the fabric. "If Serah was like this... If you couldn't even _talk_ to her without really knowing-"

"Fang." Lightning waited for her to look up again. "One step at a time, one day at a time..." She leaned back slightly, before she reached in to touch the side of Fang's face. "We'll get her back."

After a moment, Fang moved forward again, resting her chin against Lightning's shoulder. "Alright."

"You should get some sleep, too." Lightning yawned quietly, before she leaned back even more, guiding Fang down beside her. "We'll rest tonight... Then we'll go take care of this."

Fang slowly settled herself against the blankets. "I'm gonna need to hunt us some breakfast." She wrapped her arms around Lightning's waist, mumbling to herself. "Dinner tonight, that was everything we had, wasn't it?"

Lightning tried to slow down her own rate of breath, as if to coax Fang into matching her pace. "We can take care of that, too."

"We could fly to a town, or somewhere with people..." Fang yawned. "I have some money."

Lightning silently cursed her own sense of curiosity. She rolled over to face Fang again, though neither of them opened their eyes. "How did you get money?"

Fang smiled a bit. "You aren't the only one who can hunt nasty monsters... People get real grateful whenever you bring in the head of something dangerous."

Lightning felt herself drifting off once more, but before she fell away into sleep, she reached out towards where Fang's hand was resting between them, brushing her fingertips against each of her knuckles. "Sleep well, Fang."

Fang nodded against the blankets, and she quietly yawned. "You too."

* * *

She dreamt of a house with a tall picket fence, of a room with a soft bed, and low, gentle music on the radio. Fang glanced around, before the memory came rushing back all at once. Her shoulders rose, tensing at the sights around her.

A voice, quiet and almost breathless. "Fang?"

Fang looked down from where she was sitting. "Yeah?"

"Lie down." Her eyes were still shut, and her face was pressed up against the pillow. "You're all wound up... I can almost feel it."

Fang slowly settled back down atop the sheets, and she tried her best to relax.

"What's wrong?"

"...Nothing, really." Fang stared up at the ceiling, listening to the sound of the music, to the little twangs of some unusual string instrument. "This is just... It's just a dream."

"Don't try to mess with me."

"I'm not, Light..." Fang sighed, before she rolled over on her side, facing that tangle of soft pink hair, all mussed up from certain previous activities. "To you, it's not like that."

Lightning still didn't open her eyes, but she slowly reached out for Fang's hand, testing the pulse within her wrist. "You aren't usually nervous."

"Ah..." Fang almost smiled. " _To you,_ I'm not."

"Then tell me what's wrong." Her eyes finally slid open, such feral sharpness. "Don't be so damn evasive."

Fang stared into the space around her pupils, and her breath almost caught at the color. "I've just been living a different life..."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "You aren't making much sense."

"Things don't always make sense." Fang reached out to touch at the side of Lightning's cheek, feeling the way that her jaw clenched. "You can be so _fierce_ in a certain life... You're always fierce, just in different ways."

Lightning stared at the look on Fang's face. "...Are you high?"

"And what would I be high on?" Fang quietly laughed out loud, before she rolled over on her back again. "Cute little neighborhood like this... But no, I've never been high, not in this life."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll bite... 'In another life', how did you get high?"

Fang smiled at the pale, painted ceiling, thinking back. "Oh, you were right there with me... It was this little plant called peyote, we had a _blast_." She turned over again, moving to nibble at the edge of Lightning's jaw. She smiled at the tiny sound in her throat, but Fang found herself swiftly pushed back down against the bed, straddled with a speed that she could scarcely hope to match. "Only that time, _you_ were the one with wings..."

Lightning stared down at Fang, pinning both of her arms above her head, beside each dark, silky strand of her hair. "Wings?"

Fang nodded. "I had to grab you so you wouldn't fly away on me... But once you settled into it, you just kept flapping them against the ground, laughing and breathing against my neck."

"Doesn't sound that bad." Lightning leaned in to touch Fang's nose with her own. "But if you think that this is just a dream, then I'm not playing along."

Fang rolled her eyes with a slight smirk, before the entire vision was gone. She was alone, laying there within the mist, beneath the darkness, staring out at nothing. "Oh, sweetheart... Neither am I."

* * *

The fog rolled in all around her, but Lightning kept stepping along the cracks in the stone, into the crystal spire that rose up into the clouds.

"You're a messenger." Someone stepped behind a marble pillar, leaving only dust in their wake. "You're a messenger of Etro."

Lightning kept walking along the spiral.

"Why do you think _you_ can hear me?"

Lightning reached out for the next ledge, for the stone that led up into the sky.

"Why can you hear everything I say, but she can only feel whispers?"

Lightning grit her teeth against the deep, merciless cold, the dust that swirled all around her like a million furious insects... And yet, she just kept on climbing.

"Go home, Lightning."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut tighter.

"Don't chase these ghosts." The voices began to shift, almost mechanical, but there was one that spoke so much clearer than the rest. "There's always a price... There's _always_ a consequence."

She pushed herself up through the haze, past the clouds, out into the platform that scraped the sky itself, until she was kneeling there upon the cold, glassy surface.

"And there's always less time than you think."

Lightning stared up at the empty throne, at the pale teeth rising from the very depths of the earth, up into the heavens themselves.

"You always have less time..." Someone stepped out from behind the crystal surface, gazing back at her. "Please, just go home."

Lightning looked away. "I can't... Not yet."

"There might be no stopping you." Footsteps clicked so quietly across the ground, yet each echo sounded as if it was right there within her heart. "You wouldn't be Lightning, then..."

She didn't even flinch when platform fractured, cracking and groaning beneath the weight of the endless sky, before the throne slowly fell to pieces.

Lightning watched, waiting for the sound of shattering crystal, but it never came. She was just kneeling there within the darkness, yet there were no more voices to be heard. None but her own. "I can't leave... I can't leave my friends." Lightning pressed her hands forward, down into the deep shadows, trying to draw them all back, tugging at whatever memories she possibly could reach. "I _can't_ leave them."

There, she could finally see Serah, only she was laughing alongside the girl she had seen before, Vanille, while Fang stood on beside them, grinning against the wind.

Lightning felt her eyes go wide.

Snow walked up, and Serah ran over towards him, leaping into his arms.

"I can't leave them." Lightning watched as Hope appeared, off in the distance, but Vanille quickly ran up beside him, ruffling at his hair with both of her hands. "I can't let us end up any other way..."

Lightning closed her eyes, but the vision kept on spinning, etching itself down into her mind. She could see Sazh and his son, a child she had never seen before, yet she somehow just knew, she _knew_ it was him, maybe from another life; they were both there, walking with all the rest of them.

But where was she? Lightning scanned the long, grassy fields, the flowering plains, but she couldn't see any hint of her own presence, not until Serah suddenly turned to stare at her.

"Oh Light, don't look at me like that..."

 _Like what..?_ Lightning glanced around at everyone else, but it was almost as if they couldn't even see her. _What is this? Where are we?_

"I didn't forget you." Serah stared back at her with such wide glassy eyes. "Don't worry, Light..."

Lightning reached out, but her fingertips were only dust.

"We're the children of chaos, Light... The messengers of death." Serah's necklace shone a bright blue, but around the pendant, the lines of metal were pure silver. "Of course I can remember you."

Lightning tried to speak. _What is this, Serah?_

But her sister glanced away, staring up the pale, riderless horse, the one who wandered around in the endless fields.

 _Is this-? It can't be the future..._ Lightning watched the world depart, fading away, until she was left alone in the darkness again. _I won't let it... It won't be like that._

 _Foresight._

Lightning whirled around, but there was nobody there.

 _You should really wake up._

Lightning tried to close her eyes.

 _Wake up._

She felt herself drifting, falling back into oblivion _. Wait!_

 _Lightning... Watch every step you take, okay?_

The world went as bright as the sun, and she was suddenly blinded.

 _And ask yourself, is it really worth it?_

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut tight.

* * *

Fang woke to the sound of a gasp, to the feeling of something lurching, struggling against her body at an all too familiar rate. "What..?"

Lightning reached up with pale, shaking arms to grip at her own hair.

"Light?" Fang curled up slightly, tugging her a bit closer. "Another nightmare?"

"We have to finish this..." Lightning kept her eyes fixed on the distance, while her breath came in short, yet quiet bursts. "We _have_ to go kill the fal'Cie and finish it, and then I have to go home."

Fang blinked, and she tried her best to wake up enough for a coherent response. "Okay, we'll do that..."

"We _have_ to go home." Lightning lifted her hands out in front of her, and she flexed her fingers back and forth, just to make sure that they weren't dust. "We have to... Our _family_ , they're all scattered apart, aren't they?"

Fang slowly reached up to hold Lightning's wrists, caressing them with her own hands. "Yeah, but it won't be for too long... We'll fix it."

Lightning slowly felt herself unwind. "Okay."

"See, it's alright." Fang hugged her close. " _We're_ alright, just breathe with me."

Lightning leaned back with the quiet sound of her breath, into the way Fang's chest swelled slightly with each push of her lungs.

"I'm right here." Fang rubbed long, gentle circles into Lightning's palms. "We're both here."

Lightning closed her eyes again, listening to the low sounds of her voice.

Fang smiled. "I feel much safer with you, you know." She chuckled when Lightning tried to look up at her, but Fang's face was already pressed into that soft pink hair. "It's not so weird... You're one tough customer, Light."

Lightning scoffed under her breath. "You're a dragon... There's not much out there to make you feel scared."

"Not much." Fang smiled into Lightning's hair. "But still enough."

"Then... I'll keep you safe." Lightning fought back the smallest smile she had ever felt. "Just as long as you keep me warm."

Fang yawned again, hugging her close. "Sounds like a deal."

Lightning slowly curled up into the embrace; she could feel Fang's presence all around her, with the way her arms were wrapped against her stomach and chest, holding her tight.

"I mean it, Light... We're safe together." Fang peered out at the glowing crystals. "This world isn't a kind one, but I won't let anything hurt you, not like that."

Lightning tried to force the memories away, grappling back at the image of fire, and even the scents ingrained in her mind, the smoke and swelling saltwater.

"I wish I could have found you sooner.." Fang kept her voice down to a whisper. "But it might've been more than a little weird, if you were younger..."

Lightning would have rolled her eyes if she wasn't too tired to open them. "Pervert."

"No, I think that by saying that, it means I'm _not_ a pervert..." Fang grinned to herself. "It means I appreciate that you're around the same age as my human form."

Lightning sighed. "I know what it means."

"Grumpy, grumpy..." Fang smoothed her hand over Lightning's shoulders and back, soothing away the slight tension within her spine. "I'm just teasing you 'til you fall asleep."

Lightning leaned back into Fang's neck. "That's going to be sooner than you might think..."

Fang waited and listened, but when Lightning's breath went slow, and her limbs went slack, she only yawned once more, hugging her close. "Sleep well, Light."

* * *

The light of the central cave barely waned through the passing hours, but the crystals would occasionally grow quite dim, replenishing the natural energy within. The deep oranges and reds covered almost the entire surface of the metal cavern, though certain patches were left untouched. It was upon one of those patches that Bhakti stood against, tapping along the metallic surface with his front legs.

"A most unusual composition..." Bhakti peered into a small square receptacle, the same kind that he had seen many times behind a layer of solid crystal, but never so exposed. "Could it have been it the ancient ones who built this place, or the fal'Cie itself?"

Bhakti poked at the edge of the plating, moving himself around until he could fit one of his front legs inside. Each of his little limbs was fitted with a universal sensory and examination device, which could also communicate with various types of automatic magical beings.

"Hello?" After a moment, Bhakti repeated a mental command through his limb, but there was still no answer to be found. "There is really nothing left..."

He already knew that the fal'Cie had likely perished beneath the flames; it was only logical, for dragon fire was perhaps the most destructive of all known combustion methods, but some small part of him still wondered if the mind beneath the metal could still be recovered.

Bhakti held no fear of his own expiration, and he knew that even if Fang might be rather cross with him for attempting to wake the original host of the vestige, he also knew that Vanille had tasked him with finding an answer, and that she'd never told him to exclude the possibility of simply requesting it from the source.

"But there _must_ be..." Bhakti focused on the inner lines, the winding circuits that traveled down into the very mind of the fal'Cie. "There must be something left." He could sense the outline of the dormant mechanism, the broken bits of an ancient thought process, and he could still read over the last few lines of the nearest memory core, examining how the fal'Cie had known true relief once its life was finally over and done with.

"Relief?" Bhakti slowly drew his limb away. "That is an emotion... A sudden reaction by immense pain or suffering, after the source of torment has been removed." He sat in the darkness for a long while, staring up at the crystal ceiling. "A fal'Cie, capable of emotion? How odd."

* * *

"Light?"

Lightning stirred against the blankets, but she didn't open her eyes.

" _Lightning_..." She could feel something touch the side of her face. "I think we slept in a little bit late."

Lightning rolled over, mumbling under her breath.

"You want me to carry you out?"

She opened her eyes to see Fang with a slight grin on her lips. "...You wish."

Fang shrugged, stretching out both of her arms above her head. "You'd better wake up, then."

"I _am_ awake..." Lightning yawned quietly. "It just feels like I didn't get any sleep."

Fang leaned forward a bit. "You could always nap while we fly, today..." She watched as Lightning rolled over on her back, staring up at her from the blankets. "If the weather isn't too rough."

Lightning kept very still for a moment, before she slowly reached over to squeeze Fang's hand with more than a hint of strength. "Just as long as you catch me if I fall..."

Fang just smiled, and she knelt down a bit further to help Lightning sit upright. "Of course, I'd be a pretty lousy friend if I did otherwise, wouldn't I?"

"Worse than lousy." Lightning reached up to touch at the back of her own head. "I think the swelling's gone down."

"Let me see?" Fang waited until Lightning had turned around, before she reached up to gently push away the soft pink locks of hair, examining the wound beneath them. "That must've been one nasty tree."

"The bark was pretty rough." Lightning tried not to wince. "And I got thrown pretty hard." She swore that she could _feel_ it when Fang held back a snarl. "At least I didn't get a concussion... Or if I did, it was from what you did, not the wendigoes."

Fang almost laughed, but her eyes seemed a bit distant. "Yeah... You nearly gave _me_ one, though." Before Lightning could even muster up a retort, Fang slung her arms down over both of her shoulders, gently pulling her back against her own chest. "I meant it, Light. You're one tough lady."

Lightning only tensed for a moment, though she didn't fully relax, despite how tempting it was. Fang was both warm and somewhat solid behind her, equal parts softness and strength, but giving in at that point... It might burn the whole day away. And she'd been caught off guard by the way Fang approached her in the canyon, the sudden affection that echoed out like a mighty bell in her mind. Though it made her feel just as she'd felt within the dream, and even if Fang already seemed as though she matched the rhythm perfectly, drawing back something from a past long forgotten, it was still early yet.

"Well, what should we do about breakfast?" Lightning slowly disentangled herself, sitting upright, before she reached to pick up her heavier clothes. "If we're out of venison..."

Fang leaned back on her hands, and she braced them against the blankets. "I'll stay on the lookout for deer, or whatever else might be wandering around out there." She looked over at her own satchel. "If we pass by a town, we could always try to buy something."

Lightning tugged on her heavy jacket and pants, grabbing her backpack as well. "I wouldn't object to staying the night at an inn... With an actual bed."

Fang chuckled a bit. "What, my blankets aren't amazing?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "They'd be more _amazing_ on a mattress, or something other than stone..."

Fang shrugged. "I can't remember the last time I slept on a bed." She slowly rose to her feet, reaching out for one of the blankets. "Probably wasn't in this life."

Lightning lifted up the other blanket, before she folded it down into halves. "I keep forgetting, you aren't-" She took a moment to think of the right words. "You didn't grow up like humans do, did you?"

Fang shook her head. "Not if you count sleeping out in the woods or catching dinner on the fly..." She smiled when Lightning handed over the second blanket. "When I still had feathers, I'd nest up in the trees... It was _almost_ like a bed."

Lightning watched as Fang put the blankets away, folding them back down into the satchel. "Branches and twigs? Doesn't sound very comfortable."

"Well, when you've got scales..." Fang grinned at her, before she stepped away, enveloped in that fiery light. "They're not quite as sensitive as skin."

Lightning stared up at the way Fang was quickly shifting, moving off into her draconic form, the fabled wyrm, a true rarity in that day and age. "Fang... How many dragons were there, back then?" She peered deep into Fang's eyes, at the way they were still the very same color as before, only much larger and with a long, dark slit for her pupils. "How many are there, today?"

Fang slowly knelt down on her wings. "Back then... As many as who could remember themselves." She lowered her head beside where Lightning was standing, looking her in the eye. "Now... Not many."

Lightning reached up to touch at the very top of Fang's silvery forehead, beside the black frill that ran down her neck and between her curved horns. "One of the last?"

Fang slowly nodded. "One of the last."

After a long moment of silence, Lightning's voice came out in a whisper, barely brushing past her lips. "And I almost killed you..."

"Now don't you go beating yourself up over that." Fang moved forward a little, nudging against Lightning's hand. "You didn't remember me, alright? It was the _right_ thing in your mind, you were just trying to protect what you care about, weren't you?"

Lightning felt the swelling surge of something ancient as it thrummed beneath her fingertips, the warm longing, the _love_ , the way Fang had watched over the entire world for her return, waiting thousands of years just to find her whole family again. She could see it from within the eyes of a skyward dragon, from the gaze that had once looked out across the budding earth, through the rise and fall of sprawling empires, before it had turned away, off to the wilds, flying away into the clouds.

"We were given immortality." Fang gently purred against Lightning's palm. "Immortality, resilience, and _sight_."

Lightning's eyes went wide at the sudden vision of her own figure, one who wandered out along the side of a grassy flowering hill, urging for Fang's human form to follow her.

"Foresight..." Fang blinked, staring at the images. "It's only a possibility, just another string in the pile, but it's always something possible... We could make it happen."

"The future?" Lightning felt herself go very still at the sight of a wide lake that rippled beneath them, and she watched as the image of Fang, how she ran after her own mental visage, following her down towards the edge of the water. "A possibility."

Fang nodded. "Now, I told you'd I teach you some dragon things... Maybe you can learn how to see these, too." When she slowly drew away, breaking their physical link, Lightning's vision lurched back to the present, to the glowing crystal cave.

"You looked happy." Lightning's face was more than a little flushed, but she soon drew up her hood to hide it. "I... I looked happy, too."

Fang grinned in that odd dragon smile, all teeth and scales. "It looked like you were teaching me how to fish."

Lightning almost laughed to herself, but she kept it stifled. "I didn't see any fishing poles."

Fang leaned down to nudge at Lightning's shoulder. "I think we could improvise... Spearfishing, maybe?"

"I didn't see any spears either." Lightning nudged back, pushing at the end of Fang's snout. "But if you practice enough, there are certain fish that you can catch with just your hands."

Fang closed her eyes for a moment. "You'll have to teach me, then."

Lightning started off once more, towards the entrance of the cave. "If you behave..."

Fang opened her eyes again and followed after her, walking upon both her hind legs and wings. "Hey, when have I not behaved?" She chuckled at the way Lightning looked straight ahead, tugging that big, fluffy hood of hers even further over her hair. "Name _one_ time."

Lightning thought about that for a moment. "You hid my sword."

"Only because you kept stabbing me!" Fang paused beside the lone guardian of the chamber, the very place where Vanille had once stood beside her. "That doesn't count as misbehaving."

"Well, you lit a field on fire..." Lightning paused as well. "You probably scared those people half to death."

"It was only to get you out of hiding, missy." Fang almost smiled again. "You can be _very_ elusive, you know."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "I wasn't 'hiding'... I just don't make my whereabouts known to the general public."

Fang chuckled a bit, before she looked back up at Vanille's crystallized form. "Guess we should get going then." She lifted her head aloft, peering deep into the gout of solid fire, at the way Vanille was still locked within the very same moment that she had let her power loose upon the fal'Cie. "I'm glad we got to visit, though..."

Lightning stood there in silence, balanced against the swirling lines of crystal. She watched as Fang lingered on beside the statue, almost as if she might have been waiting for Vanille to simply wake up.

"We'll be back soon, alright?" Fang nudged at the edge of Vanille's wing with her nose. "You just hold on."

Lightning watched those silent crystals, how each lick of flame still curled out into the air, reaching up into the rest of the vestige.

Fang soon stepped back to Lightning's side, and they walked together beneath the main archway of the hall. "It's nice to not be alone in here." She followed after Lightning, traveling out into the darkened tunnels. "I'd bet Vanille's glad you came to visit, too."

Lightning looked back over her shoulder, staring out into the wide, glowing room. "I hope so." She glanced around at the hallway. "Where do you think Bhakti ran off to?"

Fang shrugged with her wings. "He's always running off... Looking for something interesting to poke at, probably." She lifted her head up to gaze out into the darkness. "Oi, Bhakti?!"

It was only a moment later that something scuttled off in the distance. "Yes?"

"Come over here, alright?" Fang stepped forward as well. "Are you sure you'll be alright staying behind?"

Bhakti soon crawled out from somewhere along the sleek, winding crystals. "I am very sure." He peered down at Lightning from atop a chunk of the tall, shiny stone, gripping at it with his many spindly legs. "The two of you, are you preparing to leave?"

Lightning nodded. "We're out of food, so even if we were going to stay..."

"That would pose quite the problem, I see." Bhakti hummed a bit, before he swiveled around to face where Fang was standing. "But yes, I would rather stay here and do whatever I can to study the deceased fal'Cie... Perhaps our solution is resting just beneath the surface, under our 'noses', to say."

Fang almost narrowed her eyes at that, but she merely leaned back to try and bite away the distaste; even the mere mention of such a thing could make her tongue curl. "Alright... But just be careful, you hear me?" She stared down at Bhakti. "Those things, they aren't anything like you." Fang moved over to nudge at the tiny machine with her nose. "They aren't nice little critters... They're big, _mean_ , and heartless."

Bhakti peered up into her eyes. "I understand, Fang." He turned to crawl back down along the crystals. "I _will_ be extremely cautious, and I promise to watch over Vanille until you return."

Fang stepped aside again, beside Lightning. "Thanks, Bhakti."

Lightning soon reached out for the very end of Fang's tail, holding on to it as they moved into the darkness.

"Shouldn't be too much further." Fang peered around at the rusted chunks of metallic wall paneling, and at how some of them had curled up or fallen beneath the sheer heat of the flame. "You okay, Light?"

"Yeah." Lightning blinked against the darkness. "But I could really use some breakfast."

Fang smiled to herself. "Oh, I think we can manage that..." She kept herself down to a slow pace, making sure that Lightning could keep up with her without the benefit of sight. "You know, I think I'm getting the hang of this human thing... How about we see if the nearest town has someplace to buy food?"

Lightning silently cursed the soft little growling sensation in her stomach. "I wouldn't object."

In the corner of her gaze, Fang caught sight of a thin ray of sun. "Hey, what are some of your favorites, Light? What sorts of food do you like best?"

Lightning soon looked up at the entryway, and she shielded her eyes from the sudden brightness, holding her wrist up against her forehead. "...It's a little embarrassing."

Fang glanced back over her shoulder with a strange sort of smirk on her face. "Wonder what it could be, then..?" She knelt down on her wings, waiting for Lightning to climb up upon her back. "Probably not venison, that's too obvious."

Lightning practically felt the mirth within Fang's tone, so she didn't stop one of her boots from knocking against her scales on the way up.

"I promise I won't laugh." Fang rose up again, before she turned her head back around to nudge at Lightning's shoulder. "I just want to know so we can get it."

Lightning flushed slightly. "They probably won't even have any; it's just little things... Like cake or sweets." She thought back to her most recent birthday. "They're really not easy to make, not without a whole lot of ingredients; you need milk, eggs, sugar and flour... And those are just the basics."

Fang slowly stepped out towards the edge of the cliff, moving away from the vestige itself. "I'm sure we can find something."

Lightning reached for the satchel strap to hold on tight, and she pressed her face down when Fang suddenly dropped right out into the air, fanning her wide black wings against the wind.

 _I want to make this great, Light._

She could feel the words thrumming against the palms of her hands, echoing out from where Fang's scales were pressed up against her cheek, and then even further, somewhere deep inside her own heart.

 _I just want... I want us to be happy along the way._

Lightning closed her eyes very tightly, trying not to shiver beneath the sharp, blustering winds of the sky, before she nodded against Fang's neck.

 _Light, it almost feels like I'm home again..._ Fang spread her massive wings out even further, and she flapped them so very strongly into the air, all while she laughed against the wind. _And that's just it, we're going to bring everyone home._

Lightning slowly opened her eyes. _Everyone... It's like a big family, isn't it?_ The memories whirled on inside her head, moving just beneath her hands, like warm wisps of sight and sound and color. _And w_ _ _e__ _'re bringing it home._

Fang flew on above the mountains, soaring off into the light of a new day.


	13. Blackberry Wine

Lightning gazed out over the pale rolling hills, all covered in frost.

 _Now, if I remember right, there's a long strait up ahead._ Fang flapped her wings against the brisk snowy air. _You know, inland sea._

Lightning stared down at the world below, and she kept very still for a while, just watching the ground drift on beneath them.

 _Hey, Light?_ Fang flicked her tail against the chilly wind currents. _You okay?_

 _...Yeah._ Lightning held the strap of Fang's satchel in one hand, gripping it as tightly as she could. _Just thinking._

 _Ah, time for a bathroom break?_ Fang laughed when Lightning jabbed a halfhearted kick at her side. _Seriously, if you'd like to land for a while-_

 _I'd_ _ **really**_ _like to find a town, or somewhere with food..._ Lightning peered at a strip of something on the edge of the horizon, something long, pale and shining. _Is that the ocean?_

Fang lifted her head high, before she flapped her wings just a bit faster than before. _We'll find out soon enough._

Lightning thought back to the last time that she had been near the sea; she remembered riding down across the beach, how Odin would pause every so often to sniff heavily at the air, as if he found the scent of saltwater rather intriguing. His hooves would leave deep indents in the sand, and Lightning almost grimaced at the memory of cleaning his horseshoes afterward.

 _He seems like a really nice horse.  
_

Lightning glanced back down at Fang. _I always forget you can see that..._

 _You can hide them if you want._ Fang tipped her head back down, flying a bit lower beside the thick, forested hills, but she still kept herself far above the long slopes and valleys in the earth. _Just try to make your thoughts hidden, and I won't be able to get at them... But I do like seeing these things, Light._

Lightning reached out to run her other hand along Fang's scales. _You like seeing how boring it is to clean horseshoes..?_

 _Not specifically._ A low laugh rumbled within Fang's entire form. _But I really like seeing how much you love your family... And Odin's a part of that, isn't he?_

Lightning nodded. _I've had him for years, now._

Fang glanced back over her wings. _How did you get him?_

Lightning slowly closed her eyes. She started to remember that fateful day from one of the coziest parts of her mind, one which felt like so many long years ago.

* * *

A voice rang out. "Around again!"

Lightning's gaze tracked the very line of a bullwhip, and her ears rang at the sudden sharp crack; she watched the end fly out, yet it didn't even touch down against that pale white hide.

She could see it then, the roving beast who moved on between a mass of sound and bodies, the din of raucous voices and jauntily festive music. It had been only moments ago that the steed had been given a bowl of some strange sort of concoction, one which he drank down without hesitation.

Bright eyes peered out from within the tiny corral, gazing back at her, but the creature just kept trotting around in circles, moving over and over again with each snap of the whip.

Lightning made her way on through the crowd, thought it was more than a bit difficult to navigate with such an unruly bunch; the air was thick with the scent of alcohol and rich summer foods, and then even a few wisps of exotic tobacco and incense. She slowly walked up beside the long wooden rails, standing there within all the rest of the crowd.

"Hundred gil, hundred gil for a bottle!" A young peddler sat atop the fence, perched beside the man who held the whip. "Best deal you'll see today, folks!"

For just a brief moment, Lightning peered at the way the crowd just kept watching the main attraction, and she almost smiled. When she glanced to the side, she could see several crates with the unusual little vials of liquid, but most of them were still full to the brim.

"Back around!" The long whip still didn't touch the horse's hide, but he let out a whinnying snort, tossing his head up and down.

Lightning closed her eyes for a while, just listening to the drumming hoofbeats, to how each swift movement blended right in with the next, until the rhythm repeated yet again. "Strange breed for dressage."

The peddler glanced over at her. "Aye, but he is a strange boy!" She tipped her cap towards Lightning. "You know your horses, eh? Interested in a bottle?"

Lightning glanced away. "I'm more interested in the horse."

"Ah, he's not for sale." The young peddler moved aside, clambering along the fence until she was sitting right beside Lightning. "He's actually a bit of a mystery, you see... Me and pops bought him from an... 'Independent merchant', one who barely even spoke a lick of the common tongue." She gestured at the horse. "No breeding history, no pedigree... But he's a fair pretty sight to watch, isn't he?"

A small firecracker sounded off from beside a nearby tent, and Lightning's eyes widened slightly, but it wasn't the sound that caught her interest. The horse had merely flicked his ears at the noise, yet he never broke his rhythm, trotting on around the circle without pause.

"That he is... But he's no circus pony." Lightning kept leaning against the wooden rails, watching each and every move the steed made. "Was there anything the trader told you? Just look at his temperament."

The young peddler shrugged. "Most working horses don't mind the noise, miss."

Lightning kept her next few words to herself, namely how this horse didn't merely ignore the noise; she had seen several steeds trained in the art of warfare, and they simply reacted to a disturbance, moving on without even a hint of panic or disobedience.

The peddler girl moved back over towards her companion. "Tested recipe, only a hundred gil!" She held up one of the bottles, waving it out towards the crowd. "Look at his coat, folks! Not a pockmark or flea on that hide, no sir!"

Lightning's gaze kept drifting on, studying the motion itself.

"Light!"

Her concentration drew to a sharp halt at the sound of a familiar voice, but when she turned around, something nearly knocked right into herself, and Lightning had to step back just a bit. "Serah."

Serah was hugging her with a very bright smile. "Yes, there you are! I've been looking _everywhere_." She moved back after a brief moment, still grinning away. "I almost thought you tried to sneak away early!"

Lightning almost smiled as well, but she bit at her bottom lip to keep it hidden. "I wouldn't leave you behind."

Serah faked a tiny pout. "Well, that's good... I'd be pretty upset if you didn't have any fun, either, you know." She suddenly looked down at the leather satchel on her belt, before she reached inside for a small vial of something rather luminous, and quite strange. "Now, I know you said not to spend most of my money in one place..."

"What is that?" Lightning held out her hand, and Serah passed it to her. "It almost looks like-"

Serah nodded. "Tears from a roc."

"How expensive was it?" Lightning turned the little vial over, examining the consistency of the pale blue liquid, and she nearly began to marvel at how it scarcely even seemed to touch the glass. "This actually looks legitimate."

Serah scoffed under her breath. "Of course it's legitimate! I wouldn't let myself get swindled over with something like this..." She gave Lightning a rather wry smile. "Did you see that emporium over there, by the dueling grounds? They've been bringing out the extra potent stuff today."

After a moment or two, Lightning handed back the vial. "And you're going to have a charm made?"

Serah held up the glass to what little of the evening sunlight she could find. "That's right." Far above, a thick layer of clouds hovered above the fairgrounds, though they kept a bit of the summer heat at bay. "They might even have a smithy here..."

Lightning leaned back against the wooden railing, still listening to those constant, steady hoof-beats. "Do you have enough money left for silver?"

Serah frowned a little. "Well... You know how hard it is to even encounter a roc, much less make it cry." She glanced down at her satchel again, before she quickly stashed away the vial. "I can always save it up for next time." Serah tried to smile once more, looking back at Lightning. "So what've _you_ been up to?" She stood up on her tiptoes to see over Lightning's shoulder. "...Woah."

Lightning turned around, facing the tiny paddock again. "Yeah."

Serah tried to squirm her way through the crowd, and she was soon wedged up between Lightning and another spectator, just in time to see the proud stallion tossing back his head with a whinny. "Light, that's amazing..."

Lightning leaned away to give Serah more room to see. "I know, you don't see many horses like that... Not often."

Serah nodded. "But why do they have him running around in circles?" She set her arms down upon the wooden railing, and she narrowed her eyes to examine the lithe, graceful beast in greater detail. "Look at his pace."

"I know." Lightning closed her eyes for a moment, just to tune out the sounds of the crowd, until she could focus on the steady breaths and the drum of hoof-beats. "Serah, don't yell at me for suggesting this."

Serah rolled her eyes. "You aren't buying him without a test ride."

Lightning almost smiled. "That's not quite it... He's apparently _'not for sale'._ "

Serah turned around, leaning against the fence. "Have you tried to haggle it?"

Lightning shook her head. "A little patience never hurts."

"Light, you just need to be forthright! But not too pushy..." Serah soon stepped away from the paddock, dusting off her hands. "Well, how much are we willing to offer?"

Lightning glanced back at the horse. "We're not too poorly off, at least not this year... I could make back last year's earnings within the next autumn, alone." She took a long, deep breath, where she could smell the woodsmoke and grass, even the scents of so many various foods, not to mention an undertone of both wine, ale and mead. "The average price of a horse, this sort of breed..." Lightning kept her hands down at her sides, but she silently signaled at Serah with two of her fingertips.

Serah nodded, before she lowered her voice to a near whisper. "Again, you'd still need to ride him before you close the deal... I've heard of people hiding a nasty limp by keeping them to a certain speed." She glanced back over her shoulder, watching as the horse quickened his pace, almost up to a canter. "But you might not need to worry about that."

Lightning leaned back when she felt a single drop of water fall against her hair, and when she glanced up at the sky, she could see the first few streaks of rain. "I'm still going to think on it."

Serah looked up as well. "Damn, and I didn't bring a coat."

"It _is_ summer..." Lightning looked back down at the thin jacket she was wearing. "We can find a tent to wait it out." She gestured for Serah to follow her. "Have you had anything to drink yet?"

Serah glanced back over her shoulder, staring at the horse who still wouldn't pause, before she looked back at her sister, and then followed along behind her. "Uh, yes, just a few sips, they were handing out samples from the local breweries."

Lightning eased her way on through the crowds, ducking in and out between the raucous groups of dancers and revelers, and before long, she looked back to make sure that Serah could also make it through. "You should really eat something then, balance it out."

Serah kept up at a quick pace, darting beneath the long banners and crates of supplies that were being carried all throughout the field. "Oh, there was this place just nearby! They had some pretty amazing pastries."

Lightning paused within the grooves of a narrow pathway, but when she glanced down, the ground was mostly just trodden grass. "Pastries."

Serah giggled. "There's that sweet tooth!" She grabbed at Lightning's hand to lead her onward through the crowds. "We'll get you a glass of wine and you'll be set for the year."

Lightning just rolled her eyes, but she let Serah guide her forward, walking up towards a rather colorfully bannered tent, one that smelled like both fresh flour and sugar. "Serah, I don't have a sweet tooth."

"Yes you do..." Serah grinned over her shoulder. "You just hide it, just like everything else."

"Everything else?" Lightning raised a single eyebrow at that, and try as she might, she just couldn't hide the little smile on her face. "Do tell... This is news to me."

Serah scoffed a bit, but she was quickly smiling as well. "Let's find somewhere to sit down first." She glanced around at the inner area of the domed tent, before she spotted an empty table near the sidelines, though it had quite too many chairs. "Come on, this one's out of the rain..."

Lightning followed after Serah, and she quickly found herself dragged down into one of the tall wooden seats seats, while her sister busied herself with pushing a few of them away, until there were only two chairs left.

"That's better..." Serah practically hopped up into her seat. "This is the first time I've seen you smiling so much in months, Light!"

Lightning paused again, resting her hands against the table, and she tried her best not to instinctually even out her expression. "This is... It's been very fun, Serah." She glanced up at the burning torches near the edge of the tent, before she looked over at where the vendors were baking food right out there in the open, creating all sorts of little sweets and confections. "We just haven't had the time lately, not enough to relax like this."

Serah's gaze went a little bit distant, and Lightning had a feeling that she was thinking of all the constant construction back in Sunleth, how they had worked down the land just to carve out a home for themselves, building it beneath those tall, verdant hills.

"And I _am_ having fun." Lightning smiled softly. "I'm out here, walking around in the rain, possibly crazy enough to buy us another horse... And my favorite sister, she seems to be going right along with it."

"I'm your _only_ sister." Serah quickly faked a tiny scowl, but Lightning could see the swell of mirth in her eyes. "And you don't think Alexander might be getting lonely without other horses around? The mules can't be all that relatable..."

Lightning shrugged. "Alexander's a good horse, he just doesn't have that _fire_." She stared out into the pattering rain, at the crowds moving all around outside the shelter of the tent. "Serah, that's the sort of horse you ride into war."

Serah leaned back in her seat. "There hasn't _been_ a war, not in our lifetimes... And I doubt anyone's going to start one."

Lightning nodded. "Yes, but he could _fight_."

Serah met her eyes, searching for something within.

"He could fight..." Lightning held Serah's gaze. "He could hunt with us."

"He could." After a moment, Serah looked away again. "I'll be right back."

She watched as Serah stood up to slip right across the inner span of the tent, before Lightning looked back down at the rounded table, slowly tracing her fingertips over the knots in the wood. She could hear so many muffled conversations from the people talking all around her, but in that moment, she only had ears for Serah's voice, even if she could scarcely even hear what she was saying.

It was only a short while before Serah returned again, holding a tray between her hands. "Check this out."

Lightning looked down at the wide array of pastries, the little bits of dough, cookies and tiny cakes, some with a topping of soft, sweetened cheese, others with sliced strawberries and frosting, or even sprigs of fresh mint. When she glanced over to the side of the tray, Lightning caught sight of two wooden mugs with the heavy aroma of cinnamon and cloves, but when she took a moment to inhale just a bit further, she caught the distinct scent of something entirely different.

"Told you, mulled wine." Serah set down one of the cups on the table, before she moved back over to sit in her seat. "I asked the vendor, he said it wasn't too strong."

"Let's hope not..." Lightning reached for the mug to stir it around a bit, watching the rich, deep reds mixing in with the spices beside them. "I don't want to have to drag us both back home if we're stumbling over ourselves."

Serah only smiled.

"But these do look nice." Lightning reached for one of the little pastries. "Did they say what this one is?"

Serah glanced over at the vendor she'd been speaking to. "Oh, that's got blueberry inside." She turned back to the table, but her eyes never left the other side of the tent. "Light, look over there."

Lightning quirked an eyebrow at her request, but she slowly began to follow Serah's gaze. "What about it?"

"Not an _it_..." Serah was looking past the noisy bustle of patrons, over towards one of the vendors who ran the bakery stand itself. "Isn't he cute?"

Lightning stared at the various people for a while, before she looked back at the tray of baked goods. "You'll have to be more specific."

Serah scoffed as quietly as she could. "Are you _blind_ , Light?"

Lightning shrugged. "I'm just not here to ogle anyone."

Serah pouted just a bit, but she quickly reached for one of the little cakes. "No, you'll only ogle the sweets..."

Lightning smiled to herself. "They're worth ogling."

Serah slowly smiled as well. "Well, how's that one?"

"Pretty good." Lightning took a moment to chew and taste the blend of thick blueberries and spices, and when she reached for a small sip of wine, the flavor only intensified. "And yours?"

Serah took a tiny bite of cake. "Cinnamon."

"It should go well with the wine." Lightning could already feel the gentle sort of buzz in both her throat and chest, how even such mild alcohol could make her entire stomach feel warm. "But I'm telling you now, Serah... I'm not going to drag you away if you go chasing after anyone tonight."

Serah blushed a little, fighting with her own gaze to not glance at the vendor again. "I'm not going to chase anyone, Light..."

Lightning took another bite of the pastry. "Your eyes are telling me a different story."

Serah shook her head. "No, this is _our_ day, okay?" She looked back at Lightning. "Sister's day out, no running after boys..." Serah lowered her voice a bit. "No matter how cute they are."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Of course."

"I'm serious, Light." Serah smiled, and she slowly sipped at her wine. "We've got eyes, might as well enjoy the scenery."

Lightning's expression went rather blank when a group of their fellow patrons broke out into a raucous song, laughing heartily among themselves. "Scenery."

"You know what I mean..." Serah just waved her off, reaching for another pastry. "And they're only having a good time." She giggled when one of the burliest of the group stumbled away from the center of the tent, flexing his arms with each shaky step. "A little too much wine, I'd say..."

Lightning slowly smiled again. "Just a little."

Serah smiled back at her. "It's so good to see you like this." She leaned back in her chair, listening to all the sounds of the rainy fairground. "Do you remember the holidays, back home? It was nothing like this..."

Lightning could still hear the melody of voices outside, the peddlers and merchants, even the rumbling carriages, nearly filled to bursting with exotic goods.

"I remember the fishing festivals." Serah's gaze went a bit distant at the memory. "Do you remember that huge marlin they brought back that one? It was bigger than either of us..."

"We were only kids." Lightning thought back to the massive blue fish, one that had a snout like a sword and a big sail on its back, almost like a wing. "But yes, it was huge."

"I remember, all of my friends were so _scared_ of it..." Serah laughed a little. "The older girls, they weren't quite as timid."

Lightning nodded. "I remember that."

"What was that one girl's name, the one with such long hair?" Serah thought back for a while, sipping at her wine, but the name seemed to elude her at every turn. "You were friends, I think."

Lightning shrugged. "It doesn't matter now." She almost frowned at the sudden look in Serah's eyes. "Not like that... It's not that _she_ didn't matter, just that-"

Serah shook her head. "No, no... It's okay, I know. I just don't think about it much, either... Not anymore." She seemed to close her eyes at the memory of such bright, roaring fire, and she tried to shake it from her mind. "There was always so much gossip before all that... I remember how everybody in the village knew almost everything about everyone else."

Lightning stirred at her wine.

Serah smiled, laughing so quietly to herself. "There was even a little rumor about you..."

Lightning quirked her eyebrows again, still staring at her wine mug. "Not the most reliable source of information."

"Oh, I know." Serah sat forward in her seat, leaning against the edge of the table. "But it might explain a few things."

Lightning's gaze went a bit sharp, not quite enough to deter Serah's line of questioning, but it was more than noticeable.

Serah only smiled, reaching for another pastry. "So, how about that pony?"

Lightning relaxed, yet only slightly. "He's not a pony."

"That _horse_ , then." Serah bit down on a very flaky biscuit, glancing out at the rain. "You really think we can haggle him down from two hundred thousand?"

Lightning looked up with an odd bit of light in her eyes, but she quickly shook her head. "That's a little on the low side... We'll probably have to go higher."

Serah's eyes widened slightly. "Just how good _is_ this horse?"

Lightning reached for a small square of cake, one with a swirl of frosting at the top. "I think that those people have a certain idea of what they're sitting on, but no way to actually use it." She glanced back at the group of singing revelers, most of whom were finally wandering off in search of stronger drink. "And with the way that snake oil is just sitting there, I think they'll take a deal for him."

Serah smiled a little. "What do you think that is, actually?"

Lightning shrugged. "They wouldn't be charging a hundred gil for anything more potent than scented water."

"That's probably it." Serah reached for one of the last few pieces from the pastry tray. "Strange, most of the things I've seen around the grounds look pretty authentic."

"There's always one in the crowd, Serah." After a moment or two, Lightning eyed the very last pastry that was left. "But I would be grateful if you could help me out with the actual bargaining."

Serah nodded. "Of course, that's always fun..." She pushed the tray forward a bit, sipping at the last of her wine. "Farron sisters, toughest hagglers in Bodhum and beyond."

"Dad's surname, really?" Lightning smiled again, and she slowly shook her head. "Only the deal isn't quite in our favor..." She picked up the tiny roll of strudel, one that was likely baked with caramelized apples inside. "And Bodhum, nobody here even knows what that is."

Serah set down her mug with a grin. "Then we _do_ have the advantage."

Lightning watched as her sister stood up once more, walking forward without so much as stumbling, and she nearly rolled her eyes at the way Serah skipped back over towards the front of the tent.

"And what advantage is that?" Lightning stood as well, and she reached for the tray and the pair of somewhat empty mugs. "Bodhum is just backwater compared to a place like this, Serah."

Serah just grinned at the crowd outside, which was still readily bustling away to the tune of music, even beneath the continuous beat of rainfall.

"Alright." Lightning placed the tray down near the front counter of the tent, before she tugged off her own jacket, setting it down over Serah's shoulders. "Let's go and see if they're packing up for today; vending hours should be over soon."

Serah grinned. "For the fireworks."

Lightning nodded at her, gesturing for Serah to pull the jacket on over her arms. "If the rain lets up, maybe."

"They can always still fire them off in the rain..." Serah walked out into the crowd, and she tugged the coat a bit closer over her shoulders. "Thanks for this."

Lightning felt the raindrops tapping down against her bare arms. "It's no problem." She followed Serah through the mass of fairgoers, glancing around for any sign of the horse she'd seen before. "Just don't go too strong on this, okay? If we-" Lightning paused, and she looked on at the sight of a young girl feeding an apple to the pale white steed, and at how his ears were slowly swiveling back and forth.

"There." Serah lowered her voice a bit. "See the crates? They haven't sold much at all."

Lightning felt her hand reaching for the satchel on her own belt. She tried to speak, tried to formulate a proper response, but she only found herself walking forward, stepping up beside the small paddock again. "Excuse me..."

The peddler girl glanced up. "Hello again!"

Lightning slowly leaned against the wooden rails of the corral. "I have a question, if you don't mind."

"Sure." The girl reached up to stroke the horse's ears. "We're about to head out, though, so I hope it's a quick one."

Lightning didn't react when Serah stepped up beside her.

"How much did you pay for him?" Serah tipped her head towards the horse. "He's beautiful, must be a excellent bloodline."

The peddler girl's gaze dropped down, glancing at the crates beside the fence. "Ah, I'm not sure if-"

"I'm willing to negotiate a fair price." Lightning looked back into the horse's eyes, into that bright, endless spark. "Let me test him, see if it's a good match... We can try figure out something reasonable."

The young girl almost laughed, shaking her head. "Well, you'd have to talk to pops, but... He cost five hundred thousand gil, for all the good it's done us."

Serah froze in place. "Oh... Light?"

Lightning grit her teeth. "Five."

Serah turned away for a moment, looking around at anything else, as if she was fighting the urge to simply blurt out whatever was on her mind.

The peddler girl stepped up to the side of the paddock, swinging over the top with much more grace than her limbs implied. "Just a minute, I'll be right back." She walked over towards a nearby carriage, where the tall man who had held the whip was packing away even more of the crates.

" _Light_." Serah tugged at Lightning's arm. " _Five_ hundred thousand..."

"I know, I know..." Lightning watched as the horse lifted his head over the fence, trying to get at the small bushel of apples upon the ground. "But like I said, I can make it back over the rest of the summer, even in the fall if I have to."

Serah frowned a bit. "Light, there's always other horses; is this one _really_ that special?"

Lightning looked over at those pale green eyes, at the way the beast was staring right back into her own gaze, quietly regarding her presence. "Let's at least see if they'll let me test him."

Serah slowly shrugged, leaning against the fence as well. "I suppose you'll put up the money _and_ me for collateral if you're taking him out for a ride..."

Without warning, Lightning reached over to ruffle at the closest side of Serah's hair, despite the way she nearly squawked in protest.

" _Light!_ " Serah batted her hands away, though she couldn't help but laugh. "I _knew_ you were keeping me around for something."

Lightning smiled to herself, before she looked up as the peddler and her father approached, walking along the edge of the fence.

"Hello..." The gruff man held out his hand, and Lightning accepted the handshake with a firm nod.

"Hello. Your horse there, he's caught my eye." Lightning tipped her head towards the paddock. "I'm wondering if you might be interested in selling him."

The man didn't even look at the horse. "...Depends on the price."

The peddler girl's eyes went wide.

Lightning shifted her weight back towards the wooden fence, gazing at the lone occupant. "Six hundred thousand, and just as long as I can test him, first."

The man kept quiet for a long moment, and his broad, fuzzy eyebrows began to furrow. "Six hundred fifty."

Lightning almost smiled. "Six hundred twenty-five, and that's only if he lives up to his looks."

After a brief pause, the man clapped his hand against the fence post. "Saddle please, and his bridle."

With a nod, the peddler girl moved over towards the carriage again.

"Now, I've only actually ridden him only once or twice." The gruff man stepped up beside the paddock, pushing the wooden gate open with a grunt. "He's a right _monster_ if you let him loose... You'd better be experienced."

Lightning nodded. "I've handled my share of wildness..." She walked into the paddock as well, despite the muddy ground beneath her boots, and even the cold rain pattering against her body. "Does he have a name?"

The man shook his head. "If you end up buying him, you can give him one." He reached out to gently pat along the horse's neck, before he knelt down, lifting up one of his hooves. "Fresh shoes, almost for nothing; damn if he isn't a great horse, just not enough to dig us out..."

Staring at the creature, Lightning slowly held out her hand, but she kept perfectly still when the horse lowered his head to sniff along her palm.

The man soon took the saddle over the fence. "Aye, thank you." He waited a moment for his daughter to return with a blanket and bridle. "Now, he's absolutely fantastic with noise." He held up the saddle blanket to set it down atop the horse's back, before he positioned the actual saddle above it, kneeling down to strap it secure. "Take him out in the fireworks, even... Not a peep."

Lightning looked up into the rain. "That's definitely preferable." She glanced back down, before she moved forward to inspect the horse's teeth for signs of wear and age. "Any idea of how old he might be?"

The man shook his head. "Bought him in a temporary market, almost no information given." He grumbled quietly under his breath, and his brow furrowed even further against itself. "Might be the worst purchase I've ever made."

The peddler girl rolled her eyes from where she was sitting atop the fence. "You _used_ to call him gorgeous!"

"Well, he _is_." The man stood up again, lifting the bridle. " _Gorgeous_ horse, but if he won't help us sell anything..." He let out a sigh. "Not to complain, of course."

Lightning watched as the man buckled the bridle down, before she reached out for the offered reins.

"Now, uh, if you're taking him out for a while..." The man looked over at the paddock fence. "What do you say, quarter payment in advance, to play it safe?"

Lightning handed back the reins so that she could reach into her satchel. "That's not a problem." She counted out the thin paper notes, along with a few large coins, before she passed them over.

As she held out her arm, from within the memory itself, the entire scene almost seemed to swirl with the crackling fire, the sparks that exploded overhead, only to the delight of a crowd of raucously cheering people, and she remembered how Serah turned to face it with such joy in her eyes. When Lightning looked back down again, gazing into the eyes of the gentle beast, into the way he just kept staring right back at her, it felt like mere moments before they were moving away from the paddock, only as a tall rider and her steed.

Lightning looked out over the crowds, over the endless sea of revelry and merriment, and even when a sudden crack of thunder joined in with the display, the masses only grew louder. She looked down at the horse beneath her, at how he kept his eyes front, simply watching the tamed sort of chaos unfold.

"Now, who trained you, boy?" Lightning reached down to pat along the side of his neck, feeling the soft white mane beneath her fingertips. "You aren't scared of any of this, are you?"

The horse kept walking forward.

"Then... Let's see what you've got." Lightning gently tugged at one side of the reins, guiding him on down towards the more open area of the field, far beyond the tents and market stalls, away from the fire dancers and fanciful juggling acts, until they were finally alone, standing face to face with a broad stretch of utter darkness.

Lightning paused, and she held him back, feeling the cool summer rain against her skin, within her hair and beyond her eyes, yet when a sharp flash of light set the entire field aglow, she loosened the reins.

And he was off.

Her heart leapt at the sudden speed, the sting of both rain and adrenaline, but still, she just held on. His eyes had gone alight with the colorful fire, the flashing blaze so far above; he just kept running, and his hooves thundered down against the earth.

Lightning watched the bright swirls of rain, how they almost seemed to flicker along with so many colors, how they slowed so easily with the rushing whisper of grass, and she was suddenly locked within that very moment, watching the world spin on beneath them.

The horse, he flew, scarcely touching against the earth that waited beneath his hooves. She could feel his heart, how it drummed on so steadily beneath her hands, even when she gripped down tighter upon the reins.

In that mere moment, within the span of a few seconds, just a single flash of lightning... She knew.

* * *

 _Odin._ Lightning watched the rise and fall of the distant sea, still holding on tight against Fang's back. _I named him Odin._

Fang lowered her wings again, angling them to glide along with the strong ocean breeze. _Odin... Like the stories?_

Lightning nodded more to herself than for Fang's sake. _Yes._

Fang's wings flapped once more, before she started to glide again, racing just above the wind. _And from all that... Now I_ _ **know**_ _you've got a sweet tooth._

Lightning narrowed her eyes. _No, I just enjoy certain sweet things... Once in a while._

 _Oh, sure..._ Fang laughed against the ocean breeze. _Looks like your sister's gossip was right on the money, too._

Lightning almost glared at the back of Fang's head. _I show you this entire memory, and all you take from of it is_ _ **that**_ _?_

 _Ah, but those, they're the best parts..._ She could practically feel Fang smirking. _And now I know just what sort of sweets you like._

Lightning looked back at the ocean, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. _Sure._

After a while, Fang turned slightly inland, and she flapped her mighty wings to bring them up along the jagged cliffs. _I think there's a town just north of here..._ She rose higher and higher above the crashing sea, flying out across the rocks and wide sandy embankments. _But if we're going to visit it, I'll need to stop for a minute to put on my traveling clothes._

It was only a moment later that Lightning spotted the sight of a stone wall along the cliffside, and off in the distance, she caught the very first outline of a sprawling city, one of the largest that she'd ever seen. _Fang, look at that..._

Fang turned to gaze at the bustling harbor, and then at all of the ships approaching from the horizon. _Damn._ She lowered herself immediately, diving on down by the edge of dense forest, until she evened out her path of flight beside a long, gravel road, before she landed within a small patch of trees.

Lightning tried not to wince at the sudden impact, gripping at the strap of the satchel. "...I've never seen a town that big." She took a moment just to orient herself, to adjust to the lack of movement, before she leaned aside to climb down along Fang's wing. "I don't think I've ever been anywhere out here, really."

Fang waited for Lightning's feet to touch the ground. "It's pretty far from where we were before." After a moment or two, she reappeared within a soft glow of fire, standing there in her human form again. Yet from atop her shoulder, a dark, scaly satchel was resting just against the edge of her waist, only it was much smaller than the one she had used as a dragon. "This is a trade capital, if I'm remembering it right." Fang reached down into the bag, before she tugged out a rather thin shawl and a much heavier jacket. "Traveling clothes."

Lightning watched the way that Fang draped the shawl against the back of her neck and head almost like a scarf, until she gently tugged on the coat as well.

"Traveling clothes..." Lightning stepped over to the edge of the grass, near where the forest met the road. "Looks more like you're going incognito."

Fang smirked. "Oh, and just who's talking, miss: _'I've got a hood and mask on almost all the time'?_ "

Lightning fought the urge to tug away that very same hood. "Identity is a privilege... A lot of people don't understand that."

Fang merely nodded, tying the shawl down in a loose sort of knot. "Well, I do." She looked back up again, and even though her face was still fully revealed, it looked as if she could pull the dark blue fabric down to hide herself on only a moment's notice. "So, let's go check it out?"

Lightning looked at the winding road, before she tucked the larger part of her white cloak over the handle of her sword, adjusting her belt to keep it hidden. "Yeah."

Fang smiled as she stepped down over the little hill, off to the road beneath it. "Been a while since I've really gone into town... Buying a bit of food doesn't seem like the whole experience, does it?"

Lightning tugged her mask away to breathe in the rich saltwater air, and then even the scent of briny frost. "Just remember your manners... And don't spit fire on anyone."

"Sure, sure." Fang laughed when her boots his the ground again, and she stepped out along the stony pathway. "Now is anyone going to be upset if just a couple of sheep go missing?"

Lightning didn't even bother to glare at her.

"Chickens, cows?" Fang grinned to herself, walking on down the road. "I'm sure nobody would miss a duck or two."

Lightning stared at the path ahead, but she quickly she caught sight of several thin plumes of rising smoke, all drifting far above the treeline. "There's something going on over there." She watched the way each wisp curled in a gentle manner, as if the fires were controlled, given just enough fuel to keep them sustained. "Do you know which day of the month it is?"

Fang shrugged.

"It's too early for a solstice..." Lightning glanced down at the cliffside that led towards the sea, but when she heard the low rumble of wagon wheels, she looked back up over her shoulder. "Wait, this is alluvial soil, just look at the silt... It's perfect vineyard country." She watched the carts that were rolling on down the road, stacked to the brim with massive wooden kegs.

"I didn't know you knew so much about wine." Fang let out sharp a whistle when the first few wagons rolled on ahead. "Oi! Can you tell us what's going on in town?"

The caravaneer called out from the very front of the cart. "Festival's on, girl! You'd better hurry before the kegs run dry again..."

Fang smiled as the train of wagons rumbled on, before she glanced back over at Lightning again. "Hey, that memory of yours could be prophetic."

Lightning shook her head. "It's just a coincidence; people love throwing parties in the winter." She glanced up at the gently falling snow, watching as each flake drifted on down towards the path beneath her feet. "Alcohol takes the mind off of the cold."

Fang nodded. "Makes sense... But I haven't had a drink in _years_." She stretched out her arms, following on beside Lightning. "We could sample around just a bit, don't you think?"

"As long as you don't get too tipsy to fly us out of here..." Lightning reached over to nudge at Fang's arm. "And no, I don't know very much about wine, but I do know not to drink more than a glass or two."

Fang felt herself grinning, and she began to wonder upon what sort of festivities might be awaiting them up ahead, yet she only had to wait for a moment or two before the town drifted into sight, perched atop the slope of a massive, mighty hill, far above the bustling harbor.

"Wow." Lightning scarcely even breathed her words, and she went even quieter just to stare at the sight before her. "I've only ever seen a port city like this... Once, really."

Fang looked down at all of the big colorful ships, and at the sails billowing out like banners beneath the snowy wind. "Ah... I wish you could've seen more of Gran Pulse back in its heyday." She took in the sight of it all, of the distant masses of crowds, all the big wagons moving back and forth along the roads, even the fields that stood outside the town itself, sheltered by the snowed-over grapevines. "It was a little bit like this, with all the people."

Lightning stood very still, and she didn't speak for a long moment. "Was the world really like that, before..?" She felt her voice grow even softer than before, but when she tried to speak up a bit, her tone was barely much more than a whisper. "I've seen the old ruins, but _that_ many people... The other night, when I had that dream about the crystal pillar, I looked away from the city as fast as I could."

Fang stepped forward again, standing a little closer.

"There were just over a hundred or so people in my village alone." Lightning slowly shook her head. "It might sound like a lot, but whenever the other islands would get everyone together for the big holidays, there were _so_ many more... And even then, it was nothing like this."

Fang slowly lifted her own hand, but she didn't take her eyes away from the town, from all of the distant festivities.

"How many _thousands_..?" Lightning glanced to the side, and ever so carefully, she let her hand brush against Fang's fingertips. "Even the place I showed you, from my memory-"

"This is a trade capital, Light." Fang smiled at her, gently squeezing her hand. "There's bound to be more people here than normal... Just look at all of those boats."

Lightning looked again. She stared at them while Fang led her forward, moving on along the snowy pathway, down the sloping hills and through the rows of gnarled grapevines, just beside the outskirts of the city walls. Fang looked up at the stone buildings, at the colorful fabric of the curtains within, and she almost smiled at the sight of a small cat who perched atop the edge of a chimney, likely basking in the warmth of the smoky bricks.

After a while, once they had walked beneath the gateway of the city, Lightning spoke up again. "When Serah and I found the place to build our home, after a few years, some other families moved in beside us." Lightning stared down at the road before her, before she turned her gaze to the tiny plaza up ahead. "I told you about that, didn't I?"

Fang nodded.

"I don't often talk to them, not unless we're working on something together." Lightning could still smell the rich salt of the sea, but the thick aroma of wine soon drifted out into the air. "We usually keep to ourselves, to our families, but when you look at a place like this..."

"It might not be so different here." Fang pointed at some of the houses. "You think these people are right up in their neighbor's business? It all depends on the town." She smiled to herself. "And here I thought _you_ were the expert on people..."

Lightning fought the urge to roughly elbow Fang in the ribs. "I'm not exactly a 'people person'."

"That's alright..." Fang ran her index finger over Lightning's thumb. "For the most part, neither am I." She led the way down towards the plaza, and before long, she could see many other streets from there, some of which were much more densely occupied than others; they were filled with crowds, all drinking and singing, and it seemed as if the only people who truly kept quiet were the workers carrying kegs up to the main pathways. "But this looks pretty fun, doesn't it?"

Lightning nodded. "There's almost always free samples."

Fang grinned again, before she slowly began to turn around and walk backwards for a moment, guiding Lightning on with both of her hands. "And we've been traveling all day, so there's no harm in taking a break." She stared into the look on Lightning's face, before she gently squeezed at each of her palms. "Vanille won't mind if we rest for a while, I promise... It's just one afternoon, Light."

Lightning followed her, for she could see the glimmer of light in Fang's eyes, and how her whole stance seemed to shift with anticipation.

"Do you know why I tease you, right?" Fang kept stepping backwards, while her boots padded softly against the cobblestone. "It's because sometimes-" She paused, thinking of the right words. "Sometimes it makes you smile, and it's beautiful... It makes me remember."

Lightning felt as if her heart had simply dropped away, then raced back up to speed, and her eyes went slightly wide.

"Do you think that this might make you smile?" Fang looked deep into Lightning's eyes, almost pleading. "Earlier today, in your memory, I could almost _feel_ how often you smiled... Being there, it made you so happy."

Lightning watched the way that Fang moved again, still holding her hands, and she stepped forward as well.

"Light, let's have _fun_." Fang turned around once more, but when she let go of one of her hands, she felt Lightning's grip tighten against the one that still lingered between them. "We could both use a little, don't you think?"

Lightning followed after her, glancing around at the city. "Just for today."

Fang smiled. "Just today."

* * *

It was only when she was perched atop an empty keg, gazing out at what looked like everyone that had ever been in town, all dancing around in circles, it was only then that Lightning realized just how loud so many people could become. She glanced around, searching through the rowdy masses, but it seemed as if Fang had disappeared without a trace.

It'd been with a tiny smirk, just a quick squeeze of her hands, before Fang whispered something about: 'wait here, I won't be long'. But as the minutes slipped by, Lightning began to wonder if she should just get up again to look for her.

The crowd just kept dancing in packed circles, drinking and cheering along with the music, and sometimes they would break out into song. Lightning was able to count at least twenty women with the same sort of hat, likely an exotic fashion from overseas, for the wide brim sported a massive plume of fluffy feathers. She thought back to Serah's pendant, because the teardrop inside of it came from the largest bird known to humanity; she wondered if that sort of plumage could have also been taken from a roc.

"Light!" And there she was.

Lightning turned to face Fang, but she almost paused at the sight of her, looking down at what she was carrying. "What's this?"

Fang only grinned, waving for Lightning to climb down and join her upon a vacant bench. "Take a look."

Lightning felt her boots touch down upon the cobblestone again, before she slipped through the crowd to sit beside Fang. "You didn't..."

Fang nearly beamed at the wide, white box on her lap, and she gently lifted it over into Lightning's hands. "Just look."

Slowly, Lightning reached for the bright red ribbon at the top, tugging it away from the rest of the package, before she paused to read the lettering aloud. " _'Palumpolum's Finest... Mixed variety, imported chocolate'_."

Fang leaned back against the bench, and Lightning swore that she looked almost entirely like a dragon again, grinning over all of the treasure she'd obtained.

"You had to pay for this, didn't you?" Lightning lifted up the top of the box. "Free samples, that doesn't really cover gift wrap..."

"Money doesn't matter much, Light." Fang stretched out her arms, resting them atop the back of the bench. "Now, how do those look?"

Lightning peered down at the tiny chocolates. Each piece was covered in some sort of colorful topping, and whether it was dried honey, flecks of unusual candy, or even tiny bits of chopped up fruit, no two pieces were the same.

"Pretty good, yeah?" Fang leaned over to examine them as well. "They were making these fresh behind the counter... They had all different kinds, but I didn't really know what to choose."

Lightning picked up one of the chocolates, gazing at the way the surface seemed to swirl, blending in with some sort of lighter substance. When she started to taste it, the flavor almost reminded her of foreign toffee candies, the ones she had tried so many years ago.

"Figured we could share." Fang's hand crept over to the side of the box, and Lightning only halfheartedly swatted at her fingertips. "Oh, possessive, are we?"

Lightning rolled her eyes, before she held out the box. "We can share."

Fang chuckled under her breath. "Very kind of you..." She plucked up one of the pieces, one that had fresh fruit on the top. "I figured these would go better with wine than cookies, or even rock candy."

"Rock candy?" Lightning tried to lick away the chocolate from her fingertips in a discreet manner, but she eventually just reached for another piece. "I've never even heard of that."

"Yeah, they're some sort of sugar crystals." Fang closed her eyes to savor the taste of chocolate and raspberries, gently moving it along the top of her tongue. "They had them on sticks, all different colors."

Lightning glanced up at the city around them, at the wide, tall buildings decorated in banners, deep purples, reds and velvet black, all symbolic of the local vineyards. "This feels like... It's almost like a different world." She closed her eyes, just for a moment. "I'm not dreaming, am I?"

"Nah..." Fang smiled, before she moved to sling her free arm over Lightning's shoulders, resting right beside her upper arm. "This is _very_ real, and even if it wasn't, I'd just wake up craving chocolate, and then we'd have to stop and get some more."

Lightning smiled as well, but it was still rather small, only enough for Fang to see.

"There it is..." Fang took another bite of chocolate. "I can't even start to explain how amazing that looks."

Lightning glanced away, trying her best not to tense up. "Why? It's just an expression."

Fang shook her head. "It's rare... I don't think you smile unless you're _really_ happy, Light." She idly tapped at the side of Lightning's jacket, just around her upper arm. "That smile of yours, it only shows up when you're really-"

Lightning looked back into her gaze, at that odd little look in her eyes. "When I feel safe... When I'm comfortable."

Fang blinked once or twice, thinking it over. "Sounds about right." She pointed down at the chocolates. "And I don't think _these_ make matters any worse..."

Lightning fought back a tiny smirk, before she reached for one with fluffy cream along the end, almost like frosting. "You sure know how to set the mood."

"Ah, that's the easy part." Fang reached for another as well, one with long swirls of honey at the top. "Now the difficult bit, that'll be getting you to dance with me..."

Lightning felt herself pause, gazing out at the festive plaza. "I haven't danced since I was a kid."

"It's something you never forget." Fang looked up when one of the vendors began calling out, passing out whole glasses of wine, just to allow the plaza to sample a different year's harvest. "One second..."

Lightning sat still as Fang stood up, but she watched closely while she approached the vendor, presumably asking if the particular variety of wine would match well with chocolate, to which the vintner nodded vigorously.

It was only a moment or two before Fang returned; she was carrying a pair of small glasses along with her, and the liquid inside looked as dark as the night itself. "Check this out."

Lightning looked up at the wine, before she accepted the glass from Fang. "What kind is it?"

Fang sat down again, gently swirling the fluted glass between her fingertips. "Blackberry, aged just a couple of years." She held up the cup, carefully inhaling the aroma. "Not too shabby, though..."

Lightning swirled her own glass as well, and she watched the deep purple liquid as it brushed up against the sides. "I've never even heard of blackberry wine before." She lifted the cup to judge the smell of it, such a dark, sweet scent, so much that it almost held an entire taste of its own. "Not too shabby at all."

Fang took a tiny sip, and she smiled, yet again savoring the taste. "And best of all, it was _free_." She watched as the workers kept rolling the kegs around, and she caught sight of the very same vintner opening up yet another barrel. "You know why they do this, don't you? You give the crowd a taste, and they'll all be lining up for next year's harvest... Or they'll just buy up supply from the current one."

"I've always heard that wine is supposed to be aged..." Lightning inhaled again, before she took a tiny sip. "Guess there just isn't much point to it these days."

"The world isn't ending, Light." Fang leaned over a bit, catching her gaze. "Trust me, I'd probably be the first one to know if it was... And even then, there's still a whole lot left to live for." She swirled her glass again. "Now listen, most civilizations... They'll put themselves back together over the years, then fall apart again, and then later on down the line, the whole thing repeats; it's just the way of things."

Lightning looked out at the bustling town, at the banners waving cheerfully in the wind. "This place... It's still alive."

Fang nodded with a small grin. "Very alive! Look at everyone, at how happy they are to be getting sloshed in the middle of winter."

Lightning nodded as well. "I can see them, Fang."

"And _we're_ right here, doing almost the same thing." Fang gently clinked a single fingernail against the glass, and the wine thrummed back and forth. "Only I'm not about to get drunk..."

Lightning took another small sip. "How well can you handle your alcohol?"

Fang smiled, slowly standing up with the glass in her hand, before she carefully placed it down against the seat of the bench. "Come on over and find out."

Lightning felt the barest hint of a flush creeping over her cheeks, but with the way Fang looked at her, holding out a single hand in invitation, it was just enough to coax even more color than before.

"You're not already getting tipsy on me, are you?" Fang watched the way that Lightning closed up the box of chocolate, before she set it down beside the glass of wine, soon adding her own backpack to the stash. "Just one dance, Light."

Lightning lowered her voice a bit. "Only because you owe me..." She rose to her feet, tugging her hood away, and her hair spilled down against her neck. "Because you owe me a dance from the other night."

Smiling, Fang took hold of her hands once more, gently leading her out into the plaza, within the constant flow of the crowds, the almost graceful thrum of sound and movement. "No, I owe you a _dragon_ dance."

Lightning looked around to see if anyone had heard, but when Fang's thumb brushed so softly over her chin, guiding her gaze back towards those sharp green eyes, she found herself locked within the sudden link, with the way Fang stared at her and only her.

"Nobody's listening." Fang whispered it with each breath, and Lightning could see her lips part, stained only a little bit darker by the wine. "Nobody's paying any attention to us... This is a human dance."

Lightning felt Fang's gentle grip against her hands, guiding her out into the fray, into the rhythm of the crowd.

"I haven't danced in years..." Fang slowly held up her arms, and Lightning followed suit, before they drifted back again, moving in time with the steady swing of music. "How are you feeling?"

And as she slowly began to loosen, to feel more at ease within the sound and clamor, Lightning stepped to the side, urging Fang to do the same. "Good."

Fang grinned. "Just good..?"

Lightning felt an odd sensation tugging at her lips, and when she suddenly dipped away, only to have Fang reach out for her waist to catch her right in midair, she smiled back. "Much more than good."


	14. Echoes

"Now where have I seen this before?" Fang stepped back into the gentle sway, into the rhythm that Lightning set, guiding them both along the stony pathway, between so many other dancer. "It's like..." She trailed off for a while, before she moved into the next stance, watching each of the soft hands upon her own; they led her forward and back, always to the sway of music. "It's almost like we're up on that mountain again." It was a constant push and pull, as if each motion swept out into the next, all as one being, yet each step was still firmly separate, just another link in the chain. "Like we're fighting again."

Lightning narrowed her eyes a little, still smiling softly. "How else would we dance?" She had already taken her gloves off and tucked them away in her jacket pockets, just so she could sense each steady thrum of Fang's pulse, enough to feel it sing against her skin. "That's all dancing is; one step, move back... Let your partner take their turn, next step, then your move." Lightning watched the outline of Fang's arms, how her body always moved in time with her own pace, drifting along through each swing, each bend in the path they were traveling. "That's the one thing I'm good at, Fang... Finding a direction and fighting for it until the very end."

"I think you're good at more than just that..." Both Fang's hair and shawl were dotted with tiny snowflakes, but she didn't seem to mind. "You're very good at hunting."

Lightning almost laughed, glancing away in order to spin herself in a slow circle, yet she never broke contact with Fang's hands. "That's... The exact same thing."

"Well then... You're very good at making me feel better." Fang smiled when Lightning looked back, and she leaned away slightly, guiding her into the rhythm again. "Seriously, last night at the vestige; I'm not great at handling that sort of thing, not when it gets under my skin like that-"

"We're going to get her back, Fang." Lightning slowed her own pace back down, waiting for Fang to follow suit, until they were both almost just standing again, yet still swaying to the rhythm. "What you mentioned then, how if Serah was in her shoes... You _know_ I'd be furious." She still moved in time with the music, gently holding Fang's hands. "I'd be _furious_ , and you have every right to not handle this perfectly."

Fang paused, before she closed her eyes for a just moment. "It's gotten a little easier after all these years..." She stepped in time with the sounds around her, the buzz of the crowd and the melody within it, before she slowly opened her eyes again, staring deep into the blue of Lightning's gaze. "Just a few days of time, even weeks, it doesn't seem like much when you've been waiting this long... And I've stopped trying to count the years."

"Fang-" Lightning glanced around at the crowd, before she lowered her voice down to a soft whisper. "Careful."

"I know." Fang nodded. "It's loud enough, though, nobody's listening..." She smiled when the music picked up again. "One dance, huh?"

Lightning looked back at the bench. "One dance... But we could always find a different dance floor."

Fang smiled as she stepped forward, still holding Lightning's hands, before she went very still again, thinking back to a short while before. "There's a great view of the ocean just a few streets over."

Lightning felt her mouth twitch slightly, and she slowly began to nod. "Let's take a look."

"I doubt they'd expect the glasses back, at least right away." Almost reluctantly, Fang let go of Lightning's hands, before she stepped back over towards the bench. "...We can enjoy the rest of this somewhere more quiet."

Lightning walked over as well, and she reached down for the package of chocolates, tugging her backpack up to one shoulder so she could stash the box away. "I'd like to see a little more of the city; I meant it before, I've never seen one quite like this." She picked up her own glass of wine, before she followed after Fang throughout the crowds, careful not to spill any of the dark purple liquid. "There's so many people here..."

Fang reached back to hold Lightning's hand again, the one that wasn't carrying the glass. "Yeah, but it's probably a bit more crowded than normal, at least with all the free booze." She smiled when one of the vendors uncorked a large bottle of champagne, much to the cheer of the nearby revelers. "Festive, isn't it?"

"You should see the parties on the solstice..." Lightning thought back to the smaller villages near her own home, for the entire day after such a celebration would often be devoted to rest and recuperation. "It's almost an excuse to act like wild animals."

"Nothing wrong with getting a little wild..." Fang smiled to herself, moving on through the crowded streets, until she finally walked out to a small set of seaside crossroads. "This way."

Lightning kept on following her, but she quickly breathed a sigh of relief when the masses began to thin, leaving mostly empty roads before them, some of which led out to a wide open view of the sea.

"Strange, isn't it?" Fang stared out at the eastern horizon, off at the opposite coast. "Seeing the ocean from a place like this."

Lightning stepped forward, and she listened to the sound of Fang's footsteps, to how they brushed down beside her own.

"I think we should stock up on food before we leave..." Fang soon leaned against the stone wall at the edge of the road, resting her arms against the top. "You know, non-perishables, enough to last us if I can't catch any dolphins out there."

Lightning quirked a single eyebrow at that, before she took a small sip of her wine. "Dolphins?"

Fang suddenly had very a distant look in her eyes. "Dolphins..." She sipped at her wine as well, chuckling just as quietly as she could. "Dolphin, almost as tasty as chicken."

Lightning almost rolled her eyes at the thought, and she set her arms down against the top of the low wall. "You are insatiable..."

There was a sudden glimmer in Fang's eyes. "You have no idea." And then, she only smiled again, slowly sipping at the slim glass of wine.

Lightning turned to look out over the distant ocean, at how it lapped so hungrily against the harbor docks, shimmering beneath a steady flurry of snowflakes. "The fishermen, back at home... They didn't hunt dolphins very often, but in more meager times we'd take what we could get." She felt the flow of salty air brushing down against her face, before it would breeze and dance away along the height of the seaside street. "But they never hunted whales."

A thin lock of Fang's hair drifted down the side, pushed away by the wind. "Why do you suppose that was?"

"Because of the stories." Lightning still stared down at the sea. "There was a legend about how our islands were really just a pod of whales who turned into land." She smiled at the absurdity of it all, but the memory still held a very fond place in her mind. "My parents, they told me the story about the very first people who lived there; they were explorers who'd gotten lost at sea, all out of food and fresh water, and it was only once they were ready to pass on... It was only then that they found the whales."

Fang listened, watching the way that Lightning's expression gradually started to change, almost as if she was back upon those warm, sandy beaches, hearing the very same story that had been passed on through so many generations before her.

"Those people had never seen whales like that before, and the sight of it... It terrified them." Lightning spoke the tale in the very same way that it had been told to her, word for word. "They held out their spears and shouted, trying to scare them off, but whales just swam around in circles, watching the little boats." She started to think back for a moment, remembering the way that her father had once held her so high atop his shoulders, just so she could see the distant islands beyond their own shores. "Those big white whales, out there in the sea of pale waters... The people decided to make homes upon their backs, and they caught the fish that swam all around them. Eventually, they couldn't tell even the difference between it and the land they'd left behind."

Fang watched a colorful sailboat as it drifted along the surface of the waves. "Have you heard the stories of the deep sea spirits?"

Lightning felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck prickle up, but she kept herself very still. "Yes."

Fang took another sip of wine, before she leaned forward, gazing down at the ocean. "A lot of people don't know it, but the Pale Sea is called that because of the 'pale god'..." Fang smiled to herself, thought there was very little mirth to the gesture. "And the others, Hallowed Pulse, god of the land... Gran Pulse is named in his honor, and then Etro, goddess of both chaos and death." She tapped each of her fingers against the dust on the stone wall, drawing tiny designs along the stone. "Lord Bhunivelze, god of life... And then, the pale god, Fell Lindzei."

"God of the seas." Lightning let one of her arms dangle over the edge, resting against the cold, crisp wind. "I've heard the stories."

"Even the ones about their eventual 'return'?" Fang tried not to let her jaw clench. "Nobody knows where the gods ran off to... Not even people like me."

Lightning glanced down at her coat, where the silvery pendant was resting against her lower neck. "They aren't gone, Fang."

Fang almost smiled, and Lightning could see just a quick flash of teeth at her lips. "Oh, they're not gone... But they're not _here_ , are they?" She let her fingertips curl into the dust, slowly clawing away the little symbols. "They were much more talkative back in the day; 'Oh, we'll let you have your other form back if you can remember what happened in your other lives'..." Fang narrowed her eyes at the horizon, before she let out a long, deep breath, one that hissed quietly through her teeth. "They walked right in, messed us up... And then _left_."

Lightning's brow furrowed at the thought of that. "You really spoke with the gods..? As in, they were right there, next to you?" She felt her own thoughts drifting back to the day when she had collapsed upon the sand, having just slain her sworn foe of so many years, but before she could think back to the strange face she'd seen, Fang's hand suddenly touched her own.

It was a thick, shadowed forest, dark and utterly primal.

"Fang?" Lightning could still feel herself there, how she was standing back upon the cobblestone street, but the distant sound of merriment and music began to fade out, until all that was left was the thrumming of a thousand tropical insects. "Fang, what is this? Where are you?"

 _I'm right here._

She was suddenly staring right into it, into the eyes of a beast, not quite an animal, yet not at all human either; dark purple feathers ran along an inky black hide, and she could see a set of sharp orange eyes, bright as fire.

Lightning realized that she was standing against the mossy earth, the fallen leaves, beside the small forest thicket of a very young wyvern.

 _I meant what I said before. We can walk between worlds, Light... This might be the same world as ours, but it's more than enough._

Lightning took a wary step back, and she realized that she could even feel the thick, moist air against her skin, and when she looked down, her heavier clothing was gone, replaced with a much lighter sort of garb.

The wyvern rose up, and her long nostrils flared, sniffing at the human who stood so close beside her resting grounds.

"This is just a memory?" Lightning's voice echoed out into the trees, into the leaves. "This isn't physical, is it?"

 _Uh, no... It's not physical, not entirely. Maybe a little bit._

"Very reassuring." Lightning almost let out a sigh when Fang's wyvern form visibly relaxed, more so at the way she was leaning down upon her big black wings.

 _Now I couldn't talk back then, so I have to speak like this... We've still got physical contact back in our world, which means we can still be telepathic._

"Okay... But are you in control of your past self?" Lightning took another step backwards, narrowly avoiding a fallen branch. "I don't have my sword in here, do I?"

 _Relax, Light. It's just a memory world, but I can take control if you want._

"Please do." Lightning stared up into those bright orange eyes, and she almost ducked down when Fang suddenly stepped out from the branches, moving into the clearing.

 _Relax._

Lightning kept perfectly still, watching Fang's every move.

 _I've got it, okay? But even back then, I never went after humans._ Fang's words almost felt as if they were surrounding her, drowning out all of the other noises in the forest. _Hey, take it as a compliment... You guys are way too tough to mess with._

Slowly, Lightning held up her hand, and Fang's wyvernlike form leaned down to touch against it, tickling at her palm with the dark feathers on her head. "So you were... Some sort of bird-lizard? You don't even look like any wyvern I've ever seen."

 _Yeah._ Fang's nostrils puffed, and Lightning could feel the rush of warm air as it billowed out against her arms. _And your ancestors were hairy little simians who were given Etro's blood and learned to walk upright... We all change, Light._ Her wings began to move, stepping out along the dappled, mossy earth. _We're all just animals when you go back far enough._ Fang stood there as a younger beast, barely much bigger than a huge horse, but when she lowered herself down to stare Lightning in the eye, there was still such a great intelligence within her gaze, sharp and distinct. _The only thing that sets us apart from that, it's our minds... Our consciences, even our hearts._

Lightning paused, before she slowly reached out to touch at the feathers beside Fang's horns. "I think I like you better without these; they look a little silly next to your scales."

Fang just rolled her eyes, but then she slowly closed them, resting her chin against the forest floor.

Lightning knelt down beside her. "I mean, the purple..." She remembered way that Fang's wing webbing began to glow violet back when she'd been provoked upon the mountainside. "It's not a bad color, actually."

 _Glad you approve._ Fang let out a soft, quiet yawn, and Lightning noticed that she didn't have nearly as many teeth as she had with her future self. _So, the reason I'm showing you this..._

Lightning blinked against the darkness of the forest, gazing up at the way the sunlight trickled down from above.

 _You want to see the gods firsthand?_ Fang's tail swept out against the damp, mossy earth, and Lightning caught sight of several long feathers along her upper back, some of which spanned down to the tip of her tail. _Then we'll have to start at the beginning..._ She suddenly stood upright, rising up on both of her wings, before she knelt down a little bit for Lightning to climb on. _It happened one day, when the world was just starting out._

Lightning slowly clambered up the smooth, feathery hide, until she was perched against Fang's back again, just between each of her wings. "Would you mind if I held on to your feathers?"

 _It's just a memory; even if it hurts, I shouldn't really feel it, at least back in our world._ Fang tried not to wince or yelp when Lightning grasped at a handful of plumage. _Okay! Actually, that... Never mind, let's just go._

Lightning held on with both hands, and she quickly blinked against the sudden rush of air, even through the sudden sinking sensation when Fang clambered and flapped so swiftly up through the branches, out into the upper canopy. When they suddenly broke through the very tops of the trees, jumping to soar out into the sky above, Lightning's eyes went wide at the sheer sight of the world below.

The jungle stretched on for as far as she could possibly see, only broken by the distant, smoky mountainsides.

 _It all started with an instinct, really._ Fang's dark wings flapped down against the wind, and her feathers fluttered, shimmering within the air. _I just felt it one day, like I had to leave home and... 'Find' something._

Lightning narrowed her eyes when the memory began to swirl faster, twisting and turning itself into a whole other sky, one that rose so far above the top of a snowcapped mountain.

 _It took weeks of flying._ Somehow, Fang had made the memory lurch forward, moving on through time itself. _But before long..._

Lightning almost startled at the sight of another large wyvern, but then another one dove down into sight, all moving in from other directions, yet they all soon flew at the very same pace as Fang.

 _There were thousands, Light..._ Fang forced time to rush on even faster, until their numbers grew and grew, and before long, she was just a speck of rapid movement within the massive, migratory flock. _But not all of us would turn into dragons._

Lightning reached up to touch her fingertips against the wing of another primordial wyvern, one who was flying directly above them. _You didn't meet Vanille here, right?_

Fang shook her head. _No, there were just too many of us._ She rose up, traveling along a rather warm current of air. _And they can't see or feel you, Light; it's just a memory._

Lightning glanced around at the massive flock, at the countless number of wings and claws, of feathers and colorful scales. _What happened after this? Where was everyone going?_

Fang dove down with her wings tucked tightly, and the memory shifted with her descent.

The flock had long since landed; most of them were squabbling among themselves for more room to rest along the mountain peaks, often for the warmer patches of volcanic rock that rose along the steam vents. Lightning's eardrums rang with the sudden surge of sound, of squawks and roars and screeches, and she quickly reached up to cover her ears.

 _Yeah, not the best company._ Fang's wyvern form stepped down along one of frosty ridges, walking over towards a clearer spot of rock. _Now, it happened all of a sudden... None of us really knew why we'd flown here, just that something had been calling for us._

Lightning reached out for Fang's feathers again, and she found that the mere act of touching them made her feel all the more comfortable again, even if they weren't quite as familiar as her scales. "It was the gods, wasn't it?" She looked up when a thin pillar of light seared down along the mountainside, before all of the wyverns fell silent.

 _Yeah._ Fang narrowed her eyes at the sight of it, at the way the pillar intensified, and how the sounds, how the echoes of utter greatness suddenly thrummed inside her bones. _It was the gods._

A massive figure stepped out, moving all around within the light, but Lightning couldn't see any sort of features upon its face, or even a face to speak of. All that she could make out were those shards of solid light; even as paradoxical as it sounded, it simply _was_.

 _You of unerring faith, of bestial roots..._ The figure rose up, towering so far above the thousands, above the peaks of the mountain itself. _Fly to us, if you are of worth._

All went silent but for the howling wind, yet after a moment or two drew past, a single form took flight.

 _A blessing._

The light grew even brighter than before, and Lightning had to squint against it, sheltering her eyes beneath her hand.

 _Recall your roots!_ The shards began to swirl faster and faster, until they were completely indistinguishable from each other. _Remember those who lived before, and you may yet know them again._

Fang watched the way that the first lone wyvern moved out beneath the light, before the mountainside came alive with a flurrying din of claws and heavy wingbeats, numerous and deafening. Lightning peered up into the storm of feathers, at the wings that flapped, and the long, shrieking cries, and she almost marveled at the way her own heart suddenly leapt, lost within the swell of emotion. They were flying back into the past, to the lives they had once known before, and as time swelled on and on, the sky was soon filled with soft, falling feathers.

Fang closed her eyes. _I still remember it, clearer than anything else._

They suddenly stood far from those volcanic peaks, perched atop the height of a great forest, upon the mighty boughs of a tropical tree.

Lightning paused at the sight of Fang herself, not a wyvern, or even a dragon, but the _human,_ the one who stared down at the world below, one whose eyes were gradually turning green again.

"I remembered myself." The younger Fang traced her hand over the edge of her own clothing, only a substitute for her newfound scales. "I remembered living as a human... And I remembered dying as one."

Lightning inhaled sharply when the world lurched yet again, and she could only watch the trail of blood as it ran down across Fang's chin, how it speckled off into the air as mere mist, bright and crimson.

 _I remembered you, Light._

"Don't!" Fang's hand was seized, dragged away from the danger, the sharp crack of metal and fire, but the one who had grabbed at her, the second human, she was already bleeding as well. "Not yet..."

"Lightning?" Fang's eyes drooped shut, and her vision went out of focus. "Light, we... We need to rest."

"No." She felt herself march on, dragging Fang's body against her own back. "Not yet." Lightning realized it was her own legs that trudged on through the brambles and brush, though she had barely even felt herself move into this new, different body, the form she had once known well. "Just hold on, Fang."

"Lightning..." Fang reached down, trying to touch at her cheek, and when she felt the tears on her skin, only then did Lightning finally stop, only to collapse, slumping down against the earth. "Light, come here."

Lightning let out a dry, rasping cough, before her lungs seized up, flowing with a thick, sticky red. "Can't."

Fang reached out again, grasping for her arms. "I'm right here..." She tugged the limp form closer and closer to herself, even when her own mouth dripped with such scarlet, staining the pink locks beneath her lips. "I'm right here, Light."

Her blue eyes glazed over, and Lightning shivered only once.

"I'm here." Fang's voice suddenly cracked with a quiet, whispered plea. "I've got you."

Lightning realized that she was watching the outline of herself, of her own body, and how it simply went limp against the dust.

 _I remembered you..._ Fang's voice surrounded her yet again, chasing away the images until they were alone with themselves, resting there within the darkness. _I remembered it a thousand times, a thousand different ways, and it... It was just too much._

Lightning felt herself stiffen at the memory of what she witnessed, the shaking arms and closeness, how Fang's breath had whispered so softly in her ear, only for it all to have gone completely, entirely cold.

 _I was... Terrified it would happen again._

Lightning reached out, moving into the depths of the dark, into the sharp air that swirled against them both. _Fang... But we're together now, aren't we?_ She looked all around, but Fang's image was nowhere to be seen. _I said I would keep you safe... And I meant it, Fang._

 _I know. Don't worry about me, love..._ She could feel the soft smile on her neck again, the arms around her waist. _Told you before, didn't I? I know how to handle it now._

Lightning took a deep, shaky breath. _I... I still won't leave you._

Fang nodded. _You'll have to, someday... But there's still a long time before that happens._

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut tightly, before she gripped at Fang's wrists, still hovering in the dark. _I'm sorry._

 _It's not your fault._ Fang hummed, letting her voice reach out into the vast, empty memory, around the soundless space that was wrapped all around them. _But I meant it, too..._ Even then, her voice was so clear, like the lines that ran deep within both of their souls. _I'll find you, Light._

Lightning's eyes flew open at the sudden chill upon her hands, at the utter brightness of the daylight, before she reached out to grasp at the low, stony wall.

"It's alright..." She could feel Fang's touch again, gently patting at her back. "A little disorienting, I know."

Lightning just stared out at the distant sea, and at the bustling port that still stood beneath them. "We really _were_..." She took a moment just to breathe, just to make sure her heart was still truly beating, before she turned to the side, staring deep into Fang's eyes. "We _were_... We really were in love."

Fang kept stranding there, yet she didn't speak a word.

"I felt it." Lightning tightened her grip on the wall, until her knuckles turned white from the sheer pressure. "I felt myself _die_ again... Only that time, we were in love."

Slowly, Fang tipped her head back to look at the clouds, and at all of the seagulls flying so high above the city. "...We were, weren't we?" Her voice went a bit distant, more of a murmur. "It almost seems incredible, now that I really think about it."

Lightning slowly eased back again, resting her arms against the top of the wall. "How so?"

"That we can find each other, time after time... How it still carries over." Fang started to smile, before she tapped at the edge of her wineglass. "Like I said, I can remember not remembering, but there's still something that tends to draw us all together." She leaned forward again, facing Lightning with a strong look in her eyes, a young sort of wonder and pride. "There's a _reason_ , Light."

Lightning felt herself grow warmer and warmer beneath that steady gaze, but if it was from Fang's stare or the aftereffects of the wine, she just couldn't quite tell.

"Now... Chocolates are all well and good." Fang glanced down at Lightning's backpack. "But frankly, I could eat a whole dolphin."

Lightning smiled despite herself, and she slowly moved away from the wall, before she moved to finish the rest of the tiny wineglass. "It's more than a bit too late in the day for lunch."

Fang smiled as well, offering her hand. "Dinner, then..?"

Lightning's fingertips brushed down gently, just enough to ghost over Fang's skin, before she held them, running the pad of her thumb over each digit. "Where to?"

"Oh, we'll see..." Fang started on down the road as if they hadn't just stepped right into another time, into her own past memories. "There has to be somewhere around here."

"We'll be staying the night, then?" Lightning looked up at all of the wooden road signs, but she couldn't quite tell what each street name implied. "A place like this will have an inn or two."

"Definitely." Fang suddenly caught sight of an unattended keg, and she motioned for Lightning to leave her empty wineglass at the very top, as she also did herself. "I'm sure they'll pick these up later." She looked back around, trying to see which road would likely be their best course of action, and Fang finally settled upon a quaint little path, one that led up through city in a lazy, winding sort of way, past several smaller specialty shops. "You know, I could really get used to a place like this..."

Lightning looked over at a store with some very unusual weaponry out on display. "It's certainly interesting." She glanced back again, yet the look in Fang's eyes, it almost made the blush creep back over her cheeks. "What's gotten into you?"

Fang only smiled, strolling on down the pathway. "Just thinking."

Lightning narrowed her eyes a bit, but she kept silent until they had walked out of earshot from a few of their fellow pedestrians. "...Thinking about what?"

"The other night." Fang looked at each of the buildings, examining the signs that swung above. "Out in the woods, by the fire."

Lightning looked down at her boots, and then at each tiny crack in the cobblestone road. " _That_ night."

Fang nodded. "That's the one."

"I wish I hadn't gotten a headache..." Lightning almost reached up to touch the back of her head, but she quickly thought better of it. "Although, we might've-"

"I don't want to try and rush this, Light." Fang's voice went a little softer than before, and she leaned back a bit to catch Lightning's gaze. "But that, it was... It did feel really nice."

Lightning could feel the warmth of Fang's hand, how it kept holding her own, gently swaying back and forth between them. "It was nice."

"So, you just let me know if you want to try that again..." Fang smiled when she caught sight of a certain signpost, one that looked aged with many, _many_ years of wear, yet the hand carved lettering still stood strong with a fresh coat of paint, alongside the curved emblem of a sleek, jumping fish. "But we might've just found us our dinner."

Lightning quirked an eyebrow, and she looked out along the tinted glass of the nearby windows, though she could see only faint outlines of movement and candlelight from within. "Seafood... Makes sense with the harbor."

Fang paused beside the cobblestone path, the one that led over towards the front doors. "Sounds good to you?"

Lightning nodded. "I grew up on seafood, it's more than good." She briefly glanced over at the road again, and then at the backpack on her shoulders. "Wonder if anyone would panic if I cleaned out my own fish..."

Fang chuckled a bit, stepping forward. "I doubt they'd let you do that."

Lightning fought back a smile, and she glanced up when the scent of savory spices and fresh bread hovered all throughout the air, all while she followed after Fang into the main entryway.

"Ah, looks like self seating..." Fang turned back when Lightning paused. "You alright?"

"Yes." Lightning looked around at the many tables and chairs, but the most similar thing she could think of was the tiny pubs and taverns within the local villages. While most of them served food as well as various beverages, the sheer size of the seating area made her hesitate, lingering there near the front entryway. "This is just... Strange." She felt her nose twitch at something, a curious sort thing that felt almost familiar; it was an odd kind of subtle, yet wafting scent, though she could barely even catch hold of it beneath all the other smells.

Fang glanced between Lightning and the seating area, before she gently tugged at her hand, leading her forward. "Just follow me, okay?" She smiled, slowly running her fingertips over Lightning's palm in an attempt to relax her nerves. "I keep forgetting, you haven't been to the big cities..."

"There _aren't_ any big cities-" Lightning lowered her voice down, even though she could barely hear it herself, not with all the chatter of the tables, and then the constant clattering of food preparation and plates, the sort that was only a bit muffled behind another set of doors. "At least, I didn't think there were."

"Right over here, Light." Fang gestured at a small, empty table, the one that lay furthest from their fellow customers. "But if we ever visit Yusnaan sometime, _damn_... It's gonna blow your mind."

"Yusnaan?" Lightning slowly took her seat, sliding her backpack from her shoulders, before she set it down beneath her chair, yet even then, she still glanced over at the rest of the seating area with more than a hint of curiosity. "What sort of place is that?"

"It's part of an island called Nova Chrysalia." Fang reached for a pair of folded papers from the end of the table, before she passed one over to Lightning. "The four cities, they're each governed by their own sets of laws and customs, but they're all right up next to each other." Fang tapped her fingertips against the menu. "Take a look at this and see what you'd like."

Lightning glanced down at another emblem of the leaping fish, before she carefully opened up the menu, scanning over each line of handwritten text. "These four cities, what's special about them?"

"Glad you asked." Fang started to look through her own menu as well. "Yusnaan, that's probably the most fun out of them all." She flipped to the next page, and she almost smiled at whatever she found there. "It's a lot like this festival right here, lots of drinking and constant parties... Beautiful city, really."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "How can a city support 'constant' parties?" She almost set the menu down just to see whether Fang's expression could tell her if she was just kidding or not; back in her own little village, celebrations weren't quite rare, but they were more than widespread enough to conserve supplies. Even in the times when they had all ventured out towards the neighboring islands, larger festivals only occurred semiyearly, at the very most. "You would need... You'd need more supplies there than humanly possible."

Fang just smiled. "Light, we've gotta get you out of the woods more often." Her eyes had a gleam to them, and she placed the menu down against the table, leaning forward ever so slightly, just to whisper under her breath. "The rest of the world, love... It's not all like that."

Lightning felt her fingertips tighten against her own sheet of paper. "You keep calling me that."

"Yeah." Fang leaned back a bit, and Lightning could see actual hesitation in her gaze, as if she'd possibly overstepped. "...Does it bother you?"

Lightning thought on it for a moment, staring at nothing in particular, before she glanced back at Fang, at those eyes, the sharp hue that made her feel like she was a thousand feet up in the air again. "It doesn't."

Fang smiled that odd sort of smile, tiny and soft, enough to make Lightning's heart skip slightly. "I know it has to be pretty weird, learning all of this over a week or so..." She looked down at the table, at the subtle knots in the wood, and she started to trace her fingertips over each circular line. "And that was one hell of a way to meet each other, wouldn't you say?"

Lightning thought back to the frigid snow and those sharp plumes of fire, even the sound of snapping teeth, before both of their blood had spilled out so strongly against the stone.

"But there's... There's that same sort of _love_ , Light, and it's always been there." Fang's voice went very gentle. "And I know, it's weird with me being what I am-"

"I don't care what you are." Lightning barely even realized she had said those words, not until they left her mouth. "You're human." She still kept her voice low, just quiet enough for only their ears to hear. "You're _human_ , Fang, no matter what else you might be... Able to be."

Fang lowered her gaze a bit, and a tiny flush spread over her cheeks, tinging them beneath the candlelight. "Glad you feel that way."

Lightning tried not to blush as well, so she looked back down at the paper menu, flipping through the pages. "I honestly have no idea what to order... This doesn't have pricing on anything."

Fang only laughed, briefly waving her off. "That's just what sort of place this is, Light... Pick whatever sounds best." She leaned back a little. "Don't worry about the cost."

Lightning tried not to fidget. She always kept an iron grip over herself, even with the way Fang was staring at her, the mix of amusement and affection in those bright green eyes. "What are you going to get?"

"Haven't decided..." Fang looked back at the paper on the table. "I did narrow it down a bit." She picked up the menu again, turning to a certain page. "Lobster might be a little costly, but then again, not too worried about the price."

Lightning looked up with a small frown. "Lobster, _costly?_ " She almost laughed at the notion. "Are you serious?"

Fang quirked an eyebrow at that. "...Real serious."

"It's... It's one of the easiest things to fish up." Lightning tried her best not to scoff at the thought of it. "Back home, they'd dump them out of the side of the boats if they got in the way of a better catch... How are they so costly, here?"

Fang only shrugged.

"Don't get me wrong, they can be delicious when you cook them properly..." Lightning trailed off for a moment, and her thoughts wandered back to the nights when she'd help her mother tend to the kitchen while her father was off with Serah, likely teaching her how to shoot the seagulls away from their garden with a training bow. Lightning herself would simply watch as the water boiled above the firelit stove, though she'd occasionally flinch whenever her mother pushed the end a knife into the brain of one of the big crawly lobsters, killing it long before it could ever encounter the heat of the iron pot. "Even without butter or seasoning... They can be pretty amazing."

Fang smiled at the distant look in Lightning's eyes.

"Mom and I, we used to cook things together." Lightning flipped to the next page of the menu, and for every type of sea creature she couldn't recognize, she could name the exact way to bait, catch and prepare at least two other species. "Oh... Mussels, those are in season."

After a moment or two of browsing, Fang set down her own menu again. "I'll go up and order once you're ready." She reached over to point at the edge of the table, at the tiny number that was carved into the wood itself. "These places, you just have to walk up and tell them what you want, and then they'll bring it out once it's done."

"...I think I'll go with the mussel plate." Lightning nodded to herself. "Have you decided, yet?"

"All that talk about lobster, it's got me hooked." Fang grinned at the pun, but Lightning didn't quite have the heart to tell her that lobsters weren't often caught with anything even remotely hooklike.

Instead, she only gave Fang a soft, wry smile, placing her own menu back down against the table. "Are you going to get soup? If they're making this while we wait, it might be good to get something to start out with."

Fang nodded. "Good idea... We haven't even eaten anything substantial since last night, have we?" She flipped open the menu again. "Those chocolates were nice, but not very filling."

Lightning glanced down at her own menu. "Do you like chowder? It said they have all kinds."

"I actually haven't tried it before..." Fang turned to the page with soup listings, scanning over each different type. "Fish chowder, is it?"

Lightning paused for a moment. "Go with clam chowder." She set her menu down again. "It's a lot better... At least in my opinion."

"Then I'll do that." Fang smiled, before she rose up to her feet. "You want the same?"

Lightning nodded. "Should I go up there with you?"

Fang shook her head, stepping out between the other tables. "Nah, I'll be right back."

So Lightning watched, and when Fang moved up towards the counter where many of the other patrons were placing their orders, an odd sort of feeling crept down over her own thoughts. Yet again, Lightning had felt herself bleed out in a memory, felt herself _die_ only minutes before they'd set out in search of somewhere to eat, and yet it wasn't weighing quite as heavily as the first time she'd felt such a thing.

Lightning remembered the sharp crack of something deafening, how it felt like every inch of her body was aflame, but then how it went so suddenly _cold_. But when Fang had been there, holding her, clutching on so very tightly that when her vision swam to black, when she finally drifted away, she hadn't felt nearly so afraid.

And she _had_ been afraid, so afraid that when she could actually feel Fang's presence again, only in a cold sweat and utterly trembling, it was almost too late to find much comfort in the gesture. Lightning looked down at the wooden table, and she tried to swallow back the dry cracks from her throat. When had she grown so _timid_ about herself? She knew her line of work better than anything, and even if it wasn't absolutely necessary for her to continue doing such things, it had almost become a hobby; in some far reach of her own mind, she savored the thrill, the way her blood quickened when she was hot on the trail of some sort of deadly, monstrous beast.

Yet it had almost stolen away the one she loved.

 _Loved?_ Lightning looked up again, watching how Fang was still waiting in line to tend to both of their needs, and she realized how much she must care to do so. Fang _cared_ , and when Lightning mulled it over in her mind, she noticed rather quietly that she also cared. Very much in fact, it even tugged at her conscience whenever she caught sight of a scabbed wound upon the scales of Fang's dragon form, even if the pain didn't quite seem to bother her.

She could feel it so deeply, that same twinge whenever Fang tried to make her smile, and Lightning closed her eyes so tightly, trying her hardest to be brave. She'd dealt with more monstrosities than she could possibly count, faced a _dragon_ while barely breaking a sweat, but when she thought of perhaps, _maybe_ , just a little bit, the thought of kissing Fang again... It sent her stomach right into knots.

Though the idea was hardly unpleasant; Fang was so utterly gentle, and somehow steady with her affection, like a grand shield that would rest there beside her heart, unyielding once she chose to embrace it, yet it would never willingly harm her.

Lightning's ears caught the sound of approaching footsteps, and she slowly opened her eyes.

"Time for a nap?" Fang took her seat again, smiling as she folded her arms atop the table. "It's been a long day, hasn't it?"

Lightning glanced over at the window beside their seats, though she could barely even see the daylight through the dark, yet cozy glass. "It has... Might also be the wine." She tried not to yawn at the thought of it, and she slowly turned to glance at the rest of the room. Lightning looked at all the different tables, the aquatic trophies along the walls, and even the somewhat tacky fishing nets strewn all around the wooden ceiling supports. "That's why I only ever go for a glass or two."

Fang nodded. "I ordered us non-alcoholic."

Lightning looked back at the table, and then over at Fang, before she glanced down at her own hands, at how they were resting against her lap. "Thank you."

"It's no problem." Fang leaned back in her chair, relaxing in the low light; the little candle upon their table flickered on, and it cast such soft shadows along the dark window panes. "Hey, I've actually got something to ask you."

Lightning looked up again. "Yes?"

"I told you that I'd teach you about 'seeing', right?" Fang stole a glance at all of the people dining at the other tables, and when she finally felt quite sure that they were out of earshot, she lowered her voice to continue. "It's just possibilities, you know, and they all happen at random... It's more like opening a new set of eyes, ones that you didn't even know you had; you can't control _what_ you see, but you can actually start to see it."

Lightning nodded. "What's your question, then?"

"That's the root of it, though..." Fang traced her fingertips over the tabletop in a circular way, and even though the motion didn't leave any sort of mark, each stroke swept back around the last, adding another layer to the design. "Once you open your eyes to the future, you open them to _everything_... The past, present, and even something very different."

"You still haven't asked me anything." Lightning leaned forward a bit, watching the way that Fang was drawing such invisible circles. "Just say it, Fang."

Fang closed her eyes for a brief moment. "What I showed you earlier, that was only a glimpse." She kept circling, gently scratching her fingertip against the surface. "I need to know... Do you _really_ want to see the rest of it, Light? It's something you can never turn off; ever since I told you about this, just the very basics... You didn't see that kind of dream before we met, did you?"

Lightning thought back to the first time, how she'd been falling through the clouds, pursued by what she thought was an utter foe.

"It's because your eyes are already half-open..." Fang leaned forward again, resting her wrists against the tabletop. "You _know_ who you were, and you know which lives you lived before, all I had to do was point them out, to be there next to you."

"So you're asking me if I want to go all the way?" Lightning looked deep into Fang's eyes again, trying to see if there was anything there that she wasn't saying aloud, anything hidden behind them. "If I want to... Walk between them, like you said?"

"...Yes." Fang exhaled, leaning back again. "I don't want to force you into rushing anything, Light... Between us, or with anything else, but I _am_ almost worried that you might just stumble into something on accident." She took a long, deep breath. "Those dreams, the ones you have when we're right next to each other... You're almost there already."

"They are pretty vivid." Lightning thought back to the ways she had once dreamt before, long before she'd ever caught word of a dragon sighting, but they had never been quite so real, so very vivid and physical. "Why is this...? I don't even _doubt_ it, Fang." She looked down at curves of the table, but her gaze flickered back up when someone suddenly set down a pair of cups for them, all without a word.

"Thank you." Fang smiled at the waiter, before she reached out for one of the glasses. "Light, you don't doubt it because it _is_ you... Trust me, I've already been through all of this before." She took a small sip of something that looked slightly fizzy, still gazing at Lightning's expression. "When I first started to remember things, I just kept chasing them and _chasing_ them, and I didn't even stop to think if they were real or not, they just _were_."

Lightning reached out for her own glass, though she paused for a moment to see what it smelled like. "And you... You went wild?" When she took a taste, the liquid was very thick and sweet, and Lightning swore that it smelled like lemons, only it was much less bitter than the actual fruit. "That many memories, that many lives..."

" _That's_ why I'm asking you this." After a moment, Fang set her glass back down. "And whatever you decide, we're still taking it slow... No use rushing in and getting yourself hurt, right?"

Lightning almost smiled. "Are we still talking about the memories..? I don't think you'd hurt me."

Fang's entire expression went blank for a split second, before a wry sort of look crept over her lips. "I wouldn't _try_ to, but you know how delicate this kind of thing can be." She took another long sip of her drink, and she licked away a tiny bit of foam from the edge of her lip. "Listen Light, I can handle whatever else happens... I'm just not going to push it on you before you're ready for it."

Lightning traced her fingertips over the sides of her glass, into the tiny beads of condensation. "You're waiting, then."

Fang nodded. "Watching, waiting... Feels like it's what I've been doing forever." She smiled a little, slowly gazing out over the rest of the restaurant, at all of the different faces of the people there. "I'm not in any rush."

"But you wouldn't object to... Other steps?" Lightning's curiosity took hold, and it quickly smothered away the doubt in her mind, if only for a moment. "I'm not in too much of a rush either, but-" She paused, before she lowered her voice back down to a whisper. "I _liked_ the other evening, too... Like I said, I didn't want to stop."

Fang smiled again, and Lightning swore that it sent out flutters right into her torso and chest, as if a hundred little wings were beating so rapidly towards her heart.

It was only after moment or two that the waiter returned, carrying a pair of wide saucers and a small wicker basket, one that was stacked to the brim with small crackers.

"Nice..." Fang reached for one of the slim metal spoons, twirling it between her fingertips. "Smells nice, too."

Lightning picked up a spoon as well, and she began to stir it along in the thick bowl of chowder. "Now with those crackers, you just-" She paused when Fang simply picked up a couple of the dry little biscuits, munching them down before she could even finish speaking. " _Fang_."

Fang nodded. "These are nice, too."

"...You put them _in_ the soup." Lightning reached for a handful of crackers, before she dropped them down against the surface of her chowder. "And then you eat them before they fully dissolve."

Fang shrugged, but she quickly copied the gesture, scattering a few of the tiny biscuits into the soup. "Does it make much difference? They all end up in the same place."

Lightning nearly rolled her eyes. "They taste much better with chowder all over them..." She stirred the bowl again, before she picked up a small spoonful, cooling it off with a gentle puff of breath. "It's just one of those traditional things, you know? Back home, you could incite a small war over whether you should dip them in or crush them up..." Lightning suddenly got a slight glint in her eye, just a tiny hint of amusement, yet it was more than enough for Fang to catch. "But if you're a _true_ believer, you just dump them in there and eat the damn soup."

Fang chuckled under her breath. "I never knew chowder crackers had such a storied history..." She nibbled on another plain piece, ignoring the look that Lightning gave her. "So do I need to eat the rest of it with my eyes crossed, or do I need to twirl it around the table first?"

Lightning bit back a wry laugh. "You just eat it." She took a tiny sip of the soup on her spoon, and she was pleasantly surprised when both the taste and texture seemed quite familiar; many taverns she had sampled before simply had no idea how to actually create a palatable chowder. The clams would often be incredibly hard to chew, or the potatoes might be dry and tasteless, but _this_ soup, it was just as delicate as she remembered it being from back in her childhood, rich and sweet like thickened cream.

Fang took a bite as well, and her eyes widened slightly. "Wow."

"Yeah..." Lightning moved to scoop up another small spoonful. "I know that clams aren't too popular with a lot of people, but once you get past the first glance, they're pretty versatile." She could taste the salt of the crackers, slightly softened from their brief time against the thick broth. "Have you ever tried mussels?" Lightning narrowed her eyes at Fang before she could even think of making a pun.

Fang glanced down at her own arms, grinning, but she only flexed her fingers. "Oh, never... What are they like?"

"A little bit like clams." Lightning stirred at the edge of the bowl, mixing in the crackers with the rest of the broth. "Mussels don't have quite as strong a taste, so you need to cook them in sauce, usually a white wine blend." She took another bite of the soup, before she smiled to herself. "But the alcohol, it gets burned off when it cooks, so there's no chance of getting tipsy."

Fang smiled as well. "That's good." She kept on eating, watching the way Lightning began to drop a few more crackers into her chowder, before she copied the gesture again. "Oh, Light, I also wanted to ask... What sort of things do you think we should pick up tomorrow?" She bit down on one of the dry crackers. "I still think we should rest up tonight, and then get supplies the next morning... There's probably an outdoor market nearby, maybe even down by the harbor."

Lightning nodded. "Non-perishables are good, things like hardtack and jerky, but we could always look around." She didn't say anything for a short while, she just kept eating, thinking of what other things they should purchase. "Crackers are good too... Maybe some potatoes."

Before very long, Fang scraped at the bottom of her bowl, trying to scoop up the last few drops of chowder. "How about fruit? With the cold, they aren't going to go bad for a while."

Lightning paused for a moment. "There aren't going to be any for sale in-" She suddenly thought back to the slices of fruit atop one of the chocolate pieces, and Lightning narrowed her eyes. " _Where_ are they getting fresh fruit in the winter?"

Fang chuckled. "Trade capital, Light."

Lightning's eyes went a little wider. "Just how fast are those ships..?"

"Very fast." Fang set her spoon down beside the bowl, glancing back at the basket of crackers. "And with the right sort of cooling magic, I'd bet they can get fresh produce up from the equator in a matter of days, if the wind is on their side." She let herself relax, before she took a moment to look at the aged wooden tables, and at how each of the restaurant windows had a different pattern of cloth for the curtains; it gave off a sense of reduced scale, and Fang almost felt like she was back there in her old forest again, resting between the tall, dark trees, cozied up in a nest of branches, moss and leaves. "This is a nice little place, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Lightning soon finished her soup as well, before she leaned back in her chair, gazing at Fang's eyes. "I've been in taverns similar to this, but they were never quite so... Quite so much like home." She looked back down at the table, nearly cursing the way her mind wandered back to thoughts of bright beaches and sand, even the way that her own house smelled like salt and incense whenever she'd walk into the main entryway. Her mother had always burned some within a little clay statue beside the door, stating that it was highly traditional and also for good luck, and that even if most their fellow villagers didn't quite believe in the fabled stories they'd grown up on, she knew it would be in Etro's favor.

And that was when Lightning realized it, the scent she'd caught when they had first walked through the front doors; this restaurant, so deep beneath the oily tones of fish and seafood, there was the distinct scent of a certain dried flower, one that was far burned into her own memory itself.

Lightning glanced back over her shoulder, looking up at the large wooden emblem of a leaping fish. It rose up, curving far above the main serving counter, and it was only then that she noticed the intricate little symbol carved deep into the circular eye.

"Light?" Fang leaned forward. "You okay?"

Lightning nodded, but she slowly kept looking around, searching for any hint of a fellow follower. "Just realized something..." She narrowed her eyes a bit, before she slowly reached for the pendant beneath the collar of her jacket, tugging it up to rest against the outer layer of her coat. "Nothing to worry about."

"Alright." Fang looked down at the silvery charm. "You aren't going to zap anyone, are you?"

Lightning tried not to laugh, but a rather small smile crept over her face. "No Fang, I'm not going to 'zap' anyone..."

"Just checking." Fang reached out for another cracker. "That little thing packs a punch, that's all."

"Like I said, don't worry about it." Lightning looked back down at the table, but she still kept glancing at the rest of the room from the corner of her eye, though it seemed as if nothing had really changed. The people around them just kept chatting among themselves, dining upon their meals, while the waitstaff walked around almost constantly, carrying large plates of seafood and various drinks to different tables.

But it was only a moment or two before their own place was approached once more, and when Lightning looked up to gauge the face of their waiter, he only set down the plates with a polite smile and a quick nod, before he disappeared into the rest of the crowd again.

"Wow, look at this..." Fang reached down for the claw of a bright red lobster, mimicking the way it would have once snapped at rival crustaceans. "I've only had these once or twice, but they usually shell them first."

Lightning glanced back at the table, and then at her own plate of steamed mussels, which were resting there in a single deep dish, one with a deep red sauce at the very bottom. "Think you can handle cracking those claws?" She pointed at the pronged metal device that had been placed beside Fang's plate. "You could use that to crush them."

Fang nodded as she reached for it, testing the way that it could crack the lobster's shell with only a quick squeeze from her hand. "Interesting." She soon put it right into action, before she plucked out a full bit of the claw meat, and she grinned, setting it down against her plate. "How's yours?"

Lightning was already pulling at a mussel with the tines of her fork, tugging it out from the rest of the shell. "It smells wonderful." When she looked up again, she tried to ignore the look on Fang's face. "...What?"

Fang paused, staring at the odd sort of mollusk. "It just looks pretty... Gross?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Well, it doesn't taste gross." She held out her fork to offer the rather slimy, squishy looking mussel, and she kept it right there until Fang finally decided to try it.

"Okay, okay." Fang slowly took the fork from her hand, trying to not look at whatever she was about to eat, but when she brought it between her teeth, tasting the absolutely _beautiful_ flavor as it spread out across her mouth, her eyes widened quite a bit. "Damn... How does something that looks so disgusting... How does it taste like _that?_ "

Lightning only smiled, waiting for Fang to hand back her fork.

"Here, only fair." Fang speared the lobster claw with the metal tines, before she handed it back with a small smile of her own. "I'm actually glad I tried that, Light."

Lightning reached for the fork, and she took a tiny bite of the lobster. "I'd imagine that you mostly go for larger game... At least for the most part."

Fang nodded. "Seafood, that's only for when I'm lucky enough to spot a turtle or something... Or a dolphin." Her mouth watered a little at the thought of flame broiled dolphin flesh, though she realized that Lightning might not appreciate the amount of char that her dragon fire left behind. "I'll let you do the cooking out there."

Lightning soon tugged another mussel out from one of the shells. "Considering you slobbered all over the last of our venison..."

Fang fought the urge to stick out her tongue at that, but when she caught the look in Lightning's eyes, that quiet sort of amusement without more than a hint of irritation, she knew that her next few words probably wouldn't earn her a night sleeping out in the hallway, or wherever else she might get banished to. "You know, I don't think my 'slobber' is all that bad."

After a brief moment, Lightning lowered her voice a bit. "Watch that mouth of yours, Fang." A small smirk played at the edge of her lips, and she took a long sip of her drink, before she looked Fang straight in the eye. "Some people might take that as being forward."

"Better than backward..." Fang cracked off the lobster tail, still gazing back at Lightning. "When I like someone, I tend to let them know."

Lightning finally glanced away, but that little smirk still lingered on her face. "Noted."

Fang leaned forward again, and her voice went incredibly soft. "I like you, Lightning."

Lightning felt that insufferable heat surging up towards her cheeks again, but she managed to keep it down to just a slight flush, before she glanced back out into those sharp green eyes, the smoky hue that stood beneath such gentle candlelight. "And I like you."

Fang smiled. "It's all just little steps, Light." She soon bit down on the lobster tail, chewing quietly. "One step at a time... Almost like normal."

Lightning glanced down at the silvery little chain on her neck, at way her pendant reflected the light of the room. She could see the tiny flame of the candle as it danced off in the corner, casting a glow over the metal itself.

When Lightning looked back up again, she almost felt the urge to curse the normalcy, to tell Fang that she was remembering exactly who they were, who they'd been, and that she remembered the warmth of kisses on her neck and mouth, how those arms had once held her just as tightly in both utter calm and the heat of harsh, raging battle, but when she saw the warmth in Fang's eyes, felt the same flutter in her stomach again, it soon sent a soothing wave over herself, calming the fire in her heart.

"They're just echoes, love." Fang kept her voice down low, and her mouth quirked up in a tiny grin. "Little bits of the past... Just let them happen on their own."

Lightning closed her eyes for a split second, before she opened them just as quickly, looking out with a much clearer gaze than before. "But have we _ever_ done anything slow, at a 'normal' pace?" She poked her fork down along the edge of a mussel shell. "Somehow I don't think we did."

Fang's smile went wide, and she only spoke again after a long moment of silence. "And there she is."


	15. Wanted

The moments slipped on with the setting sun. Before much time had passed, the low light from the windowsill was all but gone, and near the edge of the table, a long droplet of wax slid down along the flickering candlestick.

"Now, normally I'd say we should stick around for dessert, but with all that chocolate in your backpack..." Fang nibbled at one of the stray chowder crackers, having already finished with her meal. "I think we could make do with that."

Lightning fished out one of the very last mussels from its shell. "I think so, too." While she chewed, she caught herself watching the way that Fang had grown so utterly relaxed in her chair, how she looked rather content just to have a full stomach again after almost an entire day of fasting.

It was only a minute or so before the waiter stepped back towards their table, and he reached down to pick up both the emptied plates. "Thank you very much for your business..." With a brief nod, he placed down a narrow sheet of paper, before he stepped away again.

"There it is." Fang sat up straight to reach for the bill. "This... Doesn't look right."

Lightning almost frowned at her tone of voice. "What's wrong?"

"Not wrong, exactly... Just not right?" Fang shrugged a bit, before she passed the slip of paper over to Lightning. "That's _half_ the price I expected to pay."

Lightning looked down at the handwritten letters, which detailed exactly which items they had ordered. Beside each line, there were numbers for each individual price, with one larger amount at the very bottom with the total sum. "It doesn't look like they added it wrong." Her gaze caught upon something slightly unusual, some sort of circular outline upon the back of the paper. When she flipped it over in her hands, holding the surface up beside the candlelight, Lightning realized exactly what it was.

"Friends of yours?" Fang stared at the tiny round symbol. "Benefits of the club..."

Lightning narrowed her eyes, and when she touched at the ink, a little bit of it smeared across her fingertip. "I didn't expect this." After a brief moment, she handed the receipt back over to Fang, before she reached down beneath the chair for her own backpack. "Can you smell the incense in here? It's not a very well known symbol of Etro, but back home, my mom used to burn it all the time." Lightning kept her voice down low, tugging a small leather wallet out from a compartment in her backpack. "The owner of this place, they're definitely of the faith."

Fang glanced at the silver chain on Lightning's neck, and then at the pedant below. "Not a very 'public' church, is it?"

Lightning almost laughed to herself, shaking her head. "No, barely any physical chapels, either... It's not like we're actively _preaching_ anything, Fang." She reached up to trace her thumb over the edge of the charm. "My parents, they passed it down to me and Serah, but we've kept it to ourselves."

With a nod, Fang reached into her own satchel for a slim wallet, and she unclipped the clasp at the top. "So... What sort of stuff goes on with all that, anyway? You've got your charms, I know that much."

Lightning tugged out a couple of thin paper bills, passing them over towards Fang. "I'll pay for half of this."

Fang paused. "...That's the full total, Light."

Lightning nodded, and she clipped her wallet shut. "We aren't taking advantage of their good nature... Are you willing to pay the same amount?"

Fang nodded. "By the way, nice dodge with the Etro stuff."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "It wasn't a 'dodge'... I guess the tenets aren't exactly a secret." She watched while Fang opened up the strange, scaly sort of wallet in her hands, but Lightning's eyes almost widened at the sheer amount of money on display. "I didn't know you were _loaded_ , Fang."

Fang chuckled under her breath. "Hey, I'm a wandering soul; can't have a big hoard on hand, can I? I just like to keep some of it close by." She soon took out an equal amount of money, before she set it down beside Lightning's share, atop the bill. "Now, those tenets?"

Lightning thought back to the words she had once heard as a child, but it was a long moment before she decided to speak them out loud. "The first one: 'to watch over the eternal balance, to tend the flow of life and death, yet never tip the scales'... It basically means that you shouldn't use your faith as an excuse to go on a wild killing spree." Lightning reached for her cup, sipping at the last few drops of the sweetened lemon drink. "Life is just as sacred to us as anything else, even with monsters."

"Yeah, doesn't make much sense for the goddess of death to want _everything_ dead, does it?" Fang smiled to herself, before she leaned back in her chair once again. "I mean, Etro... She's not all that bad, keeps her followers to themselves, doesn't go poking around in things."

Lightning paused to think for a moment, but she didn't quite understand Fang's exact implication. "'Poking around in things'?"

Fang shrugged. "Oh, I used to get a whole lot of 'hunters' chasing after me, trying to 'cleanse the impurity out of this most holy world', blah, blah _blah_..." She swiftly tapped her fingertips together to imitate a jabbering mouth. "Good thing I've got a much longer lifespan than most churches, eh?"

Lightning almost smiled. "There are radicals in everything, Fang."

"Yeah, but these were _way_ more annoying than the standard fare." Fang shrugged away the topic. "What about these other tenets? I'm just a little curious about what this sort of thing is really like, worshiping Etro and all that."

"It's not exactly 'worship'." Lightning closed her eyes for just a moment. "You might like the second tenet, it's specifically about interacting with the rest of the world..." She still had her wallet on her lap, and she traced her fingertips over the soft leather binding, before she opened her eyes, tucking it back into her backpack. "The second: 'accept the spoils of your livelihood, but should you come across a soul in need, one without gifts to bear... Your duty is unchanged'."

"Ah, helping the people who can't pay up?" Fang glanced off to the side when a waitress walked past their table with a large tray of sizzling fish. "If you weren't in the business of slaying monsters, I'd call it charity."

Lightning smiled a little. "I almost always get something out of it, it's just not always money." She traced her fingertips over the edge of the empty cup. "Clients will often pay us with whatever they create for a living; new horseshoes for Odin, maybe even some regular shoes... I actually got a nice pair of fur gloves just last year for clearing out a harpy infestation." Lightning began to think back to the huge cask of quality cooking oil that a farmer had once given to both her and Serah for dealing with a rather stubborn pack of lowland wendigoes; it was something that they still used quite often in the kitchen.

"So, you get _clients_ in this line of work..." Fang went quiet for just a moment, before she looked right at Lightning's face, deep into her eyes. "Who tipped you off about me?"

Lightning almost wanted to glance away from the intensity of her gaze, but she held fast, speaking just as quietly as she could. "It was a missive from one of the highland villages... The one whose field you torched." She matched Fang's gaze with a slight fire of her own, though neither of their gazes sent out even any hints of hostility; it was merely testing, gauging the strength of the other's reaction. "The missive, it said they didn't think that their wards could possibly stand up to a dragon, and that you'd been spotted up on the tallest mountainside... They thought you might be trying to stake out a permanent residence up there."

After a long, gradual moment of silence, Fang's gaze finally went soft again. "And how much were they going to pay you?"

Lightning shrugged. "It didn't say. It was pretty hastily written, the messenger who brought it, he looked like he was about to faint right off the side of his horse..." Glancing away, she watched the flicker of candlelight as it danced against the window panes, how it cast tiny shadows across their table. "Although we don't let many people know where our village is... Except for town representatives."

"Reclusive, right." Fang had that sly sort of look in her eyes again. "But I can't say I'm all that different... I'd rather hang out in the woods than most places."

"Most of the time it's very quiet." Lightning thought back to her own little home, to the low, stony house with only a single floor to speak of, not including the basement, and then to the tall, grandiose woods that kept their village hidden from the world beyond. "When I'm not working or hunting, I like to just sit near the trees." She glanced away again, anywhere but those inquisitive green eyes. "I know it's not really the most exciting sort of pastime, but-"

"But what's the point of the rest of it if you can't relax?" Fang tried to catch her gaze again, and she smiled when Lightning finally looked back at her. "Hey, I like to have quiet time too, Light... I've gotten a whole lot of it over the years."

And Lightning could suddenly see it, the sheer age in her eyes, how Fang's expression told more than a thousand stories without ever even speaking a single word. There was a great amount of fatigue in that gaze, but Lightning still caught the overlying sense of youth, the strength of a strong, yet weathered soul.

 _Tempered... But unbroken._ Lightning spoke it to herself, staring into the depth of Fang's pupils. ... _What in the world have I gotten myself into?_

"You're spacing out again, Light." Fang's smile nearly came alight in the dark, and she looked over towards the front door. "Think we should find somewhere to rest?"

Lightning slowly drifted back to the present moment; she didn't even realize that the rest of the world had gone so utterly quiet until then, but she could slowly hear all of the bustling sounds of the restaurant again. "Yes... I haven't slept in a actual bed in- How long?" She glanced down at her hands, trying to physically recall the time upon her fingertips, but between the blurry days that Fang had cared for her injuries, and how she had barely been awake and cognitive for some of them, it was all just too muddled for her to count.

"Well, it's been about a week since we ran into each other..." Fang winked at her so quickly that Lightning wasn't quite sure if it had actually even happened. "Feels like a whole lot longer, doesn't it?"

Lightning merely blinked, but she glanced up when the waiter finally returned, and she watched as he offered them both yet another polite nod, before he paused; he was staring down at the money they'd placed atop the receipt.

After a moment of silence, he spoke in a very quiet tone. "Ah, there's been a-"

"No mistake." Fang just smiled at him, adjusting the satchel against her shoulder. "It was... An excellent dinner, and we had a feeling that the price was just a _little_ too low."

Lightning kept silent, but she closely watched the young man out of the corner of her gaze, just to examine the look of conflict in his eyes, until he finally decided to pick up the bill and their payment.

"If you would please wait for just one moment..." The waiter tried not to look away, but Lightning finally caught him glancing down at the symbol on her pendant. "I really must speak with my employer; I won't be long." And then he was gone again, long before either of them could say anything in response.

"...Twitchy, isn't he?" Fang leaned back again, resting her hands against her lap. "We could just leave."

Lightning shook her head. "That would be rude."

"Why's that?" Fang glanced over at the windowsill, before she let out a soft, quiet yawn, closing her eyes for a moment or two. "We've already paid, and it's been a _long_ day... I'd like to get somewhere nice and warm before I fall asleep."

"Because there aren't many of _us_ either, Fang." Lightning's voice went soft, and she ran the little pendant between her fingertips. "You want to talk about dying breeds? The goddess of death isn't a very approachable deity."

Fang opened her eyes again. "Ah, sorry."

"It's alright." Lightning tried her best not to fidget, tracing her other hand over the edge of the table. "But if it takes more than-"

A very low, almost rugged sort of voice sounded from somewhere behind her. "Good evening!"

Lightning looked over to see someone swiftly pull up a seat, before she caught sight of a older woman with long, almost tangled looking hair, who promptly took a place at their table, sitting backwards upon a stray chair with her hands propped up beneath her chin.

"I hope you ladies enjoyed your dinner..?" The woman spoke with what was almost certainly a seafarer's tone, all rough edges and husky. "I've run this joint for seventeen years now and never had a customer try to pay double for their meal."

Fang started to smile at the all of colorful tattoos all along the woman's arms, and she took a moment to examine each design. Whether it was an anchor entangled in eels or a massive beast rising up from the depths of the ocean, wrapping out a countless number of appendages around the muscular arm that it had been injected against, she couldn't help but murmur under her breath. "Beautiful ink..."

The woman grinned with all her teeth, and the wrinkles around her eyes began to crease in a rather gentle way. "Thank you!"

Lightning was looking at the silver chain around their visitor's neck, and though it almost looked too tight for it to be very comfortable, when she glanced up at those keen eyes that stared right back at her, Etro's crest seemed more than fitting for a fellow hunter. "May I ask your name?"

"Captain Muriel... Or just 'Captain', whichever suits you." Captain Muriel held out her hand towards Lightning, and she grinned once again when she'd received a firm, steady handshake. "And yours, miss..?"

"Lightning." Lightning kept her gaze fixed upon the captain, though she couldn't help but wonder why such a woman was running a mere restaurant instead of grappling with some savage monstrosity out on the open seas. "I didn't realize we were in such company when we walked in here..."

Captain Muriel turned to shake Fang's hand as well. "Ah, well, one hardly ever does." She quirked a very bushy eyebrow at the sheer warmth of Fang's skin. "It's not often we get such company, either..." Captain Muriel glanced back at Lightning. "So what's brought you into town, sister? You've got the look about you... Not on a pilgrimage, eh?"

Lightning shook her head. "It's more of an... Elimination job."

Captain Muriel beamed at her. "Good on you! Not enough hunters in the world, not enough at all..." She looked at Fang out of the corner of her gaze, but she couldn't see any hints of that circular crest, nor any kind of silver adornments. "Two of you, huh?"

Fang leaned over just a bit, resting her forearms against the table. "I'm just helping out; not really into the religious stuff."

The captain only laughed. "Who _is_ , girl? I doubt old Etro is much into the whole thing, herself..." She gave them both a wide smile, still leaning in against the chair. "Now, am I going to have to stuff that extra cash down your pockets, or what? I _mean_ it... Any sister of mine gets a solid discount; I'm not in this business for profit."

Lightning spoke up. "...What _are_ you in it for?"

Captain Muriel leaned over a bit, revealing the slim wooden brace on her left leg. "The doc says that I can still hunt again once or twice a year, but any more than that... It'd just be pushing my luck too far." She started to poke her fingertips around the dark, almost blackened wound, one that ran far up along her calf and over the top of her knee, deep within her skin. "Scylla venom doesn't leave easily."

"Scylla..." Lightning's mind drifted back to the stories she'd heard of aquatic, seafaring hydras, otherwise known as 'scyllas'. "But you made it out alive."

Captain Muriel smiled. "I did! But it didn't." She tapped along the wound again. "Oh yes, had to leave me something to remember it by, while the damn thing was sinking down to the very bottom... A piece of advice, my friends: never turn your back on a snake, not even when it already looks good and dead." The captain sighed very quietly, shaking her head at the thought of it. "Now this is all well and fine, even if you'd rather not take back the cash... But I'd sleep much easier tonight if the two of you promise to come back for lunch tomorrow, only it'll be the house." She glanced back between both Fang and Lightning. "Help an old woman feel at ease, will you? It's been far too long since I've seen young hunters out and about, and I'd hate to take advantage of their kindness."

Lightning thought on it for a moment, before she glanced over at Fang. As the silence stretched on, a certain look passed between them, one of quiet questioning, and then a steady sense of affirmation.

Fang turned to look at Captain Muriel. "Sure... Just as long as we get to hear the story behind that tattoo." She pointed at the image of deep blue ink, one with the massive creature who lurked beneath the depths, the same beast that wrapped so many long, sleek tentacles around the captain's muscular bicep. "For an 'old woman', I could still see you knocking the damn thing right back down into oblivion."

Captain Muriel let out a barking laugh, before she rose back up to her feet, pushing the chair back towards an unoccupied table. "Old in age, young in spirit... Maybe you'll hear that tale tomorrow, depends on the wind." She cracked a wide, crooked smile. "Kidding, depends on how talkative I'm feeling... If I don't see the two of you again, thank you very much for your business."

It was only when the captain stepped away that Lightning noticed how she walked with a limp, but each stride was still _incredibly_ swift and strong, carrying her on towards the open doorway that led to the back rooms.

Fang shook her head at the sight. "Man, odd ducks like that..." After a moment, she stood up as well. "Gotta love them."

"It takes a very odd duck to chase after a scylla." Lightning rose to her feet, reaching down for her backpack. "Imagine a hydra, only it has the advantage of open water, so it can dive down at any moment and disappear... And you also have at least five heads to deal with, maybe more with certain subspecies."

Fang stepped up beside the table, headed off towards the front door again, but she paused for a moment to offer Lightning her hand. "Does that make you an odd duck, too?"

Lightning reached out, gently holding Fang's fingertips in her own, before she let her take the lead, guiding them both back towards the entryway. "I think all hunters are..." Lightning almost paused at the sight of the wide night sky, but the tiny glowing lanterns that hung above the little street, they caught her gaze for more than a moment or two.

"Cute little neighborhood, isn't it?" Fang glanced around all the candlelit storefronts, but when a sudden, keening sound rippled off through the air, she tipped her head back, watching so many hundreds of sparks, the sheer fire that trickled on down through the dark, snowy sky. "Fireworks..."

Lightning felt herself take a slowly step forward, still holding Fang's hand, before she craned her head back to stare at the colorful lights. "Looks like it." She could almost feel the echoing blasts, how they streaked across sky in long plumes of smoke and fiery pigment, and she gently squeezed Fang's hand. "Let's go?"

Fang smiled, nodding while Lightning walked on beside her. They traveled through the streets together, beneath the light of a thousand bright sparks, and the snow fell all around them, floating down like little lumps of dust. The streets were all but silent, but every time a firework crackled above, they could hear people shouting from somewhere not too far off, yet both Fang and Lightning still walked alone, wandering all throughout the long, empty roads.

"Fang, you said... You feel safer with me." Lightning stared at the path ahead, but she could still see so many colors as they flashed against each of the snowdrifts. "I feel the same way."

Fang ran her thumb against the curve of Lightning's palm. "Then I hope that feeling sticks around." She soon walked down towards a long flight of stairs, the railing of which was all wrapped in red ribbon and banners for the festival. "I just don't want any of this to _end_ ; it's been so long that it feels almost... Unreal." Fang stepped down across the stone staircase, before she paused within the very middle, guiding Lightning over to stand beside her. "Like it's too good to be true."

Lightning felt her vision swim with the lights above and even the falling snow, but when she looked back into Fang's gaze, the world was suddenly stable again; she was anchored there, yet not quite bound, for she didn't even think of walking away.

Fang closed her eyes for just a moment, breathing deep little breaths, but it was enough to mist around her lips. "...I don't want to lose this."

Lightning reached up to hold one of Fang's shoulders, and she gripped down on it gently. "Fang, look at me."

After a brief moment, Fang opened her eyes again, leaning back against the metal banister of the stairwell. "I'm sorry, Light... I shouldn't bring this up, not when everything's been going so well."

"You won't lose it." Lightning tightened her grip. "I'll fight for it, Fang... I'll fight for _us_."

Fang peered at the fierce little glimmer in Lightning's eyes, the keen flash of blue that grew even brighter beneath the fireworks, reflecting each color and shape.

"You want to know the third tenet?" Lightning released Fang's shoulder, before she moved over to rest upon the banister as well, sitting at the top of the flat metal bar. "'Respect your prey; _never_ lose sight of the real target, the end goal... Or even yourself'." She felt her fingertips tighten against her own palms, but she ignored the tiny crescent marks that she made on her skin, nor how they tingled under the pressure. "...'You are a messenger of death, but you are also a bulwark of _life_.'" Lightning could almost feel the words ringing within her ears, for her parents had once repeated them to both herself and Serah before each and every hunt, whether it was for mere pest extermination or a grand beast of the deepest, darkest wilds; Etro's messengers were ambassadors of her will, and they were expected to act as such.

"'Bulwark of life'?" Fang's voice trailed off a bit, before she looked back at the distant look in Lightning's eyes. "When I told you that I'd never hurt anyone, except out of necessity... Something changed, didn't it?"

Lightning blinked against the falling snow, and then the light of the fireworks, but it almost felt like hours before she spoke again, and even then, her words were low and soft. "I realized that we were the same sort of person..." She finally released her own hands, letting them ease out against her lap, against the pale white fabric. "But it still amazes me, just how incredibly different we are."

Fang paused for just a moment. "You know what they say, though..." She stepped over, standing right beside the railing, but she had to tip her chin up just to fully meet Lightning's gaze. "Variety is the spice of life."

Lightning's eyes went a little bit darker, but when she looked down, still perched atop the banister, Fang could see the warmth in them as well.

"And, I _think_..." Fang stepped up on her tiptoes, before she set her hands down against the sleek metal bar, rising up to brush her lips over Lightning's ear. "I think that _we'd_ make a very good pair... A good match."

Lightning fought the urge to shiver, and she gripped Fang's shoulder again. "We're in public, Fang..."

Fang only chuckled, long and low. "Yeah, and everyone in their right mind around here is off getting drunk or watching the pretty lights... And I've got a _very_ pretty light right here in front of me."

Lightning's breath hitched when Fang leaned back only inches, brushing their lips together.

"It'd be a damn shame if I didn't look after her, wouldn't it?" Fang smiled, and each breath she took fluttered against Lightning's mouth. "But I need to know if she wants me, first."

Slowly, Lightning narrowed her eyes in amusement. "You smell like lobster."

Fang narrowed her eyes as well, and she had to bite back a laugh, yet it slowly shook throughout her entire body, before she let her fingertips tighten around the banister. "I guess I do, don't I?"

"It doesn't mean I won't kiss you, but..." Lightning smiled, leaning forward to rest their foreheads together. "You should really borrow my toothbrush tonight."

"I think I'll do that." Fang could feel the same heat stoking though her skin, how her inner fire almost seemed to cross over the gap from her draconic form, but when Lightning finally leaned forward with a quiet little breath, kissing her ever so gently, it almost felt like she might just catch alight right there and then, burning away beneath the snowflakes. "...And you, you taste like your dinner, too."

Lightning scrunched up her nose a little, easing away, before she dipped back down for another brief kiss. "It's not bad, is it?"

Fang shook her head back and forth, but she soon had to stop standing on tiptoe; even for Lightning, sprained toes seemed like a bit too much to endure. "Not bad at all, but I can't keep reaching up there."

Lightning slid herself down from the railing, as it stood just a short distance from the ground. "Now you don't have to reach."

"I don't, do I?" Fang smiled at the way Lightning was still all pressed up against her, while only her back was facing the metal bars. Fang's own hands gripped at the top of the banister, as if to hold them both steady. "You're pretty tall, you know."

Lightning almost scoffed. "You're taller-" Her voice cut off when Fang suddenly moved forward again, claiming the words straight from her tongue, slicking all along the clever little muscle.

"Only by an inch or two." Fang breathed against her open mouth, a gentle sort of pant, but she had to break away again just to inhale from the sharp, crisp air of the night. "...What do you say we get out of the cold?"

Lightning still had her hands upon Fang's shoulders, and she could feel the thin, silky fabric of her shawl against her fingertips. "Somewhere to rest?"

Fang nodded. "There's bound to be an inn nearby." She stole away one last kiss, long and deep; Fang purred at the swift sound of Lightning's gasp, and at how she instinctively leaned forward into the warmth. It felt like far too soon, but slowly, Fang drew away again. "Now... If we're going to buy supplies tomorrow, and maybe get a free lunch-"

"We'll set out after that, though?" Lightning felt her cheeks flush at what she'd just felt, and she almost shivered when Fang brushed their noses together. "We have places to be, Fang..."

"I know." Fang spoke it into her skin, each word murmured so quietly, but Lightning could _feel_ it, hearing it echo against her ears. "Don't worry Light, I haven't forgotten."

"It's easy to get wrapped up in a place like this." Lightning listened to the sharp crack of the fireworks, before she leaned forward again, hugging her arms around Fang's chest. "As long as we keep going by tomorrow..."

Fang returned the embrace, and she held Lightning close, even when a strand of pink hair tickled at the side of her cheek. "We _will_ , but the first step is to find somewhere to rest." She waited a long moment for Lightning to draw back again, before she took hold of her hand, leading her down towards the bottom of the stairway. "Maybe somewhere with warm water; I could really use a bath."

"An inn with decent plumbing?" Lightning stepped down to the lower pathway, before she kept walking on beside Fang. "That's more than a little rare..." She took a short while just to listen to the sounds of her boots against the stone path, to how the little snowflakes crackled quietly beneath each step she took. "But in a city like this? Who knows."

"Just keep your hopes up, Light." Fang led the way down to another street, one that had banners hanging down from the windowsills and people loitering around the sidewalks, watching the firework display. "Imagine it, a nice warm bath, out of the cold, with _all_ of those chocolates we have left."

Lightning tried not to let herself flush. "I suppose we do have those..." She looked up at a gaggle of wandering drunkards, but the group mostly kept to themselves, laughing away at something that one of them had blurted out. "No more wine, though."

"No more wine." Fang nodded. "I still feel a little bit bubbly from that one glass."

"Just don't float away on me, now..." Lightning nudged at Fang's shoulder with her own, following her through a much more crowded road, one that stood in full view of the lively fireworks. "I'd have to get my bow out again and shoot you down."

Fang looked over at Lightning's jacket. "Where'd it get off to, anyway?"

Lightning reached up to pull back a thin part of her cape, revealing the end of the small bow. "Hidden... Most people don't mind if you carry weapons out in the open, but they might treat you a little differently if they know you're armed." She let the long white cape fall back against her jacket, before she tugged the fabric down over the hilt and sheathe of her sword. "Now, since you handled dinner, I get to deal with the inn reservations."

Fang shrugged, slowly realizing that Lightning's bowstring was indeed visible against her chest, if only she squinted to see it. "That's fine by me." She strolled on down along the firelit path, glancing up at the signs that stood along the side of the road, but none of them so far indicated a place to spend the night. "Do you stay at them often? With all the traveling, I mean."

"Unless the weather is particularly bad, I usually sleep outside." Lightning stared up at the bright bursts of color, watching how they rose so far above the darkened sea, spreading out over the width of the inky black sky. "But I do know how to show them you mean business."

Fang tilted her head to the side. "Business, as in..?"

"As in, ' _no_ , I don't want a room with fifty extra amenities, ones that I clearly don't need, and don't want to pay for'..." Lightning rolled her eyes at the mere thought of it. "But I'll ask if they have rooms with bathtubs and warm water."

Fang nodded. "I'm just wondering if there even _is_ an inn in this town..." After a few more minutes of searching, she whistled at another pack of drunkards. "Hey! Any idea where to find an inn in this place?"

One of them giggled, pointing rather shakily towards a different street. "Best one's..." He let out a loud hiccup. " _Right_ , it's over there! So long as you've got the gil for it..."

"Thank you kindly..." Fang gently tugged at Lightning's hand, leading her down into the next street. "Even the damn drunks are nice in this place." She looked up to see that the avenue ahead was much wider than the other roads, and that it was somewhat more grandiose than any of the others they'd walked along. "My poor wallet, though... Look at this place, it's gonna be hurting something fierce by tomorrow morning."

Lightning glanced at the strap of her backpack. "We could go half and half again."

"Nah, just let me take care of it..." Fang gave her a smile, and there was more than a small bit of pride to her gaze, perhaps yet another hint of her secondary nature. "Seriously, Light."

"Alright." Lightning looked over at a very ornate street sign, though it didn't indicate an inn. "How much further do you think this place is?"

"Not sure..." Fang glanced around, searching along the road that ran on ahead, until she finally caught sight of a small walkway, one that had small cedar trees growing within the front yard. There was a stately sign near the entrance, which stood alongside with several metal benches and tall lanterns. "That could be it."

Lightning kept following after her, but when she looked down at Fang's hand again, the one that still holding her own, the thought of letting go, if only for a moment or two... It did cross her mind for a moment. Even if nobody in this town knew of either Fang or herself, it still sent slight flutters down her spine that someone might look at the gesture and think of them as a couple.

Fang had squint to read the front sign, for the falling snow blurred quite a few of the letters. "'Evergreen Hall, Inn and Tavern... Inquire within for extended stays'." She looked over at Lightning. "Sounds alright?"

Lightning nodded. "Let's just get out of the cold."

"Alright." Fang stepped up towards the grand double doors, though she did have to maneuver her way through the big, bustling crowd at the front entrance. "Crowded, though."

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the thick scent of wine, and at just how heavy it was within the air; she had a feeling that quite a few of the nearby townsfolk were simply too tipsy to find their way back home, but she didn't voice her thoughts aloud.

 _Yeah, they probably are._

Lightning almost startled. _Damn it, Fang! I keep forgetting..._

Fang only smiled, walking even further into the building.

Lightning looked around at the wide entry hall, and she quickly caught sight of the front desk. "I'll go try to get us a room." She released her grip of Fang's hand, but the sudden loss of contact almost seemed jarring; Lightning could feel the warmth as it seeped away, before Fang merely glanced over at something else, wandering off into the crowd.

Lightning fought the urge to frown, even when her stomach felt like it was twisting up in knots. Though she realized it such an incredibly silly thing to let crawl beneath her skin, she almost wanted to move back over to Fang's side and hold her hand again... But she still needed to get them a place to stay.

Lightning turned to face the front desk, before she walked over towards the very back of the line, and then waited. All around her, she could practically taste the thick scent of alcohol and smoke, and the din of the crowd kept on without pause; some of them were still humming a tune, or even mumbling the slurred words of local drinking songs, but Lightning could scarcely even tell what the actual lyrics were.

At the very front of the queuing crowd, she could just barely see someone who looked arguing with the attendant. But as the moments slipped on, and the sounds grew more and more viciously heated, Lightning narrowed her eyes, slowly reaching down to grip at the hilt of her sword.

"I've been in that room for _weeks_ , and you just-" The woman hiccuped ever so slightly, and her words started to slur. "You _just_..." She had to grip at the front desk, cursing softly under her breath. "You just rent it out to someone else?"

"Ma'am..." The attendant was flipping through a small, leather bound booklet, and his brow began to furrow. "It says here that you checked out three days ago? I am truly sorry, but we just can't free up the room you were staying in, but I _could_ offer you a similar suite-"

"Does it..." Her eyes went a little out of focus. "Look like I'm in the mood to downgrade?" With another hiccup, the woman smacked her wallet down against the front desk, and the sudden snap echoed out over all the other noise of the hall. "I'll pay double."

Lightning glanced up at the ceiling, before she bit back a quiet sigh.

"I'm very sorry ma'am, but we simply can't-" The attendant froze when he saw her hand rise sharply upward, yet he would never know if she truly intended to strike the desk, or even himself, because when a swift blur of motion suddenly struck forth, halting the blow from behind, his face went as white as the falling snow.

Lightning's tone was low, calm, and utterly dark. "Is there a problem here..?"

The woman reeled back to look at whoever had stopped her, likely with a rather sharp retort on her lips, but when she caught sight of the small silver pendant, the one with such a distinct design, she too went entirely silent.

Lightning kept her gaze ahead, still holding the woman back by her wrist. "Some of us are waiting very patiently to rent our rooms."

Even the crowd behind her, she could hear a few of them murmuring in slight agreement, but out of the corner of her gaze, Lightning noticed that several sets of eyes were watching the silvery charm as well, staring at that strange circular crest.

"Maybe you could rent a different one." Lightning's upper lip curled, just a tiny smirk, but her eyes went low, towards the leather booklet that was still splayed upon the desk. "This is a very nice inn, isn't it? Violence, in a place like this... _That_ would be a shame."

The woman hiccuped yet again, nodding vigorously, all with a rather deep flush on her neck and face. "A damn shame, ma'am."

Without another word, Lightning released the woman's wrist, before she slipped away towards the end of the line. She ignored the fact her presence now made the crowd instinctively back away, and how the songs had all but grown silent, yet when she finally reached the spot where she had been standing before, Lightning took a quick glance down at her pendant.

Etro's seal, the mark of a herald of death, known to most as the seal of a beast hunter. Each outer line curved in upon the rest, and the whole thing might have almost looked like an open eye, if not for the forked tail near the very top, or the spearhead at the bottom.

Lightning's eyes drifted shut for just a moment, but when she let them slide open again, she could see that a few of the people in front of her were gazing down at the design as well.

One of them spoke up. "You can go ahead of us, if you like." The young man also had a leather backpack slung over his shoulders. "That drunkard... She was squawking for ages before you walked in; we'd probably be waiting even longer if you didn't tell her off."

Lightning shook her head. "The line's moving now; there's no need."

The woman who stood beside the young man, she smiled at Lightning. "Are you on a pilgrimage?"

Again, Lightning shook her head. "No."

The young woman tried not to let her smile falter. "...A hunter, then?"

Lightning almost smirked. "Would a pilgrim intervene like that?" She shrugged. "I'm just experienced with... Uncooperative behavior."

"I'll bet." The young man eyed the pale white hide of her jacket. "What sort of beast did you slay for that?"

The young woman nudged at his shoulder. "Sweetie, don't be rude..."

Lightning looked up again when the line began to move forward, and she stepped up to where the couple had been standing. "A few years ago, I went out to investigate the claim of a dire wolf pack, one that had been harassing a little village up in the mountains..." She ran her fingertips over the thick fur, the softness that was resting against her wrists, before she examined the tanned white hide above it, the outer layer that helped insulate her own body heat. "Let's just say that they were a bit too bold for their own good."

The young man's eyes lit up, but his companion, she seemed less than enthused at the thought of it.

Lightning cleared her throat. "...The line moved." She walked forward again when the couple stepped up in the queue. "But I wouldn't recommend it as a career, not unless you have experience living off the land, or serious game hunting."

"He won't, don't worry..." The young woman looked back over at the front desk. "We'll leave the monster hunting to the professionals, won't we?"

The young man only shrugged.

Lightning almost smiled at that. She thought back to how she had once told her childhood friends that she'd soon be able to hunt such dangerous quarry alongside her parents, how their reactions were rather the same; some had looked at her like she'd gone absolutely insane, while others, they'd simply looked in on quiet awe, almost fearful in a way.

A messenger of death. Etro's herald, a double-edged sword. She walked along the thin balance of life and otherwise on an almost daily basis, and in her mind, it felt only natural for such a thing to be feared.

The line moved up again, and the young couple stepped over the desk in order to book their room.

As she watched them hold each other's hands, Lightning suddenly wished for more than anything that Fang was back there by her side, but when she glanced around at the main lobby, her own companion was nowhere to be seen.

Lightning paused for a moment, before she noticed that there were several other rooms off to the side of the main hall, even a quaint unattended tavern. Yet at the tables, she could just barely see how some of the visitors were loitering around with active card games, or tossing dice back and forth. Lightning bit back a curse at the sight of it, silently praying that Fang hadn't taken to gambling away her 'dragon hoard'.

It was only a moment or two before the couple walked away, only with a small metal key, and the young woman waved at her, following the young man further into the inn.

Lightning almost waved back, but when she saw the sheer amount of relief upon the desk attendant's face, she began to walk forward instead.

"Thank the gods, ma'am." He was running a hand through his hair, slowly shaking his head back and forth. "No, I should be thanking _you_ ; the missus herself has-" He lowered his voice to a soft whisper. "Certain 'relations' with one of the owners, you see, so there's not much I can do to intervene."

Lightning tried not to frown. "I'm sorry if that was excessive." She glanced over at the tall archway to the right, the one led to a few of the other rooms. "I'll only be staying a single night... Do you have any rooms available with a full bath?"

The attendant flipped through the small leather booklet. "For you, we most certainly do..." His eyes flicked back and forth, scanning the pages. "Just the one room?"

Lightning paused, suddenly lost in thought. Would Fang be comfortable sharing a single place to sleep? She almost scolded herself for the mere notion; Fang had practically jumped at the chance to share her body heat again, and if their little moment on the stairwell was any indication on the rest of their night...

The attendant looked at her with a tiny frown. "Ma'am?"

Lightning snapped back to the present. "Yes, a single room." She reached down into her backpack for her wallet; most inns required a rather flexible amount of down payment beforehand, and Lightning figured that Fang didn't have to know if she'd spent a bit her money on something for the benefit of both of them. "The bath, is it traditional plumbing?"

The attendant suddenly smiled. "No ma'am, we've recently upgraded... A group local magi were generous enough to help us integrate a rather advanced water propulsion and heating system; I believe you'll find it to your liking." He accepted the small stack of gil with a nod, before he held out a thin metal key. "Second floor, room twenty-six."

Lightning reached out to accept it, and she felt the coolness of the metal as it brushed against her skin, before she offered him a small smile. "Thank you."

"Thank you as well." The attendant looked as if he was thinking back to the previous incident, for his skin went rather pale again. "I might've been here all night..."

Lightning stepped away from the desk, slowly twirling the key between her fingertips. She glanced around for Fang, but even when she peered into one of the adjacent rooms, her companion was nowhere to be found. "Damn it..." Lightning nearly frowned to herself, though she just kept walking towards yet another public room, searching for any hint of her friend.

It was only once she came across a small billboard near the edge of the stairs, only then did she catch sight of a rather familiar silken shawl, one with deep blue coloring and a pale white border. When Lightning approached where Fang was standing in solitude, a rather sly thought crossed her mind; Fang was far too occupied upon whatever was tacked to the board to notice her presence.

Lightning kept as silent as she possibly could, glancing around to make sure they were truly alone, before she slowly reached down into one of the pockets on her coat. She could feel a few of her charms between her fingertips, and when she brushed over a certain outline in the metal of one, she began to squeeze it at the very center. She was gone within a mere instant, and the hallway was all but empty; only Fang was lingering there, examining the many posters that had been left against the billboard.

Lightning crept forward, and she perked her ears for any hint of noise, before she reached out to tap at the edge of Fang's shoulder.

Fang turned, looking around. "Yeah?"

Lightning kept perfectly still; she could see those keen eyes moving back and forth, searching, before they finally focused upon the translucent outline just beside herself.

"Light, you _sneaky_ little..." Fang trailed off with a laugh. "No wonder I couldn't find you before."

Lightning smiled, even though she was still mostly invisible. "It serves you right for wandering off." She wondered if Fang had even witnessed the little altercation near the front desk, but when she looked down at herself, and at how she was quickly becoming less and less transparent, Lightning shrugged the thought away. "What's got your attention, there?"

Fang suddenly grinned. "Only the _nastiest_ beastie in the land, not to mention the one with the biggest damn bounty I've ever seen..." She turned to yank away one of the posters from the board, holding it up with both hands, as if to strike a pose. "Take a look at _this!_ "

Lightning's blood ran cold at the hand painted image of a large, flying creature, one with black scales and wide, sweeping wings. "... _Fang_."

"They've even got the likeness down pretty damn well..." Fang tried to ignore the look on Lightning's face, but when she caught a sudden hint of forward motion, she held the poster up very high before Lightning could even try to snatch it away. "Nuh-uh! I found it, I get to keep it."

Lightning stifled a sharp hiss. "What, you're going to carry that thing around?!" She glanced at the hallway that they were standing in, and even though it didn't seem like there was anyone else nearby, she quickly took hold of Fang's wrist, dragging her off towards the nearest stairwell. "Do you _really_ not get it, Fang?"

Fang only shrugged, still admiring the rather accurate depiction of the day she'd torched that field; the crops were entirely gone in the late autumn, so who cared if she helped out with a little pest control? Fang almost sighed. Humans those days, they made such a big fuss out of anything... Even Lightning, she'd get so adorably flustered at the slightest little thing. Fang smiled at the picture, even while she allowed herself to be towed right upstairs and then down the hallway to a certain room, where Lightning practically smashed the key into the locking mechanism.

"You really don't get it..." Lightning soon shoved the door open with her shoulder; once she was inside, along with Fang, she pushed it shut again, only a bit more gently than before. She leaned forward to make sure that she couldn't hear any conversations out in the hall, before she turned back to face the sheer darkness of their own little room. "They're _hunting_ you, Fang."

Fang could still see the outline of Lightning's face, and she watched as it grew alight with the glow of the distant fireworks, which were shining on in through the glass of a windowpane.

"This city, it has to be _miles_ from where they spotted you." Lightning closed her eyes rather tightly, and she leaned back against the door. "Just how far did the news spread? Gods..."

"Light, what's gotten into you?" Slowly, Fang stepped forward, easing herself up beside the doorframe, until she could see the soft, flickering pulse in Lightning's throat. "Listen, Light... I'm _always_ being hunted."

After a moment of silence, Lightning's eyes slid open again.

"This is nothing new." Fang smiled, tapping her thumb against the edge of the poster. "Every hundred years or so someone spots me, and then _maybe_ a few hunters get within a couple dozen feet, but you know what happens after that?" She moved forward to brace her arm against the wall, only inches from where Lightning was standing. "I fly _away_ , Light... They lose interest over the years, and I just keep flying away."

Lightning suddenly grasped at Fang's wrist, and the ferocity of the gesture almost surprised them both.

"It's alright..." Fang leaned down to brush her lips over Lightning's cheek. "I've just never seen a bounty this big... Or such nice artwork."

Lightning squinted to try and see the look on Fang's face, yet within a few moments, she finally started to relax, and she murmured under her breath when Fang leaned in to kiss the side of her nose.

Fang rolled up the poster so that she could tuck it away into her own satchel, before she reached over to trace at Lightning's cheek again. "Rather dark in here, isn't it?"

Lightning closed her eyes. "There should be a candle somewhere." She soon felt the warmth of Fang's body as it grew further and further away, but when she opened her eyes again, she could only watch what happened next.

Between Fang's fingertips, there was a tiny, glimmering spark, yet when she lowered her face down to breathe against it, a bright flame leapt out into existence, gathering out along the pads of her fingers.

Lightning felt herself walk forward, slowly stepping into the cozy little room. "You can't burn a dragon, can you?"

Fang grinned a little, and she held the flame as if it was just a small, fragile creature, one that licked against her skin without harming it. "Have I ever explained my inner fire?"

Lightning shook her head. "It's not just those sparks you make, is it?"

Fang reached out for the slim handle of a candlestick, before she lowered the tiny flame with her other hand, letting it catch along the wick. "A lot of people don't know that souls are much more physical than otherwise... Tangible, even." She soon placed the glowing candle back down upon the table, before she snuffed out the first flame with a mere flick of her fingertips. "And dragons, let's just say that we've got a whole lot of soul."

Lightning looked out into the gathering light, but when she caught sight of the neat little bed in the corner of the room, she felt a bit of heat creeping over her face as well. "I didn't think it would... A little small, isn't it?"

Fang turned to look at the bed, before she chuckled very quietly. "A little bit." She picked up the candle again, wandering off towards the small door at the left side of the room. "Looks like..."

"I asked for a room with a bath." Lightning followed after her, and she soon peered into the tiny room, at the long wooden tub and sink, even the rack of towels on the wall. "It's been... A while, since we had that little pool in the cave."

"Time for a wash?" Fang smiled as she set the candle down upon the sink, before she knelt down to examine the metal dials, trying to figure out which one would draw water into the tub. "Should we take turns again?"

Lightning glanced away, and she reached up to tug her backpack down from her shoulders, only to set it upon the small bench at the side of the room. "If you'd prefer."

"I don't prefer anything, Light..." Fang leaned back when the spout suddenly went flush with swirling energy, and it swiftly drew the water on out through a small ring of rather intense magic, the sort that would heat it up within mere seconds. "Nifty little thing, isn't it?" Fang squinted to examine the lining of the pipe, gazing at the magic was only concentrated around the outer spout itself. "And if you'd rather save time, this looks big enough for both of us."

Lightning glanced down at her jacket, still lingering there beside the tiny bench. "Are you comfortable with it?" She started to sit down for a moment, just to settle and steel herself. "I know we've... We've done a few things, but never anything like this."

Fang shrugged. "Light, I can remember some _pretty_ vivid stuff from our other lives."

Lightning almost wished she could rip the blush right out from her cheeks.

"It's not like being naked is any different..." Fang twisted the valve shut once the tub was almost full of hot water, and she reached up to draw the shawl down from her shoulders. "It's just skin, right? Nothing to be ashamed of."

Lightning tried to swallow away the tension in her throat, before she slowly reached up to unbutton the first layer of her jacket. "Right."

"If you want to wait, Light, it's okay with me." Fang glanced back over her shoulder with an expression bordering on stern, but there was still that same gentleness to her gaze. "You can go first if you want... And like last time, I won't look."

Lightning kept very still for a moment. "I don't mind if you look." She tried to keep herself from fidgeting, so she busied her hands with untying the straps of her coat, the thick layer of fabric that kept the inner fur quite insulated. "And I don't mind if we go in at the same time."

Fang slowly slipped out of her own jacket, tugging it away until all that was left were her pants and the silken shirt, the one that didn't even cover her shoulders. "Would it be easier if you saw me first?" She didn't wait for a reply to shimmy right out from her shirt, revealing the dark, glossy fabric that was wrapped all around her upper chest.

Lightning tried not to bite at her bottom lip; Fang was all lean muscle beneath her clothes, lithe and utterly long, though her skin looked just as soft as velvet.

Fang sat down upon the edge of the tub, reaching down to unwrap the fabric from her chest. She still had those trousers on, but when the dark silk finally fell away, leaving her utterly bare, Lightning could scarcely breathe.

"Alright, settle down." Fang had that same chiding tone in her voice again, but it still only slightly veiled her amusement; when her eyes flicked up to meet Lightning's gaze, the look that passed between them, it brought more than a little bit of color to both of their faces. "Like you've never seen breasts before..."

Lightning bit back a sharp retort, before she tugged the bow up and away from her chest, and then her own jacket fell against the bench, before she reached down for the thin blouse that waited beneath it. "I've never seen them in this context." She stepped back up from the bench, before she let her undershirt drop down beside her backpack. "Fang, I've never... _Been_ with anyone, at least not in this life."

Fang nodded to herself, but she still glanced away when Lightning reached for the cloth wrapping on her own chest. "I know, love."

Lightning felt the air as it touched against her skin, how it almost stole her breath away, and she knelt down, resting beside where Fang was perched on the edge of the tub. "Fang... Look at me?"

Fang's gaze twitched a bit, glancing over at the sink, then even the ground beneath her feet, but when she finally looked down at Lightning, into her eyes, she felt a certain sort of tension as it unwound within her shoulders and spine, something she didn't even know she'd been holding. "...The water's gonna get cold if we don't hurry."

Lightning sat down near the tub as well. "You could always just heat it up again, miss _'inner fire'_."

Fang smirked to herself, before she unfastened the buckle of her belt. "Sure, sure."

Lightning looked away for a while, staring at anything else in the room, but when a soft, gentle hand ran across her shoulder, moving up to brush the side of her chin, she let out a shaky breath, and glanced back.

"It's just a bath, Light." Fang stood up again, stepping down into the water, before she slowly lowered herself beneath the surface. "I'm not going to jump you, okay?"

Though Lightning felt quite speechless for the moment, even when Fang reached back to rub at her shoulders again, resting near the edge of the tub.

"The water's still warm." Fang spoke the words against her ear, quiet murmurs and little nudges, and she kept stroking circles into those strong, rigid joints, before she swept her fingertips down towards one of Lightning's arms, massaging the skin there as well.

 _I'm right here, Light._

Lightning closed her eyes, just trying to breathe.

 _Tell me what you're thinking?_

Lightning almost shivered at the way Fang kissed the back of her neck. _I don't even think I'm thinking right now..._

Fang nodded against Lightning's hair, hugging her close, before she leaned back down into the warm water. "Take your time."

And Lightning did so; she simply sat there, listening to the sounds of the distant fireworks, and she could see each colorful flash from the other room. The little candle burned on atop the sink, but aside from that, they were both swept up in utter shadow.

"Do you have a place like this, back home?" Fang was resting against her back, submerged in the silent ripples of water, while she stared up at the ceiling. "With a bathtub, I mean."

Lightning nodded. "We do... We had to carry the stones up from the ditch we used for quarrying, and if you find the right sort of clay, you can make basically anything waterproof." She slowly fiddled with the belt of her trousers, unclasping her sword scabbard from it, which she placed down beside the tub. "We use much more basic plumbing, though.." She gradually moved her pants away, leaving only the thin pair of shorts beneath them. "You have to wait a while for the fire to heat it up before you can even pump water into the basin."

It was a short while before Fang spoke again. "Light, I want you to imagine that you're back at home..." She kept laying against the bottom of the tub, resting her head against the smoothest edge of it. "You're at home, in your house, and everything is very quiet." She reached out to touch Lightning's wrist. "You can hear the birds singing outside, but other than that, and all the wind... Everything is silent."

Lightning's eyes went wide when she could actually see that tinted little window, and then even the verdant forest that waited beyond it. There wasn't a speck of frost to be seen, and as Fang kept channeling the thoughts into her body and mind, she could finally hear the calls of a dozen different birds.

 _Your home is safe, isn't it?_

Lightning could still feel the warmth of Fang's hand, and even the surface of the floor she was sitting upon, but when she began to smell the earthy scents of her house, all the faint woodsmoke from the hearth, and even the incense she'd occasionally burn just to remember her old island home, it filled her head with a blurry sort of calm, and she felt her shoulders finally unwind.

 _Listen, you're just as safe with me, okay?_ She could feel Fang's touch again, stroking down along her wrist. _I'll keep you safe, too._

Lightning took a long, deep breath, before she quietly rose to her feet. "I already trust you, Fang; that isn't the problem." She swept the hazy visions of her home away, letting them disappear into the back of her mind; she looked down at how Fang was still reclining in the tub, gazing back up at her. "The problem..."

Fang closed her eyes when Lightning finally shimmied out from her shorts.

"The problem." Lightning stepped over the edge of the wooden bath, testing the temperature with her toes. "The problem is that I _want_ you; I want you to _be_ with me... And I know that it's a lot to ask."

After a moment or two, Fang felt a pair of soft hands grab hold of her wrists, before an equally silky body crept down beside her own, resting within the warm, soothing water.

"Do you want to know what I'm _really_ frightened of?" Lightning set her head down against Fang's upper chest, feeling the warm water as it lapped against her face. "I don't want to be alone, Fang... _That's_ what I've always been the most scared of." She felt it when Fang reached up to touch the curve of her shoulder blades, and she closed her eyes as well. "And you know how I handle fear."

"You... Embrace it." Fang kept her eyes shut tightly, but she still rubbed along Lightning's back, tracing those long, deep patterns into the steely muscles there. "But you have your family."

Lightning bit down on her bottom lip. "I went after you alone, I was going to do my job alone." She inhaled, and her breath grew just a little more shaky. "And then you had to turn out like this... You had to be the nicest damn dragon I've ever met."

Fang's laugh was low and gentle, and Lightning could feel how the rumbles moved through the water around her, soothing away the aches in her chest.

"You climbed up that mountain to conquer your fears, didn't you?" Fang hummed under her breath, massaging the curve of Lightning's spine. "You _had_ to go alone."

Lightning slowly began to feel herself unwind, and she opened her eyes again. "I'm afraid that my family... That they might not be the same when I get back."

Fang frowned, but she kept her eyes shut. "Things always change, Light."

Lightning rose up a little, bracing her knees against the bottom of the bath, and when she reached up to cup at the sides of Fang's face, gently stroking across her skin, she finally caught sight of those bright green eyes.

Fang smiled almost lazily, gazing up at her. "Hey, love."

Lightning didn't even hold back a smile of her own. "Hey."

"Now, I don't know what I can really say about your family..." Fang felt how Lightning's hands stroked over her face, and she reached up to hold one of them, tightening it with a gentle squeeze. "I just don't _know_ what might happen between them, but I _can_ tell you this; once we manage to get Vanille out of that damn crystal-" She paused for a moment, just to think. "Say, do you have any spare houses in that little village of yours?"

"We do..." Lightning let herself move off to the side, sitting down against the bottom of the tub, though her back still brushed against the nearest side of Fang's body, even when she reached for a bottle of liquid soap from the wall shelves. "They aren't exactly outfitted, though."

"Outfitted?" Fang grinned at the sloped curve of Lightning's lower back, stealing a quick peek at what was just a bit further down. "With furniture, you mean?"

Lightning nodded. "One of my neighbors is a carpenter."

Fang slowly stretched out her legs, curling her toes when they poked above the surface of the water, and she smiled again when Lightning handed her the bottle of soap. "So, what sort of people do you let live near you?" She poured out some of the soft, bubbly liquid into her palm, before she set the bottle down on the edge of the tub. "Useful folks, I know that much... But are there any rules about just how useful they have to be?"

"Well..." Lightning was already scrubbing her hair down with soap. "Snow is barely useful, but Serah tolerates him."

"And this is the one she wants to get hitched with?" Fang tried to stifle the amusement in her tone. "Well, the heart wants what the heart wants..."

Lightning almost rolled her eyes. "I trust Serah's judgment, but this guy... I just don't see it."

Fang began to wash her own hair, running her hands up through those long dark locks. "But do you think it's okay not to see?" She slowly rose up into a sitting position, and the soap dribbled over her shoulders, down across her back and chest. "That's the question, Light..."

Lightning thought over the issue for a long moment, before she reached down for a handful of water to rinse out her hair. "I'm not sure yet."

"I think you'll have time to figure it out." Fang reached for a bit of water to pour over herself as well, washing away most of the soap. "But I do have one thing to say, something that you can know for certain..."

Lightning was sitting up to her chest in warm water and bubbly foam, but when Fang's chest suddenly pressed up against her back, and when she felt those strong, warm arms wrap around her waist, gently pilling her close, she almost swore that the liquid must have risen far, _far_ above her head.

"I want to be with you, too." Fang simply held her close, resting there against the side of the tub. "Do you know how much _fun_ I've had today? I haven't felt like this in years."

Lightning kept very quiet, just listening to the sound of Fang's steady breath, to the heartbeat that thrummed against her spine, before she slowly squeezed her eyes shut. "Fang..."

 _We can be a family again, Light..._ Fang leaned forward to kiss at the back of her head, avoiding the half-healed wound that lingered beneath her hair. _After this, we can go home._

Lightning felt those same words echo inside her head, through her thoughts, and she almost whimpered when Fang's teeth grazed over the edge of her jaw.

 _Relax..._ Fang pressed her mouth back against Lightning's cheek. _Should I stop?_

It was almost as if she was simply melting away, falling back into the darkness, down into the warmth of Fang's embrace, but she felt so very _bright_ inside, as if everything was all strung up together with the lantern lights, or the long banners at the festival, or even the little sparks from Fang's soul.

When she finally opened her eyes, Lightning almost felt herself starting to smile. _No... I don't want it to stop._


	16. Taken

Lightning was absolutely covered in soap suds.

"Wonder what kind this is." Fang sniffed at the top of the bottle, before she poured a bit more of the soap into her palm. "Smells good at least... Nice to have a bath again, isn't it?"

Lightning nodded, but she almost shivered when Fang ducked down to kiss her mouth once more, stealing her next few breaths away. "...Yeah, but we're never going to finish in here if you keep distracting us."

Fang smirked to herself. "Oh, we'll finish."

With a quiet hiss, Lightning swatted at those nearby hands, but she soon felt her fingertips curl around Fang's wrists, keeping them quite close to herself. "Well... With you in here, at least we won't freeze."

"Might just doze off, though." Fang's eyelids were already starting to droop down a bit, and she slowly leaned forward to rest their foreheads together. "Maybe we should finish this up before that happens?"

"Yeah..." Lightning looked down at herself, at all the little bubbles of soap on her skin, before she slowly released her grip on Fang's wrists. "And once we leave, we won't have access to much but the ocean... We can still bathe in it, but we'll smell start to smell like salt for a while."

"Well, I've got no problem with salt _or_ the sea..." Fang soon started to scrub at her own arms, alternating between each of them to rub the soap down against her skin. "But what about you, miss minnow? Were you a good swimmer back home?"

Lightning's eyes suddenly went blank.

Fang paused, and her hands went very still, before she lowered her voice down, speaking softly. "Light?"

Lightning was motionless, but even in the dark, Fang caught that exact same look in her eyes, the one she'd first seen back in the mountain cave, a jagged, cornered gaze, equal parts helpless and utterly savage.

"Light..." Fang blinked, trying to make sure that she could still see the soft human shape of her face, that there was no gout of roaring fire to send her reeling, no claws, no scales, that there just wasn't a dragon there, not at that very moment. "Lightning?"

Her mind clung to the thought of crushing water, how her lungs had practically crumpled beneath the sheer pressure of each ticking, fleeting moment, so very far beneath the waves. She could feel how Serah struggled in her grasp, but there was just _too_ much fire back up there; couldn't she see that there was still a dragon, _right there!?_ She couldn't let her free, no, not yet, _not yet._

"Light!" Fang's eyes were wide, then, just a hint of panic seeping in through the cracks. " _Please_ , talk to me... What's wrong?"

Lightning's gaze suddenly slipped back again, flooding out into the present, and she slowly focused on Fang's face. "What..."

" _Lightning.._." Fang suddenly yanked her close, feeling that rapid heartbeat within her own chest, for it hammered on as if she'd just dragged them both back from oblivion. "What happened?" She hugged Lightning against herself, but the memory must have faded, because Fang just couldn't sense whatever she was thinking.

Lightning's eyes slid shut for a moment, before she glanced up again, gazing at the flash of colorful lights upon the wall. "I was... I just thought of something." She felt Fang's arms pulling even tighter around her waist. "I don't think you'd want to see it."

"But you're okay now?" Fang drew away to look deep in her eyes, searching, but the one she'd seen before, the frightened child, she was gone; all that was left was Lightning. "Light, you were looking at me like I'd... Lightning, what _happened_ to you?" There was such a rough strain in Fang's voice, an exhaustion that crept into each word she spoke. "Was it the same one you showed me?"

Lightning looked away.

"If you... If you hadn't already killed that bastard-" Fang tried not to let herself snarl, but her tone went quite a bit deeper, far darker than before. "There'd be _blood_ , Light, there'd be hell to pay, and we'd get it..." She began to grit her teeth together, trying to force herself to be gentle again, but the mere thought of something, _anything_ harming the ones she loved, whether it was her own species, or a fal'Cie, it made her blood rumble and flare. "We'd kill it... We'd _kill_ it together."

Lightning drew in a very deep breath, before she moved forward to hook her chin over Fang's shoulder, still held so close against her. "I'm alright now... Don't get so worked up." She could feel that same rapid heartbeat, the near frantic fever pitch of a threatened beast, but it was still an utterly human reaction; the primal ones, the ancients, they'd roam in packs, or even tribes, and if anything ever revealed itself as harmful to a family group, their initial reaction was to wipe the aggressor off the face of the earth. Yet from what Lightning had read upon the nature of wyverns, and by extension, dragons, they were almost exclusively solitary creatures, beasts who lived on their own for virtually their entire lives. Once a wyvern pup was old enough to hunt alone, it was abandoned to fend for itself, and the fact that Fang was clutching on to her so _tightly_ , Lightning was sure that it had to come from her human side, the woman who'd been left in solitude for so many years. "Fang, listen... I'm alright."

Fang tried to even out her own rate of breath, pressing the nearest side of her face into Lightning's hair.

"Even when I was a child, I never let it run my life... I've never let fear take hold of it." Lightning reached out to sooth the palm of her hand over Fang's back, up and along her spine. "You don't need to coddle me, okay? It was only a memory."

"...I just want to make it go _away_." Fang's voice was still strained, glaring sharp daggers at nothing in particular. "I want to _kill_ them, Light, everything that ever tried to hurt us... Am I awful for thinking that?" She almost let out a laugh, so hoarse and breathy. "I'm just another one, aren't I? Another monster... You, you and your tenets, we don't have rules like that."

Lightning closed her eyes, shaking her head back and forth. "No, Fang... We're not that different; I broke them, once."

Fang went very still again, and she leaned herself against the side of the tub, even while Lightning still sat upon her lap, chin on her shoulder. "Which one? Not all of them, right?"

"'Respect your prey'; I didn't have any respect for that one, not after I killed him." Lightning kept her eyes shut, savoring the sheer warmth of Fang's body beneath her, and she slowly felt the tension start to unfurl. "I was just a pissed off teenager out for revenge; I didn't care about Etro anymore, and then, even my charms... For a while, they stopped working."

Fang's expression shifted, more of curiosity than confusion. "But they work now."

"Because she never left me, Fang." Lightning traced tiny circles into Fang's upper back, brushing over the edge of her neck. "When I finally... When it was over, everything suddenly felt so empty." She squeezed her eyes shut even tighter. "But then, I _saw_ her... And it was almost like I was looking at my own mother again, even if it was all just this whirl of light and motion, and then everything went dark, but she was _there_... She was still there, and she helped me _find_ it again."

Fang kept her voice to a murmur. "Find what?"

"Myself." Lightning was snuggled up beside Fang's neck, but when she finally drew away, her eyes were calm again, unwavering. "I'm not... My name, it wasn't always Lightning, and I'm not who I was back when I was a child, but I _know_ who I am now." She felt the warmth of the water all around them, the little bubbles that still clung to her skin, and she leaned forward to nudge her nose against Fang's cheek. "And I'm alright."

Slowly, Fang started to smile again. "For a minute there... I thought you might try and tear me open again."

Lightning gently flicked her fingertips against Fang's shoulders. "No, but I could really tear open some chocolates right about now."

"We'd have to rinse off, first." Fang slowly moved her hands down along the curve of Lightning's back, testing the way her expression changed, how her eyes went just a bit lower. "We could wash our clothes, too."

Lightning almost shivered when Fang traced over the slight swell of her hips. "...We could."

Fang smiled, before she leaned over to peck at the nearest side of Lightning's cheek. "And then we could take care of that chocolate."

Lightning glanced up at the little wooden bench with all of her clothes, even the backpack, before she ran her thumb across Fang's jawline. "Let's get to it."

Fang leaned forward again, moving them both back down beneath the soapy water, before she reached over for the little metal dial near the spout of the tub. "I think this one is to make it all drain out..." She smiled when the metal plug at the bottom clicked back into place, letting the water swirl down into the pipes below. "It wasn't very hot when I got in, so we should be fine."

Lightning reached down into the flow of water to wash away some of the soap from herself, but when Fang let the spout loose again, she moved over to use that as well.

"I could really get used to a gadget like this..." Fang leaned over to try and examine the glowing mechanism again, but if there was one thing that her eyes couldn't decipher, it was the more technical side of magic. "I know what you said before, but maybe we could both try to learn a spell or two... Then you wouldn't have to wait for the water to heat up back at home."

Lightning started to wash the soap away from her hair, and when she looked down, the water level was only up to her waist. "I did try to learn a few simple things, once, but it didn't go very well." She froze when Fang suddenly noticed just what was resting down there upon her navel, that tiny, silvery bangle, one that had been pierced when she was younger.

"Well, _hello_ there..." Fang leaned down before Lightning could even try to speak, and she grinned at the little piece of jewelry, making her voice drop to a much more sultry tone. "Easily hidden, aren't you..?"

Lightning fought back the slight blush in her cheeks. "Yeah, that was intentional-"

"Can I touch it?" Fang glanced back up at her with such mirth in her eyes that Lightning could scarcely even nod, before her stomach began to shiver from each feathery little stroke, circling all around her navel.

" _Fang_." Lightning tried to keep her breath even, to make herself clam down. "It's just a piercing, it isn't-"

"It's beautiful." Fang kept touching around the softest skin upon her belly, feeling how it barely hid away the layer of solid muscle beneath. "Now I'm a little jealous..."

Lightning just stared down at Fang's face, and she suddenly remembered one of her dreams, the one with an older sort of Fang, and within that blurry memory, she vaguely recalled the sharp purple earrings she'd once worn.

"Did it hurt much?" Fang smoothed her fingertips over each tiny bit of the rounded metal. "I've always thought about getting something like this."

Lightning's breath caught when Fang suddenly kissed the skin beside her piercing. "No, not very much..." She tried to swallow away the higher pitch from her voice, leaning back against the edge of the tub.

"Maybe I'll get one, someday." Fang rose back up again, until she was only inches from Lightning's face. "You know, I remember having a tattoo in certain lives."

Lightning kept her eyes on that clever mouth. "Did you?"

"Yup." Fang sat very still in the rising water, but once the liquid reached her chest again, she reached over to turn off the valve. "Little details like that, they're still pretty blurry, but I remember a bit." She traced over the curve of Lightning's upper arm. "It's been different in different lives... What do you think would look good on me now?"

Lightning felt the warm water as it drifted all around her, and she soon exhaled, relaxing again. "A dragon would be too obvious."

Fang chuckled. "You think so? Maybe something more abstract..."

Lightning glanced down at Fang's shoulder. "You'll think of something." When she looked over at the wooden bench again, where her clothes were still piled up, it almost brought a blush back to her cheeks to think of standing up to go and get them. Even in the darkness, Lightning realized that Fang had probably been able to see every inch of her body, especially once the water went down; neither of them had stared at each other, though, something that made the flutters in Lightning's stomach settle to a more manageable degree.

Fang reached over for the bottle of soap. "Hey, think we can wash fabric with this?"

Lightning leaned forward to read the label out loud. "'All purpose'... It probably wouldn't hurt." She started to remember all of the times that she and Serah would carry their laundry down to a little creek in the woods, and how later on, they'd hang the clean garments up in the tree branches, letting them dry there beneath the wind and sun. While they waited, Lightning would often sit beside the riverbed and search for pieces of flint, while Serah would chatter away for the both of them, stitching up the holes in whichever clothes needed mending.

"She seems like a joy to have around." Fang's tone was utterly genuine, and Lightning suddenly realized that their knees were touching, enough to let her view the memory as well. "Really reminds me of Vanille."

Almost without pause, Lightning thought back to the time that she and Serah had found a huge patch of wild blackberries; they were hidden between tall ridges of solid rock, between the towering trees, enough that the animals of the forest would have to work _very_ hard to learn of their presence, unless they had wings, such as the birds. But as humans, they had the benefit of advanced ingenuity...

She remembered the soft hum of bumblebees, how she'd stepped over the stony incline to a small, retractable wooden bridge, before she knelt down beside it. The planks were tied up with rope, and it was rather quick work to lift up the bridge itself, letting it rest atop the other side of the ravine.

"Hurry up, Light!" And she could _hear_ it, how Serah was there with her in the memory world, racing on along the bridge. "Birthday girl has to help out, too!"

Lightning looked down over the rocks, before she walked out along the bridge itself. "We really don't have to go to all this trouble-" She glanced back over her shoulder. "...Hope, you alright?"

He was sitting near the edge of the ridge, gazing down at the forest below. "Is that where we're going?" The _fear_ in his voice, she could remember it so clearly. "It's pretty far down."

Lightning stood atop the very center of the bridge, and she looked over to where Serah was clambering over the rocks. "We'll have to climb down a little, yes."

Hope hugged his knees against his chest. "...Do you mind if I wait here?"

Lightning had frowned, before she turned back, calling over to Serah. "We'll catch up in a minute, okay?"

Serah waved at her with a big wicker basket, and she had a few others strapped to the satchel on her back. "Okay!"

Slowly, Lightning walked over towards the spot where Hope was resting, along the sharp cliff that ran all the way down to the trees. She started to sit down as well, looking at all of the bright green leaves, and then the sky above, even the little birds that flew so swiftly from branch to branch.

Hope stared at the pair of shoes on his feet; Lightning remembered helping him pick out that very same set on a trip to one of the neighboring valleys.

"Hope, when I was around your age, a little younger... My mother taught me how to climb." Lightning looked down at the rocky cliffside. "We lived on an island, out at sea, and some of the beaches had a lot of rocks."

Hope spoke very quietly. "Was it-" He paused for a long moment. "Were you scared?"

Lightning almost smiled. "At first, yes."

Hope finally turned to face her, and the look on his face, she could practically feel the disbelief.

"Fear is natural, Hope." Lightning moved to dangle her feet against the edge. "It's all in our minds, and it's just trying to make us be more careful." She could feel the strong wind in her hair, and her nose caught the crisp scent of leaves. "But you can't let it control you... You have to be free of it."

Hope frowned a bit. "It's not that easy."

"It's not easy at all..." Lightning shook her head. "I didn't mean to imply it was; it can be like trying to dig yourself out of a twenty foot ditch."

"Or a hundred feet..." Hope stole a quick glance at the forest beneath them. "Serah's probably down there already, isn't she?"

Lightning smiled a little. "She's a good climber."

Hope kept very quiet for a while, and the memory almost seemed to drift on in time. Lightning still felt the wind as it brushed over her skin, listening to the wild birds sing and flutter around, but she could also feel her present self, the one she had left behind in the future.

She could see Fang again, how she was quite busy with washing both of their clothes in the soapy water, but she also kept a physical link; their knees were touching again, and Lightning knew that she was watching the other world, too.

And then she was _there_ , not quite visibly, but Lightning still caught sight of a phantom figure, one who looked around at the world, though Hope didn't seem to notice it, for he was only just part of the memory.

"It's not that I'm scared of the height, really..." Hope reached out to poke at the edge of a large rock, one that tilted down into the open air. "Just that I might fall."

"...You might." Lightning let her feet sway back and forth, gently brushing the back of her legs against the cliff. "But the question is, do you let that stop you..? Do you let it keep you from trying?"

Hope looked up at the horizon. "It's never easy, is it?"

Lightning smiled, before she slowly rose back up to her feet.

"He's a smart kid." Fang's transparent visage was wandering out along the path, gazing down at the valley below. "I feel a little sorry for him, though... He doesn't act much like a _kid_ , does he?"

Lightning's smile faded. "Something... Must have happened." She looked down at where Hope was still sitting. "I told you how we found him, but he still hasn't said very much about his past."

"...Surrogate." Fang suddenly snapped her fingers at the thought of it. " _That's_ what you are, whether it's for Serah or Hope... Whenever you daydream about them, that's who you're acting as."

Lightning turned to face the cliffside, and she took a moment just to think. "It's only natural, isn't it?" She closed her eyes against the sheer brightness of the sun, thinking of how she was eventually able to coax Hope into trying to cross over the bridge, even down towards the narrow path of rock that led into the little canyon, the one with so many wild blackberry bushes. "They both lost their parents, so I stepped in."

"But what about you?" Fang's voice almost felt like the wind, drifting all around the memory. "Who takes care of Lightning, herself?"

Lightning shrugged. "We all take care of each other... I just take the lead, I guess." She opened her eyes once more to see the shaded little canyon, and she could smell the rich, sweetened scent of the berries.

"I think it's Etro." Fang was smiling, and even if she wasn't quite there with her, Lightning could still sense it. "You already said it was like having your mother back, didn't you? Someone watching over from afar... And you know what? I agree, you don't need coddling." Fang turned to look at the ravine, up at the sky above. "But it's still okay to let people help you, Light... You _need_ someone to be there at the end of the day, don't you?" She drifted along again, past where Serah and Hope were both gathering berries into the wicker baskets. "You need steady people at your side, _loyalty_."

Lightning could feel it when the memory started to fade, so she looked over at her sister, and then even the boy who felt so much like her brother, before she smiled at them both. "Yeah... I still have my family." Her eyes slowly refocused, honing in on the darkness of the room around her, and she felt her body as it returned to where she'd been resting just before. "...This always feels a little weird."

"It's not just visions, Light; you're really in another place, even if it isn't quite physical." Fang squeezed the water out from one of their shirts, before she placed it down near the edge of the tub. "I'm almost done with these."

Lightning slowly sat upright again, and she glanced at where Fang had stacked a pile of the clean clothing, still damp from the soapy water. "We'll need to dry them."

Fang nodded. "I'll get to that, after..." She picked up Lightning's shorts from the ground, before she tossed them over at her with a quiet chuckle. "I have a feeling you'd prefer to wash your own underwear."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Sure." She reached for the bottle of soap, watching while Fang began to unfold that thin blue shawl. "I have some twine in my backpack, so if we can find something to hang them from..."

Fang glanced around at the room. "There's a hook up there, see it?"

Lightning looked over at the metal coat hook, before she moved her gaze towards the handle of an unopened door, likely a small closet for storing towels and other necessities. "We can tie it to that one."

"It'll be long enough, right?" Fang scrubbed at the shawl until it was all lathered up with soap and bubbles. "If not, we could just drape them over the sides of the tub."

Lightning began to wash her clothing as well, though she couldn't help but look at Fang every so often, at just how focused she was upon taking care of the thin blue fabric. "The embroidery on that... It looks nice."

Fang smiled, and she dipped the shawl back down beneath the water, before she held it up to display those delicate white threads, how they formed an almost nonsensical pattern along the dark blue cloth; yet there was an order to it, somehow, one that looked very elegant in the end. "I've had this for years, now..." She ran her gentle fingertips against the fabric, taking great care not to snag any of the little white threads. "It didn't have this on it, not at first; Vanille wanted to 'make it look pretty', so I let her borrow it."

Lightning smiled at the thought of that, at how Vanille might have spent quite a bit of her time stitching each tiny design, making it look unique. "See the pattern on my jacket, there?"

Fang looked over to see the subtle outline on the fabric, and it was much easier to see the difference in color since it had gotten damp with water. "Oh..." She reached over to lift it up, examining each of the swirls and sharp edges, all embroidered there with pale thread, most of which was barely a different hue from the fabric.

"Serah helped me make that." Lightning watched as each wave of water rippled around her hands, still scrubbing down the bubbly soap into the cloth. "I brought back so many hides from that hunt... Dire wolves, incredibly thick fur." After a moment or two, she squeezed out the water from her shorts, before she reached over to drop them down against the rest of the pile. "It's much harder to embroider a pelt like that, so we settled on decorating the fabric sections."

"It's beautiful." Fang placed the jacket back down, before she gently lifted her shawl back out from the water. "I think that's everything, then..." She reached for the metal lever that would release the drain again. "You don't need another rinse, right?"

Lightning looked down at herself, and she felt quite sure that most of the soap had already been washed away, aside from the suds on her hands. "I'm good."

Fang nodded, leaning back. "You seem a little less nervous than before."

Lightning tried not to stare at the keen look on Fang's face. "I'm not usually nervous at _all_ , this is just... New."

"But it's alright to be." Fang reached out to touch Lightning's hand, holding it from beneath the surface of the water. "Really, Light, it's just a natural reaction, like you said... You don't have to be unassailable." She ran her thumb over Lightning's palm. "I certainly have my moments; you saw me back here, didn't you?"

"Yes, but it all just aligned like that, like I was-" Lightning paused, and she felt the water rippling down against her skin, into the drain below. "It made me _remember_ , and I was suddenly back there in the moment." She grit her teeth at the thought of such harsh, devouring fire, of the swirling clouds of smoke and ash, how they choked away the gentle wind, and how Serah had clung there to her shoulders like she might just _die_ if she didn't, for a few moments beforehand, she very well might have.

"Light?" Slowly, Fang reached over to touch the side of her shoulder. "Just, uh... I can see this, so if you don't want me to-"

Lightning's gaze snapped down to where Fang was holding her hand, but she didn't make any move to break their contact. She could remember the bright blue sky, as if nothing could possibly be wrong at all, as if her world hadn't suddenly been turned upon its head and erupted in _fire_. Lightning could still see those eyes, the scales, such a shimmering green, how the flame stole away all within its path, leaving only those piles of black and white, mountains of dark shadow and ash.

"Please don't bring us there." Fang had her eyes shut in concentration, tethering them both away from it, trying as hard as she feasibly could to keep the world right where was. "Light, _please_."

Lightning suddenly looked up, and the vision was gone. "...I'm sorry."

"That was... Intense." While Fang didn't seem too shaken, her eyes kept glancing over at Lightning's face, making sure she was really still there with her. "I can see why you and Serah are so close... You saved her, Light."

"We were... In the house." Lightning's voice almost cracked, but she kept a steady hold over herself, sitting almost motionless within the empty tub. "Mom and dad, they were outside, so there was just _nothing_ -" She felt Fang tug her close, and even with the way their bare skin felt so utterly foreign against each one another, there was just something about it that flooded them down to the bones, something so incredibly _right_.

"It would've been fast." Fang stroked her hands through Lightning's hair, soothing it back down across her spine. "It's not normal fire, Light... Only an instant of pain."

Lightning closed her eyes again. "I know."

"C'mon." Fang tugged her even closer, but Lightning almost startled when she was suddenly lifted up, though she didn't quite have the nerve to scold Fang for holding such a gentle hand against her back, even the one beneath her knees, not when she was pressing such a soft, chaste kiss against her forehead.

"I'll take care of the laundry." Fang stepped out towards the bathroom door, but she paused to try and grab a towel from the rack. "Can you get one of those?"

Lightning blushed a bit, still held aloft by that incredible strength. "...You don't have to carry me."

Fang sighed. "Just grab the towel?"

With a quick roll of her eyes, Lightning did as Fang asked, and they were both back beside the bed within moments. Fang stepped out along the wooden floor, before she sat herself down beneath the luminous glow of the fireworks.

"You should put that on so you don't get cold." Fang waited for Lightning to move away from her lap, onto the soft, quilted sheets. "I'll hang up the clothes, okay? Which part of your pack has the twine?"

Lightning tugged the big woven towel around herself. "Side compartment, on the left."

Fang smiled, kissing at the top of her forehead again. "Then I'll be right back."

And so she sat there, almost too distracted to dry away the water from herself, but when the chill of the room began to set in, Lightning reached up to push the towel around. She could hear Fang moving around in the bathroom, but when she suddenly came walking out with the backpack, Lightning paused.

"Couldn't find it?" Lightning held the cloth close to herself, and she noticed that Fang had wrapped a towel around her own body as well. "It might be under some things."

"Yeah, I just didn't see it." Fang placed the backpack down on the bed. "On the left, you said?"

Lightning tugged open a certain compartment, one that held many certain odds and ends, including a small spool of twine.

"Thanks..." Fang smiled when Lightning handed it to her. "Just don't start on those chocolates yet, okay?"

Lightning bit back a smirk. "Then you'd better hurry."

Fang rolled her eyes, before she walked back over towards the bathroom.

Lightning looked down at the backpack. She knew that there was a spare set of underclothes in there, but would putting them on make Fang feel uncomfortable? Lightning almost scolded herself for even thinking it; Fang had lived as a wyvern for who knows how long, and dragons certainly didn't prance around in clothes... But that human side of her, Lightning still wasn't sure just how different it was.

She let the towel fall down against the sheets. Lightning inhaled, before she reached into the pack for a long strip of cloth with a metal pin at the end, carefully wrapping it into a normal position around her chest. When it was clasped in place, she rummaged around for a pair of undershorts, but when she tipped the backpack over to find them, a small slip of paper fell out against the bed sheets.

Lightning shimmed into her pants first, before she leaned back against the soft blankets, holding the note up to the light of the fireworks, before she silently read it to herself. _'Light, there's some-'_ She almost froze, and her grip tightened against the paper. "Serah..."

The rest of the note went exactly as she remembered, with Snow being his usual self, someone who didn't even realize that Lightning simply wanted to forget that he even existed, but there was also Serah's concern; she knew that her sister worried much more than she might let on, but the thought of Serah growing up, moving forward with her life, it almost made Lightning feel like she was sinking again.

 _'...Try to have fun out there on the road, okay?'_

Lightning thought back to the dance that she'd shared with Fang, and then the wide ocean view, even the quiet strolls along the quaint city streets, hand in hand, walking alongside the one who made her feel as if she was as high as the bursting fireworks.

Lightning lowered her voice to a soft whisper, almost without noise. "I am, Serah." She held the letter between her hands, before she gently began to fold it up again.

Something clattered from back within the bathroom, and she could hear Fang tromping around. "Aw, _hell_..."

"Are you okay?" Lightning leaned up her elbows, still laying against the bed. "Fang?"

"Yeah, yeah." Something else knocked heavily against the wall. "Tried to rig this up just a little fancier, made it more complicated than it had to be!" After a moment or two, Fang peeked out with an almost exasperated look on her face. "...Cute shorts."

Lightning flushed a little. "Do you need me to help string that up?"

Fang only grinned, before she disappeared again.

Without the candlelight nearby, Lightning couldn't see much beyond the simple outlines of the furniture and the walls, but the occasional crack of fireworks made the whole room flash aglow. There was a simple table near the far side of the bed, and a dresser by the front door, but aside from that, the little cabinet at the window was the only other object of significance; Lightning didn't need the long mirror on the wall, for the one in the bathroom would do just fine, and the big basket of extra pillows barely even registered in her periphery.

After another moment of listening to Fang curse again, Lightning reached down into her backpack for her toothbrush and a small container made of thin metal. "Fang, if you break anything, we'll have to pay for it..." She moved over to the edge of the bed, standing up on her feet again, before she made her way back into the bathroom. "More specifically, _you'll_ have to pay for it."

Fang was tying down the twine upon the coat hook. "Don't worry about it, Light."

Lightning shrugged. "You just seemed pretty adamant about paying for this." She walked over to the sink, quickly twisting the metal valve to let loose a bit of cold water from the spigot, which she used to dampen the end of her toothbrush. "And if you want some of that chocolate, it might be a good idea to wash out the taste of seafood..."

"Will do." Fang soon stepped back to admire her handiwork, before she knelt down to pick up some of the clothes. "I'm just hoping the markets will be open tomorrow; imagine if they were all too hungover to function..."

Lightning scraped out a bit of the pale, gelatinous fluid from the metal tube, spreading it across the bristles of her toothbrush. "We can always fish for food."

Fang held Lightning's jacket aloft, and with a quick toss, she let it drape down across on the rope to dry. "Yeah, I was just hoping to get a more reliable food supply... Unless you can find a good place for fishing, it's not always easy to find dinner out on the sea." She leaned over to pick up her own shawl, placing it down over the thin length of twine. "But I have a feeling they'll still be open... Imagine all the people who need hangover cures."

Lightning's voice was a bit muffled by the toothbrush. "This is why I don't drink more than a glass or two."

Fang smiled, and she began to pick up all the rest of the clothes, hanging them up upon the rope. "Forward thinker, right." She still had the towel wrapped around herself, and once she'd finished setting the fabric up to dry, she reached for a smaller bit of cloth to dry out her hair. "What _are_ your vices, then? Aside from that sweet tooth."

"I do _not_ have a sweet tooth..." Lightning narrowed her eyes at the mirror, and then at the sly, smirking reflection just beside her own face. "Most people like to eat things with sugar, don't they?"

"You, my dear, are _very_ easy to get riled up." Fang soon hooked her chin over Lightning's shoulder, resting her hands against either side of the sink. "What's that in your mouth?"

"My toothbrush?" Lightning glanced down at the foam on her bottom lip. "Or the toothpaste?"

"Toothpaste..." Fang looked at the little metal canister. "What's that do?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Don't tell me you've never brushed your teeth."

Fang smiled a little, just to reveal how unblemished her teeth really were; she often wondered if the whole 'immortality' business included immunity from certain injuries or bodily erosion, and the fact that she hadn't gotten so much as a cough since she'd been just a young wyvern... Everything pointed to some form of natural resistance. She almost purred at the feeling of Lightning's back getting all pressed up against her chest, but she kept the noise to herself, before she traced the tip her tongue over some of the only pointed teeth she currently had, those short, human canines, ones that weren't quite as sharp as she might've liked.

"Now _you're_ spacing out." Lightning reached over for a small clay cup from the mirror cabinet, before she turned the water back on to fill it up. "And your teeth are perfect, so don't play dumb."

Fang chuckled a bit. "Have you ever seen a dragon brushing their teeth, Light..?" She watched as Lightning swished the water around in her mouth. "I'm not playing dumb."

Lightning shrugged, before she moved to spit out the water and the residual paste, handing the toothbrush over to Fang. "Well, you just put some on there and scrub... You don't mind sharing, right?"

Fang rolled her eyes. "We made out in public today."

Lightning cursed the sudden tinge of color in her cheeks, and she stepped over to sit down on the little wooden bench. "That was... Yeah." She leaned back, gazing off into the distance. "That felt nice."

Fang poked the end of the toothbrush into the slim metal tube; while she had often seen Lightning doing this very same process after meals, or before bedtime, Fang herself wasn't entirely sure how the finer details worked. She fought back a quiet hiss, before she simply lumped a bit of the paste over each bristle, jamming the whole thing into her mouth.

"You know, I didn't really think that I'd..." Lightning trailed off for a while, and she briefly looked down at herself, at how her navel piercing was still quite visible in her underclothes. "I didn't think that I'd ever do something like that, you know? I could've gone my whole life without it, but now..."

Fang tried to respond appropriately, but her whole mouth was simply awash with the minty foam, so much that it had started to dribble out across her chin.

"Now, I'm-" Lightning finally looked over at the way her toothbrush was barely even visible beneath an utter mess of little white bubbles. " _Fang_."

Fang gave her a rather crooked smile in the mirror.

"How much did you _put_ on there..?" Lightning stood up again, and she hurried over beside the sink. "Just spit some of it out!"

Fang shook her head, speaking in a rather muffled way. "Nah... They'll just get even cleaner."

Lightning rolled her eyes, before she covered her own forehead in one of her hands. "Did you use all of it?"

Again, Fang shook her head, and she passed over the little metal tube.

Lightning moved her hand back down to examine just how much of the toothpaste was left. "Yeah... You shouldn't use that much." She tried not to sigh, and for a moment, she just listened to the sound of the rough little bristles against Fang's teeth. "And you only need to brush them for about a minute, that should be enough."

Fang nodded. "Does this mean I get more kisses for the effort?"

Lightning moved to elbow her in the ribs.

"Point taken..." Fang smiled, and she spit out most of the foam, before she reached down for the little wooden cup beside the candlestick. "So, chocolates?"

"That does sound nice." Lightning watched while Fang swished the water all around in her mouth. "We might just have to brush our teeth again, though... All that sugar."

Fang shrugged, before she spit out both the water and minty foam, washing the rest of her mouth with yet another swig, until that was left away as well. "Well, the night's still young." She leaned back to stretch out her arms, before she reached down for little metal base of the candlestick. "Off we go?"

Lightning stared at the glowing light, the little flame that danced and flickered in the dark, and she soon found herself following Fang into the bedroom again. "You might have to show me where you bought these... If they wouldn't melt while we were traveling, I'd try to bring some home for everyone."

Fang smiled to herself. "Even Snow?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Maybe one of those stupid sugar crystals."

"Oh, that's just too cruel..." Fang had a slight gleam in her eyes, even as she sat down on the bed, placing the candlestick upon the little table just beside it. "Now, other than the fact that your sister's after him, what's he done to ruffle so many feathers?"

Lightning moved to sit on the bed as well, before she settled down on her back, resting against the pillows at the very top. "He's reckless, bullheaded... Even when he tries, _honestly tries_ , something _always_ gets messed up." She glared at the ceiling for a while, until a small piece of chocolate was suddenly held out above her face. "And he's a self-proclaimed hunter to boot... Only he charges in without even _thinking_."

Fang smiled when Lightning reached up to take the offered morsel of chocolate. "Opposites, aren't you?"

Slowly, Lightning bit down to taste the sweet flavor of cocoa and something that tasted like mint, or perhaps that was just an aftereffect of the toothpaste. "I know I'm meticulous, but there's a _reason_... A real reason, and if he'd just take a moment to stop and see it, he might just understand why."

Fang reached over to brush her fingertips over Lightning's shoulder, and her world was suddenly swept up in lush greens, so deep within the woods.

A voice echoed out into the trees. "Serah put you up to this, didn't you?" Lightning was perched atop a fallen log, donned in a dark hunting garb that Fang had never seen before, yet it blended in with the forest in a way that her white cloak could never achieve. "I can handle this alone, Snow."

"Hey, don't be like that..." Snow was standing out in the middle of a clearing, and Fang suddenly realized that Lightning barely ever thought of him as a physical entity, always more of a shapeless, lingering annoyance in the back of her mind, but now that she could finally see him as Lightning remembered, Fang could tell that he was almost ridiculously tall, definitely enough to intimidate even the nastiest of monsters in the land.

Snow kept speaking, slowly pacing back and forth. "Serah suggested it, yeah, but I've never had a chance to see you in action, right?" He clasped his fists together, grinning, and Fang could see that he wielded a strange sort of device upon both his knuckles and wrists, twin objects that almost looked mechanical, in a way. "And hey, you've never seen me out on a hunt, either!"

Lightning grit her teeth as if she'd been trying to keep up a steady composure, but with the way she was gripping down at the hilt of her sword, it did little to hide her irritation. "...What does it matter if we've never hunted together? Go hunt with Serah-" As soon as the words left her lips she'd almost cursed herself for saying them, and Fang could practically _feel_ the regret rolling off of her in waves. "Never mind... Just stay away from my sister."

And with that, she was off, but Snow was hardly one to lag behind, and he followed her off into the deep green forest. "Light, wait up!"

She slipped on between each tangle of branches, over the rocky earth and hills, ignoring every call that Snow sent out.

But to his credit, he was indeed an excellent tracker, at least enough to keep up within speaking distance. "Lightning! Serah asked me to tag along, okay? I wouldn't bug you if she didn't want us to try and make nice..." Snow sighed when a blur of green and brown fabric darted up the side of a tree, but the flash of pink hair confirmed exactly who he was searching for. "Light, come _on_..."

Lightning stared down at him from deep within the verdant leaves, perched atop the branches. "How long are you going to keep this up?"

"Until you give me a chance to help you out?" Slowly, Snow stepped up towards the side of the tree, before he leaned back against it, even with all the mossy bark. "Look, if I'm gonna be living out here, at least for a while, we should be on friendlier terms, right?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes at nothing in particular, but when she glanced down at the little hooks upon her gloves, the ones that she'd used to clamber up the tree with such swiftness, she stole a quick look at the weapons on Snow's hands.

Within the metal mechanism, she could see several long, retractable claws resting silently against his wrists, but Lightning knew that they could be summoned with only a mere flick of his arms; from what she had seen of Snow's fighting prowess, he'd likely been trained in traditional sparring techniques, perhaps even hand-to-hand combat.

Lightning took a deep, silent breath. "Spar with me... If it's a draw, you can come along."

Snow's eyes lit up from below, and he stepped away from the base of the tree. "And if I win?"

Lightning exhaled through her nose, almost a laugh. "You won't."

A wide, beaming grin began to spread over Snow's face. "Oh, won't I..? We'll just see."

Lightning glanced over towards a much clearer patch of the forest, and she reached up to point at it. "Over there... Best two out of three, circle match."

Snow kept smiling while he pushed through the brambles and undergrowth, and for a moment Lightning was sorely tempted to just disappear into the forest while he was distracted, but there was still that nagging little part of her, the one that actually felt relieved whenever Serah looked so starstruck at whatever Snow might do. It started to weigh down much heavier than her desire to be rid of his presence, at least for the rest of the day. And so, as Lightning clambered down from the tree, her world shifted yet again.

Fang was still lounging against the bed, right beside her, and Lightning herself was slowly savoring the taste of chocolate, while her head was still resting upon the fluffy pillows. When she looked down, she realized that Fang's fingers were gently intertwined with her own.

"So, what happened next?" Fang licked away a little bit of chocolate from the edge of her lip. "Did you spar with him, or leave him in the dust?"

Lightning glanced down at the box between them, before she moved to rest against her side. "I don't want to think about Snow right now."

Fang was still covered up by the towel, but after a moment, the look in her eyes almost bordered on smoldering. "Later, then?" She reached for another piece of chocolate, one with a fresh sprig of mint at the top. "What do you want to think about?"

Lightning still felt the warmth of Fang's hand, how it was resting against her palm, idly massaging the curve of her thumb.

Fang chuckled at the sudden mental block that spanned between them, at how Lightning's thoughts were far beyond her reach. "Oh, a secret..?" She slowly rolled over upon her side as well, almost mimicking the way Lightning was curled up against the sheets. "Do I have to guess, then?"

Lightning smiled slightly, and she closed her eyes halfway, still gazing at Fang. "Tell me about who we were."

Fang reached for the box again. "Hm... Can you be a little more specific?" She let go of Lightning's hand to tug a small piece of chocolate apart, revealing the rich, gooey center. "What do you want to know about us?"

Lightning looked up when Fang offered her half of the split candy, and she soon accepted it, taking a moment just to savor the taste. "Did we always start like this? Or was it ever... Normal?"

Fang chewed at a bit of the thick caramel, before she let the chocolate coating start to melt against her tongue. "Normal, as in what..? 'Hey, you're _really_ pretty, and eventually I'd like to get in your pants'?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Sure..."

Fang reached out to touch her hand again. "Or, 'you're one of the bravest people I've ever met, and even if you're just as prickly as a cactus, you can be a real sweetheart once I get to know you'?"

Lightning kept quiet for a moment. "'Cactus'?"

"Something from another world..." Fang slowly shook her head. "Not many deserts out here, right? It's a prickly little plant, sort of like a rosebush." She reached up to stroke Lightning's cheek, and then over the curve of her ear. "What do you really want to know about us, Light?"

Lightning felt her gaze start to drift away, even if she was thoroughly enjoying the way that Fang's skin was so warm against her own, and it was only when she felt Fang gently tapping at her forehead that she answered. "Did we stay together? How far did we- I remember that one dream, it seemed like we were really in love, for a _long_ time." She tried to keep her eyes open, but it was so difficult with the way Fang was staring at her, all that sheer confidence in her gaze.

"Love can be really strange, Light." Fang kept her voice calm, petting along the little curls of hair against Lightning's neck. "It's not something that you can just say is there, you know? You have to feel it... It has to be real."

It was simple, then, how Lightning just released the barricade to let her thoughts fly free, and it sent a little thrill through her chest at how just how much Fang's eyes widened.

"Wow." Slowly, Fang traced her fingertip down against the dip of Lightning's throat, over the silver chain at her neck, though she never broke contact with her skin. "You've got it bad, don't you?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes in amusement, before she reached for another piece of chocolate. "Like you're one to talk..." She hovered over a certain piece, one that had what looked like little shavings of toffee on top; it was the one she'd been saving the for entire day to eat last, so she reached for the one right beside it, one with tiny swirls of pale white chocolate. "Back before, you were always pretty 'touchy' in those dreams, weren't you?"

Fang's eyes flickered with confusion, the kind that looked rather genuine. "Light, when I send out dream signals, it's not the same as when we're like this..." She reached down to hold Lightning's hand again, and she closed her eyes in concentration. _See, this is just like talking... Only without words._

And Lightning could feel it, how each separate thought entered her mind in a more physical, primal way, translated with her very own feelings and latent mental reasoning.

Fang spoke aloud. "But when you're asleep, the further away we are, the weaker the signal." She let go of Lightning's hand, and the connection was lost. "And when you're awake, I can't even send _anything_ out... But dreams, they're pretty different."

Lightning bit down on the piece of white chocolate. "How so?"

"Dreams are just like the rest of our thoughts, only we're usually not in control of them." Fang tried to think of the right words to explain it. "When you're asleep at a distance from me, I can... I can 'link' myself to the thoughts that you're having; I'm not sure why it's all so different, but it is."

Lightning thought back to something she'd once heard before, that the realm of dreaming was actually a domain of Etro, though she wasn't quite sure how accurate such a notion might be.

"So the point is, when you're dreaming at a far enough distance, I'm only sending out a signal, not directly speaking with it." After a moment, Fang smiled at the way each bit of the candlelight flickered over Lightning's hair, changing the color ever so slightly. "And if you're not lucid at the time, how your own mind decides to interpret that, it's up to you."

Lightning thought back to the misty realm of fog and shadow, to how she could barely even see what Fang looked like before they'd met.

"Lightning." Fang traced over her arm, drawing invisible designs along her skin. "Listen, we still don't have to rush into anything... We've got so much time."

Lightning kept very quiet, but she could still feel the specks of chocolate upon her tongue, and she could smell it on Fang's breath, sweetening each of her words.

"I just want to be with you." Fang leaned forward to nuzzle their foreheads together, against the soft, plushy pillows. "I want to get my family all together again, and I want us to be with them."

Lightning stared out from the darkness, into those bright green eyes.

"And that's the trick, isn't it?" Fang smiled softly, and her eyelids went quite low. "Humans, they need to be with others, even the prickly ones."

Lightning turned to smile against the pillow, but Fang could still see part of her mouth twitch up.

"Hey, I saw a new one, when we were flying earlier today..." Fang gently poked at the side of Lightning's cheek. "A new possibility."

Lightning's eyes flicked back over to Fang's face, studying her expression.

"We were hunting." Fang lowered her voice, but it was still soft, like she was sharing a secret. "You'd taught me how to use a bow properly... Like you did with that deer."

Lightning nodded. "And did you catch anything?"

"Oh, I caught something." Fang smiled with just a hint of teeth. "You even looked a little proud of me."

"A little?" Lightning's brow quirked, and she rolled back over to rest on her side. "What did you actually catch?"

"A _rabbit_." Fang held her hands up to indicate how large it had been. "This big gray bunny, just wandering out in the grass, and we had it for lunch later that day."

Lightning reached up to touch Fang's arm. "And this was in the future?"

Fang nodded. "It's just like the memories we share, only these happen at random."

"And you don't go crashing out of the sky when you get them?" There was just a little more urgency to Lightning's tone than she might've liked. "Fang, that's-"

"It happens in only an instant." Fang stroked over Lightning's jawline, calming the tension there. "And even when you were sharing that memory today, I could still fly... It's a little like walking around while you're thinking of something completely different; your body just takes over, even if your mind starts to wander."

Lightning felt herself relaxing again, unwinding. "Like a reflex?"

Fang smiled. "Exactly."

Lightning glanced over at the chocolate box, eyeing the one piece that she'd been saving, before she picked up one with chopped almonds at the top. "I haven't had this much chocolate in years."

Fang reached for a piece as well. "I can imagine... Cocoa trees aren't exactly native around here, are they?"

Lightning shook her head. "I doubt they'd survive a single winter." She looked over to watch how the candlelight flickered against the back of Fang's head, how it made the little red streaks in her hair all the more visible. "I think the fireworks stopped."

When Fang paused to listen, she realized that the streets outside had indeed grown much quieter, though she could still hear the distant sounds of singing and revelry, although most of the partygoers were likely trudging off to bed.

"So, tomorrow..." Lightning tried to keep the chocolate in her mouth from muffling her words. "Food, supplies, maybe a quick lunch, then we leave?"

Fang nodded. "Sounds about right." She slowly stretched out her arms, yawning quietly into the darkness. "But I might just want to look around at the market, though... See if there's anything Vanille would like." Fang suddenly smiled at the thought of her, how she'd once let her little companion run rampant on a market far away, upon some distant continent somewhere, one that had a stall with dozens of different plush animals for sale. Vanille had practically buried herself in the pile, searching for the _perfect_ one, and even though Fang initially balked at the price, there was very little that Vanille could ask for that she'd reject.

"What are you thinking about?" Lightning spoke quietly, and Fang could hear the sleepy tone in her voice, almost as if she was already off in a dozing state. "You look happy."

Fang reached down for Lightning's hand, sharing the memory between them.

"Stuffed animals..?" Lightning's mouth twitched into a smile. "Mom once made Serah a little plush whale, when she was little... She carried it everywhere."

Fang smiled as well. "The light in their eyes, right? When they're _that_ happy about something..."

Lightning felt her heart twinge. "There's nothing quite the same."

They rested in silence for a long while, just listening to the quiet hum of the streets, the distant sounds, remembering a few different things. Fang would chuckle when Lightning remembered teaching Serah one various skill or another, back when they were young, how she'd follow after her along the beaches, beneath the towering palm trees. Lightning would smile when Fang showed her how she and Vanille would fly along in tandem, tucking their wings down into a dive, plummeting towards the earth, until they'd snap them out again and glide, soaring so far above the mountainsides.

"You'd just better not try that when _I'm_ up there..." Lightning narrowed her eyes, but that same little smile just wouldn't leave her face. "I know I said that I wouldn't stab you, but _that_..."

Fang rolled over on her back, laughing quietly. "I know, I know..." She smiled up at the ceiling, before she reached for another bit of chocolate. "There's just something about being that far up in the air."

Lightning glanced at the ceiling as well, watching the little shadows of the candle, the light that flickered against it. "It's certainly-" She suddenly looked back down at the box of chocolate, and her thought process ground to an immediate halt. A certain part of the container, it looked _empty_ ; Lightning narrowed her eyes to examine it. The piece she'd been saving for _hours_ , watching over ever since Fang had told her to open up the box in the first place... It was _gone_.

Lightning's blood flared at the sight of it. " _Fang_."

Fang glanced over at Lightning, before she swallowed. "Yeah?"

Lightning, she had such icy daggers in her eyes, and her fingertips curled down against the sheets, yet she said absolutely nothing.

"Light?" Fang's voice almost seemed to drop. "Oh, _hell_... What did I do this time?" She slowly turned over on her side again, but she almost winced at the sheer venom in Lightning's gaze, but what happened next, Fang never could have predicted.

Like a silent shot, an arrow in the dark, Lightning would taste what had been stolen, even if the memory itself would linger in her mind for years to come. Fang shuddered, trying to breathe, but her hands, they groped around in the dark until she could finally grasp down at Lightning's hair, murmuring into the harsh, bruising kiss.

Lightning bore down on her, just to find every last bit of that swirling chocolate, that taste upon Fang's tongue, the boon of what she'd been denied.

It was quite a while before Fang broke away to breathe. "Light..?"

Lightning nipped at Fang's bottom lip in sharp reprimand, though it wasn't enough to cause her any pain. "I was _saving_ that one."

"You never-" Fang almost whimpered at the sudden force, the way Lightning's mouth locked against her own, stealing those words away until she finally needed to breathe again. "Never told me that."

Lightning felt the heat trembling in her veins, that sort of desperate need to overwhelm her lurking fear, the frantic nerves within her mind, to block out everything else that might've crossed her thoughts in that moment. "Stop talking."

Fang bit back a laugh, but she ran her hands down along Lightning's hair, until she could massage either side of her neck, and then her shoulders down below. "Stop talking? What should I do, then?"

Lightning silenced her again, pressing down, and she was soon flooded within that sudden rush of adrenaline; she almost sighed into Fang's mouth, against her tongue, the sly little thing that slicked out over her own, kissing her back at the very same pace. Fang leaned up, dragging Lightning into her lap, before she ran a steady hand over the curve of her spine.

Lightning shivered at the touch, but Fang just sank deeper into her mouth, lost within the mental link, the shared heat, love and pent up hunger, that desire to taste every inch of what she might have to offer. A heartbeat thrummed within them, bound with something invisible, yet _strong_ , ever so strong, and Lightning couldn't help but push Fang back down onto the bed sheets, breathing rapidly, pressing against her body and warmth.

"Light..." Fang groaned quietly at those nipping teeth, the way Lightning fiercely claimed her upper neck. "You go so _fast_ , you always... That's you, Light..."

Lightning kissed her pulsing throat, soothing up and across the curve of her jawline. "How else would I be..?" She almost trembled when Fang gripped down against her waist, stroking hard.

"You want to keep going?" Fang's voice was just a whisper, a warm breath against her mouth and tongue. "I need to know."

Lightning felt herself start to shiver again, and she nodded, kissing away that voice, that breath on her lips, and it made her feel so very far away again, up upon the wind and clouds.

"I can remember-" Fang ran her fingertips beneath the soft hem of Lightning's shorts, rubbing the skin there, and she smiled when it made those little breaths grow short. "Remember, how to do this..."

Lightning pressed her face down against the pillows, and she couldn't help but lean in even further; with each little touch, each breath on her cheek, she had to get herself closer.

"Tell me, Light." Fang rolled over upon her side, gazing into those eyes, just as clear and sharp as her own. "Tell me..."

Lightning murmured into Fang's mouth, and she nudged closer, against each curve of her physical form, until there wasn't more than a whisper of space in between them. " _Touch_ me."

Fang felt that breath again, heard the soft pitch within Lightning's voice, the almost pleading tone, but she needed to know, _needed_ to be sure. "Is this.. This can't just be spur of the moment-"

" _Fang_..." Lightning wrapped her arms around Fang's chest, gripping down against her. "You feel it?" She let her hands touch along the bare skin of Fang's shoulder blades, and she made the thoughts rush forth, how _certain_ she was of it, of the bond growing so swiftly between them. "...I need you."

"Okay." Fang's voice rumbled in her throat, both soft, low and breathy. "Okay, Light..."

Lightning almost squirmed at the first touch beneath her shorts, the gentle stokes against her hipbone.

But it felt right.

Fang would press down against her, melding, feeling that quick little heartbeat beside her own, and Lightning kissed her again with such sharp breaths, hitched and keening, and she'd tremble when something coiled up inside, fueled on by that incessant heat, the feverish drive within her poised, lithe body.

" _Fang_ -" Lightning's fingertips tightened against Fang's shoulders, and she squeezed her eyes shut, shivering ever so slightly. "That's-"

"This is okay?" Fang didn't look down at her own hand, at how it was stroking the very bottom part of of Lightning's belly, far beneath her shorts. "Talk to me, love."

Lightning nodded, squirming against the sheets. "Yeah..." Her breath caught, and she couldn't help the little sounds that stuck to her throat, nor even the droplets of sweat on her face, nor the perspiration trickling down across her neck, along her collarbone. " _Ah_ -"

Fang stroked against those soft pink curls, touching them, until she let the pad of her thumb press circles over her clit. Lightning tried not to stutter or jerk at those _sharp_ white lights, the gathering sort of pressure that coiled deep inside herself, but she suddenly started to whimper, crying out ever so softly, until her vision blurred, and she leaned forward again. With trembling muscles, she hooked one of her legs over the side of Fang's thigh, just to let her move even further.

"That's it..." Fang pressed a brief kiss against her forehead, then her cheeks, even atop her nose. "You doing okay?"

Lightning nodded with a sharp, yet quiet cry, still squirming beneath each stroke she took.

Fang dipped a single finger into that warm, fluid heat, spreading her, feeling the way Lightning's body quivered and pulsed. "Okay."

Despite her best efforts to keep quiet, Lightning mewled, and she pressed hard against Fang's hand, nearly bucking into the touch.

"I've got you..." Fang ran her other hand over the back of Lightning's head, stroking her hair. "Shh, I've got you, Light."

Lightning tried to keep her eyes shut, but when Fang gently led her back a bit, not enough to move them apart, just enough to see her face, she let them flutter open again.

Fang was smiling, so soft, watching those clear blue eyes that she'd first seen through the whirling frost, those that had grown so much warmer with each passing day, and at that point, they were clearer than she'd ever seen them before. "There she is."

Lightning trembled into the blankets, and when another finger slipped inside, she reached up to hold both sides of Fang's face. Fang let her fingers curl up sharply, caressing, testing just how far she could bring her, how near they could linger against the edge.

" _Fang_ -" Lightning felt her blood thrumming in rhythms, felt the way she tightened, so close, burning up; Fang was so warm it was _insane_ , just how could she possibly- " _Fang..!_ "

Fang's eyebrows quirked, but when she saw Lightning's eyes go so distant, so out of focus, she started to purr at the sight of it, stroking along the length of her hair.

The tightness in her belly, all that warmth, it suddenly surged, blinding white, and she rocked forward into that solid touch, scarcely even able to breathe. Lightning felt her blood grow so hot, before the deep coil finally broke apart in waves, _sweltering_ waves, until she collapsed, shaking against the sheets.

Her body was liquid, floating away, trickling down into the space beneath, that endless dark, but then Fang's other arm, it was suddenly wrapped against her waist again, and she felt kisses on the very top of her head. Lightning just kept trembling, and that warm fluid inside made Fang's fingertips so slick, still rubbing into her deepest point.

"Hey." Fang leaned back to smile at those clear blue eyes, and she quietly purred again when Lightning finally looked back at her. "...How was that?"

Lightning slumped forward, wrapping her arms around Fang's body until she could fully nuzzle against her throat; those ebbing waves still claimed her, coursing through her blood, and she felt how her breath made her throat feel so very raw.

"Good, I take it?" Fang let her fingertips ease away, and she almost laughed when Lightning hissed at her. "What, _again?_ I don't want to knock you out..."

Lightning slowly nipped at Fang's neck, though she was still a bit too breathless to speak.

"Okay." Fang draped her arm over the curve of Lightning's waist, before she lowered her voice down to a whisper. "Or you could return the favor."

Lightning tried to murmur as well, but her voice was low and husky. "I'm still... Just a minute."

Fang smiled. She tugged Lightning close, rolling herself over on her back. "You know, I could really get used to this." She felt Lightning's body shift up over her own, and it almost made her heart skip when a kiss was suddenly pressed against her lips, fully tinged with the sweet taste of chocolate.


	17. Songbird

Fang ran her fingertips over the back of Lightning's neck, touching against the soft, twisty curls near the edge of her hairline. She could feel each puff of that ragged breath, each time Lightning would murmur something against her cheek, just resting there, waiting for that torrent of nerves to finally calm down again.

"Got excited there, didn't you?" Fang spoke in a hushed tone, and she slowly nuzzled her forehead into Lightning's hair. "Your heart, it's beating like crazy..."

Lightning nodded, trembling. "That was-" She shivered at each gentle touch, the way Fang was soothing each fingertip down her spine. "Fang, can I..?"

Fang smiled against Lightning's cheek. "Yeah?"

Lightning took a long, shaky breath, before lifted herself up on the bed, still sitting upon Fang's lap, but she used her arms to prop herself up, gazing down from above. "Can I do the same for you? Is that okay?"

Fang kept on smiling, but a rather tiny blush began to spread over her neck. "Yeah, that's okay..." There was such warmth in her eyes, and she nodded with a quiet sound, something that echoed from her throat. "And I'm real flexible, Light." She reached up to touch both sides of Lightning's face, stroking her fingertips over each of her flushed cheeks. "You just do whatever feels right, okay? I'll help if you want."

"Okay... Show me what you'd like?" Lightning adjusted her weight against Fang's lap, and she moved her hands forward a bit, hovering there above the sheets. "It's not that I've-" She paused for a split second. "Everyone has needs, and I know myself... But I don't know what you'd like best."

Fang let her hands drift away from Lightning's face, before she took a gentle hold of her wrists, slowly leading them towards the edge of the towel. "Do you like your chest touched?"

Lightning blushed a little, though she nodded.

"I do, too." Fang curled her own fingertips over the fabric of the towel, guiding Lightning's there as well. "We'll take it slow, okay?"

Lightning nodded. "...Okay."

Fang slowly leaned forward to kiss her again, and the warmth bloomed out between them, that same form of wordless speech, the growing sense of adoration, shared love. Lightning fought back a tiny shiver, before she tugged the towel away. Fang's skin was just soft enough to hide the solid muscle beneath it, but when Lightning glanced down at those long, lithe arms, at the toned curve of her biceps, it wasn't any wonder that she'd been carried out of the bathroom so easily.

Lightning started to whisper under her breath. "Is this alright?" She ran her fingertips along Fang's shoulders, down over her arms, rubbing invisible little lines into her skin. "You're no slacker, Fang."

Fang laughed quietly, and she fought the urge to lift her hands up behind her head, just to bear the full sight of her muscular arms. "Actually, I'm pretty sure this part of me is linked with the other-" She drew in a sharp breath when Lightning traced down across her collarbone, just to tease at the curve beneath her neck. "That feels good, Light..."

Lightning smoothed her hands over Fang's upper chest, feeling just how fast that thudding heartbeat could grow.

"But my human form, I don't really exercise much with it..." Fang almost released a low, rumbling purr, and she closed her eyes when Lightning brushed her hands over the nearest side of her breast, gently massaging the curve. "I think they're linked, at least with stuff like this."

Lightning ran her fingertip just beside a darker patch of skin, the circle that ran around Fang's left nipple. "Things like health, energy?"

Fang nodded, trying not to let her voice crack. "Yeah..."

Lightning leaned forward, and she kissed at the swell of Fang's throat. "But not injuries?"

"Those are... Pretty different, Light." Fang opened her mouth, panting between each word. "I think this immortality thing, it does a lot of stuff, but it _only_ -" She trembled from head to toe when Lightning suddenly kissed down upon her other breast; her mouth was so warm, gentle and damp, slowly kissing against the softness of her skin. "It doesn't... Doesn't account for that kind of trauma."

Lightning hummed in agreement, still teasing over the other side with fleeting touches, rubbing just beside where she needed it most.

"You little minx..." Fang grit her teeth, but she grinned despite herself, before she reached up to tangle one of her hands into Lightning's hair. "I didn't tease _you_ , did I?"

Lightning glanced up, breathing down against the patch of moist skin. "I thought you wanted to take it slow?"

Fang ran her fingertips down to touch at Lightning's chin, gently tipping it upwards until she could look her right in the eye. "I don't mind it, but I won't hold you back."

Lightning's gaze went so sharp at that, so clear, utterly honed. "Tell me then... Tell me what you want."

Fang still held on, stroking over the soft curve of her jaw. "I will, but I still don't want to make you uncomfortable... Not like this." She looked deep into Lightning's eyes. "Teasing is one thing, but this... This is _love_ , Light, and it can hurt worse than anything if you go at it too quick."

Lightning glanced over at Fang's neck, and then she looked back down at where she'd been using her mouth, leaving those soft kisses against her breast, before she slowly rose up to nudge at Fang's nose with her own. "...Are you speaking from experience?"

Fang closed her eyes again, even when Lightning eased their foreheads together. "Another life, Light... We were, uh... Pretty reckless, head over heels, and I went right into it with everything I had." She felt Lightning's breath quicken against her lips. "It wasn't bad, exactly, just not as good as it could've been."

Lightning kept very still for a while, listening to Fang's heavy breaths, to the outer silence of the room, before she slowly kissed her again, brief yet warm. "...Then we'll take the right pace; maybe not so slow, but whatever feels _right_." She smiled at those bright green eyes, how they opened up again to stare back at her from below. "I just want to make you feel like I felt, back there."

"Okay..." Fang slowly brushed forward, just ghosting over her mouth. "Go right ahead."

Lightning pressed in as well, moving with a low, quiet hum, and she coaxed Fang to lay down again, all pressed up against the pillows. "I like it when you touch my hair..."

Fang smiled, and she reached up to stroke at those soft pink locks. "This, right here?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Yes, Fang." She slowly leaned in to kiss her, meshed and tangled again, pressing along her tongue, before Lightning suddenly drew back to whisper against her lips. "But you don't get anything for being cheeky."

Fang only laughed, breathy and ragged. "...Which cheeks?"

Lightning fought the urge to roll her eyes again, before she reached over to gently pinch at one side of Fang's face, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly.

Fang tried to keep her laughter down to a whisper, and when she stared up into those eyes, at the thinly veiled amusement, she couldn't stop herself from smiling. "I meant it, just before... I could get used to this, to _you_ being like this." She stroked her hand across the back of Lightning's head, taking care not to brush against the wound there. "While we were here, today... You've just looked happier than I've ever seen you before."

Lightning's gaze went a little distant.

"It's a _good_ thing." Fang's hand traveled even further to rub at Lightning's neck, trying to soothe away the stiffness, that sudden distance, just to bring her back to where she had been before. "You're my _friend_ , you know that? Whatever else we might be, and no matter how far this goes, you're my friend... And I don't wanna do anything that'll make you sad."

"You don't make me sad." Lightning looked back, before she slowly shook her head. "It's the memories, Fang, not you."

Fang's gaze flickered down to look at herself. "Memories of a dragon."

"You're not just a dragon." Lightning narrowed her eyes. "You're _human_ , Fang, and we wouldn't be doing this if you weren't... Listen, I don't... I don't hate that side of you, but I won't lie to you either." She reached up to hold Fang's face again, keeping their eyes locked, staring deep. "I've been hurt, Fang... I can still look at that side and feel those same memories, but when I'm looking at _you_..." Lightning kissed the top of Fang's forehead. " _This_ is you, even if you're not only this."

Fang almost closed her eyes again, but she kept them somewhat open, slowly wrapping her arms around Lightning's back. "I can't make it heal, can I?"

Lightning tried not to frown. "Some things... Just don't heal." She nuzzled herself down to Fang's cheek again, and she kissed along the edge of her jaw. "It's like an old, tender scar; it doesn't bleed anymore, but whenever something hits it at just the right angle..."

Fang nearly purred at the sudden pressure on her neck, the teeth nipping down over her skin.

"But I can handle pain." Lightning whispered deep into her throat, kissing a soft trail back down to Fang's collarbone. "And I know you'd never... You'd never try to hurt it, not on purpose."

Fang reached up to thread her fingers into Lightning's hair again, and she found that she could barely catch her breath; the fire had slightly waned, but Lightning seemed intent on kindling it back up again, breathing such life into the heat of her skin, tending to the points that made her soar.

Her voice sounded so very soft. "Is this good?"

Fang nodded, breathless. "...Yes." She leaned back against the pillow, and she slowly craned her head to the side, opening her mouth just to pant again. "Light, don't stop... Just don't stop."

"I won't..." Lightning kissed at the underside of Fang's breast, rubbing against the taut, toned skin along her upper belly. "But tell me if it gets uncomfortable, okay?"

Fang nodded again. "Okay."

Lightning busied herself with stroking over the tight curve of Fang's waist, the soft skin of her stomach, and the urge to nuzzle it was just too much. "You're always so _warm_."

Fang let out a breathy laugh when Lightning suddenly hummed against her skin. "You like it, huh?"

Lightning nodded, lost in the moment, in the way that Fang's body temperature made her own skin feel so much more heated.

"It might get a little rough in the summer, though..." Fang reached down to hold Lightning's shoulders. "I can try to make it a bit less toasty when that happens; it's more of a soul thing than a biological one."

Lightning rose up again, leaning forward for another kiss. "You've still got a towel on..."

Fang hummed, before she murmured into Lightning's mouth, pressed even further down against the pillows; once the weariness faded, it seemed as if Lightning would prove rather insatiable, especially when Fang licked at her tongue, enticing it to return the very same gesture.

Lightning felt strong hands at her backside, and then fingertips tracing over the hem of her shorts, before she pulled herself back with a low, breathy whisper. "Fang, we already-"

Fang just leaned up to kiss her again.

"Fang-" Lightning shivered against that insistent tongue; while it was still gentle, it _needed_ a taste, craved the liquid heat of her mouth, so much that she almost started to whimper, nearly melting beneath Fang's constant touch. "Fang..." Her words were muffled by those greedy lips. "I thought it was your turn?"

Fang shrugged, smiling against her mouth. "Oh, it is... And I _love_ this." She nipped at Lightning's bottom lip, just a little more bold than before. "You like it, right?"

Lightning nodded, but she pulled back slightly when Fang moved in for yet another, moving away from her lap. "You've still got the towel on."

"...I do, don't I?" Fang rose up a little bit, braced upon both her hands, and her fingertips began to curl against wrinkled blankets. "Do you want it to go away?"

Lightning felt the blood rumbling in her veins. "Yes."

Fang reached down to her own waist, before she pulled the fabric back with both hands, letting the muscles in each of her arms flex with the sudden motion.

Lightning's face went flush, but she just sat there on the bed sheets, watching, unblinking.

Fang moved forward to sit upright, and she slowly began to smile. "...How's that?"

It was a long moment before Lightning leaned in again, reaching for the sides of Fang's hips, but when she crawled back over to her lap, it was all she could do just to kiss either side of her cheeks, easing both of them back down again.

"Hey..." Fang smiled when Lightning touched at her lower belly, stoking that heat again. "Hey, Light?"

Slowly, Lightning brushed over those dark, slick curls, and she felt her gaze go low. "Yeah?"

Fang hugged her close, even when those long, clever fingers dipped down, and even when Lightning slowly touched over those sensitive spaces, the skin beside her clit, she held on tight. "Do you think this is love?"

Lightning felt the deep warmth of Fang's skin, the way she suddenly gasped beneath each touch, the single fingertip that swirled, coaxing a low whimper from within her throat.; Fang went very stiff, before she relaxed almost forcibly, letting Lightning have enough space to maneuver her hand.

"Because, I..." Fang trembled when Lightning's mouth traveled back down across her neck, only to kiss at the very top of her breasts again. "I think it might be."

Lightning could feel each little shiver, each time Fang shuddered, trying not to let out a soft cry. "Fang." She licked a stripe over Fang's collarbone, up to the point where her throat was quivering. "I don't think we'd be here right now if it wasn't."

Fang felt her eyes go very blurry, and she moved to hold onto Lightning's hair again, just enough to slightly tug; she squirmed beneath those fingertips, those sly little things, and the way Lightning dipped in, stroking her thumb against each nerve, it was enough to make Fang's spine go even tighter, arching up before the bed sheets.

"This is okay?" Lightning kept moving her hand, stroking along with each tremble Fang made, but she was swept up with the rising movement, still perched against her hips. "Fang, tell me."

Fang tugged Lightning down to breathe against that panting mouth, into those words, against the sweet smell upon her breath, and she swiftly stole away whatever else Lightning might try to say. They moved, pressing together, and Fang began to purr at the sensation of soft cloth against her bare skin, how Lightning's chest was pressed flush beside her own, how the coil in her stomach only tightened and curled, feeding upon everything from the whimpers in her throat to the hand between her thighs, it all just pushed her mind into overdrive.

Lightning shivered at the way Fang clutched at her hair, though it was hardly unpleasant; even with the constant sort pressure holding her head down, she could still press each little shiver into Fang's spine, sending them up with a single push of her fingertips.

Fang broke away to breathe. " _Light_ -"

Lightning's mouth was nearly raw, and she swore that she could still feel Fang's tongue moving against her own. " _Shh_..."

Fang shuddered, before she suddenly cried out very quietly, unable to keep it inside; she let her fingertips tighten against Lightning's hair, yet she kept just them loose enough not to pinch her.

"You close?" Lightning suddenly felt those muscles seize, and she was rocked a little bit when Fang bucked against her hand, only to collapse again, writhing along the blankets. "Fang..."

Fang's eyes glazed over at the sight of that bright blue gaze, and she smiled, trembling beneath each wave of heat, before she finally tensed up to hover just at the edge, right there, just a mere breath away; Lightning felt it too, sensed it, and she pressed in, rubbing _hard_ , until Fang simply unraveled beneath her fingertips.

With a breathy sort of cry, Fang clutched at each side of Lightning's face, just to drag her down into those brief, fluttery kisses, into the midst of her own release, before her vision went so haze at the sight of it. Lightning kept pressing in, and she felt that sudden surge of liquid, letting Fang ride each moment out, and she quickly realized that she rather enjoyed those little sounds of desperation, how Fang's eyes went out of focus from sheer pleasure.

"Lightning-" Fang groaned at the roaring ache, the coils in her lower belly, the way she came so fast with so many hard little shivers, all broken down into waves, even if each of them only made her tremble so much harder. " _...Ah_."

"Fang?" Lightning pressed her fingertips down, before she went very still, and when Fang finally disentangled her hands from that soft pink hair, reaching for the curve of her wrist, she let herself get dragged up again, held flush against her chest. "Was that okay?"

Fang nodded without a word, while a thin trickle of sweat ran down across her forehead.

"More than okay?" Lightning kissed at the edge of Fang's jaw. "You look exhausted..."

Fang nodded again, leaning up to kiss her soundly, tracing over that sly little tongue. "Well... I flew almost the whole day, love." Her voice was low, almost hoarse. "Then we went _dancing_ , and we walked all over the place... And now this."

Lightning couldn't help but smile against the shivers of Fang's breath.

"And you, Light... Listen, whatever works for you, it definitely works for me." Fang glanced at the flush on Lightning's neck and face. "Hey, I'm not judging... We all have needs."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut, leaning down into the pillow beside Fang's hair. "It's just a little embarrassing."

"Why?" Fang stroked her hands down over Lightning's back, and she tried to soothe away the sudden tension from her spine. "Humans are biologically inclined for this; it's only natural to take care of it when you don't have a partner."

"It isn't so cut and dry..." Lightning could feel Fang's lungs start to heave a little less, and her skin grew just a bit cooler, not quite as heated. "Sex isn't just something you bring up in casual conversation."

"Well..." Fang smiled into the darkness; all of the streetlights had long since been snuffed out, and only the tiny, flickering candlestick lit the room around them. "Are _we_ casual?"

Lightning thought it over for a moment. "...I meant casual as in normal."

Fang hummed under her breath. "And we aren't normal."

Lightning exhaled, before she rose up from the pillow again, moving to rest her head beneath Fang's chin. "No, we're anything _but_ normal..."

"Do you think that's a good thing?" Fang ran her hands down over the fabric of Lightning's chest-wrapping, and while she rather wished that it might've been strewn across the floor instead, she didn't quite have the energy, nor the desire to pursue it any further, at least for the time being. "You said you don't think hunters are normal, 'odd ducks'... And I rather like hunting, too."

"There are still normal hunters." Lightning's eyes began to slip shut, and she felt herself relaxing again, melding against the warmth of Fang's skin. "Deer and rabbits, those are normal..."

Fang leaned over to reach for a thick blanket from the other side of the bed, careful not to jostle Lightning from where she was resting. "Deer and rabbits."

Lightning yawned silently, and she almost smiled when Fang draped the blanket down over them both. "Deer and rabbits, they're not quite manticores or gryphons."

Fang settled back again, resting her head against the pillows, before she reached over to extinguish the candle flame with her fingertips. "Gryphons are huge pushovers."

Lightning nearly smiled against Fang's neck. "They are, aren't they?" She almost thought to glance at the wound on her arm, the mark that had already started to completely scab over, enough so that she didn't need to bandage it anymore. "But they can certainly let you know what's on their minds..."

Fang snuggled back down against the sheets and the pillows, breathing in the scent of Lightning's hair, all soft and fluffy from being so recently washed. "That won't happen on my watch, not unless it wants to end up burnt to a crisp."

Lightning felt the steady rise and fall of Fang's chest, how each warm breath ruffled her hair, and she closed her eyes again, relaxing into the gentle rhythm. "Gryphons aren't usually that aggressive... It's only when you trespass in their territory, get too close to an active kill, or threaten them in spring."

Fang hummed a little bit, still running her fingertips down Lightning's back. "What happens in spring?"

Lightning scoffed rather quietly. "...Really?"

Fang took a moment to think. "Oh."

"Yeah." Lightning almost laughed, shaking her head. "And they get _very_ aggressive around their young."

Fang smiled as she stared up at the ceiling, at the tiny patterns in the thin wooden beams. "Light, you just can't expect me to be completely on point with this stuff... Dragons don't exactly multiply, and the seasons don't matter much to us."

"So... It's sterility?" Lightning brushed her hand down across the blankets, until she could grab hold one of Fang's roaming hands, stilling it beside the pillow. "The biological differences between wyverns and dragons aren't very well documented."

"Yeah, this whole immortality business..." Fang let out a quiet yawn, and her eyelids began to droop, before she brushed her free hand into Lightning's hair. "Imagine if we _hadn't_ ended up like that; it'd be an even worse problem than it was before."

"I just can't help but wonder..." Lightning's voice trailed off a little, fading out into the night. "It's hard to know anything about the god's intentions."

"Well, that's true." Fang yawned again, before she ran her thumb down over Lightning's fingertips. "But I'll let you know what makes it easier... Just assume that they were all just playing around in the beginning, testing things, making mistakes." She took a very deep breath, settling herself again, before she stroked at the back of Lightning's neck. "It's a lot less infuriating that way."

Lightning squeezed Fang's hand. "Fang, there's... There's an old saying about the gods, maybe you've heard of it?" She rose up a little bit, gazing out with eyes that couldn't quite see much of anything in such pitch darkness, but she knew that to Fang's gaze, the shadows were almost nothing. "It goes something like.. 'Those who live with their eyes to the earth, they will always see just that, but those with their eyes out in the clouds... They believe what they want to believe'."

After a long, quiet moment, Lightning's eyelids started to droop shut, and she tried to stifle a yawn of her own. "Do you still believe in them, Fang? I know most people don't, but I really think something happened... Over the years, something _happened_ , something to make them not nearly as strong as they were before." She felt as her eyes fell shut all the way. "Either that, or they just won't use the same sort of power for some reason."

"That could be." Fang reached up to cradle the closest side of Lightning's face, gently guiding her back down to rest again. "It's just hard to imagine something like that; they were _so_ -" She paused at the memory of such things, at how frigid the deep frost had been, the very shape of the mountainside, even that massive pillar of light. "They were so _powerful_ , changed us on a whim..."

Lightning kept very quiet for a while, resting there within the dark, and Fang almost would've thought that she'd dozed off, it if weren't for what she began to murmur under her breath. "Fang, you'll be able to move on from this, right..? I know it couldn't have been easy-" She still had her eyes shut, all tucked up against Fang's body, beneath her chin, under the warmth of the quilted blanket. "I know what that kind of pain is like, but to get yourself past it... To let go of it, you _have_ to move on."

Fang stared up at the ceiling. "Sometimes it just gets hooked in you."

Lightning reached over to hold both of Fang's hands, stroking over them, smoothing each fingertip across her palms. "You can take hooks out. It'll hurt, but it's not impossible."

"Alright... I'll try, love." Fang closed her eyes, and she slowly folded their fingertips together, twining each one at a time. "Time to sleep?"

Lightning yawned against Fang's neck, but her voice only came out as a mumble.

Fang smiled softly. "I think that's a yes."

* * *

She dreamt of a slim boat gliding out across the ocean waves, of a man with a silver trinket upon his wrist, casting a long, baited line off into the murky depths. A name was spoken into the windy air, before he was looking at her, speaking the name that she hadn't answered to in years.

"Hey sleepyhead?" He gave her such a warm smile, slightly reeling in the line. "You didn't have to go with me, today... Not the right weather for excitement."

Lightning, only she was suddenly her younger self, the girl she'd been before, she realized that she was resting against the other side of the boat, watching those pale green waves. "Serah wanted to try and braid my hair again."

"Is _that_ why you woke up so early?" Her father watched the sea as well, waiting for any sign of a change, anything indication that something might have nibbled upon the bait. "Scarfed that breakfast down, didn't you?"

Lightning nodded. "I don't like braids... And it's just not long enough, either." She reached up to tug at the soft pink locks beside her ears, before she looked down at her reflection, still in her childhood days. "Why do we have such _weird_ hair?" Lightning looked over at her father, and at the scraggly, fair hair on his head. "Yours isn't weird, but mom's..."

"Oh, plenty of people have 'weird' hair." Her father began to sit down upon a small wooden seat, propped up just beside the edge of the boat. "And your mother, her family was from the mainland, that's why."

"...People have weird hair on the mainland?" Lightning glanced over at the fishing pole, before she clambered over the middle beams of the boat, until she could see where the line had since disappeared into the waves, cast out into the bobbing sea. "Pink hair."

"It's not common there either, but there's more of it." Her father yawned against the crisp morning air, tapping his fingertips along the fishing rod. "All sorts of colors, too."

Lightning began to remember how she'd let out a reflexive yawn as well, before she clambered up to sit upon her father's lap. It was there where she'd felt so safe and warm, even beneath the chilly winds of the sea.

She remembered it clearly, the way her mother would always hug both of them, her and Serah, before they'd leave the house to either play outside or work for the day, depending on if they wanted to earn a little gil at the docks or not. Even when they'd wander home smelling like fish guts and algae, or even seaweed, their mother would always still hug them both.

Her father's affection was just a bit more reserved, though it wasn't as if he'd held it at bay; most men of the island villages were simply a little less open with that sort of thing, but if either of his children ever came home with a scraped knee, or any such injury, no matter how small it was, his nurturing side revealed itself full force, caring and bandaging for even the tiniest little cut.

Lightning remembered that day when she'd accidentally caught her fingertip upon the end of a fishing hook. She could still remember that sudden surge of fear, how she wanted so desperately to panic or cry, or even to flail at the sight of so much blood, but there was suddenly _something,_ a deep sort of feeling inside that just hadn't been there before. It was one that could made her go very still, long enough to realize that the metal point had barely gone deep at all, and that the blood wasn't flowing quite as quickly as she'd first thought it had been.

With steady, yet ragged breaths, she merely picked up the fishing line with her other hand and stood up to walk back home. She then watched the way her father's eyes went so very _wide_ at the sight, before he suddenly realized just how calm she was.

She'd been led over to the living room, sat down upon the fluffy pillows of the sofa, before her father took on almost the exact same sort of calm, gently guiding out the hook from her fingertip.

"Claire."

Lightning blinked, still wrapped up within the memory, but that _name_ , it didn't quite reach her.

"Your birthday... It's next month, isn't it?" Her father soon held up a bottle of something that she knew would burn like acid, but Lightning didn't voice her complaints, even as she watched him dab a bit into a fabric swab, swiping it down across the wound. "Nine years old."

Lightning winced when the liquid set in, killing away any bacteria that might be inside such a cut, for a fishhook was hardly the most sanitary sort of metal.

"Traditionally, _ten_ is the age..." Her father trailed off for a long while, and his eyes went a little distant, likely thinking back to his own childhood days. "Now, fishing is all well and good, but your mother and I... We're not fishermen." He looked down at his young daughter, at the sheer steel in her eyes, before he reached away for a thin roll of cloth. "You're old enough to start learning it."

Lightning watched as he wrapped up a small bandage around her finger, cutting the excess cloth with his pocketknife. "To learn what?"

Her father smiled to himself. "When I was nine, I accidentally nicked myself with this knife, right here." He folded the blade away, before he tucked it back down into his shirt pocket. "Your eyes, Claire... I can tell you didn't cry."

Lightning almost narrowed her eyes at that name, the one he kept calling her, even if it wasn't her own anymore.

"You're old enough to start learning how to hunt."

And she just sat there, waiting silently for some reason, watching the tiny red specks of blood beneath the bandage, while she wondered if her father had really meant what he'd said. She knew exactly what her parents really were, and that the village depended on them for protection from monsters, as well as the things they gathered from wild animals, whether it was meat, hides, sinew, or even the oily fat to fuel their lanterns at night.

But would they really allow their own daughter to take on such a risky profession? Lightning just couldn't tell, not at that moment in time, so she'd simply flopped down against the couch, internally scolding herself for being so very careless with that fish hook in the first place.

At least Serah wouldn't laugh at what had happened, she knew that much, but what would her mother say? Would her father really try to bring up the subject at all? She knew that he wasn't above joking around with his family, but somehow, Lightning felt that with the way he always treated hunting so reverently, how he spoke a quick prayer to Etro before every meal they'd eat together, she had a feeling that he wouldn't say something so lightly.

Lightning curled up against the sofa cushions, but she opened her eyes when a small plate was suddenly set down beside her, before someone ruffled her hair. She glanced at the tiny dish of cookies, and then she looked up at her father, at the sheer amount of pride in his gaze.

In the back of her mind, Lightning knew that she'd never again see him like that, not truly, and even when her eyes finally began to well up, he didn't quite seem to notice.

"Get some rest, kiddo."

"Dad..."

"Everything's going to be alright."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut; she just couldn't stand to see him any longer, not if the fire might suddenly take him away, might steal them _both_ away from her, and she suddenly felt a thousand feet beneath the waves again, just a tiny speck in the ocean, so powerless to keep them safe.

She'd been eighteen years old when she plunged her father's knife down into the dragon's neck, ripping back her own power from an old scar, the one her mother had made, taking back their agency, everything that made her feel like she had some small semblance of control over that harsh, wild world.

She'd been eleven on her first solitary hunt, and her mother still hugged her before she'd stepped out from the door, and she'd hugged her again when she came back covered in the blood of a rather notorious anaconda, one that she was dragging home behind her.

She'd been almost fourteen when her world erupted in fire, when a dragon happened upon their little island home, torching away nearly everything she knew, all that was once solid and real in the world, leaving both herself and Serah in such darkness.

She'd been fifteen when the world shifted yet again, when the little boat out on the ocean suddenly looked so much more stable than the earth beneath her feet, and it was when she'd taken her sister along with her, both of them setting out to sea.

They'd spent nearly a year upon the waves, and in that time, she left behind her whole way of life, the isolation of an island culture, the tenets of Etro's messengers, the person she'd been before.

She knew that Claire had once raced down to the shore to escape the blaze, but when she finally returned from the waves, gazing out over the ashes of her home, she'd suddenly been nameless and forgotten, lost in the fire.

 _Lightning_.

She'd needed that drive, the will to keep going. If Claire was dead, then she needed a reason to live.

She'd been seventeen when she looked up at their new little house, feeling the dull aches in her back, the way her muscles were much further honed, yet so very weary, yet she knew she had little time to rest.

She'd simply told Serah that she was taking a break to travel around the land they'd settled upon, but she kept a certain bit of news to herself; a dragon had been sighted along the western isles, just a few months travel by ship, one with a bounty larger than any stray pack of wendigoes might get them. If she could book direct passage, she had a feeling that she might even be back before her nineteenth birthday.

"Light, this is... It's not exactly silly, but can't you just 'take a break' _here?_ " Serah spoke Lightning's name as if it had always been that way, like her sister had never been anyone remotely different. "Look, I've finally got the stable plans mapped out, so even if we're going to rest-"

"Serah." Lightning was still filling her backpack with various supplies, sitting just beside the crackling hearth. "I don't need rest. I just need to find something, okay? I _need_ this."

She could still remember the way Serah frowned. "What are you trying to find?"

And how rare it was, that wry little smile on her face, the smirk in the corner of her mouth. "Don't worry about it."

Serah just scoffed at her, more than a bit ruffled; hidden things were even rarer than Lightning's smiles, but a few months later, on that fateful day when she suddenly appeared upon the main path again, journeying back home after so many long weeks, only she was on horseback...

Serah couldn't help but stare at the big palomino, but when Lightning dismounted to reveal the true bounty of her travels, how her pockets were utterly lined with gil, it was only then that Serah learned exactly what her sister had slain.

She'd have been lying if she claimed it didn't hurt, and Lightning herself even looked a bit sheepish when Serah glared at her; she'd been there _too_ , after all, lost her parents as well, but she'd always had Lightning to lean on, to let her take charge, and on that day, now that the beast was finally dead...

Lightning held the reins of the horse, the one who she'd named after a great hero from ages long past, and she simply waited while her sister cried so many bittersweet tears against her shoulder.

"It's alright." Lightning wrapped her free arm across Serah's back, speaking as softly as she could. "Serah... We're _home_ now."

The leaves rustled beneath the wind of early spring, and the forest towered on above, shading the little path that they'd cleared mere months before. Lightning could see their house again, how it was standing just off in the distance, and she could see that Serah had already started to set up the framework for the nearby stable, just enough to keep their mules out from the wind and rain, and perhaps there was even enough room left there for their new friend.

"Hey, show me what you've done over there." Lightning was smiling again, yet it was so much calmer than before, as if all of her bitterness had been washed away in the sea. "His name is Alexander."

Serah reached up to pet the gentle horse, still crying those tears, yet she couldn't help but laugh when he nuzzled against her hands.

"Okay..." Serah stroked her palm over the big white stripe on Alexander's muzzle, before she reached down for Lightning's hand, guiding them both up towards the buildings, beneath the shade of the tall hills and trees, into the very heart of their home. "Now it's still going to take a lot of work... But if we hitched him and the mules both up to a cart, just think of it!"

Lightning listened to the quiet drum of hoofbeats, to the sound of her sister carrying the conversation on her own, leading them both forward again, and in that moment, her mind was finally at ease.

She was home, and they were both safe. And as for her parents, she hoped that from wherever they were... She hoped that they knew what she had done.

* * *

By the windowsill, the sunlight filtered down from the curtains, trickling out along the fluffy, quilted blankets. Fang's mouth hung slightly open, and a soft, gentle snore rumbled through her chest, soothing the one who slept atop her body.

At some point in the night, Lightning had nuzzled her face down even further against Fang's neck, and each steady breath lulled her so much deeper into sleep, dozing away, until something suddenly tapped at the window. Her ears caught the noise, and even though her body was still fast asleep, her mind grew more and more aware of the rapid sound.

Lightning mumbled, grumbling in a somewhat snappy tone, as if to scold whatever might be trying to wake her, but when she finally forced her eyes to slide open, she realized that Fang was still slumbering beneath her.

"What..?" Lightning reached over to push her own hair away from her eyes, before she propped herself up on her hands. "What _is_ that?"

Again, the sharp little tap, tap _tap_ , as each sound just kept repeating itself against the windowpane.

Lightning let out a shaky yawn, before she moved to clamber out from the blankets, grateful that Fang was much too deep in a slumber to reflexively grasp at her absence; she remembered having to wake up back when they were sleeping out in the forest, for nature itself had been calling, but Fang's subconscious state had a few other ideas... At least until Lightning was able to disentangle herself from those sleepy, clingy limbs.

"If someone's chucking rocks out there-" Lightning glanced down at the bed, at the half-open box of chocolates, before she swiftly crept beyond them, moving towards the side of the bed. "... _This_ early in the morning-" She stifled another yawn with her wrist, and her feet touched down against the chilly floor. "Keep the bed warm, Fang."

Fang just kept sleeping away, all wrapped up in the quilted sheets.

Lightning stepped down beside the windowsill, listening to that constant tap, tap, _tap_ , and she quickly realized that it couldn't possibly be rocks, it was far too steady and rapid for that. Someone, or _something_ , had to be knocking upon the glass.

"It's the second floor..." Lightning narrowed her eyes, muttering to herself. " _How..?_ " She shook her head, before she reached in to pull the curtains away.

And there, sitting upon the outer windowsill, was a fluffed-up yellow songbird.

Lightning's eyes went very wide. "Damn..." She quickly reached to unlatch the lock on the window, before she tugged the whole thing open. Lightning picked up the little bird between her hands, just to try and make it a bit feel warmer against her skin. "You have to be _freezing_."

The songbird chirped at her, ruffling up its feathers, before it cuddled itself down against her palms.

"Wait, you can't be-" Lightning's mind suddenly swept back to that one bird, the one who'd been traveling with Sazh, and when she examined the creature in her hands, she caught sight of a small fluted instrument, one that was attached beside a folded note upon its back. "How did you know where to find me?"

Again, the songbird merely chirped at her.

Lightning reached up to close the window, before she stepped back over towards the bed. She promptly set the little bird down against the flurry sheets, where it looked back up at her, almost as if to request that she please take away the note from its back.

"Okay." Lightning reached for the tiny string that was wound quite loosely around the bird's chest, and she realized that it must have been incredibly well-trained to not try and remove the contraption by itself. "What did he say your name was..?" She picked up the little wooden flute, gazing at the outline of a rather unusual horse, one that wound around the instrument with so many long, hooved legs, quite nonsensical in nature. "This was the branch Sazh was carving, wasn't it?"

Once Lightning had taken both the note and the string into her hands, the songbird stepped over to cuddle beside one of the unused pillows, warming itself against the fluffy fabric.

"Weird way to start the day." Lightning began to unfold the note, which had a small wax seal with an emblem of a feather, slightly similar to the ones Sazh had caved into the charms. "Alright Sazh... What do you have to tell me?"

 _Hello Lightning, I hope this gets to you safely._

 _If you're wondering how Chocolina was able to find you, you can thank whoever bred such strong tracking magic into this particular species of songbird... (What can I say, it's been useful for contacting clients who tend to lead a more nomadic lifestyle.)_

 _Now, call me an old man who can't stop thinking like a father... But I've been having a rough couple weeks just thinking about how you're chasing after that damn dragon, and the only way I'll be able to sleep soundly tonight is if I try and make sure that you're home safe by now._

 _I'm not sure how much news you might get out there, wherever you live, but word around here is that the sightings have actually stopped. It sounds like nobody's gone into town to claim the reward, or at least not anyone with credible proof._

 _Now, Lightning, I'd feel downright terrible if Chocolina flies back here with this very same note... Please,_ _don't_ _be dead. If you can, write back and let me know for sure, okay?_

 _If I could've talked this one out of you, I would've tried, but you can't talk a smith out of smithing, and you can't talk a hunter out of hunting._

 _And Chocolina, she's pretty good with the cold, but if you could maybe give her a place to rest for a while, or even a little grain or birdseed, she'd definitely appreciate it._

 _Best of luck to you, Lightning, wherever you are. I hope to hear back from you soon._

 _-Sazh_

Lightning held onto the note for a while, just reading it over again, before she slowly folded it up between her fingertips. "Tracking magic? Interesting."

Chocolina chirped at her from beside the pillow, all fluffed up and feathery.

"But can you keep a secret?" Lightning knelt down over the bed, and she held out her hand, to which Chocolina stepped up to perch upon her index finger. "Nobody's going to get that bounty... At least not for dragon slaying."

Chocolina blinked her beady little eyes, and her feathers kept fluffing up.

"You've got to be pretty cold." Lightning glanced over at Fang, who was still dozing beneath the morning light. "I don't think Fang would mind..." She held out her hand beside Fang's tangle of long, dark hair, and Chocolina immediately hopped down to burrow beneath it, until she was resting upon the pillow itself, right beside Fang's ear.

"Fang?" Lightning reached out, gently brushing her fingertips over Fang's cheek. "We have a visitor."

Fang mumbled in her sleep, and her nose twitched at the scent of feathers.

"You have a bird in your hair..." Lightning traced over the curve of Fang's jawline. "Thought you might want to know."

It was quite gradual, the way Fang's eyes began to drift open, gazing off into the distance. While she wasn't entirely awake yet, Lightning's voice drew her attention, especially since it sounded a bit further away than she might like.

"Fang, I made an acquaintance on my way over to the mountains." Lightning still held the note. "He made a few spare charms for me in exchange for protection."

"...Protection?" Fang's voice was a bit hoarse, and she reached up to rub at her eyes. "How safe are the roads these days?"

"Protection from a _dragon_." Lightning leaned forward a little bit, before she settled down on the sheets again. "Something like that is big news, Fang... People get more than a little panicked."

Fang exhaled, and she set her arm down on the pillow, but it was only then that she noticed what was cuddled up within her hair. "Light, what's..?"

"A visitor." Lightning set the letter down upon Fang's hand. "Or a messenger, if you want to be more accurate."

With her eyes not quite adjusted to the waking world, Fang held up the note to examine it, and after a long moment of silence, she let her arm fall back down upon the pillow. "Hm."

Lightning closed her eyes, resting against the blankets.

"Sazh." Fang stared up at the ceiling, before a small, sleepy smile crept out across her face. "I knew it... Things are finally lining up, all nice and neat."

Lightning stirred a bit, but she didn't open her eyes.

"So many souls out there, and us..? We almost always find each other." Fang let out a soft yawn, and she started to fidget when Chocolina tried to burrow even deeper into her hair. "Hey, birdbrain! You're a visitor, not a resident."

Chocolina simply began to preen at Fang's hair, gently moving each strand between her beak.

Lightning found herself dozing off, but she listened to how Fang squawked back at the little bird, though it didn't sound much like they were fighting.

"Yeah, and you're gonna get _stuck_ in there if you don't-" Fang sighed when her hair was utterly taken over for a brief moment, before Chocolina finally peeked out again, clambering down onto the pillow. "That's better."

Lightning opened her eyes when she felt something settling down beside her own hair.

"See, _yours_ isn't as thick." Fang rolled back over on her side, smiling at Lightning. "Beautiful, but not thick."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Just give her a blanket, or something to keep warm..." She couldn't help but yawn again. "It's way too early for this sort of thing."

Fang reached out to pat the top of Chocolina's head. "Don't worry, Light's just a little bit more cranky in the morning."

Lightning scoffed under her breath, before she curled back up again, dozing off into the early hours of the day.

"Been ages, hasn't it?" Fang stared right into Chocolina's eyes. "But the question is, are _you_ like what I remember, or are you a whole other bird entirely?"

Chocolina merely chirped, before she reached out to preen at Lightning's hair.

"You aren't making this very easy." Fang sighed, leaning back against the pillow. "Knowing my luck, Vanille and I are gonna be the only ones who remembered it on our own... I bet even Sazh doesn't know."

Lightning mumbled something, before she rolled over on her back, just to repeat what she'd said. "I had a dream, back in the vestige..."

Fang quirked an eyebrow at that. "Yeah?"

"...We're connected, aren't we?" Lightning winced when Chocolina crept up to rest on her forehead. "Everyone. My family, Sazh and his son, you guys..."

Fang smiled to herself. "Seems that way, doesn't it?"

Lightning kept quiet for a while, dozing off again, until she opened her eyes to look at just how bright the room had grown. "We should really wake up."

Fang nodded. "We probably should."

Lightning glanced down at herself. "I need a bath... I think you could use one, too."

"Fun, wasn't it?" Fang slowly sat upright again, stretching out her arms, and it was only then that Lightning remembered just how little clothing they both were wearing, or in Fang's case, none.

" _Fun_..." Lightning felt a small smile tug at her mouth, before she rose up as well, only with a rather unperturbed bird sitting at the top of her head. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time."

Fang reached up to take the little songbird out from Lightning's hair. "Well, if you're inclined to save water..." She helped Chocolina back down towards the pillows; they were still very warm from where Fang herself had been resting. "Same as last night?"

"Just as long as we don't spend too much time in there." Lightning moved over to the edge of the bed, picking up the box of chocolates as she did so, only to tuck them down inside her backpack again. "Seriously, Fang, if you want the best selection from a morning marketplace, you need to get there early, or wait for them to restock at midday."

Fang stepped down from the bed, stretching out her arms once more. "Think we should skip the cuddling, then?"

Lightning frowned a little. "Maybe not _all_ of it..." She felt that tiny smile tugging at her face again when Fang moved forward to rub at her shoulders, easing away the stiffness of sleep. "I do like this... This sort of intimacy."

Fang leaned in to kiss the top of Lightning's head. "I like it too." She held out her hands, smiling when Lightning accepted them into her own, gently holding them on either side. "But I've gotta agree, let's get this done quick; I could really use some breakfast."

Lightning stood up from the bed, and she followed Fang over towards the bathroom door. "Speaking of that... When I was traveling with Sazh, we found a mammoth at the side of the road."

"Docile, aren't they?" Fang reached to push open the door. "Didn't give you any trouble, right?"

Lightning shook her head. "It was dead."

Fang almost frowned. "Dead, or killed?"

Lightning thought back to those deep gashes, even the charred fur that she'd seen upon the mammoth's hide, but when she began to explain the injuries in detail, sitting down on the bench while Fang filled the tub, it seemed as if the killer was still at large.

"Yeah, not my style." Fang reached down into the water to test the temperature. "Believe me, I'd tell you if It'd been me." She flicked her fingertips against the side of the tub. "I always go for quick kills, and _that_ doesn't sound quick... Probably a wyvern."

"I thought it might be." Lightning began to tug at the clip of her chest-wrapping, untying it while the water started to rise. "But it is nice to know you don't... Drag it out, like that."

Fang felt a sad sort of smile tug over her lips. "Empathy, Light... A lot of things don't have it, but I do."

"You're _human_." Lightning soon placed the cloth down on the bench beside her. "I don't care whatever else you might be able to turn into, you're human at heart."

"You have no idea how much-" The look on Fang's face, that sudden smile, it was so raw that Lightning swore she could outright feel it. "...How much that really _means_." She peered deep into Lightning's eyes, naked in more than one sense. "Light, it's... It's real a lonely life when people don't see that in you."

Lightning stepped away from the bench, walking over to sit down beside the tub. "You won't have to be, not anymore." She slowly reached out to hold Fang's shoulder. "We'll get Vanille out of there, and then the two of you..." Lightning glanced away, struggling to fight back the slight flush from her face. "You're useful, Fang... You can have a house with us, just as long as you earn your keep."

Fang's smile widened, before she leaned forward to press their foreheads together, and her breath went a little bit shaky. "I'd _dreamt_ of it, hundreds, even thousands of years... I knew I'd find this someday." She reached up to hold Lightning's face, running her thumbs just beneath those beautiful blue eyes. "I want to meet everyone."

Lightning kept very quiet for a moment. "...I'll still have to explain the situation, first." She glanced over again, realizing that the water had risen just a bit too high within the tub. "Fang, the faucet-"

Fang reached over shut the water off. "Good catch." She leaned back again, still resting against the wooden floor. "You ready?"

Lightning looked down at herself; she only had her shorts on, and it was rather fast work to tug them away, though she was careful to watch the look in Fang's eyes, gazing back at those rather appreciative glances.

"You open to compliments..?" Fang smirked a little, before she stood up to clamber over the side of the tub. "You, you've got a cute butt."

With a slight scoff, Lightning slowly shook her head. "And you have nice legs... And nice arms." She stepped into the water as well, and she nearly shivered at the sudden warmth, at how it sent goosebumps all across her skin. "...Nice everything."

Fang chuckled a bit. "I could say the same for you, Light." She reached for the bottle of soap. "But I think you already know."

Lightning stared down into the water for a while, at the light layer of steam that curled off into the crisp morning air. She could only vaguely remember being courted at some point, maybe even half-jokingly, because she hadn't given so much as a scrap of acknowledgment to such things. Ever since the day her mother had walked with her into the garden while carrying a pair of wooden practice blades, she'd found herself honing in upon the art of perfecting herself, crafting her own body into a veritable weapon, a means to both defend and kill, and nearly everything else had just fallen down at the wayside. As she thought back to it, all while spreading soap across her limbs, Lightning realized that she actually remembered one of her childhood friends tagging along with her one day, complimenting her on her fighting form, but the praise had simply flown right over her head.

"You look pretty solemn." Fang was scrubbing herself down as well. "Thinking about things?"

Lightning nodded. "Old friends... Just how oblivious I can be." She looked down at the muscles in her arms, and the first thought that leapt into her mind was of all the various ways that they'd be able to aid her in both moving and fighting alike, but she knew that such things could also be seen in an alluring way, to indicate a strong prospective mate. "I don't look at people like this... I don't look at them and think how pretty they might be, if they're attractive or not."

"Better things on your mind?" Fang smiled a little, before she reached up to lather a handful of soap into her hair. "I don't think that's too unusual."

Lightning's mind wandered back to the first time she'd seen Fang's human form, and she realized that even then, she simply hadn't cared to look at her in much detail; it was only to judge whether or not she might be a formidable threat, and those muscles... Lightning forced herself not to glance over again, scrubbing the soap down against her own skin.

"You're just a inside sort, Light." Fang reached over to pat down a few soap bubbles against that soft, pink hair. "You're focused, driven, so all of the other details... They don't matter as much, do they?"

"It's not that they don't matter." Lightning slowly leaned back against the side of the tub, just enjoying the hot water for a moment, as it was quite likely the last she'd find until she was back home again, or at least until she found another inn. "They do matter, I just don't notice them... 'Focus on the immediate target'." She could still remember the sudden crack of wooden swords, how a passing seagull might just draw her attention for a split moment, before her mother would make a sharp clicking sound with her tongue, gently scolding her for the distraction. "'Make everything else go still... Move on instinct'."

"Light?" Fang leaned to the side, trying to catch her gaze. "You okay?"

Lightning stared off into the distance. "I'm fine... Only a memory."

"Alright." Fang tried to smile a little, before she reached back for the bottle of soap. "We'd better get ready for today, then?"

Lightning nodded, but her mind was already far off in the past again, somewhere on the sand, sparring, evading each strike as if it might be fatal, and in the years beyond their training, it very well might have been. She'd step to the side, utterly fluid, before she'd strike back again, crashing down with a dull iron blade, nearly disarming her mother's weapon for the very first time. She could still remember that sudden look of shock, and then the amusement, and then such pride, before her mother smiled, accepting a momentary truce with just a few murmured words.

 _You're getting better every day._

Gone was a great deal of the softness in her limbs, replaced with thick muscle and sinew, pure steel from raw iron, gaining a sharper sense and a much quicker wit.

They'd roam across the great forests, tracking and stalking whatever tracks they might find, and it would often turn out to be an animal they had no need to kill, so her parents would teach her how to best observe it, how to watch the way a beast would use the environment to its advantage. They told her she could learn to do the same.

Time shifted on, and she was back within the lands ruled by man, in the midst of a strange, bustling village. She'd watched a small gang of pickpockets, by the look of them, how they'd pose a single member out in their playing field, only as someone who suddenly dropped a basket of apples, likely fake, perhaps merely a few painted rocks. When their prey wandered over to offer a bit of aid, the rest of the pack, they'd whisper out from the shadows and pluck the mark blind, long before he ever knew what had happened.

Lightning could see only wolves, before the lone sheep, shorn of wool, he would wander off none the wiser. It took every ounce of control she had not to unsheathe her sword right then and there, but as she tailed them, the pack had raced back to their friends, their fellows, ecstatic that they could finally pay for enough food for everyone. They spoke in hushed whispers, clamoring about how they wouldn't go so very hungry that night, and Lightning, she just kept walking.

She'd have to live with that heightened sense for the rest of her life, the constant observation, and the conflict itself soon made her sick to her stomach. She knew Serah felt the same. They'd wandered away from those seaside towns, far into the inland fields, off to the wooded reaches, where they'd met a nomad, one with a stony look about him, only he didn't quite care to meet their gazes.

'People of Cocoon', that's all that he'd even call them, but when they asked what the land that they walked upon was called, he spoke only a single word. _Sunleth._

Lightning never saw him within the valley again, and she would have gone so far as to think she'd imagined the whole encounter, if only Serah hadn't remembered him as well.

Though she recalled so suddenly, while sitting in that tub beside a woman who could become a mighty dragon on a mere whim, that the strange man, he'd looked over at her while she was walking past, and his eyes... He'd looked at the two of them like they were wolves, yet without hatred, only caution.

Lightning closed her eyes, before she slowly reached over to hold Fang's hand.

Fang blinked at her. "You sure you're okay?"

Lightning nodded. "We're just not that different... Not inside."

* * *

It turned out to be surprisingly easy to hide a songbird in the middle of a hotel lobby.

The hood of Lightning's jacket, all lined with fur, it made an excellent hideaway for Chocolina for rest in. She would often chirp very quietly, burrowed away from the cold.

"Just don't peck at my head, okay?" Lightning kept her voice down, tugging her gloves on for each hand. "I've still got a wound healing back there."

Chocolina nudged at Lightning's ear with a rather gentle peck, before she nibbled at a strand of soft pink hair.

"I'll have to see if anyone in town sells birdseed." Lightning glanced over towards where Fang was chatting up the desk attendant, while she was also reaching down for the wallet from her satchel. "Fang should be back soon."

Lightning was just sitting there, waiting upon a stray bench, one that sat rather close to the doorway. She could see the pale snowflakes falling down from outside the window, and she could almost feel the chill from them. "I'll bet you'll want to see Sazh again, don't you?" She reached up to pet at Chocolina's head, gently stroking against her feathers. "But I've got to get some paper to write him back... And to get you that birdseed, or some grain." Lightning wondered if there might be a store in the city for livestock supply, one that would be willing to sell only a single helping of seed.

"Hey, Light." Fang walked over from across the lobby, only without the metal key to their room. "All done."

Lightning stood up. "What's the damage?"

Fang chuckled, carefully stashing away her wallet. "Oh, not too bad." She slung her arm over Lightning's shoulders, and they walked off together towards the front doors. "That kid over there, behind the counter, he asked me to 'please thank you again, very much so'."

Lightning could feel the weight of Fang's arm on her shoulder, but it only made her feel warmer, and she gradually moved a bit closer to her side.

"So, spill the beans." Fang pushed open the door with a glimmer in her eyes. "What did you do last night?"

Lightning shook her head. "Just a... Small altercation. Or rather, a non-altercation."

"No secrets, now." Fang reached up to adjust the shawl against the back of her neck. "Come on, I want to hear all about it."

"You know... People get drunk." Lightning listened to the quiet crunch of snowflakes beneath her boots, and she looked up into the slowly falling frost, breathing in that crisp morning air. "They might forget certain things, start making the night into a hassle... Sometimes they just need a little reality check."

Fang rolled her eyes. "I'm never gonna hear this story, am I?"

Beneath the shadow of her hood, Lightning smirked.

"Well..." Fang glanced around at the road, before she caught sight of a wide wooden wagon, one that was loaded to the brim with supplies. "You know what they say, follow your nose."

Lightning walked on beside Fang's lead, down the snow-covered streets, beneath the long banners that still flapped in the wind, past abandoned kegs and empty glasses. They just kept walking, traveling towards the edge of the city.

"So, supplies..." Fang kept her arm over Lightning's shoulders, while she used her free hand to point at the outskirts of the harbor. "Looks like they have the market district right next door."

And Lightning could see all of the various little shops, the bustling streets that wound around between them, even the distant tents near the ocean itself, which were set up along the docks. The shouts of peddlers and street vendors echoed into the daylight air, and Lightning glanced around, searching for anywhere that might sell general supplies. She didn't have to look long. There, at the corner of two other streets, sat a cozy little store with small ribbons on the doors, the reds and purples of the local vineyards.

Lightning nodded to herself. "I need to buy some paper, some birdseed if I can find it..." She walked onward with Fang at her side, glancing in through the front windows of the shop. "And something to write with."

Fang looked up at the sign that was swinging back and forth above the store. "Wouldn't it be better to find a bookstore? They usually have free paper to take notes on... Provided we buy a book, first."

Lightning paused to think the idea over, and after a brief moment, she nodded at Fang. "That's actually not bad... Only I'm not sure if they even have one around here."

Fang only smiled, leading them both forward again, all through the din and bustle of the morning masses, until they were practically invisible within such thick clusters of traveling people. "Then we'll just have to search..." She kept on walking, just one of the crowd, another human out there to do her shopping for the day.

Lightning almost felt an urge to laugh at the very thought of that; how many of those people would run, terrified at the mere sight of Fang's other form? How many would fight, how many would stand up to a possible threat, giving their lives away to protect their fellow man? And it was then that Lightning wondered how many others she might have missed before, how many other dragons might have learned to take on their human form again. Certainly Vanille had done the same, but were there even more? Even though Fang believed they were some of the last, how could she be entirely sure?

"Look at this, Light." Fang was pointing at a tall wooden sign, a directory of sorts. "Let's see if they've got a bookshop..."

Lightning just stood there, feeling the wind as it ruffled against her hood, and how Chocolina was still burrowed up so warmly within her hair. She wondered if Fang had even thought of the possibility of her distant kin, her fellow dragons, if they might just be hiding away somewhere. "Fang?"

Fang kept staring at the signpost. "Yeah?"

"Do you ever-" Lightning looked at all of the passing people, the ears that listened around them, and she lowered her voice down, stepping closer to Fang. "Hey, what if your club has more members than you thought it did?"

Fang paused for a moment, before she glanced back over her shoulder. "...In what way?"

"What if they aren't 'wearing their uniforms'?" Lightning kept her voice low. "I'm just... Curious, if there might be more out there than we think."

Fang took a long moment to consider the thought, before she merely shrugged, looking back at the sign. "There could be."

Lightning tried not to frown. "That's it?"

"Well, _Light_..." Fang smiled, turning around to hold her hand in lieu of an arm around her shoulders. "It's not exactly the friendliest 'club' out there, now is it?" She pointed up at a certain part of the sign. "Bookstore."

Lightning almost did frown at that. "You really don't think there's anyone else like Vanille out there?"

Fang just shrugged again, leading them both back over to the cobblestone sidewalk, beside the din of carriages and wagons, down towards an adjacent street. "Vanille... She's one of a kind, Light." Fang smiled at the mere thought of her fellow dragon. "One of nicest people you'll ever meet... But everyone has their other side."

Lightning kept her next few thoughts to herself, those of the strange dreams she'd had in the vestige, of a voice she could barely even recognize, the one who told her to abandon their entire venture. She looked back over at Fang, at the tiny glint of determination in her eyes, and it was all Lightning could do just to stay silent.

"Do you read a lot of books, Light?" Fang watched the pale flakes of falling snow, weaving her way through the crowds. "Vanille and I once found this old ruin out in the woods; they're usually broken down to hell after all the rain and erosion... But this one, one of the rooms was actually weatherproof."

Lightning nodded. "And you found books?"

"More than I could ever read..." Fang chuckled a little. "Okay, I probably could've read them all, but there were some _pretty_ boring ones."

"Did you keep any?" Lightning thought back to her own childhood, to the tiny ruin of an abandoned village, one that claimed a far smaller island of her homeland. She could still remember how her parents had expressly forbidden both her and Serah from taking _anything_ from that place, as did the parents of all the other children; to them, the dead were just as real as any other islander, and to blindly take their belongings, it was still considered theft. "I know it was only a ruin, but-"

"No, we left them there." Fang glanced up at a nearby street sign. "We took the time to read a few, but Vanille has this thing about pilfering... And a thing about the dead; it's all bad mojo to her."

"'Mojo'?" Lightning almost smiled at the choice of word. "Not often you hear that one."

Fang chuckled a bit. "Yeah, old voodoo curses, hexes of the damned... I'm not too superstitious, but Vanille got this _real_ bad vibe from the place; I figured that if it makes her feel better, it doesn't matter if we end up with a souvenir or not."

"...Maybe you can get her a souvenir today." Lightning looked up at the store that stood across the street, a wide, though unimposing building, one that held the emblem of a bottle of ink and a quill upon the sign. "She likes books?"

"Certain kinds, yeah." Fang led the way across the road, darting on through the steady thrum of carriages, and she made sure that Lightning was following closely. "Stuff to do with spells, mostly... Natural magic, you know."

Lightning stepped up towards the sidewalk, still holding on tight to Fang's hand. "Maybe she could try to teach us, once we get her back."

Fang smiled again, before she turned to face the stately bookstore, gently squeezing at Lightning's palm. "You can count on her to try."


	18. Paper Monsters

The sudden silence cut a sharp contrast to the bustle and din of the streets. As Lightning walked even further into the front entryway, it almost felt as if all of the sound had simply bled away from her ears, leaving only the whispers of paper, the low, quiet conversations, and then even the soft rustle of someone cataloging books.

Fang glanced around at the different aisles of bookshelves, before she looked over at a more open area, one that had a small wooden table and many cushioned seats. "So, should we-" She turned back to see that Lightning had already walked off towards a certain section of the shelves. "Light, hold on..."

Lightning just kept moving, trying to keep her pace steady and slow. "I need to see if there's a new edition out yet." She spoke very softy, careful not to disturb such a wonderful sort of silence. " _'The Complete Compendium of Monstrous Wildlife'_... Help me look for it?"

Fang nearly smirked to herself, but she kept following after Lightning, glancing around at the shelves. "Hey... If it's 'complete', why would there be a new edition?"

"Complete according to _current_ information." Lightning reached up for the hood of her jacket, and she tugged at it just to hide the look in her eyes, a sense of thinly-veiled excitement. "And I already have a copy on order; I just want to see if it's out yet."

"Alright... Who's the author?" Fang stood up on her tiptoes to peer at a nearby shelf. "Or if it's a compendium-"

"Several authors, yes." Lightning glanced around, before a certain book cover caught her attention, and she had to force herself not to just yank it down from the shelf and search for a particular passage. " _Yes_."

Fang slowly tilted her head at the way Lightning was flipping through an utterly _massive_ tome, searching for something within those crisp new pages. "...What's got you so eager, now?" Fang leaned in to look down over Lightning's shoulder, and before long, she caught the words: 'Studies upon the sociological nature of lowland wendigo packs; co-credited to various anonymous wardens of northern Gran Pulse.'

"Light..." Fang slowly reached out to hug at Lightning's waist from behind, gazing down at all of the detailed pages, at the various studies and non-fiction accounts, even at the sketches of social behavior between such savage, lanky creatures; whether it was the image of amicable group interaction or outright brutality, it looked as if not a single detail had been left out. "You never told me you were a writer."

"I'm not... Not exactly." Lightning reached up to turn the page, and her mouth quirked into a small smile at the sight of the _exact_ report she'd sent in to the publishers, a company that was likely housed halfway across the planet. "I just try to send them whatever I can find out on a hunt."

"This looks like more than a single hunt..." Fang reached over to point at a rather detailed account of how two different wendigo packs had once staged an all-out war against each other, a struggle that was waged for only mere weeks, before both groups were nearly wiped out; and yet, the survivors, bleeding and desperate, they'd formed an entirely new pack, hunting and tending to each other's wounds without almost any of the previous prejudice. "You _study_ these, don't you?"

Lightning closed her eyes for just a moment. "Wendigo packs are... Fascinating." She felt her mind wander back towards that massive pack leader she'd encountered upon the mountainside, how any form of dissent was considered far worse than a personal attack. "They're primates, you know... Simian." She silently told herself that the publishing house would eventually receive much a bigger report than any they'd gotten from her before.

Fang looked down at the sketch of a rather hunched figure with long, opposable thumbs. "Funny, with all those antlers..."

Lightning stared down at the pale white eyes, at the sharp teeth within a such deadly, narrow face, even at those pointed ears that stood just beneath each branching horn. "Yes, but they're one of our closest evolutionary cousins... Minus the mental capacity." Lightning thought back to a certain study she'd once read upon the topic of chimpanzees in the tropics, how the group of researchers directly compared them to certain wendigo subspecies; while they had found that the wendigoes displayed sharp-witted tendencies and a greater overall cunning, the chimpanzees displayed a much higher willingness to learn, to adapt to sudden changes in their environment, not to mention far more advanced comradery between members of the same family group.

"I just... I can't see it." Fang glanced away from the sketches. "I mean, I can see the similarities, but those creeps... They're just too soulless."

Lightning slowly closed the book again, and she kept it in her hands for a long moment, before she set it back down upon the shelf. "They're wild animals." She stepped back again, looking out at the rest of the aisle. "You don't find much soul in creatures like that."

Fang nodded. "Not much at all..." She started to walk forward again, but not before she reached back to hold Lightning's hand. "Now, they _really_ look down on you in places like this if you just use the writing supplies without actually buying something."

Hand in hand, Lightning followed after Fang. "You know... Ever since you brought up magic, I was thinking-" She looked around once they'd reached the end of the aisle. "Back at home, Hope knows a few simple spells... He's not bad at them, either."

"Do you think he could learn from a book?" Fang grinned a bit. "There should be a section on magical arts, somewhere."

Lightning just kept following along, glancing back and forth until they'd happened across a long aisle with many old books, some of which were more than a bit stiff and dusty from disuse.

"Here we are." Fang let go of Lightning's hand, before she stepped over to examine some of the numerous tomes, the instruction manuals, and then even an odd book or two of 'unprovable' spells, or even a few upon the study of wild magic. "Something real basic, right?"

Lightning reached out for a certain book, and she nodded. "I don't want him trying anything dangerous, at least not without supervision." She took a moment to examine the pages within, but the contents almost made her grimace. "I know I'm not his mother, but if he doesn't have anyone else to make these decisions..."

Fang picked up a rather weighty tome. "He doesn't seem reckless, though."

With a different book in hand, Lightning sat down upon a nearby bench, flipping through the musty pages. "He's been asking me to apprentice him with hunting more dangerous game." She turned over to a section on basic casting stances, and then of channeling the deepest energies within oneself, yet she was far more interested in seeing if any of those spells had the capability of setting the nearby forest on fire. "He... He did bring up the possibility of inducting him into Etro's faith."

Fang paused for a moment, before she closed the huge tome with both hands. "And how old is he, again?"

"I'm guessing early teens; he still doesn't like to talk about anything that happened before we found him." Lightning ran her fingertips over the picture of a certain spell, over the winding runes and symbolic imagery, all of them were curved, yet still sharp and decorative. "Again, I'm not his parent, but it just seems wrong to let him take on this kind of oath, especially one like this... At such a young age."

"It's for life, isn't it?" Fang reached for another book. "I think you're doing the right thing, Light, even if he doesn't appreciate it yet."

"He's actually been very respectful." Lightning turned the page to see a detailed set of instructions that depicted a rather volatile looking spell, and she narrowed her eyes at the text beside it. "I told him about what our charms do, how they work, but when I told him that I didn't think he was old enough to decide whether or not he really wanted to join the faith... He didn't push the issue." She gently closed the book. "I'm just not sure how long that's going to last."

Almost immediately, Fang lifted the second tome back up towards the shelf. "Way too much firepower in that one..." She watched as Lightning placed her own book away as well, before she reached out to hold her hand again. "Hey, Light? What about _defensive_ magic?"

Lightning paused, and slowly, a small smile crossed over her lips. "Let's see if they have a specialty section." She turned to face the aisle again, moving past the books upon the etiquette of mixing spells, even the manuals on handling beasts with magical abilities. "Or even just something _simple_... Basic magic, creating things."

A short while passed before Fang spoke again, trailing her fingertips over the spine of each book on the shelves. "You know, when I woke up today, I didn't think we'd be wandering around a bookstore." Fang looked at each of the many shelves, though it seemed as if the simpler manuals were still far out of sight. "It's pretty nice, though... So _quiet_ in here."

Lightning felt something twitching at the back of her hood, before Chocolina suddenly peeked out from within her hair. "I've never seen a place quite like this, at least not for books..." She glanced around at all of the lengthy shelves, and she remembered that one specific little store, one that resided in one of the villages near her own home, yet it seemed like only a fraction compared to such a huge selection of reading material. "The monster compendium, they always send me a free copy for my input... But would you believe that I've never actually seen it as a physical sale before today?"

"Are there a lot of literate hunters out there..?" Fang lowered her voice a bit. "I'm actually curious, Light; it doesn't seem like the most scholarly profession."

Lightning thought back to the sturdy bookshelves in her room, to the various editions of compendiums, and even the books on construction, which detailed how to build extremely sturdy housing, for example, and then she even thought back to the rather neglected book of arithmetic at the very end of the shelf.

"Light?" Fang looked back over her shoulder. "Spacing out again?"

Lightning glanced down at the gloves on her hands, and she realized that Fang wouldn't be able to see her thoughts, not with such a dense material between them. "Yes... Just thinking about home."

Fang squeezed Lightning's hand rather gently, still walking down the aisle. "I'm just curious if you know any hunters who read."

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the thought of the only other hunter in her village, at least besides Serah. "I could probably break a book over his head..."

Fang chuckled a little. "Snow again?"

Lightning nodded. "I don't even know if he reads; a lot of people just live without it." She glanced back around at the bookshelves, before she finally spotted a rather promising title. " _'Practical Magic, Beginner's Thaumaturgy'_..."

"Thaumaturgy?" Fang watched the way that Lightning reached up for the book, gently tugging it down from the shelf. "Stuff like magical amplification, right? ...Sounds boring."

Lightning smiled. "Sounds _safe_." After she released Fang's hand, she turned to the first page, and she flipped past the initial foreword and the basic instructions so that she could see what kinds of magic the book might actually teach. "On second thought-"

"Damn." Fang looked down at the image of a rather featureless figure performing a spell, one who had cast out several round rings of light which all fluttered all around his body like a globe. The picture beside it, she could see that the mage had since directed them forward, stretching each ring so that it could light his way down a very dark corridor. "Points for being flashy."

Lightning turned to the next page. "Safe, but not utterly dull..." She glanced at the picture of the very same mage, only he was casting a small spell upon his own throat in order to amplify his voice, and the next image showed him using the very same spell upon a flock of birds, making their chirps much louder or quieter than before, depending on the amplification. "That has to be affecting the sound waves, maybe even the source itself."

"But it won't knock the village down, right?" Fang began to lean back against one of the shelves, but she still looked over at each page Lightning turned to. "Check if there's anything that might catch fire."

Lightning kept flipping on through the pages. "Doesn't look like it..." She eventually reached one of the most advanced spells in the book, one that allowed the mage to cast certain illusions for a rather limited amount of time. "I think I might get this for him... He did say his birthday was in early spring."

"I think it'd make a good present." Fang looked over at the end of the aisle. "Now, they usually have paper for writing notes in the sitting area..."

Lightning turned to the last page, which was just an image of the same mage taking a bow, only with several conjured duplicates all bowing as well.

"Hey, I'm gonna take a quick look at the rest of these." Fang gestured at the bookshelves. "If you want to go on ahead, I won't be long."

Lightning nodded. "Alright." She reached up to gently tuck Chocolina a bit further into the shelter of her hood; she had a feeling that the owners of the bookshop would be less than enthused about having a live animal there in the the middle of their store.

It was just a short walk down to the end of the aisle, and an even shorter walk over to the big armchairs, which were lit by both a handful of candles and a wide glass skylight, quite far up above.

With a soft, almost contented sigh, Lightning sank down against one of the big leather chairs. She let herself think for a long moment, wondering what she might possibly say, before she reached for a small slip of paper from the table, along with a pen filled with ink.

She soon set the angled point down upon the paper, and she started to write.

 _Hello Sazh._

 _As you can probably guess from this, I'm quite the opposite of dead. You can rest easy, though I don't know for how long that might last. I'm actually not home yet, and it might be a long while before I am, so I need to ask that you please not send out Chocolina again for me, for her own safety, at least until I can contact you with better news._

Lightning paused for a moment, balancing the slim pen between her fingertips, and she tried to think of how she could even possibly start to explain the situation with Fang.

 _This 'tracking magic'... I'm not sure what the limitations are, but for the safety of us both, I can't write about what happened on that mountainside, not if there's any possibility of this message being intercepted. Still, you can rest assured that there probably won't be any threats of the same severity, not for many years to come._

 _I also want to thank you again for crafting those charms; they've proved useful for certain new materials. I might even be able to get a few more out of this little venture._

 _On a different note, I've been learning several things about myself over this past week or so, some of which I'd almost rather forget... But other things, they're almost beginning to feel as if they've_ _always_ _been there, as if I'd be much less of myself without them._

 _Do you know very much about souls, Sazh? Or, more specifically, the concept of the heart, the individuality behind each different soul. Try to think of it as a human body itself, the soul would be the outline, the basic shape that we all have, and the heart would be the range of our facial features, or the lines of a fingerprint, even the sound of a different voice. Uniquity._

 _I've heard stories before, tales of the old kings, those who ruled Gran Pulse long before we were even born, and of how most of them went utterly mad trying to rediscover who they might've been in a past form._

 _I've made a new friend, one who I truly believe was also my friend in a life before this one._

 _I'm running out of room on this paper. I do hope you're doing well, Sazh, and when I'm able to contact you next, I might just have some even more interesting metalwork to commission from you._

 _I wish you all the best._

 _-Light_

Slowly, Lightning placed the pen back down on the table. She glanced over each line of the note, but it was only a moment or two before she heard Fang calling out from somewhere nearby.

"Hey, Light!"

Lightning glanced up, and she would have scolded Fang for raising her voice if she hadn't seen the book in her hands.

Fang was grinning, carrying it over towards the armchairs. "Just _look_ at this..."

Lightning leaned forward to examine the title. "'Advanced Magical Construction, for House and Home'."

Fang opened the book up to a certain page, one which had a diagram of a device very similar to the one from their hotel room, only that certain font of magic looked to be built a bit further inside the faucet mechanism, connected to an underground source of water.

"...That's actually impressive." Lightning placed the note down on the table, just to let the ink dry, before she let Fang set the book down upon her lap. "I'm not sure if we could really connect something like this to the current wellspring, but it's worth a try." She leaned back in her armchair, gazing down at the rather complicated diagram. "We're built over an aquifer; I had to bring in an auger and hire some help just to get the well installed, but if we were to build something bigger to store what we collected, and then bury a few more pipes..."

Fang smiled at the look on Lightning's face, at the sheer rush of inspiration in her eyes, and she nearly had the urge to climb up into the very same armchair and get closer, if only they hadn't been in public. "I think I understood most of those words."

Lightning rolled her eyes at that. "We're built next to hills, which gradually lead up to the mountains." She held her left hand up to indicate higher ground, before she sloped it down into the shape of a steep incline. "And up on the mountains, a lot of snowfall gets collected there into a solid mass, but it eventually melts." She moved her fingertips down to mimic the flow of melted water. "That liquid gets down into the ground... And an aquifer, that just means water-bearing rock, deep in the earth."

"So you dug the well down there, and the water collects in it?" Fang smirked. "...Humans are smart."

Lightning glanced around, yet in such an early hour of the morning, they were luckily out of earshot of any other customers, or even the front desk. "Fang, _watch_ it."

"It's fine, Light." Fang sat down upon one of the other armchairs, relaxing against the smooth leather backing. "But honestly, I hardly ever even think of these things... If I'm thirsty, I just fly around and find a stream." Fang crossed her legs together, and she began to watch the look on Lightning's face, the sudden conflict between telling her not to let anything slip, or to hear whatever else she had to say. "When you're up there for so much of the time, you don't really think about the rest of the earth."

Lightning looked back down at the book, but she could still _feel_ Fang's gaze on her body, how it tracked her every move, each and every hint of expression upon her face. "It's all one big cycle." She glanced back up at Fang's eyes, at the sheer curiosity in them, the _need_ to know what else she had to teach. "And it starts with the sun and water, heat and the ocean."

Fang kept a single fingertip poised beneath her chin, and she smiled when Lightning kept on speaking.

"Basically, heat rises... At high temperatures, water starts to evaporate from the ocean-" Lightning slowly lifted both of her hands to explain. "Into vapor, which turns to clouds, and when those clouds get too heavy-"

Fang nodded. "Rain."

Lightning gave her a tiny smile. "Exactly. And that rain, it falls into the ground, and then into rivers, which flow back down into the ocean." She moved one of her hands in a loop. "Even in smaller systems, like islands, you can watch as it happens over time."

And Fang just kept watching her, listening to all of the quiet sounds of the bookstore, until Lightning finally began to continue.

"Alright, how much do you know about biology?" Lightning leaned forward in her seat. "The very basics, I mean."

Fang smirked. "I know that big animals eat little ones, and most little ones tend to eat plants... And plants, they like sun and water."

Lightning nodded. "And sometimes, nature will shift in unexpected ways, and suddenly, there are too many 'big animals' to sustain a healthy balance." She looked down at where her silvery necklace was hidden beneath her jacket. "That's where _we_ intervene."

Fang followed Lightning's gaze. "I had a feeling it wasn't sport hunting... Not with those tenets."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Those are only for the followers of Etro; not everyone has rules."

It was a long while, just a silent moment, before Fang slowly rose up to her feet, walking over towards Lightning's side, where she sat down in the armchair beside her. "What's on your mind?"

Lightning closed her eyes, before she reached down to tug one of her gloves away. "You're still missing half of the story."

Fang went very still when Lightning touched her wrist, and while she could still feel the slight pressure on her skin, she was suddenly quite alone.

Until _someone_ darted out between the trees.

"Circe match..." Lightning slowed herself to a stop, before she knelt down to grab at a pointy stick, drawing a large ring within the dirt. "Like I said, best two out of three."

Someone else soon clambered out from within the undergrowth, someone that Fang quickly recognized as Snow. "Alright... How about a couple of warm up matches, first?"

Lightning tossed the stick aside. "Doesn't matter to me."

Snow grinned, cracking his knuckles together, before he stepped over to stand within the circle boundary. "Okay, this first one doesn't count." His smile widened as he flicked both of his arms out to the side, and an almost silent screech of metal suddenly heralded each set of claws, unsheathed from within the unusual contraptions beside his knuckles. "You ready?"

Lightning reached for her sword. "Always." She stepped up into the ring, slowly circling herself around, watching how her opponent began to copy the motion almost immediately.

From what felt like only inches away, Fang watched the constant motion, the readying of steel, and even if she had no physical form in that world, in that _memory_ , she swore she could feel the first sudden strike, for the clash of metal echoed out into her own eardrums.

Lightning's sword caught, snagged against such sharp, pointed claws, which were braced together by both of Snow's hands, but they both swiftly disentangled, stepping off to the side, watching each other, planning the next point of action.

Fang pondered over how strange it was, that Snow would use such deadly tools as a shield instead of striking back, but as Lightning swung forward again, catching the end of her sword against the edge of yet another claw, she realized that his main prerogative was deflection.

Lightning's breath grew harsh, and she stepped back again, sword at the ready. "Are you just going to stand there all day?"

Snow only smiled, holding his fists into a solid, unyielding stance, bracing for another attack.

Lightning gripped the handle of her sword, before she let out a sharp, yet quiet hiss. "If you're going to act like a tree stump... Then I have better things to do."

"Hey, that would mean you surrender!" Snow just kept standing there, ready for whatever strike might come next. "Even for a practice round, I don't think you'd want that..."

Lightning snarled at him. "Then fight _back_ , idiot!" She kept herself very still, trying to hone in her anger, to focus upon the task at hand, before she lunged forward again, to which the clash of metal rang harshly in her ears.

"Since you asked so _nicely_..." Snow slammed back against the full brunt of her sword, pushing forward, and his claws scraped in, sliding down, screeching against the frenzied tangle of metal. "What's your deal with this, Lightning, really..? What the _hell_ did I do to make you so pissed off?"

Lightning just kept narrowing her eyes, before she forced herself to plant her legs right down, refusing to budge backwards for more than even an inch. "Existing."

Snow let out a rather wry laugh, before he suddenly tugged their parried weapons, hooking each claw in a way that would push it aside. "Sure, that's it..." He swiftly swept back to dodge yet another strike, breathing in, before he exhaled beside a huge, mighty blow, sending her blade reeling away, yet he never moved to strike Lightning herself. "I think that's a pile of-"

Lightning leapt to the side, swinging her sword up in an arc, and Snow had to raise his hands, blocking the blow with a deafening clang of steel.

"You want to know what you'll get if you win?" Lightning spoke in a low, frigid tone. "I'll answer your question."

Snow braced his hands against the force of her strike, holding that sword at bay, even while it hovered mere inches away from his chest. "...Deal."

The blade eased back, and Snow let his hands drop down to his sides, catching his breath for a moment.

Lightning looked away, but she just kept breathing as well, steadying herself for their actual match.

"You're a tough one, Light." Snow leaned back to stretch out his arms. "I can see why Serah-"

If looks could kill, Snow would have dropped dead on the spot.

"...Why Serah speaks so highly of you." Snow let his arms back down again, slowly swinging them back and forth to relieve the tension in his limbs. "You always get so prickly whenever I talk about her."

Lightning gave him another baleful glare, before she readied her blade again. "I wonder why."

Snow held up his hands, preparing himself for the actual ordeal. "Real thing now... You ready?"

Lightning began to hold her sword in both hands, and she offered him a single nod.

Snow stepped off to the side, circling once more, before he swiftly leapt up to catch her blade again, only he deflected it past his elbow, swiping out with a fist of claws, only Lightning anticipated it, skidding away with her boots in the dirt.

"You're so damn _fast_..." Snow shook out his hands again, and his claws glimmered with the motion. "Man, who trained you, Light? I've never seen anything like it."

At the memory of her mother's lessons, Lightning felt a slight twinge in her chest, but she just kept moving, watching for any faults in his form, any sort of opening that she could exploit.

And it was right then, when the long silver blade came crashing down yet again against his claws, it was then that Snow realized just how absolutely _beautiful_ the weapon was; black streaks had been forged into the center of the blade, abstract symbols that he'd never even imagined before, and the handle, the crossguard that also swept down to protect Lightning's wrists, it was emblazoned with thin lines of gold.

"Hey, don't most swords have names?" Snow chuckled when he realized that she'd finally caught him, because a tiny streak of blood was dripping down over the side of his cheek, and that there was a tiny cut on one of his knuckles. "How about that one?"

When Snow shoved her blade away with his claws, Lightning stepped sideways again, trying to hide the fact that his own claws had struck down against a small bit of her wrist. "A name..." She didn't even have to look at her sword to know exactly what it looked like, tapered upon both edges for swiping thrusts and stabs, razor sharp, elegant, and overall rather deadly. "Overture."

"Overture..?" Snow circled around, watching the shadows of the trees as they dappled out across the ground, shifting just as gently as each gust of wind within the leaves. "That's a music term, isn't it?"

Lightning almost paused, but she kept her sword ready. "It is."

And something moved, something _changed_ , as if the breeze had just picked up over the forest floor, stoking the blood in their veins, and it was only mere moments before Lightning struck.

Snow held his hands up to block, but she'd been watching, examine each move he made, and with a rather smug look upon her face, she brought the tip of her sword down directly before his stomach.

"Sheesh..." Snow held perfectly still, pausing within mid-block; a blow like that wouldn't be immediately fatal, but he still thanked any gods that might still be listening that Lightning could stop her blade so very quickly. "Round one goes to Light."

Lightning slowly drew back, stepping silently along the forest floor, yet she never left the ring. "You might've done better if you actually took real a swing at me..." She tried not to grimace at the thought of yet another childhood memory, of the way she'd once watched her peers roughhouse together, and some of them had even been girls like herself, but they'd never ended up with quite so many bruises as the boys. In that moment, it had made her blood boil, and it swiftly brought that very same feeling back again. "You think I'm _soft_ , Snow?" Lightning made each word ring as sharp as her blade. "We all bleed the same way, man or woman... Holding back like that, it's like you _want_ to lose!"

"Light!" Snow let his voice go harsh as well. "It's _not_ like that... Hell, one of the best sparring partners I've ever had is a woman, it's just-"

"Just what?" Lightning grit her teeth. "Don't try to be delicate with this... If this is a spar, then _spar_."

Snow glanced down at his hands, at that shallow cut upon his knuckle, before he carefully tightened his grip. "Alright... Round two?"

Lightning didn't need confirmation; she merely leapt back into action, out into the fray, and when Snow yet again tried to block her attack instead of striking, she suddenly snapped off with one hand to punch the nearest side of his jaw with a crack of sound and skin.

"Light!?" Snow stepped back, eyes wide, but he had to quickly raise his hands up to block yet another blow, and he pushed down with his own open fist to keep her from punching him again. "What are you-?"

"Take a damn _strike!_ " Lightning kept holding her sword in one hand, braced against one of Snow's claw contraptions, while with her other, she struggled to yank herself back from his grip. "Enough of this! You think I _care_ why you don't want to fight back?!"

Snow stared into the deep, feral glint in her eyes, but he only felt his own inner senses flare out of control when she suddenly lurched away, striking down against his wrist.

"You're a lot of things, Snow, but I didn't think you were a coward..." Lightning looked out into that wavering, burning gaze, and her mouth quirked up into a bitter smile. "Now take a _strike_."

Snow felt the clash of metal yet again, but when Lightning's blade came clattering forward, he let his free hand sweep off in an arc, narrowly missing the edge of her ear.

Lightning could feel the sudden force, she could hear the whistling keen, and it made her blood kick up within her veins. " _Finally_."

A crashing blow, and Snow lunged out again, before Lightning swiftly struck back on his claws, evading, stepping back, yet it was only when she feinted a different strike that she finally caught his hand again, drawing a long, yet shallow cut.

Even with such a sting, such pain, Snow felt a momentum building up within his stance, that massive, charging thing that might topple _mountains_ with enough room, though in such a confined little circle, he could barely even muster up the speed to bash that sword away.

Lightning darted down beneath a savage strike, and she swept her sword whistling out towards Snow's legs, but he manage to kick down upon her blade, which only drew a sharp white line over the leather of his boot.

They crashed again, steel on steel, blade upon claws, but Lightning almost stumbled away when a sharp blow suddenly caught the side of her arm, not enough to puncture, yet three long, thin lines of blood began to trickle out over her skin. It was only a single moment, that natural flinch from inflicted pain, before Lightning felt those long, sharp claws touch at very base of her throat.

And as she watched the memory unfold, Fang knew that it was only a visual representation of the past, that Lightning wasn't actually in any real danger, but somewhere deep in her mind, that primal part of her, it wanted to snarl and hiss at the threat, wanted to draw her wings out and shield away the one she cared for, or to breathe great gouts of fire just to ward off the threat. But it was _Lightning's_ memory, and Fang found that she had little power to alter it.

Snow just stood there, bleeding, watching those long, thin trails of scarlet upon Lightning's arm, before he slowly drew his claws away. "Round two."

Lightning gave him a sharp look, before she stepped away to catch her breath. "Tiebreaker."

Snow knelt down, resting on one knee, and he gradually tried to catch his breath as well. "It's not gonna be a draw, is it?" He reached up to wipe away the sweat from his brow. "You win, I have to leave; I win, you answer that question."

Lightning narrowed her eyes at nothing in particular, before she brushed her hand down against those scratches, feeling the slight well of blood beneath her fingertips. "For a minute there, I didn't think you had it in you."

Snow grinned, and he stood up again. "I _told_ you, didn't I? Hey, back when I was just a kid, one of my best friends... Her name's Lebreau." He tried to shake out the tension from his hands again, gazing down at each of his long, sharp claws. "Haven't seen her in years, but we're all planning to have a get-together sometime... She's one fierce lady."

Lightning merely looked at her sword. "When you go back home."

Snow paused, and he let his hands drift back down to rest at either side. "Yeah."

She'd tried to keep herself from lashing out, from daring Snow to just _try_ and convince Serah to leave with him, and that she'd never, _ever_ leave without her sister, but with each lingering, passing moment, Lightning suddenly felt less and less sure of her own convictions. She'd seen Serah start to blush if Snow so much as waved at her from across the village, and she'd listened to all those little lovestruck stories, how he was such a gentleman, how he'd been to so many places in his life, seen so many things, so many exciting tales to tell, and Lightning could feel it whenever her stomach began to twist up in knots.

It would come down to a single choice between the home she'd made, the life she'd carved into the land with both metal and stone and sheer effort, or her own kin... Her sister.

Fang's voice swept out into the memory. _I thought you said he lived in the village?_

Lightning just kept watching, gazing at the way Snow waited for her to call the next round. _He does... But I never said he was planning to stay there._

And then, she remembered it so clearly, that sudden plan, the realization that if she couldn't possibly convince Serah to stay, she'd simply attempt to cripple the entire problem before it even got up upon two feet.

"A draw." Lightning lifted her hand to see the trickle of bloodshed on her palm. "A draw, and you get to hunt with me today."

Snow's eyes went a bit wide.

Lightning scoffed quietly, turning to face the nearest edge of the ring. "Just try to keep up." She stepped out, away, and with a quick whistle of her sword, she darted off into the woods, up into the shadowy layer of green.

She could hear those sudden footsteps behind her, a bit quieter than she might've expected, but if Snow was as good of a hunter as he'd claimed to be, then he'd require at least some way to keep his prey unaware. Lightning kept on, traveling in silence, over the long, wooded hills, past tiny creeks and riverbeds, before she finally paused, stopping to gain her bearings again. Snow soon walked up beside her, and for once, he seemed to be content with the utter quiet; even if the forest was alive with sound, it almost felt silent around them.

Lightning kept staring out into the woods, into the home she'd claimed from the earth itself, before she slowly stepped over to sit down within the grass. "Need a moment to rest."

Snow nodded, more to himself than to Lightning, and he quickly flopped down a short distance away, gazing up into the tangle of branches, which was just enough to reveal the bright blue sky. "Hey, can you answer my question anyway?"

Lightning just rolled her eyes.

"Really, Light... If I did something wrong, I'd want to know about it." Snow reached over for a clump of grass, before he tugged it up, letting it fall down across his face. "Listen, Serah's been..." He checked to make sure that she wouldn't outright stab him for mentioning it. "She's been close, okay? We... We'd really-"

Lightning almost made a move to stand up again, but when Snow's next words reached her ears, she felt like she'd been frozen stiff against the ground.

"We'd... Eventually like your blessing, Light." Snow's upper face flushed a bit, around his nose and cheekbones. "It's all traditional, you know? She's talked about-"

"Don't..." Lightning grit her teeth, glaring daggers into the trees. " _Never_ talk about our parents."

"Alright." Snow stared up at the sky, and his next few words grew very soft. "I lost mine before I could even remember them."

Again, Lightning's blood ran cold.

"It was a little orphanage, probably on the other side of the world from here..." Snow smiled to himself, but his eyes looked a little wistful. "I made most of my friends in that place; we all left one day to make our names as hunters, and we got our asses handed back to us on day one."

Lightning fought back just a tiny shred of amusement, stifling it with a rather muffled breath.

"But hey, I didn't give up! Maybe my skull was just too thick..." Snow sat up again, before he brushed away the grass from his face. "But neither did my friends."

"And you think I care about your life story?" Lightning felt her heart almost rend upon the words she was saying, but they just kept tumbling out. "I'm going to make this very clear to you, Snow... I'm not your friend, and I'm _not_ your sister, but today-" She slowly rose up to her feet, gazing out at the woods. "We can hunt."

And they ran, they ran across the forest floor, with Lightning's swiftness and Snow's sheer strength, enemies in name only; she knew that he was much more near to what she was herself, more than she'd ever admit, but if she could only show him that he didn't need to travel the world for such worthy prey, then maybe he'd stay long enough for Serah to have a change of heart.

Lightning felt the wind in her hair, the blood in her veins, and it was only after around an hour of tracking that she drew to a sudden, sharp halt. Snow paused right beside her, gazing out from behind a bramble of vines, silently watching for whatever she might've caught sight of within those deep, dark woods.

"I smell it." Speaking so softly, Lightning pressed herself down against the trunk of a tree, before she signaled for Snow to find somewhere to hide as well. "It's killed something nearby."

Snow lowered his voice to a whisper as well. "What did you say you thought it was? A wyvern?"

Lightning inhaled, testing for that telltale scent of pungent smoke, but she couldn't smell much of anything over the trees, nor the moss beneath her feet, or even the thick fog of decay, drifting up from the slope beneath them. "Too early to tell... I've just been seeing too many carcasses in this stretch of the woods, that's for sure."

"Is it down there?" Snow moved to crouch down beneath a different tree, trying to see what was ahead. "I smell it, too."

Lightning kept quiet for a very long while, waiting, until something finally twitched against the forest floor.

A thin tail, tufted at the end with dark green feathers, it was the perfect color to blend in with the woodlands.

Lightning lowered her voice even further. " _Wyvern_."

Snow knelt down against the mossy earth, peering out over the slope, until she finally caught sight of the creature. "Go time?"

Lightning shook her head. "We need to observe it, first." She watched those steady movements, the way the tail twitched in time with some other action, likely the act of feeding from a scavenged creature, which would explain the smell of decay.

And so, Snow waited, kneeling so silently against the ground, until he couldn't help but speak up again. "Okay, ready to start?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the creature below, yet the look was meant only for Snow. "No, be _patient_."

"But what are we waiting for?" Snow kept his voice as low as he could. "If it's _down_ there-"

" _Quiet_." Lightning stared at the wyvern's long, feathered tail, waiting for it to move again, just to reveal the rest of itself from behind the trees.

Slowly, Snow leaned back against the tree trunk, and he released a silent sigh.

Lightning waited for what felt like hours, until the beast finally began to step backwards, revealing a feathery hide and a mouth simply dripping with blood, and she wondered for a moment if it was feeding so often for a specific reason. She'd seen the many carcasses, how they'd been stripped down to the bone, something that was actually quite unusual for wyverns; they would usually leave behind the more unsavory bits of meat and gristle, but if that particular one was overeating, then there might have been a very specific reason.

And in the corner of the memory, in the back of her mind, Fang spoke up. _And what reason was that?_

Lightning looked over to glare at Snow. _Something that he just had to go and mess up..._

She could still remember the exact moment when Snow's patience seemed to snap, how he looked down to see that it was such a relatively small wyvern, and with a beaming smile, he'd had simply rushed out from behind the tree, running forth to slam his metal claws down against the beast's prone flank.

" _Damn_ _it_ , Snow!" With her cover all but lost, Lightning leapt out as well, with half a mind to start slashing right at her own unlikely companion, but when the wyvern reared back at her with a flaring burst of fire, she was forced to duck aside, rolling away from the crackling flames.

The heat was almost nothing compared to dragon fire, but it was more than enough to burn and singe. Snow stepped away of the main brunt of the heat, and he slashed up with his right hand, reeling his left arm back for a second strike.

Lightning knew just how tough wyvern hides could be, but having already dealt with the sheer resilience of dragon scales, it felt almost laughable to simply leap up against that thick, feathery skin, clawing her way up with the hooks on her gloves.

"There you _go_ , Light!" Snow laughed when he suddenly socked the wyvern square in the jaw, and a handful of blooded teeth went flying out from the sheer force of his blow. "I'll keep it distracted!"

Lightning bit back a snarl, for the wyvern was already thrashing all about, trying to reach back and bite her away, but when Snow leapt up to claw right at its mouth again, it did indeed turn its attention back to him. Lightning clambered up across the scaly hide, over the layers of rich, silky feathers, until she reached the point between its wide, flapping wings, and she was nearly knocked aside by the frenzied flapping, but when Lightning finally grabbed up at the back of the wyvern's head, unsheathing her sword, it was almost far too easy to slam the blade down into the base of its skull, sliding up into the brain itself.

Snow let out a sharp whistle from down on the ground, and he stepped off to the side when the beast came crashing down, but he quickly held out his arm to help Lightning stabilize herself, at least until she was back down upon her own two feet, before she yanked her own hands away.

"... _Snow_." Lightning's tone went so very cold, and she turned to face the fallen creature, gazing down at where her sword was still embedded, yet it took so little effort to tear it back out. "Do you even know what we just did?"

"We kicked its ass in record time?" Snow grinned as he walked over to examine the wyvern's face. "Tag-team of the century, Light!"

Lightning watched the long lines of blood dripping down over the end of her blade, and without speaking, she stepped over towards the belly of the wyvern, before she knelt down, pressing her free hand against the slightly swollen stomach. "...Eggs."

Snow paused. Lightning could hear his footsteps approaching her, but in that moment, she didn't quite care to look at him.

Slowly, Lightning leaned against the handle of her sword, bracing it on the ground. Every possible word felt so bitter on her tongue; she wanted to simply rail at Snow, to inform him that while wyverns were hardly the least documented species of monstrous beast, their egg rearing practices were relatively unknown, and a _very_ rare event to observe.

"This is a good thing, right?" Snow glanced over at those limp, feathery wings, at the pinions drifting slightly in the breeze. "You wouldn't want a whole generation of wyverns being born here in the valley, right?"

Lightning could feel the truth in his words, and she knew it was quite reasonable, if only just _infuriating_. She watched him reach for his skinning knife, but Lightning reached up as well, halting his arm. "No."

Snow looked at her rather quizzically, before he glanced down at the fallen wyvern. "You don't want to skin it?"

Lightning's eyes went dark. "This... This didn't have to happen."

Snow glanced down at the silver chain on Lightning's neck. "You would've let it lay eggs out here? Really?"

Lightning suddenly released Snow's arm, but she swiftly moved to stand between him and the wyvern. "We're _burying_ it." She lowered her voice. "We took more than one life today... It's just not acceptable." Lightning knew that Serah had most likely told Snow about all of Etro's tenets, and while there was no part of their faith that specifically forbade killing the young of any species, both Serah and Lightning avoided it at any cost. A certain nest of basilisks, for example, Lightning had watched them hatch and grow, until the population became much too widespread to sustain.

Snow just stood there for a while, but Lightning's eyes almost widened when she suddenly saw him nod, glancing back in the direction of the village.

"Shovels, right..?" Snow sighed, before he flicked his arms back up to sheathe the metal claws, shaking away the blood. "This is gonna take all afternoon, isn't it?"

Lightning remembered the whole trek back, and she could also remember the deep silence between them. Snow just kept walking while Lightning trailed on beside him; it was almost as if they were suddenly two of the same, at least in matters of duty and morality.

She looked down to see the scratches on her arm, knowing that Serah would likely be more than a little cross if she knew who inflicted them, an almost unintended side effect of sparring. Lightning fought the urge to smile to herself, or even to dwell upon how clever that might have been, for they still had quite a bit of work left to do, and the fact that Serah might just stop sneaking out at night, at least for a little while... It was enough to calm most of her nerves.

"You know, I don't think I've ever buried one of these before..." Snow stretched his arms out, feeling the warmth of the afternoon sun. "Wyrm, wyvern, monster, take your pick."

Lightning stared at the forest ahead. "Technically, wyverns are wyrms, anything that has scales and wings will usually fall into that category."

"So, that would be just wyverns and dragons, right?" Snow looked up into the branches, at the splotches of deep blue sky, still somewhat hidden by all the green. "Unless... Do gryphons count? They sort of have those little scales near their talons."

Lightning shook her head. "Gryphons are classified as advanced avians, they don't breathe fire."

Snow shrugged. "Do they really need categories? All this fuss over figuring out the right thing to call them, when we should _really_ be trying to find new ways to _stop_ them." He let his hands swing gently at his sides, but his eyes went rather sharp, gazing out across the treetops. "I've seen a single wyvern take out an entire ecosystem, Light..."

Lightning felt that whatever retort she might have had, it quickly paled before it even left her throat.

" _That's_ why we call them monsters." Snow lowered his voice, still striding out along the forest trail. "They just... They don't deserve to exist in those kinds of numbers, not with the rest of the world."

Lightning just kept following after him.

"Back when I was a kid, they used to say that they'd found me under a pile of rubble." Snow still stared up at the sky. "Mom and dad? Nowhere to be seen... And the irony, I would've frozen to death if it wasn't for all of the fire."

Lightning finally spoke. "Was it a wyvern?"

"Yeah." Snow kicked a stray pebble along the winding pathway. "Or at least that's what they said it was... Big, feathery, spitting fire all over the place? Real familiar." He suddenly smiled at the sight of a thin plume of smoke, one that rose so very high above the branches. "So, no, can't say I have much empathy for that one back there... But Light, I've got empathy for you."

Still, Lightning refused to meet his gaze.

"You and Serah, this whole place..." Snow just kept smiling, gazing up at the rather hidden trail that led off towards the edge of the village, and he quickened his pace at the sight of a lone rider. "It's pretty incredible."

Lightning looked up to see a dappled gray horse, one who bore none other than her own sister upon his back.

"Hey!" Serah called out with a wide smile on her face. "How was-" The look faltered when she caught sight of the reddened cuts on Lightning's arm, and then the rather nasty scratch upon the side of Snow's chin, as well as upon his hands and wrists. "Gods..."

"Hey, it's not as bad as it-" Snow reached up to gently hold Mog's reins, slowing the horse to a stop, but he almost laughed when Serah practically jumped into his arms, for there was no saddle there for her feet to catch on. "Not as bad as it looks."

Lightning glanced away when Serah finally finished the hug with Snow, only to run over and inspect her wounds as well.

" _Light_." Serah almost began to glare at the thin trio of cuts. "Tell me you guys didn't fight? _Please_..."

"Sparring." Lightning cleared her throat. "He wouldn't leave unless we settled it."

Serah rolled her eyes. "And it doesn't look like he _left_ , does it? Honestly Light, if you'd just _try_ to get along-"

"I _have_ tried." Lightning ignored the fact that Snow was right there, still holding Mog's reins, and she steeled herself to look Serah square in the eye. "But all of this, all of this walking on eggshells and posturing, Serah, it's not-" She drew in a sudden breath, before she started on up the hill, towards the home that she had made, that _they_ had made, the one that felt just as tethered to her as the little island out on the sea had been... At least until each strand had been broken apart, one by one, until she might finally have had the will to leave it. "It's not _real_."

Serah tried to hold back a frown, watching as Lightning's outline grew further and further away, before she hurried on after her. "Light!"

Lightning still faced the front, towards the little wooden shed that she knew held more than a few shovels.

"Lightning!" Serah finally caught up to her, but she had to lean forward while they walked just to see a glimpse of Lightning's face. "Don't... Don't you _dare_ shut me out, Light! We _promised_."

Lightning kept walking, but her gaze flickered over towards those watery blue eyes, even when it stung just to look at them.

"No more secrets... No more running away." Serah lowered her voice then, almost a whisper. "Please, _talk_ to me?"

Lightning let her hand slam against the door of the shed, but when she stepped down into the dark, beneath all of the cobwebs and shadows, she could still feel Serah's gaze.

"Do you _really_ hate him that much?" Serah stood there in the doorway, illuminated by the light of the afternoon sun, and she slowly began to hug herself. "Light, this... This hurts."

After a long, silent moment, Lightning slowly shook her head. "...I don't hate him."

Serah's eyes went a little wide. "Then... _Why?_ Why is this such a huge problem?"

Lightning stared out into the shadows, before she walked even further to reach for the handle of a shovel. "Because this is my home..." She lifted it up, testing the strength and balance of the spade. "And I don't want to be alone here."

A tiny frown crossed Serah's face, but she tried her best to smile again, before she stepped out into the darkness. "Light, if we ever did... If we ever did decide to travel, or even if we went somewhere else for a while, we'd come back." She reached out to touch Lightning's shoulder. "We won't leave you, okay?"

Lightning kept those bitter words away, kept them deep inside of her chest, the words that said such talk was all too easy, and that their kind of love, it could blind even the brightest of people.

"We _won't_ leave you behind." Serah suddenly hugged at both of Lightning's shoulders, speaking just as quietly as she could. "A family doesn't leave each other, does it?" She smiled when Lightning finally seemed to relax again, if only slightly. "I want you to be with us, and with everyone else... Our _family_ , Light, we've worked too hard to let something like this drive a spike into it!"

Lightning gripped at the handle of the shovel, trying not to let her voice break. "There's something we need to do today." She felt like mere paper in the wind, so fragile again, and it almost made her want to snarl. "If you want to help, we could really use it."

And Serah listened, and she'd followed along, giving Lightning a small, solemn smile, before she took up her own shovel alongside Snow.

They'd moved out into the wilds again, speaking of anything but the possibility of ever being apart; Serah would bring up how often the orchard was being raided by birds or other such scavenging pests, while Snow would offer to build a new scarecrow, or even some sort of specialized ward to keep them away.

Lightning just listened, wishing that the trail they were walking upon had been wide enough for riding on horseback, but when they'd finally approached where the wyvern was still laying beneath the trees, bleeding out against the earth, she knew that it would be some time yet before any of them could rest.

She remembered those long conversations, the idle talk while they all worked together dig a large enough pit. Whenever Serah would pause, trying to find a way for Lightning to join in and talk, it would often end up in silence again, but every so often, a rare moment would arise.

Lightning stared at the dirt beneath her shovel. "Yes... That species exists."

Serah stifled a laugh against her wrist. "No, you have to _say_ it."

Snow was merely grinning, digging out another clump of soil.

Lightning rolled her eyes at them both. "This is how it's going to be from now on, isn't it? The two of you ganging up on me..." She soon let a bit of dirt fly dangerously close to where Serah was standing.

Serah just stuck out her tongue, before she began to shovel away more soil from the ditch as well. "It's just so _funny_ whenever you say it..."

Lightning took a very deep breath, and she carefully cleared her throat. "Unicorn."

Serah's cheeks almost seemed to puff up with a sharp, stifled giggle, but Snow was a bit less successful, and he had to fake a harsh, hacking cough just to cover himself.

"Teenagers, both of you..." Lightning shoved the end of her spade back down beneath the dirt. "You know what? If you've both found the one person on earth who _actually_ finds that funny, who the hell am I to disapprove?"

Serah just kept giggling into her hands, before her shovel clunked down against the ground.

"What the hell is so funny about the word _unicorn?_ " Lightning narrowed her eyes at the way both of them were all so flushed, barely holding themselves together. "If this is something I'm not in on-"

"No, no..." Serah tried to wipe away the slight tears of mirth from her eyes. "It's just the way you _say_ it, it's _hilarious_ , like you'd rather start stabbing at it with its own horn than have any sort of wonder or reverence..." She took in a deep breath, trying to sober herself again. "But I do believe you, Light; you have that charm, after all."

Lightning tossed a bit of dirt over towards the pile beside the ditch. "I'd never seen anything turn invisible that quickly." She leaned back on her heels, pausing to catch her breath. "But I let it go again after I took a hair sample... It almost seemed like it was in shock by how quickly I'd managed to track it down."

"And if it wasn't hurting anything, there's no sense in harming it..." Serah glanced around at the ditch. "Do you think this is deep enough?"

It turned out to be, because once the three of them had finally heaved the fallen wyvern down into the ground itself, the beast simply dropped to the very bottom, laying limp within the man-made grave.

The sky had grown quite dark by the time they'd finished burying it, and Lightning struck off a bit of flint against her pocketknife, letting the spark catch against a dry, leafy branch, until it had formed a makeshift torch. She'd walked back down to kneel beside the soil, gazing at the loamy mound of upturned earth. "May you return to Etro's arms."

Snow kept standing upright, even while Serah knelt down as well, copying the words in a very quiet tone.

Lightning reached out to place a small circular pattern in the dirt, drawing it with a stray stick, one with a forked tail at the top and a sharp spearhead at the bottom. "...And may the goddess watch over your souls."

Snow's voice was just a mere breath in the wind, a whisper in the night. "Souls?"

Serah nodded at him from where she was kneeling, all aglow beneath the light of the torch. "Even the babies, little wyverns... Everything has a soul." She looked over at Lightning's necklace, and then at her own. "Snow, we're... We're not ruthless, but we're also not bleeding hearts, you know?"

Lightning almost smiled.

"There's a balance to _everything_." Serah reached out to point at the soft pile of earth. "The tenets dictate it, and we follow them as best we can... It would've been dangerous to our _entire_ valley to let them live, so it was only responsible to end the threat."

Lightning kept her next few thoughts silent, how she'd wanted to _study_ them, just to learn whatever she could, but she knew that back within her own world, Fang could hear them clearly.

Serah leaned back, easing away the weight of her body from her knees, until she was resting against the grass itself. " _That's_ why I like Snow, Light." She soon giggled at the look on Lightning's face. "Most guys, they get so _squeamish_ about this sort of thing... Just because I can skin a deer just as fast as you can."

Lightning finally let a small smile slip, even when Snow sat down beside them, holding the same vigil above the grave. "I know, Serah."

"Hey!" Snow smiled as well. "You see, a _real_ man, he doesn't feel threatened when his favorite lady friends are just as tough as he is..." He chuckled under his breath, before he reached over to gently nudge at Serah's shoulder. "Back home, Lebreau used to challenge anyone who'd say any differently to arm wrestling, or even a hunting contest... And she'd win more often than not."

Serah smiled at the thought of that. "I'll have to meet her, someday." She glanced back over at Lightning. "Wouldn't that be great, Light? Another woman of action..."

But Lightning, she'd looked less than enthused, and deep inside, she was dreading the sudden turn of conversation, the way Snow could twist the entire mood without even meaning to. With a slow shake of her head, the memory faded away into mist, and she rose up, wandering forward again.

 _Is this why you went out all alone?_ Fang's voice swirled around her, so warm and close. _If you're scared that they're going to leave... Is this why you're going with me?_

Lightning shook her head again. _I want to help you... I want to save Vanille._

 _I know you do._

She could feel Fang's hand squeezing her own from somewhere back in their world, within the present realm.

 _Come on back, Light... We've been sitting here a while._

Lightning blinked, gazing out into the endless stretch of colorless space. _Does time pass when we're like this?_

 _Not much, but it does go by._

Lightning closed her eyes, and she began to concentrate, dragging and clawing her way back towards the world with Fang, the one with her odd little family, with all the misfits, the broken ones, clinging together for mere companionship.

"...You aren't broken."

Lightning opened her eyes to see Fang again, and she could see the way that she was still so very close, all locked in and focused upon even her slightest expression; when Lightning tried to turn her eyes away, they were quickly drawn right back, almost as if Fang's gaze was more than magnetic somehow.

"You are _not_ broken." Fang slowly narrowed her eyes, but she kept her voice to a very gentle tone. "Broken is... It's a person with nothing left to fight for, nothing to _live_ for." She kept holding on tightly to Lightning's hand, tracing over those smooth lines, over the tiny scar upon one of her fingertips, where a rather sharp hook once dug so deep. "And you have _us_... You have Serah, and Hope, even Snow, and you'll have me and Vanille... And all the rest of your village, and even Sazh and his son." Fang used her free hand to point down at the written note, which was still resting upon the tabletop. "I remember them, Light, they're the sort of people you fight for."

At the back of her hood, Lightning felt Chocolina peek out from within her hair.

"You're not broken..." Fang traced her hand over Lightning's wrist, to that steady, thrumming pulse within her veins. "Even when I had to carry you away from there, when you were all limp and bleeding... You weren't broken."

Lightning felt her eyes start to prickle, but she kept whatever might have welled up from trickling down. "...I don't deserve you." She glanced away, looking at the candlelight, or the rays of sun streaming down from the windows, or even the bookshelves, those countless words that she couldn't quite find, the poetry she needed so desperately. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

Fang only smiled. She wanted nothing more than to hold Lightning close, and she would have, if only for the fact that they weren't away from the public eye. "I think you might be selling yourself a little short."

Lightning felt the urge to reach up and tug her hood even further down, but she kept herself very still, resting against that cushy armchair, before she lowered her voice to a soft whisper. "I almost _killed_ you."

"This again?" Fang tried not to let out a sigh. "Are you still hung up on that, Light..? I told you, I don't care about _anything_ but your intentions." She reached out to gently grip at the base of Lightning's chin, even when she seemed to flush at such a bold gesture, especially since they were within sight of the front desk. "You, Lightning, are nothing if not loyal... You're loyal to your family, your friends, your faith, even the world." Fang watched that dawning sort of look within her eyes, the way Lightning kept utterly silent, yet she still spoke with that warm gaze, that kind of understanding, even an acceptance of her words. "Now listen... I only hold grudges on bastards who deserve it, and _you_ , you definitely deserve better."

Lightning's face soon evened out into something so very rare, a look she saved only for certain occasions, those times when the world truly surprised her.

"You _deserve_ to be happy." Fang slowly stroked her thumb against Lightning's chin, before she let her hand drift back down, where she could rest it between both of their armchairs. "And you deserve to not be alone... You deserve to be _loved_."

Lightning couldn't fight the way her mouth tugged up, the way her muscles almost seemed to tremble on her face, against her own will, yet she kept them steady, so steely, even when Fang squeezed both of her hands, holding them tight against her own.

"Let's go buy these, yeah?" Fang glanced at the books on Lightning's lap. "Then we can go get some breakfast, if that sounds good."

Lightning closed her eyes for just a moment. "...Thank you for not killing me."

Fang paused, before she blinked, trying to tell if her ears were playing tricks on her or not. "You're very welcome?"

Lightning cursed the way that her words came out, how her mind almost seemed to twist itself in upon everything, against what she actually meant to express. "I... For a moment back there, on the mountain, I felt dead again." She kept her eyes shut tightly, because everything else was suddenly too bright, too much to handle while her head was spinning so fast. "I actually felt dead for... A long time." Lightning's voice went so raw, but she made sure to keep her tone down, as to not disturb anyone else who might have been peacefully shopping for books. "I needed it, 'Lightning', I _needed_ that name just to keep myself going... For my sake and for Serah's."

"And me not killing you, what does it have to do with this..?" Fang's smile was a little strained, but she still kept holding Lightning's hands. "You don't have to thank me for it."

"I didn't mean to _say_ it like that..." Lightning took a moment just to breathe, steadying herself again. "I'm not a _word_ person, Fang; I always butcher whatever I'm trying to say."

"Oh, like those poor unicorns?" Fang chuckled at the tiny scowl on Lightning's face, but it didn't last very long, just enough to keep her from saying it again. "But I've gotta agree with that sister of yours, you sounded more like you wanted to kill the damn thing than cuddle it."

Lightning just rolled her eyes, reaching down for the books on her lap, and then for the note from the table, which she tucked away inside her jacket pocket. "It's just a horse with a beard and a horn... Nothing all that cuddly."

"Sure, sure." Fang rose up to her feet. "And of course, it doesn't matter that most people see them as the ultimate magical animal... Powerful, yet gentle." She smirked to herself, thinking back to the many times that she'd overheard stories told to young children in the streets, youngsters who were likely long forgotten by now, for her own lifespan spanned the outer reaches of time; yet the _stories_ , those tales could still be told in the very same way as before, passed down through so many generations of life. "'Of cloven hoof and fragile heart, it tends the grove alone; in silence and in solitude, a beast of silk and stone'."

"What, did you find a poetry book back there..?" Lightning stood up with the books in her hands, but she went quiet when Fang spoke the next verse.

"'Oh graceful one, a _frightful_ thing, of stamping feet and blade; yet when found, when searched, when _realized_... Of paper, it is made'." Fang smiled again, before she turned to face the front of the store. "I used to hear that whenever someone's kid wouldn't shut up about unicorns."

Lightning nearly smirked at the thought.

"Now, let's get those paid for..." Fang stepped over towards the edge of the seating area, before she glanced back over her shoulder to peer at Lightning. "Does breakfast sound good to you?"

Lightning nodded, following after her. "Yeah... But I have to tell you, unicorns aren't fictional." She almost wanted to take out the charm just to show it to her, but Fang had already seen the effect firsthand, that sudden surge of translucency. "I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't tackled the damn thing to the ground."

Fang tried to stifle a laugh. "Now _there's_ something I'd pay to see."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Nothing seems impossible anymore, not with these memories..." She lowered her voice as they approached the front counter. "Not with what we can do."

Fang moved to rest one of her arms against the desk, waiting for someone to walk over so that they could pay for the books, but in the meantime, she slipped her other hand down towards Lightning's fingertips, and she let her thoughts flow freely, straight into Lightning's mind. _Impossible is a word for people without the right sort of drive..._ _ **We**_ _can make it happen._

Lightning felt a tingling sensation crawl up her spine, the same sort of feeling that made her think that she was up in the clouds again, within a world that shifted and swirled, changing, _changeable_ , and she almost began to fully believe in Fang's resolve. A crystal could shatter, couldn't it? And paper could be torn. They could release a l'Cie from an impossible situation; they could bring Vanille back, couldn't they?

Lightning felt her eyes slip shut again, if only for a moment. _I actually think we can._


	19. Turning Tide

Lightning almost began to wince at the sudden sound of the roads, at so many voices and noises, the sounds of dozens upon dozen of wagons, to raucous vendors on the sidelines.

"Alright, what sounds good for breakfast?" Fang reached over to tug at a certain compartment of Lightning's backpack, before she gently placed both of the books down inside it. "Could've sworn that I saw a few street cooks back there, near the harbor entrance."

"That sounds fine." Lightning looked up once Fang had buttoned the backpack flap back down. "I'll pay for breakfast, since-"

"C'mon, Light." Fang reached over to tap Lightning's shoulder. "I've had way too much time on my hands to hoard money away... At least let me pay for this."

"How exactly did you earn so much?" Lightning glanced at the satchel near Fang's side, still dangling by a strap over her shoulder. "I know the stories; it's usually just a case of stashing away valuables... But where did you get the funds in the first place?"

With a tiny smirk, Fang walked back down towards the sidewalk, gesturing for Lightning to follow. "Well, you really do have to modernize in this day and age..." She glanced over her shoulder to give Lightning a quick wink. "Let's just say that I've played a good number of my cards on the market, and over the years, they really tend to pay off."

Lightning kept close to Fang's side, traveling on through the density of the crowds. "Stocks? Don't they notice that you've-" She looked around at the bustle of people, before she leaned just a bit closer to lower her voice near Fang's ear. "They don't notice that you've been trading for what, _centuries_ , now?"

Fang smirked. "That's the beauty of a front company..."

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the smug look on Fang's face. "Or a false name?"

" _Now_ you're learning." Fang reached over to hug Lightning's shoulders again, holding her close. "And what's the point of so much wealth if you can't spend it on your friends?"

Lightning started to smile just a bit, and she kept walking on, leaning into the warmth of Fang's touch. "I would've brought more money along if I knew we'd be buying supplies." She watched all of the faces drifting by, the people they passed beside, and it slowly began to dawn on her that even though this was all so new, so _incredibly_ new, she was swiftly feeling more and more at ease within such a large city. "You know, hunting monsters... It can be pretty lucrative."

"I'd bet." Fang steered them down towards an adjacent street, which led towards the outskirts of the harbor district. "No shortage of beasties out there, right?"

Lightning nodded. "It's almost a full time job just to keep our own valley clear... Serah helps out a lot with that." She thought back to the time when she'd seen her sister riding up the path with a slain, arrow-struck dire wolf tied up against the back of Mog's saddle. It was a massive beast, one who had likely been the culprit of harassing their little chicken coop, for as soon as it was dealt with, the village quickly began to sleep easily for the first time in months.

"Maybe I should get us a guard dog..." Lightning peered off into the distance, above the crowds, towards the shingled rooftops and rounded clay chimneys, watching as the smoke curled out into the brisk morning air. "If you like eating chickens as much as you say you do, I might just need to start reinforcing our security."

Fang rolled her eyes. "I won't eat your chickens..."

"Sure." Lightning smirked to herself, gazing up at the sky. "I might just have to get some geese to keep up with that appetite of yours."

The memory of roast goose suddenly crossed Fang's mind, and it took quite a bit of effort to keep herself from salivating.

"Now _I'm_ getting hungry..." Lightning tipped her head back down towards the scents of distant food, which mingled in with the rich salt of the sea, and even the aroma of several hearth fires. "If you're willing to spend a little more money than what we planned on, I might be able to find us some cooking equipment for the road."

Fang kept walking along the sidewalk, sniffing at each enticing scent in the air. "I could carry it."

Lightning nodded. "That's what I was thinking, you have enough space in that satchel..." She reached over to tap at the item in question, Fang's shoulder bag, still made out of those tiny black scales. "Does this 'change' in the same way?"

"Not the exact same way, but close." Fang stepped over towards a small flight of stairs, one that led down to another level of city streets, and then on towards the harbor. "That's the only sort of magic I'm good at... Changing myself."

Lightning stared at those layers of dark, glossy scales, before she looked back down at the road ahead. "That counts as magic?"

"Listen, Light, as annoying as Bhakti can get about it, the whole 'magic is the fabric of life' thing, it's not always so wacky." Fang kept holding onto Lightning's shoulder, pressed up against her side as they kept walking on, and she soon brought her voice down to a murmur. "Most of it's just pure energy, the less than physical stuff... Like a life force, really."

Lightning glanced up at the sight of a wide row of street stalls, most of which were selling fresh plates of hot food. "Breakfast."

Fang smiled. "Yes..." She reached for the strap of her satchel, releasing Lightning's shoulders, before she tugged out a slim wallet made of the same scaly material. "See anything good?"

Lightning glanced around at the various different dishes, at the griddle cakes, the paper bowls stuffed to the brim with freshly cooked omelets, even the red pepper sausages with bacon sizzling right by the side, it felt almost impossible to single anything out.

"Smells amazing." Fang's voice almost sounded a little dreamy, and she soon nudged at Lightning's shoulder. "Anything you'd recommend?"

Lightning shook her head. "It all looks good." She stepped forward, just to examine the way a vendor was tending to a big pot of what looked like very thick oatmeal, and she paused when he suddenly scooped a dollop out into a bowl, covering it with fresh fruit, and then a bit of cream, even a light drizzle of honey.

"What about those omelets?" Fang gestured at the stall where a different vendor was breaking apart several eggs at a time, letting them drop down against the surface of a hissing, searing griddle, along with several other things, namely long slices of fresh pepper and big chunks of potato. "Haven't had an omelet in years..."

"They do look good." Despite her words, Lightning was quite focused on the oatmeal, because a certain memory just kept tapping along at the back of her mind. It was one where she'd ridden out and purchased a large bag of flattened oats from a nearby village; on the way home, Odin kept asking for her to give him a taste of it, nudging at the burlap satchel, but Lightning only offered him a handful or two, before she'd brought it back home to the kitchen. She and Serah would often make oatmeal for breakfast, mixing it in with slices of fresh apples, or whatever wild berries might have been in season at the time. "...I think I'll get some of this."

Fang looked up at the medley of cooked oats and fruit, and she started to unclasp her wallet. "Looks more like dessert than breakfast." She smiled, nudging at Lightning's shoulder again. "Are you _sure_ you don't have a sweet tooth?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Shush..."

Fang just kept smiling, before she stepped up towards the ordering counter.

* * *

A flock of barn owls screeched, clambering above the mouth of the cave; dark eyes, sharp and keen, they were gazing out over the roil of the ocean waves.

It was within the tall, dark cavern, those rough, dry rocks that still gave off the scent of the fertile sea, it was there that one with old bones rested against the earth itself. His eyes, so weary of the world beyond, each pupil suddenly hinted of something deep within, something that still burned bright.

"I... Would very much..." He yawned with a great number of teeth, relaxing against the stones and the salt of the nearby ocean.

An owl called from outside, and he could sense a great number of flapping wings, before his eyelids began to slide shut.

"Very much... Like to..." A deep, steady snore drifted out across the stones, and then into the crisp, whirling air, coaxed on by the youth of the sea.

 _Speak with you._

* * *

With a small paper box in her hands, Fang suddenly paused, gazing out towards the ocean shore.

"Fang?" Lightning soon paused as well, from where she was holding her own portion of food. "You alright?"

Fang narrowed her eyes, starting out at nothing in particular, nothing but the dark blue sea. "Yeah..." She swore that just for a moment, that either the wind had changed, or something else had shifted within the world, yet she could neither see nor feel anything tangible enough to reassure her suspicions. "Just thought I... Felt something."

Lightning glanced down at the paper bowl in her own hands, all filled to the brim with oatmeal and fruit. "There's a bench over there."

Fang just kept standing for a moment, focusing on the waves of the sea, before she glanced back over at Lightning. "Sure."

Lightning led the way down a wooden flight of wooden stairs, the path that led to the harbor docks. She walked on towards a lone bench, quite a fair distance away from the noise of the crowds. "What did you feel, just then?"

Fang shook her head. "Probably nothing." She stepped over towards the edge of the bench, before she sat down with a gentle sigh, poking the end of a thin wooden fork into a bowl of loosely folded omelet. "It's strange, sometimes... You think you can hear things, _weird_ _things_ for only just a moment, and then the next thing you know... They're gone."

Lightning dipped a similar sort of spoon down into her oatmeal. "Is it anything like when we were dreaming? I remember when I first started having them, it all felt so strange... But then when I woke up, everything seemed _too_ normal again."

"Might be a little similar." Fang bit down on a forkful of the warm, fluffy eggs, and the taste of onions and fresh pepper soon overtook her senses. "The ocean is _weird_ , Light... Lots of things in there can make you think differently than before."

Lightning took a small taste of her oatmeal, and she thought back to the way that a single ray of moonlight could make the ocean waves look like they were glowing, black and blue and frothy white, enough to make her stay up long into those midnight hours, just to watch them glimmer.

"How's the oatmeal?" Fang took another bite of her omelet. "I'd offer you a taste of this, but it doesn't seem like they'd go together."

Lightning gave Fang a tiny smile. "It's very good." She picked up a small piece of fruit between her fingertips, before she held it out towards the beak of a curious little bird, one who was perched atop her shoulder. "But you're right, it wouldn't go very well with eggs."

"Hey, do you know how to make these?" Fang gestured at the omelet. "Vanille and I once found a bunch of wild bird eggs, and I actually convinced her to let me try and cook them up... Didn't turn out as good as this, though."

Lightning glanced around to make sure that their seat was far enough out of earshot, and luckily, they were rather alone. "Did you use dragon fire?"

Fang tried to stifle a slightly sheepish grin.

"No more of that..." Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Seriously, Fang, it's like using the end of a sword to take out a splinter; you'll just end up a lot worse than you were before."

"Alright, no more dragon fire." Fang took another bite of the omelet, and she realized that if Lightning could teach her to make something as tasty as the food right in front of her, it might just be worth the extra time and effort to start up a campfire. "Enlighten me then, won't you?"

Lightning held back a smile. "All you need is a little bit of know-how and the right tools... Cooking isn't some unattainable talent, Fang, it's just like any other skill." She reached down to pick up another piece of fruit for Chocolina. "If you take the time to learn from your mistakes, you'll get the hang of it eventually."

"And I'd bet a good teacher would help, too." After a moment or two, Fang reached over to pet at the top of Chocolina's head. "And don't you worry, I'm only after _chickens_..." She recoiled when a rather strong beak bit down against the end of her fingertip. "...Damn!"

Lightning frowned a little. "You must've touched her feathers the wrong way; she can't possibly understand what you said."

Fang tried to shake out the pain from her hand. "Tell that to my finger..."

Lightning slowly reached up to pet along Chocolina's neck, yet there were no stinging bites or even pecks at her fingertips, in fact, the little bird quickly nuzzled herself against Lightning's hand.

"Maybe she just likes _you_." Fang winced a little bit, before she reached for her fork again. "I'd bet with all that tracking magic, she must've picked up something about you... Something to find you with."

Lightning let Chocolina step up to one of her fingertips, and the little songbird let out a soft, warbling chirp, ruffling her feathers against the chilly ocean winds.

"Probably something to do with your soul." Fang leaned back to rest her head against the back of the bench. "If she can track that, you could go anywhere on earth and she'd be still be able to find you."

"That actually sounds probable..." Lightning watched the way that Chocolina began to preen those long yellow feathers, threading them through her beak. "I've heard of certain breeds of dog that can track someone without even picking up a scent."

"...You think she'll be alright out there?" Fang slowly reached out again, and to her great relief, Chocolina didn't try to bite at her fingers. "She brought you that little trinket, didn't she?"

Lightning thought back to the thin wooden flute, the one she'd stashed away inside her backpack. "Yeah, it was something Sazh made... And I think she'll be okay."

"I'd bet that fruit is enough to keep her flying for now." Fang reached over to offer a tiny bit of her omelet, one without onions or peppers, and Chocolina swiftly scarfed it down. "Nothing wrong with a little boost, though."

"You're feeding her eggs?" Lightning looked on with a slight bit of distaste. "I mean, I know they aren't the same species... And birds of prey eat other birds."

"Exactly." Fang began to make quiet little kissing sounds at the little songbird, offering her another tidbit of egg. " _Now_ we're friends, aren't we? Not as much biting when I have such good food to share..."

Lightning picked up a slice of strawberry with her spoon, before she scooped on a little oatmeal as well. "I used to wonder what it was like... Being able to fly."

Fang grinned to herself.

"I guess I don't have to wonder, now." Lightning began to relax against the bench, and she set Chocolina down to her lap, holding the bowl of oatmeal with both hands again. "It's a lot more intimidating than I thought it'd be."

Fang glanced down at Lightning's lap. "Which part is the most intimidating?" She reached over to stroke along top of Chocolina's head. "Being up so high?"

Lightning stared out at the rolling sea, at the waves of cold, frothy saltwater, and for a moment she could feel what almost seemed like a memory, like feathers brushing against her own skin, but it was gone in just an instant. "It's more... Not being able to control it." She took a tiny bite of oatmeal. "I don't think it would be quite as bad if I was the one up there, flying."

Fang looked off into the distance, and her gaze went somewhat blank.

"What are you thinking about?" Lightning gave Chocolina another piece of fruit. "A memory?"

Fang nodded. "At this point, I don't think it'd hurt too much to tell you..." She took a moment just to think. "There was a life before this one, a whole different sort of world, one with a very strange neighbor."

Lightning listened, chewing at her breakfast.

"And this neighbor... It was once a home to people who could summon their own wings." Fang smiled at the memory, one of Lightning herself, gazing down at the way she'd touched those pale white feathers, running her fingertips over each curve.

Lightning looked out over the ocean waves. "Were you from this 'neighbor'?"

Fang's lip twitched, almost a smile. "No." She glanced over to gauge Lightning's reaction, but she was unreadable, nearly blank. "You were."

It was a strange sort of silence, for there was still plenty of noise from the nearby market, even the city streets far above, and then even the ocean, it kept on ceaselessly in the distance, just a low roar of waves and briny foam, but when Fang finally spoke again, it felt like the only noise that Lightning could hear.

"And you..." Fang reached over to touch Lightning's hand. "You could fly."

Lightning closed her eyes for a moment, willing the memory to come back, trying her best to remember, but it was just a wide, empty page, a blank sheet inside her mind, colorless and vague.

She could feel Fang stoking her palm. "Don't stress over it."

Lightning let her eyes drift open again, and she leaned back to stare at the sky. "It's just so... _Frustrating_ , whenever I can't remember something."

"I know the feeling." Fang looked up as well, watching the clouds as they rolled on up above, before she glanced back down at the sea, watching the distant sailboats floating along in the breeze. "I remember certain things from some lives, and a lot of the time they don't even make sense, but I just can't seem to get the right context."

Lightning thought back to a previous dream, to the strange, airborne vehicles she'd seen so far up within the sky, and how it felt like something had simply flown out and struck right through her body, piercing right through her stomach and chest.

"The answers aren't always there." Fang began to finish up her breakfast, and she gave Chocolina a few more tidbits of egg. "But trying to find them, we're just burning daylight."

Lightning started to finish her oatmeal as well. "The market sounds pretty busy."

Fang glanced back over her shoulder, gazing at all of the tents and distant stalls, even the boats that were sailing up towards the docks, and then at the workers who carried huge crates of goods, hauling them up towards the city.

"I guess we should send our little friend off..." Lightning reached into her backpack for the note that she'd written, along with a long piece of string, the same one that Sazh's letter had been attached to. "You can find your way back, right?"

At the sight of the ribbon, Chocolina fluttered right back up to Lightning's wrist, spreading her wings out so that she could have the string tied around her chest.

"Hold on, I need to get it ready..." Lightning rolled up the note into a thin tube, before she tied the ribbon down around it, securing it with a rather tight knot. "Alright." She held up the string, and Chocolina stepped beneath it, angling her wings in a way that Lightning could tie it down, gently slung around her feathery torso.

"Clever one, isn't she?" Fang soon set an empty bowl down upon the bench. "You have a good journey, now."

Chocolina sat at the top of Lightning's wrist, until her perch suddenly rose up, to which the songbird rapidly flapped her wings, launching herself off into the air. Lightning watched the way that her little friend became more and more distant above the ocean spray, before Chocolina suddenly tipped herself to the side, likely to fly further inland, towards wherever Sazh was.

"Off she goes..." After a moment or silence, Fang looked back over at Lightning. "Ready to get those supplies?"

Lightning scooped out the last bits of her breakfast with the spoon, standing up as she did so. "Yeah."

"And about that cooking equipment, where do you think we can buy that sort of stuff?" Fang rose up as well. "You think they'd have it in an outdoor market?"

"Probably." Lightning glanced around for somewhere to dispose of their empty paper bowls, and before long, she spotted a rather large crate with quite a bit of trash in it, likely for public use. "Most outdoor markets, they'll have everything from food to household goods." She tossed the paper into the bin, gesturing for Fang to do the same. "And if this is really a trade capital, I doubt there's much we won't be able to find."

"Lead the way, then..." Fang took a moment just to look at Lightning's face, yet the expression in her eyes, there was a very quiet sort of look, as if there might still be something else she'd been meaning to say. "Unless we have unfinished business?"

Lightning just stood there, waiting on the docks, before she looked out at the sea, at the crashing waves beyond the harbor. "How long do we have left in the cold?" She felt the chill winds upon her hands, for she hadn't yet tugged her gloves back on. "Where we're going, is it still going to be winter there? Or is it tropical?"

"Well, we'll actually be passing by-" Fang stepped over towards Lightning's side, gently turning them both to face the north. "The top pole of the world, but after that, we'll technically be going south again... And yeah, it's gonna be warmer."

Lightning felt the way that Fang was standing so close to her, granting that strange sort of energy, the physical heat from her soul.

Fang chuckled quietly, before she lowered her voice. "Why do you ask?"

"I just want to know how much food to buy." Lightning reached back to hold Fang's hand, smoothing her fingertips over each knuckle. "Certain things will spoil a lot faster in that sort of climate, but given how cold it is right now..."

"Yeah... Are you going to be alright in these?" Fang trailed her fingertips over the nearest edge of Lightning's cloak, brushing her palm against the pale white fabric. "Might be a little too warm out there."

Lightning turned around to face Fang again, before she looked down at herself. "I'm not sure if I want to encounter a fal'Cie in just my undershirt..."

Fang smiled, and she let out a quiet hum. "Weren't expecting a trip to the tropics, were you?"

Lightning shook her head, scowling ever so slightly when Fang's mouth nudged at her forehead, touching it with just a gentle kiss. "What happened to 'burning daylight'?"

"Can't help it if I get distracted..." Fang took both of Lightning's hands in her own, leading her back from the edge of the harbor, towards the main platform of the docks. "Light, we're on a trip to kill a _demigod_ , it's alright to take a moment to relax."

"Fang, there's..." Lightning trailed off when Fang let go of one of her hands, yet she still held on to the other one, guiding them both over to the market crowds. "I kept having these dreams back in the vestige; someone kept talking to me."

Fang squeezed Lightning's hand, still leading her forward. "What did they say?"

Lightning frowned, before she squeezed Fang's hand as well. "They told me to do something that I'm not going to do."

"Just tell me, Light." Fang looked back over her shoulder. "What's got you spooked?"

Lightning's eyes flicked to the side, gazing out at the distant sea, before she slowly channeled her thoughts into her contact with Fang's body. Her mind swirled with the image of those red leaves, of a tall marble pillar that reached up into the sky, and then a cracked throne, sundered and lost within the dust. She thought of the nimble figure in the trees, how it spoke to her, pleading for her to just go back home, to keep herself safe.

Lightning could see the way that Fang slowed, approaching the edge of the crowds, before she finally stopped to stare at nothing in particular.

"What are you _thinking_ , girl..?" Fang's voice went very low, and then somewhat hoarse. "Stuck in that damn crystal for so long..."

"You think it was Vanille?" Lightning could sense her own suspicions, even beneath all of the doubt, and when she saw the look on Fang's face, it all came crashing down upon itself. "Why does she want us to stop?"

Fang grit her teeth with just the barest hint of a scowl. "You really want to know?" She exhaled, reaching up to rub at her temples. "Vanille, she's... She's one of the best friends I've ever had, and one of the kindest people... But she's got this one part of her, the part that gets _obsessed_ over guilt."

Lightning kept her voice soft. "Guilt."

"Yeah, guilt..." Fang looked out over the nearby crowds, to the main harbor, before she leaned back against a nearby signpost, one with directions towards certain docks. "For a while, back there, Vanille was a complete wreck... All because she'd just wanted to explore the place, but it _wasn't_ her fault." Fang's jaw started to clench, and she closed her eyes, willing the anger to go away. "We didn't know what might be in there... She had no way of knowing what would happen, and when it did, she just fell apart."

Lightning watched the way that Fang's expression twitched, as if she might just be trying not to break down, herself. "But she finished her focus."

Fang nodded, leaning back against the wooden post, just to stare at the clouds above. "I basically pushed her to do it... She kept trying to talk it out with the damn thing, to try and get it to take her focus away, but it just went silent."

Lightning squeezed at Fang's hand again. "You did what you had to do... In that sort of pinch, 'can or can't' just doesn't matter." She waited for Fang to look her in the eye. "You did the right thing."

Fang tried her best to smile, yet Lightning could see the pain in every single inch of her face.

"We'll get her back." Lightning gently tugged at Fang's hand, leading her back to the path they'd been on, the way towards the market stalls. "You wanted to get her a present, right? And I should find something for Serah..."

Fang followed after her, slowly, walking down a small flight of stairs, into the midst of the crowds. "What sort of gift would Serah like?"

"I'll let you know if I see anything." Lightning glanced around at all the colorful tents and market stands, and she soon caught sight of a certain stall that was renting out small wagons, the kind that could carry a large amount of supplies. "We'll need something to move everything... Unless you think your shoulder bag can haul it?"

At that, Fang actually smiled. "No, not unless I changed it back again... And _that_ might cause a fuss." She looked at all of the passing faces, the people out to buy their daily goods, or to browse the exotic imports out on display. "Do I get to play pack horse?"

Lightning reached back to pat at the side of Fang's head. "Yes, you do."

Fang rolled her eyes. "Just my luck... Always the mule, aren't I?"

Lightning shrugged, reaching down into her jacket pocket. "We can take turns pulling it." She stepped over to the vendor, passing him a handful of coins in exchange for renting the tiny wagon, which overall wasn't that 'tiny', but for anyone without a beast of burden to pull it, it might prove just a bit difficult.

Yet that was where Fang came in. With all of the strength in her arms, lugging the little wagon around was less than a pain, especially since she soon got to witness just how adept Lightning was at haggling for groceries and other supplies.

"Fifteen gil?" Lightning turned one of the potatoes over in her hands. "You've got to be kidding... Most of them are already starting to go soft."

The vendor looked at her with just a thin hint of distaste. "Then pick the ones that aren't soft."

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the wooden tray of potatoes, where she returned the one she was holding. "I saw almost the exact same product over on that row of the market." She gestured in a direction that Fang knew they hadn't yet been. "They were selling them for seven gil each..."

The vendor smirked a bit. "That _is_ a good price."

Fang watched the two of them lock eyes, that sudden mental battle, a sheer test of will, but when Lightning turned up her nose and strode off, Fang could see how the vendor's will started to fracture, before he called out in a rather hushed way, just for her to hear.

" _Ten_ gil."

Lightning paused, glancing over at where she'd told Fang to act as if they didn't know each other, before she turned around with her wallet in hand. "That does sound better."

The vendor rolled his eyes. "Just make it quick."

Fang smirked a little, watching the way that Lightning picked out an armful of the rather tasty looking potatoes, and then handed over the appropriate amount of gil.

"Thank you for your business..." The vendor tested one of the coins between his teeth, but he didn't even glance at Lightning when she walked away from the stall. "Do come again."

After a moment or two, Lightning set the potatoes down in the cart, right beside where she'd bought a bag of flour and a small package of sugar, along with some strange white powders that Fang had never seen before, not to mention a decent variety of cooking spices, and then even some things she just couldn't name.

"What, are we having a banquet?" Fang chuckled when Lightning took over with pulling along the cart. "Just because I can carry a lot of food..."

"We're not nearly done." Lightning tugged the wagon poles with both of her arms, and Fang could see those lithe, sleek muscles on her wrists and hands, even if most of her limbs were concealed by the thick coat of wolf hide. "You said you needed the excess energy, right?"

"Yeah, but-" Fang lowered her voice a bit. "I figured I could just _hunt_ for that."

"Then what's the harm in making it better than it would taste raw?" Lightning turned back to gesture at the various bags of spices. "Let me teach you how to do this, Fang."

"...Yes, love." Fang followed on beside the cart, though she couldn't help but notice the slight flush of pink on Lightning's face. "Nobody's listening, you know."

"I know." Lightning glanced at Fang from the corner of her eye, guiding the cart down towards the more varied stalls of produce. "It's just strange to think about... It's only been a week or so, but I'm already used to this."

"The _heart_ _knows_." Fang gave her a warm smile. "And not the one in your chest."

Lightning almost smiled as well, but when she caught sight of a certain market stand, one with many different types of onions, she let the cart grind to a halt, gesturing for Fang to wait beside it.

And Fang did, keeping guard over their belongings, though she began to let her mind wander off to different days, to a whole different life, one where she'd been doing the very same thing, only with a rolling metal cart, beneath lights far different than the sun. She listened to the crowds and the ocean waves, watching the way that Lightning picked out several small red onions, even a few big yellow ones, before an idea seemed to dawn on Fang's mind.

Lightning had been there, in that distant place, and so had Vanille, and Fang also knew that Serah couldn't have been too far away. They were standing in a such a similar area, an open market by the sea, and she remembered the way that Lightning picked up a piece of fruit to examine it, before Vanille rushed over to look at it too.

Fang's mouth tipped up in a tiny smile.

She knew that Lightning had only rolled her eyes, but the way she looked down at Vanille, it was that same sort of familial warmth, the bond between each member of their odd little family, and Fang knew that she'd face hell just to protect her, the way she'd do the same to keep all of them safe. Lightning would do it. She'd put herself in harm's way if it meant protecting her kin, and such a realization, it almost made Fang's blood run cold.

She felt that same sort of panic when Lightning had used her necklace charm and stumbled, the same as the memory of those metal claws right at her neck, or even that other life, the time when she'd dragged Fang and herself across those fields of wild flowers, collapsing down into the dust with blooded wounds and battered spirits, when she drew in her last few breaths, just to make sure they'd have somewhere peaceful to die.

But it was too soon, _far_ too soon, and Fang had to stop herself from even imagining it, from thinking of the way that the fal'Cie might make her bleed, might send her reeling back from the vestige, gasping out her last few breaths, all for a person she'd never met before, at least not in the life she'd just lived.

Fang looked away from where Lightning was browsing the stalls, and she felt a sharp sort of liquid welling up in her eyes, the sudden sort of tears that she didn't even realize were there, not until they were prickling out over her eyelids. Her chest suddenly stung, and it felt like her heart was much too weighted. Fang closed her eyes, feigning that it was only dust in her eyelashes, wiping it away with her wrist.

 _I won't let you die._ Fang slowly grit her teeth, before she repeated the thought to herself, clinging down upon the image of them all together. With a shallow, shaky breath, she held it close. _Both of you... My_ _ **family**_ _._

"Fang?"

She looked back to see Lightning's arms, how she was carrying quite a few different things up to the wagon, from onions to carrots, even a single piece of garlic.

"Are you okay?" Lightning tried not to look at the sudden redness around Fang's eyes, just to spare her from knowing that she'd already realized what happened. "We can take a break if you want."

Fang shook her head. "No, no... It's all good, Light." She walked over towards the front of the cart, before she watched how Lightning placed all of the other vegetables down near the potatoes. "Just thinking about things."

Lightning stepped over to where Fang was holding up the handles of the wagon. "Don't push yourself too much, alright?" She kept her voice down, before she reached over to gently squeeze at Fang's wrist. "Nobody's invulnerable."

Fang tried not to frown, but she slowly used her free hand to touch Lightning's wrist as well, returning the gesture. "It's just so strange... Being here, and then out of _nowhere_ , you remember that she's still out there... Frozen in time."

Lightning nodded when Fang began to pull the cart again, before she moved her hand away, walking on alongside her, down through the bustling market paths.

"Do we have all the food we need?" Fang glanced back at the contents of the wagon. "Looks like quite a bit..."

"All we need are some eggs, and a little cooking oil." Lightning looked around, searching for the items in question, before she caught sight of a local farm stand, one that actually had several species of live barn fowl out on display. "Hey, wait here... Don't want you getting any bright ideas about those."

Fang rolled her eyes. "I won't go after the chickens..."

Lightning just gave her the tiniest sort of smirk, before she walked off towards the stand.

Fang thought back to the _one_ time, that _single_ time that she'd found a stray chicken, one who'd somehow gotten away from the rest of the flock and wandered off into a more forested area... And while it had been quite delicious indeed, she promised herself afterwards that she'd never actually break into a farmer's hutch just to sate her hunger. No, there were plenty of wild birds to choose from, and even if they didn't taste quite as good as a lightly-scorched chicken, it was more than enough to keep her satisfied.

It was only a moment before Lightning returned with a small package of fresh eggs, along with a bag of something that Fang couldn't see.

"What's that?" Fang looked down at the wagon. "More flour?"

Lightning shook her head. "Corn kernels... I figured we could make popcorn one night."

"'Popcorn'?" Fang glanced back up once Lightning had put the supplies away. "Is it like regular corn?"

"Another thing you'll just have to find out." Lightning quietly dusted off her hands. "Now we just need cooking oil."

Fang began to tug the cart forward again, weaving her way in between the market crowds, and then even other carts, some of which were pulled along by mules or oxen. "We're going to need something to cook all of this on, right?"

"Right." Lightning glanced around at all of the different stalls, searching for any hint of what else she needed. "We'll need to pick these out together... If something looks too heavy to carry, just say so."

"I'll let you know." Fang smiled at the sight of a group of children, all running along down by the seashore, near the boats. "Lots of people out today... Not quite as cold as yesterday."

Lightning looked at the outskirts of the market streets, which were set up along the harbor platform. "Yeah."

"Hey, maybe we can find you some clothes for warmer weather..." Fang gestured at the part of the market that displayed the more permanent sort of goods, some of which even looked like clothing. "Since you paid for the food and all, it can go on my tab."

Lightning turned to look at Fang, before she glanced down at herself. "If I'd known beforehand, I would've brought something lighter..."

"Don't worry about it." Fang kept pulling the wagon along, waiting for Lightning to keep up. "Been meaning to ask... How much protection does something like that give you?"

Lightning started to trail her fingertips down over the edge of her cloak. "The best way to protect yourself is to evade a strike entirely... But nobody's perfect." She reached up to tap her palm against the arm of her jacket. "The hide is pretty thick, and I can stay outside in incredibly low temperatures, just as long as I keep my face warm, but protection? It's not exactly armor, but it might soften a blow."

Fang chuckled a bit. "You must be pretty good at dodging."

"You know what they say, actions speak louder than words..." Lightning walked beside the carriage, following on at Fang's side. "We should spar sometime."

Fang's eyebrows quirked at the thought of that. "In my 'uniform', or without?"

Lightning looked at Fang's human body. "Like this."

"And what makes you think I can keep up with you?" Fang's eyes almost seemed to sparkle with amusement, and she gently bit down on the tip of her own tongue. "I'm flattered, though..."

Lightning kept a laugh inside, but Fang could see it in her stance, even on her face, not to mention how she sent back a wry little smile in Fang's direction. "I've got faith in you." She suddenly pointed at a nearby market stand. "Cooking oil, I'll be right back."

Fang nodded. "Sparring, huh..?" She watched as Lightning walked up towards the other marketgoers, before she herself leaned back, resting against the side of the wagon. "Faith." Fang slowly lifted her right hand, and before she could even begin to convince herself otherwise, the tiniest hint of a spark started to materialize against her fingertip. "Let's hope you have enough for both of us."

She kept standing there, watching how the light swiftly started to die out beneath the chill of the ocean breeze, before she snuffed it away with the rest of her hand, letting her fingers curl against her palm.

Fang knew that it was a losing battle to try and piece together a missing memory, though she couldn't help but try, at least enough to search for any possible alternative to killing the fal'Cie. Were they truly meant to abandon their journey before it even started? Vanille was far better at parsing out a possible vision of the future than Fang was, that much she was well aware of, but could Vanille even still see such things from within stasis?

Fang let out a quiet hiss between her lips, wishing for all the world that her teeth were just a bit sharper, that her fire could grow hot enough to burn away such terrible, nagging doubts... She suddenly realized that her hands were giving off almost visible waves of heat, so she jammed them back into the pockets of her jacket, trying to physically cool herself down.

She looked up, quite eager just to see Lightning's face again, just to _know_ that someone she cared for was still alive in such a brutal world, a place of silent gods and ruthless killers, and her own hunter, just as silent as a falling feather, Fang could finally see her off in the distance.

Lightning looked to be bartering yet again, clearly not willing to pay whatever high prices the vendors might try to gouge her wallet for. A warm swell of pride rushed out within Fang's chest. She knew that it was love, perhaps not the old sort of love, the kind she'd first felt when she remembered that rare smile, or even the way that such unusual pink hair looked beneath the sunlight, but it was definitely some form of love... Fang was sure of it by then.

She swore to herself, she swore that nothing would get even get close enough to harm her, that Lightning wouldn't have to endure any more cuts on her arm or bruises upon her head, not unless she needed the time to hunt alone. Fang could remember a life, one in particular, one where Lightning's livelihood involved rather dangerous work; she could still remember those long, dreamless nights of patching up new wounds, cradling Lightning to sleep with low, rumbling songs, just to try and soothe away the pain.

When she finally caught sight of those clear blue eyes, sharp as the sky above, Fang's heart nearly felt like it was flying again.

"Hey." Lightning walked up with a carton of cooking oil beneath her arm, and she carried a large bottle of pale liquid in her other hand. "Milk, in case we make griddle cakes."

"Griddle cakes..." Fang thought back to those flat little things, the ones she'd also known as 'pancakes' in another life. "Sounds good to me."

Lightning set down the carton and bottle, before she nodded at all of the assembled ingredients. "I think that's everything... Now we just need something to cook on."

Fang reached for the wagon handles again. "Lead the way."

Lightning looked out over the bustling marketplace, towards the area where she'd glimpsed larger cooking supplies. "Well, we'd be better off with an actual griddle... Maybe even something for grilling." She led the way onward, making her way even further into the harbor itself. "I left most of my things with Odin; I didn't want to have to carry them up the mountain."

"And you had all that jerky..." Fang smiled at the memory of such tasty strips of salted meat. "Hey, did you pick up the good kind of salt?"

Lightning pointed at the wagon. "Yeah, I know you like it."

Fang grinned even wider.

"But these things... Fang, these are for you." Lightning looked back into Fang's eyes, the same ones she'd seen look so blurry and lost, and she felt a sharp pang of guilt that she'd ever brought up those dreams, even if Fang deserved to know. "They're _gifts_ , okay? And so is teaching you how to cook."

"Lightning." Fang tried to swallow away the sudden crack in her voice. "Thank you, Light."

"We'll just say it's your birthday, alright?" Lightning could feel a tiny flush creeping up over her neck and cheeks. "Unless you've kept track..?"

Fang shook her head. "No, I barely even remember those days..." She smiled again, following after Lightning. "What's today, then?"

Lightning went quiet for a moment, just to mentally figure out how much time had passed. "Sometime after the tenth of Winterdown... It can't be Paletree yet."

"Maybe we can pick another month?" Fang glanced back at the wagon, helping it cross above a small bump in the harbor platform. "Something nice, like summer..."

Lightning almost grimaced. "With all the heat and mosquitoes?"

Fang chuckled under her breath. "Oh, me and the heat... We get along _just_ fine."

Lightning reached back to flick at Fang's shoulder. "And the mosquitoes?"

"Well, those can't be helped." Fang stuck her out tongue just a bit. "But they don't like fire, I'll tell you that much."

Lightning looked down at her backpack. "Remember the chameleon vine? It keeps mosquitoes away, even more so than regular smoke."

"Sounds handy..." Fang paused when she caught sight of a large pile of cast-iron cookware, and she saw Lightning pause as well. "So, Light, when's _your_ birthday?"

Lightning stepped over towards the nearby market stands, kneeling down to examine all of the pots, pans and skillets, even the big iron slates with rounded handles at the sides. "Mine is right in the summer, almost nearing autumn." She held up a midsized griddle to inspect the quality of the craftsmanship. "...It's the best season to pick wild blackberries."

Fang pulled the wagon over, before she knelt down as well, resting beside Lightning. "Which month?"

Lightning set the griddle down, reaching for one that looked a bit more sturdy. "Greenthorn."

Fang smiled, and she leaned ever so slightly against Lightning's shoulder. "Fitting, with such rosy hair as yours."

Lightning just rolled her eyes, examining the surface of the cookware. "Serah always makes a big fuss about birthdays... Mom and dad did, too." She lowered her voice a bit, still very soft, but more quiet. "The months don't matter as much on an island, not down in the tropics... But we'd still celebrate them."

"It's a good reason to celebrate, one year older and all." Fang watched how Lightning reached for the sort of grill that could be folded up upon itself, one that had detachable tines to prod at both the fire and the food. "I'll have to remember to get you a present."

Lightning shook her head, feeling the blush creep up a bit further. "It's not necessary-"

"Does it have to be necessary?" Fang peered over at the those who tended the stall, but it didn't look as if she could sneak Lightning a kiss without anyone noticing. "What if I just want to?"

Lightning just kept staring at the grill, before she carefully rose back up to her feet, reaching into her jacket pocket for her wallet. "Then I wouldn't mind as much."

Fang smiled, and she stood back up as well. "Find something good?"

Lightning nodded. "We'll only need these two..." She waved over the vendor, who was just finishing up with another customer. "Are these local wares?"

The vendor walked up to the counter, slowly shaking his head. "Imports across the sea, from Euride." He looked down at the pieces Lightning had selected. "Good eye, lass."

Fang just kept smiling at Lightning, but when she watched while she paid for the cookware, a rather decent sum of money, it made her realize just how little was left in that small leather wallet of hers.

Once they were out of earshot, carrying the grill and the griddle over to their wagon, Fang spoke up again. "Let me pay for the rest of today, alright?"

Lightning hefted the griddle up into the cart. "Alright."

"I just don't want to bring you back home without any money left." Fang set the grill down upon the furthest side of the wagon, where it wouldn't fall down on any of their food supplies. "Want to take a look at the exotic imports? I saw some interesting looking stuff over there."

Lightning followed Fang's gaze, towards the part of the harbor that ran right next to the loading docks. "Let's see what they have."

Fang started to pull the cart again, though she paused when a particularly large galleon drifted up towards the entrance of the marina, one with bright white sails. "If there's one thing that never gets any less impressive... It's a _big_ damn ship like that."

Lightning craned her head back just to see all of the rigging, how it ran all around the top of the mast, and then those billowing sails, flapping away in the gentle wind. "Wonder what Vanille would say if you got her _that_ for a present..."

Fang suddenly laughed, full and clear. "Oh... She'd be surprised, all right."

"Wouldn't be very easy to get it up to the vestige." Lightning smirked at the look on Fang's face. "Maybe a _smaller_ boat."

"Or a ship in a bottle?" Fang kept walking forward, hauling the wagon along behind her. "We'll just have to see."

Lightning walked on as well, but when she heard the distant shouts of the sailors, the cheerful, welcoming calls, one phrase stood out above all the others.

 _Cocoon._

Lightning almost felt as if she'd been frozen in place, wondering if she was just imagining it. For some reason, the nomad's words still rang in her mind, and she felt the urge to finally know what the old man had meant. "Hey, Fang?"

Fang paused a short distance away. "Yeah?"

"Do you know what 'Cocoon' means?" Lightning took a slow step forward. "And not the thing that moths make."

Fang smiled at her. "Well, in _this_ world, I think it's just an old shipwright's term for a young person of the sea." She gestured for Lightning to catch up. "Languages tend to change, though... It might mean something different now."

They kept walking in silence for a while, until Lightning caught the sight of a certain market stall, one which had various types of foreign trinkets and candles, even some incense out on display. "Want to take a look at those?"

Fang nodded. "Sure."

Lightning stepped up towards the edge of the stand. "Interesting." She reached out to trace her fingertips over a certain bit of cloth, a garment that looked a little bit like a scarf. "I've never seen fabric like this before."

Fang walked up as well, with the wagon in tow. "These harbor markets are the best for things like that... Always something new." She reached over to touch the fabric as well. "Nice feel to it."

Lightning glanced at the other silken garments on the table, though she couldn't see a few of them with other customers in the way. "I have a scarf for colder weather, but I don't really need it with this coat..." She looked down at the edge of her hood, which was resting against her neck with all of that fluffy white fur. "It's a little like these."

Fang leaned back to see the shelves behind the counter. "Want to keep looking around?"

"Yeah." Lightning stepped away, and she reached over to take a turn with the wagon. "How about you lead the way?"

Fang smiled at her. "Alright, but you never told me what sort of things Serah likes..."

"I said I'd tell you if I saw anything." Lightning tugged the cart forward, following on after Fang. "She likes earrings, statues of cute things, stuff like cats... Not much else in the way of jewelry, but she does keep things to decorate her bow with."

"Bow, as in archery?" Fang quirked an eyebrow at that. "Like yours..."

Lightning looked down at the rather plain bow beneath her cloak. "Yes, like mine."

"And she's part of this whole faith thing too, right?" Fang thought back to what she'd seen in Lightning's memories, to that silver necklace with a clear glass chamber, filled with a bright blue liquid. "She was wearing a charm, wasn't she? What's inside it?"

"Yes, it's a charm..." Lightning felt the ocean wind at her face, blustering her hood off to the side, before her soft pink hair spilled out to flutter in the breeze. "And they're roc tears."

"Roc tears." Fang thought back to the time when she'd had a rather fun spar with a big, territorial sort of bird, one who flew off screeching once she'd spat out a burst of fire at it. "And what do those do? Not lightning bolts, I'd imagine."

Lightning smiled to herself. "...Do you know how hard it is to accurately shoot a target two-hundred yards away, one who's thrashing all over with other people around it?" She almost chuckled at the look on Fang's face. "Serah is... She's the best archer I've ever known, and when she has the advantage of the eyes of a bird of prey, it's almost unfair to whatever she's up against."

Fang whistled quietly. "Remind me not to piss her off."

Lightning grimaced a bit. "I'm probably going to be on the receiving end of it when I get back... Arrows and all."

Fang paused by the edge of the street, near another market stand. "And why's that?"

"Because I've been gone so long... And I'll have been gone even longer by the time we finish this." Lightning set the wagon handles back down, before she stepped over to stand beside Fang. "The minute I walk in there, I'm going to get an arrow shot right in my backside."

Fang chuckled quietly. "Oh, then I'll knock it away before it hits you."

Lightning paused for a moment, thinking, wondering just how her fellow villagers might react to Fang's unknown presence, or even Vanille's, if they really were to break her free from such stasis. "Fang?"

"Right here." Fang was threading her fingertips down against a strange sort of beaded cloth. "What's up?"

Lightning kept very quiet for a short while, just to ponder over the right words to say. "It might be a good idea if I go in there alone, at first... Just to explain the situation." She caught sight of a little glass trinket, one with some sort of strange outline in the very center. "We don't get a lot of visitors there, except for deliveries and messages."

Fang shrugged. "Whatever works best." She watched the way that Lightning reached out for the glass sphere, revealing the little engraving within it, a translucent whale, rising within mid-breach.

"How did they manage to carve _inside_ this..?" Lightning turned the globe over in her hands, and she narrowed her eyes at the way that the whale seemed to move with each motion, though she was sure that her vision was just playing tricks on her. "I wonder how much this is..." She looked up again, motioning with her hand to get the vendor's attention. "How much for this one?"

A rather elderly woman glanced at the sphere, before she stepped over to examine it in closer detail. "Those are eight hundred gil each, dear."

Lightning glanced at the pocket with her wallet. "That's not bad at all..."

The vendor laughed very quietly. "They sell them like pebbles, overseas; that price is mostly for the expense of bringing them all the way over here."

Despite the fact that Fang had asked to pay for the rest of the day, when Lightning thought back to the little plush whale that Serah once adored so very much, it felt only fitting for her to take out her own wallet and count out the right amount of money. "Well, I know someone who'll love this..." She held out the bills, and it was only then that she caught sight of what Fang had picked up; it was an almost identical piece of glass, only instead of a whale, it held a delicate little deer, one with long, sharp antlers.

Fang stared deep into the depths of the globe, at those round, dewy eyes beneath the surface, as if they were gazing back at her. "Eight hundred gil..." She slowly reached down into her shoulder bag. "We can manage that, can't we?"

Lightning almost frowned at Fang's tone, but she quickly paid for her own trinket, waiting for Fang to pay for hers as well, before they both wandered back towards the side of the wagon.

"Let's, uh..." Fang quietly cleared her throat, holding the glass like it might just shatter between her fingertips. "Let's find somewhere to rest a minute, okay?"

Lightning nodded. "Okay." She moved to tug her backpack down over one of her shoulders, and she quickly stored the little glass whale inside a compartment with extra padding, so that it wouldn't break if she took a sharp step. "I can always get some lighter clothes another day... Where do you want to rest?"

Fang lowered her voice to a murmur. "Somewhere that we can pack everything."

Lightning looked back up at the outskirts of the city, and then at the market district, just a few minutes and a few flights of stairs away. "We can get the wagon up over those ramps." She pointed at the layered pathways, where several other wagons and horse-drawn carriages were moving both up and down from the city. "I'll pull it, okay?"

Fang shook her head. "It's alright." She placed the tiny glass bauble into her shoulder bag, gently strapping it shut. "Off we go?"

Lightning stepped in beside Fang, and she followed her throughout the tightly packed crowds, into the noise and bustle of so many hundreds of people, so many lives they'd never know, and might likely never see again.

Fang kept walking silently, pulling the cart behind her, but when they finally approached the edge of the market area, Lightning stepped in to take the burden from her arms.

"We share it, okay?" Lightning spoke very quietly, before she reached out for Fang's hands, holding them with a rather firm grip. "Listen... You don't have to face this alone."

"...I know." Fang closed her eyes for just a moment, and it felt as if all of the noises of the crowds slowly bled away, until they were both left in such open silence, quiet as the falling frost. "We're not... Not alone."

Lightning stroked her fingertips over Fang's knuckles, soothing away the tension from her hands. "I'm right here."

Fang opened her eyes, and the noise flooded back all at once, yet she could still see those clear blue eyes, just as sharp as her own, she saw them gazing back at her from within a sea of people.

"Let's go get everything packed." Lightning slowly looked up at the clouds, at how the sun had almost risen to the very height of the sky. "I have to say, lunch sounds good right now, but then we can leave... We can go and help Vanille."

Fang smiled softly, and she squeezed Lightning's hands, before she slowly let them go, but not before she'd pressed a gentle kiss against the top of her head. "Sounds like a plan."

Lightning reached for the wagon handles, flushing ever so slightly. "Let's find somewhere to pack up."

Fang nodded. "There's gotta be a side street up there, or something..." And she led the way onward, over the ramps that ran towards the outer city, through the market district, which was actually a bit less crowded during midday; most of the local citizens were likely seeking lunch, or on a break from work to take a quick rest.

Lightning kept pulling the wagon, following after Fang, until they finally reached a tiny alleyway, one with only a few windows up above, but all of them were closed.

"Perfect." Fang slung her bag down from her shoulder, and she set it down on the dusty ground. "Now, watch this..."

Lightning's eyes widened slightly when the satchel took on a certain light, rather like Fang's own glow whenever she'd change forms, but it was still just the two of them standing there, both human, though the bag itself had swiftly turned back into the massive container it had been before.

"Alright, time to pack." Fang walked over towards the wagon so she could unload some of their supplies, gathering the packages of food into her arms. "This top compartment is furthest away from me, so the food won't get quite as warm there."

Lightning stepped over as well, and she picked up quite a few of the vegetables. "Let's keep them separate from the cookware."

"Yeah." Fang moved to open up the strap of the first pocketlike pouch, before she set the cartons of food down inside it. "All this space, and I've never even used most of it..."

"You can carry all of this, right?" Lightning brought over the potatoes, the onions and carrots, along with the carton of milk and eggs. "I mean... If you can carry me-"

"It's no problem, Light." Fang smiled a bit, reaching up to help Lightning with the vegetables. "Listen, I once carried a _dolphin_ between continents, so I can sure as hell carry groceries."

Lightning caught sight of something within the satchel, but when she stepped forward to examine it a bit closer, she realized that Fang could also see what she was looking at. "Is that..?"

Fang knelt down beside the bag, before she gently reached inside, lifting up the plush of a rather floppy deer, one who had obviously been hugged and held numerous times over the years.

Lightning sat down as well. "Vanille's?"

Fang nodded, stroking over the soft little antlers at the top of the deer's head, and then over the white spots that ran all the way down to its back. "We don't really age much anymore, you know? She's almost like a kid sometimes..." Fang held the plush close, remembering the way that Vanille did the very same thing whenever something would frighten her, whether it was a particularly intense vision, or even a memory, likely one that was wound so tight with death. "She'd always keep it nearby, just in case something happened."

Lightning watched how Fang made sure not to handle the plush too roughly, taking utmost care to set it back inside the safety of the satchel, placing it down in the exact same way it'd been before.

"Fang..." Lightning kept her voice low. "You'll get it back to her before too long."

Fang tried her best to smile, and she patted the little plush between each antler. "I know."

Lightning slowly stood up again, making her way back to the wagon, before she returned with even more of their supplies. "It won't get caught up with our things in there, right?"

"Nope." Fang reached forward to reveal a thick flap of fabric in the middle of the container, sectioning off each half. "It'll be fine."

"Good." Lightning handed over the rest of their food, before she walked back to lift up the griddle from their wagon. "So, free lunch..?"

"Yeah." Fang walked back to retrieve the folded grill, along with a few stray cooking utensils that Lightning had bought alongside the food itself. "Maybe we'll even get the story behind that tattoo."

Lightning placed the griddle down into a different compartment. "I've always wondered what ocean hunting was like..."

"You've never done it before?" Fang lowered the grill beside the iron griddle. "I just figured, growing up on an island..."

Lightning paused for a long moment, before she went very quiet again. "I left home when I was just a teenager... Not quite old enough to hunt out on the sea."

Fang reached out to touch Lightning's shoulder. "Maybe you'll learn it, someday."

Lightning looked at the hand beside her neck, before she reached up to hold it against her own palm. "Maybe."

Fang smiled softly, yet her eyes seemed more than a little distant. "But I can't promise any exciting monster encounters on this trip... I'd scorch them before they even got close."

Lightning tapped along Fang's wrist, before she slowly let her hand back down. "We'll just see who gets there faster..." She stepped over towards where the wagon was waiting. "We need to return this."

Fang followed after Lightning, but not before she reached down to turn the satchel back into a much smaller bag, slinging it back up and over her shoulder. "Lunch first?"

Lightning shook her head. "The market's closer."

Fang stepped over to the wagon, reaching for both of the wooden poles at the front. "Alright, then let's make this quick; we've spent more time out here than we said we would, haven't we?"

"It's actually been pretty fun..." Lightning started off towards the end of the alleyway, before she looked back to make sure that Fang had followed. "But have to I agree."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." Fang walked up beside Lightning, and she smiled at her, walking out into the more active streets of the city.

They moved on through the commercial district, down to the lone vendor who rented the carts, collecting back a quarter of the initial fee in the process.

Fang took a moment to look out over the ocean, and even though she _swore_ that there was something new upon the wind, something _out_ there, she just kept following after Lightning, back up into the heights of the seaside city.

Lightning walked in silence, and it was only while they were passing through an unfamiliar street, one that led towards the part of the city that they had first arrived in, it was only when something on the cobblestone road let out a sharp click, only then did she freeze as if paralyzed.

Fang glanced down at her feet. "Shit."

" _Quiet_..." Lightning stared straight ahead, swiftly reaching for Fang's hand to guide her onward. "Nothing happened."

"Light." Fang tried to glance back at the strange, translucent sort of magic, which was stretched out quite like a low net across the street itself. "You _know_ what that-"

Lightning spoke in a harsh whisper. "...Act like _nothing happened_." She felt her blood grow colder and colder, and then inexplicably faster, almost _feverish_ , yet she kept her own expression like stone, looking out at the road ahead. "Damn it all."

"Detection wards in the _city_ , really?" Fang exhaled through her teeth. "But they can't track me, right?"

Lightning held her voice to a sharp murmur. "No, but if you're as powerful as I think you are, they'll be swarming out here, looking for whatever 'beast' triggered it... Just _keep walking._ " Out of the corner of her gaze, she glanced around at the streets. "Nobody will suspect two friends out to lunch."

It was only a brief moment later that a rather sizable group of guards sped past them, racing on towards the site of a possible monster invasion.

"Just walk." Lightning tried to even out each shaky breath she took. "Nobody pays any attention when you walk."

Fang kept her voice down to a whisper as well. "You sound like you have experience in this..."

Lightning almost let out a wry chuckle. "Not everyone is so fond of Etro."

An even larger swarm of guards suddenly dashed out from an adjacent street, running past the two of them, only they were well-armed soldiers instead of mere watchmen, equipped with a variety of weapons, from hooked spears to sharp swords, dressed to the very teeth in deadly tools.

Fang kept staring straight ahead, though she did spare a brief, unassuming glance when the solders rushed past them.

"We're almost there, right..?" Lightning glanced up at the street signs, looking around at the tangle of roads and sprawling avenues, until she finally caught sight of a familiar place, a little cobblestone street that wound down into the unusual shops and tiny restaurants. "Fang, _there_."

Fang nodded, before she reached down to grip at Lightning's hand; it was almost a shock when she realized they were both in a cold sweat.

"It'll be alright." Lightning just kept walking when a small patrol of soldiers looked the pair of them over, before they went back to searching the streets. "Lunch, right? We'll be just fine."

Fang took a very deep breath when the patrol finally moved on to the road they'd been on before. Lightning exhaled, traveling on down the street.

"They'd..." Fang's eyes suddenly went wide. "They'd shut down the city gates for this, won't they?"

Lightning's face grew just a bit paler.

"If we can find a big enough place, wide enough for me to change..." Fang grit her teeth, biting back a rather sharp swear. "What a _mess_."

Lightning still kept silent until they came across a rather familiar sign, a leaping fish with the emblem of Etro's eye, almost invisible unless one knew that it was there. "Fang, get us a table, I'll use the 'restroom'... I need to get something ready in case this gets ugly."

Fang swallowed, nodding. "...Yeah."

"Don't panic, okay?" Lightning took a deep breath. "It's going to be alright... And any fear, we can _handle_ it."

Fang squeezed Lightning's hand. "I know we can."

With a gentle push, the front doors creaked open, before the soft, subtle scent of incense came pouring out as well as the scent of fish, filling the air with its signature smell. Fang stepped down into that familiar entryway, the very same one she'd been in the previous night, only it looked so different in the daylight. Gone were the comforting shadows, the cozy, quiet spaces to hide, for the curtains had been drawn back to let in the sunlight, brightening the entire width of the seating area.

Lightning gave Fang's hand another gentle squeeze, before she slipped away towards the small door labeled as a restroom.

"Alright." Fang stepped forward, towards the mostly vacant seats and tables, and a sudden sight almost made all of the fear wash away, that of an old ship captain with her feet propped up on a different chair, snoozing away beneath the sun. "Ahoy, Captain..."

Captain Muriel slowly opened her eyes, and she blinked, glancing around at the lunchtime patrons, before she finally caught sight of Fang. "Oh! Hey, you." She let out a quiet yawn, leaning over to take her feet down from the chair. "Wasn't sure if I'd get another visit today... Where's Miss Lightning?"

Fang tipped her head over towards the restroom. "She'll be back soon."

Captain Muriel smiled, gesturing for Fang to take a seat. "You know, I don't think I actually got your name last night... Or this old mind might've just forgotten it."

"Fang." Fang reached out to shake hands with the captain, before she sat down, finally relaxing within the shelter of such a quiet place, one with so few customers at such an early hour. "Not too crowded, huh?"

Captain Muriel shook her head, and those long, tangled locks jingled with all of the beads woven into her hair. "No, not at lunch hours, it's more of a dinner place..." She began to smirk, gazing down at Fang's hands, which were resting against the surface of the table. "I've got a question for you, Miss 'Fang'."

Fang nodded. "Shoot."

The captain leaned back in her chair again, and she seemed the very picture of calm, yet in her eyes, that swell of mischief rose like a cresting wave, a storm out at sea, only it was locked there behind the barrier of human capability. "Does our friend Lightning... Does she also happen to know exactly _what_ you are?"

Out in the open, bare and unshielded, Fang's inner fire went very, _very_ cold.


	20. Hunters

Lightning knelt down beside the small wooden basin, the little sink near the restroom wall. "Right."

Her backpack hit the floor with a dull thump, though it look little time for her to find an entire bag full of various daggers, sheathed within cases that she could attach to her belt, right beside where her sword was resting.

"Just hold on, Fang..." Lightning quickly reached for an odd contraption in her backpack, one that lay within a rather concealed compartment. She tugged back the jacket sleeve upon her right arm, and she strapped the device down against her wrist, where the slim, needlelike points would be able to face wherever her hand was aiming.

She soon held up a slim, translucent vial, one with a dark green liquid inside, almost black in hue.

Lightning's mind wandered back to the small bottle of ink upon her desk, how she'd once written out her thoughts down against the pale paper; how _easy_ it had been, just to jot them all down within the shelter of her own home.

 _According to my observations on this particular subspecies, these basilisks only develop their signature venomous spray once they have grown for several weeks beyond their juvenile years. I've also noticed how the fully grown hatchlings are now utilizing it to hunt down both small birds and unsuspecting rodents... I believe this period of observation might soon come to an end._

Lightning clamped the bottle against the metal receptacle of the device, before she tugged the sleeve of her jacket back down over her wrist.

* * *

Fang could feel the snare as it tightened, how it wrapped itself down around her throat; those sharp, invisible strings just wound even closer, binding her deep inside that writhing nest of vipers, the place with more humans than she could ever hope to fend off, much less count. _No_ , she could always run, she could simply grab Lightning and _run_ , elude the sin of ripping them all apart...

But could the old captain be bluffing?

She was still just sitting there, watching the way that Fang's breath grew less and less steady, yet not a single word passed between them, not until Fang suddenly realized what to say.

"...She knows."

Captain Muriel's bushy eyebrows went quite high, and she set slowly her hands down upon the table, folding her fingertips together. "Then you, missy, _you_ need to learn how to hide your damn glow."

Fang narrowed her eyes. "'Glow'?"

"Look at you, so young..." The captain leaned forward to examine the outline of Fang's face, searching for any hint of abnormalities, anything inhuman. "What, you think I was born yesterday? _Nobody_ feels that warm to the touch... Either learn to hide it or lay off the handshakes."

Fang fought the urge to state just how old she actually was, before she glanced towards the other restaurant patrons, though it did seem like they were all too wrapped up in their own conversations to notice a whispering old sea dog and her visitor.

"Nobody feels that warm... Nobody but a dragon." Captain Muriel grinned, and Fang could see the gold caps upon a few of her teeth. "Now, don't get your knickers in a twist, I'm no rat..." She leaned back again, resting against the back of the chair. "But I do have one more question."

Fang felt herself relax as well, but only slightly. "And what's that..?"

"Do you treasure her?" The captain's voice suddenly went very soft. "Not just fondness, I mean... Do you _truly_ treasure her?"

Fang's voice left her throat before she could even think. "Entirely."

"Then I've got no quarrel with you, not unless you're one of _those_." Captain Muriel sat up straight again, searching Fang's eyes. "But a certain friend of mine, he thinks differently."

Fang would have called the old hag mad, if only the world hadn't gotten so twisted up within the past week or so; those lines of fate had brought her reeling back into action again, woken up and dragged away from what felt like so many thousands of years of resting.

"What, cat got your tongue..?" Captain Muriel glanced over at the sight of a passing crowd, right outside the restaurant window. "What could possibly spook a tough girl like you?"

Fang exhaled, before she leaned forward on her elbows. "Detection ward... Things aren't looking too pretty."

The captain's eyes widened ever so slightly. "You tripped a _ward?_ "

Fang nodded. "Wish I hadn't... I _have_ to get Light out of the city; she can't just force her way out, not with that many guards, and with the streets like they are _-_ "

"Much too narrow." Captain Muriel reached up to scratch the edge of her own chin, gazing up at the tinted glass of the windowpanes. "Oh, this _is_ a conundrum... Unless you'd like a bit of help instead of lunch."

Fang tried to fight back the pleading look in her eyes; she was a _dragon_ , damn it all, she did not _beg_.

"You'd have to promise me two little things, though." The captain held up a pair of fingertips. "Simple things."

"Just _tell_ me." Fang glanced over at the entryway, but she still didn't see any trace of Lightning. "We were just going to wait this out, but if you really do have a way out of the city-"

"No, can't wait it out." Captain Muriel shook her head, and the beads in her hair jingled with the motion. "Last summer, a ring of smugglers... Poachers, in particular, they brought in a certain bit of contraband... One who got loose in the city." She slowly stood up to her feet, still whispering under her breath, and she kept gazing at the windowpanes. "And today, if they can't find whatever 'beastie' set it off... They'll be rounding folks up for questioning, maybe even testing."

"'Testing'?" Fang rose up as well. "What sort of _testing?_ "

"It's not exactly a well-known fact..." The captain walked over to tap along Fang's shoulder. "But this sort of thing, other critters know how to hide just as well."

"Illusions?" Fang tried to hold back a scoff. "I'm no illusion."

"Now, these two things." The captain reached for her hat, which was resting against the back of her chair. "One, _you_ need to have a little chat with a certain friend of mine, and two, you have to keep on taking care of my little 'sister', here."

Fang glanced at the restroom doors. "...Etro's people look after their own, don't they?"

"Hell, nobody else will, and if you weren't whispering there, I'd smack you right over the head for blowing our damn cover..." Captain Muriel smirked at Fang, before she limped rather briskly towards the entryway. "Oi! Miss Lightning?"

It was only a moment or two before Lightning pushed the door open just a crack, clearly readying a large number of daggers against her belt. "Yes..?"

"Come girl, we aren't storming the castle, now." Captain Muriel rolled her eyes. "Like having the kids back home again..." She stepped away from the restroom, limping over towards the front doorway. "Sorry to be less accommodating than before, but lunch would take just a bit too long today."

Lightning stepped out from the restroom, and she looked over at Fang with clear questioning in her eyes.

"She, uh-" Fang sighed, before she turned to face the front door as well. "Maybe I'm not as stealthy as I thought?"

Lightning went very still, but when Fang reached over for her hand again, guiding her on towards the doorway, she started to move even faster than before.

"Alright, kids..." Captain Muriel set down a black tricorne atop her head, one that had a dark, slim feather near the top flap. "I can get you both through the back alleys, but once you hit the big streets, I'll only slow you down."

And with that, the captain was off, traveling just as swiftly as she could manage upon the cobblestone roads, with Fang and Lightning in close pursuit.

"Fang?" Lightning tugged the hood of her jacket up, as well as the white strip of fabric to cover her lower face. "Might be a good time to use these."

Fang reached for the shawl at her neck, drawing it up rather like Lightning's hood, just enough to hide her identity from anyone who stood more than a few feet away.

Captain Muriel grinned into the falling snow, limping along down those long, narrow streets. "Haven't had this sort of excitement in ages... Alright, now, Miss Fang, you'll just need to fly north from here, find the little island near the edge of the western bay, and you'll find the one I was talking about."

Lightning glanced between her two companions, and she wondered just how the old captain had figured out such a thing in the first place, yet it wasn't quite a mystery why she hadn't simply gone after Fang with lethal intent; one of the faith, a fellow messenger, even though Lightning herself rarely ever met others of her own kind, it was simply an unspoken rule: you _never_ hinder your family.

And the captain, she seemed quite keen on repaying her debts. "Get your sign out, Lightning... You might need it if anyone tries to stop you."

Lightning slowly reached beneath the collar of her jacket, tugging the thin silver pendant out into the open.

"Even the city guards... Even they don't mess with _us_." Captain Muriel kept on walking through the alleyways, until she reached a corner that turned back towards the main streets. And out there, the crowds were still bustling on, though they seemed rather tinged with soldiers, both armed and otherwise. "Sheesh... Alright kids, you just keep your eyes sharp and your teeth even sharper."

Lightning glanced down at the sword on her belt, and then at all of the pointed daggers beside it.

"Now, your way _out_ of here..." Captain Muriel narrowed her eyes at the distance, before she gestured at the adjacent street, one that led further up the city incline, towards the tall walls that kept the whole area sheltered from the ocean below. "You'll just need to head straight on that one, right there, 'til you reach the plaza, then you take two rights, then your second left, and then you just follow the eyes."

Fang peered out at the street. "'Eyes'?" She looked down when Lightning tugged at her hand, leading her off towards the road.

"Best of luck, kids." The captain tipped her hat. "Just try to keep out of trouble... And ask the old one how to hide your glow."

Fang tried not to stumble while Lightning kept urging her forward. "I never got the story behind that tattoo!"

Captain Muriel laughed out loud, turning to face the alleyway. "Maybe next time, girl! Maybe then..." She glanced over her shoulder to catch Lightning's gaze, and she took a moment to stare back at her fellow messenger, her fellow predator, until those sharp blue eyes disappeared into the crowd.

Fang looked out over the rushing surge movement and sound, listening to the ripple of fear that caught nearly all of the voices around her. The soldiers kept order in the masses, if only enough to not incite full-blown panic, yet they were rounding up as many people as they could manage to drag aside, testing them with some sort of strange metal device, before they were given a thin strip of colored ribbon and sent away.

"Come on, Fang..." Lightning kept walking forward, eyes front, leading Fang off towards the opposite street.

"What do you think she meant by the 'old one'?" Fang followed closely after Lightning, careful to keep her voice low. "An island near the western coast; are we supposed to just go and say hello to some old hermit?"

"Focus, Fang... One step at a time." Lightning's right hand was tensing up, almost a twitch. "We can talk again once we get the hell out of here..."

Fang nodded, before she started to walk just a bit quicker than before. "Wanna swipe one of those ribbons?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the road. "And get the entire city guard on our tail once we get shouted at for stealing them? No thanks."

Fang shrugged, glancing up once they'd reached the next street, one that did indeed hold a plaza in the distance. "Two rights, then the second left..."

Lightning kept her voice low. "Follow the eyes."

They walked on down the narrow roads, between banners of red and purple, beneath the unlit streetlights, far into the many twists and turns of the city, until the path grew less and less populated, growing empty and nearly silent. Yet when they turned another corner, at the very edge of the city limits, beneath the massive wall, a small patrol of soldiers took notice of their presence.

Lightning hissed under her breath, still whispering. "Just _keep walking_." She squeezed at Fang's hand, guiding her forward, and even a nearby voice didn't bring her to a stop.

"Ma'am..?" One of the soldiers stepped forward when they tried to pass by. "Ma'am, there's been a breach of city security; I'll need you both to follow me to a testing area."

Lightning finally drew to a halt, looking the solider right in her eyes. "You don't need to bring us anywhere." She turned, slowly, and her pendant revealed itself between each flap of her pale white cloak. "We have very urgent business to attend to."

Another solider, likely a subordinate, spoke up in a rather hushed way. "A hunter..."

The first guard, a tall woman of rather stately looks, she snapped her gaze back towards the one who had spoken. "Protocol, nobody is exempt." She looked at Lightning again. "The test takes a few mere seconds, ma'am."

Lightning kept very still, _very_ silent, before she let her words go soft. "You'd interfere with a messenger of death..?"

An almost visible wave of tension passed over the group, and Fang could see several of them twitch with their dominant arms, yet none of guards dared to reach for their weapons.

" _None_ are exempt..." The tall woman held out her own arm, gesturing towards the city itself. "If you'll follow me?"

Lightning slowly smirked beneath the cloth of her mask, and she let a single tooth hook down over her lip, one of her upper canines. "I follow none but my family and my goddess... And as for you, _you'll_ let this one go if you know what's good for you."

A sudden murmur, one of the soldiers spoke up, and she saw it then, that rapid snap of teeth, the threat of dissent, silenced so very quickly by a sharp bark from their leader; it was enough to make Lightning let her cape flare out behind her, tossing it back with her arms to reveal the myriad of weapons on her belt, gazing out with those eyes of bright, searing blue.

 _Wolves_ , the lot of them; Lightning caught sight of Fang, dashing to stand back to back with her, lowering herself down into a defensive stance brace for whatever impact might swipe out, but when the soldiers merely drew their weapons within a split second, fanning out to circle around them, Fang knew it might not even come to blows.

Lightning already had her sword drawn, ready to strike back, yet Fang noticed something odd; she was holding it with her left hand.

A racing mind, those flashes of teeth, that polished armor, so shiny and new; she'd cut open the one at her flank, for his helmet was loose, a fatal mistake if her blade was to sear his jugular right open, and then the leader, she'd have to deal with that one _quick_ , and if Fang could help her, could grab at the one with the crossbow while she _gutted_ him with her sword-

Lightning's gaze honed in, and it was in that same moment that she realized, they weren't even advancing, yet she found that the words just tumbled out from her mouth. "You see the needles under my right sleeve?" Lightning's eyes were very so wide, _waiting_ , already feeling that clash of steel against her own blade, the sound of a dozen footsteps all rushing down around her, striking at them both, but she just kept speaking, even if the words didn't align with her mind, didn't match with any of what her sword arm kept screaming for her to do. "I'd rather we all just walk away right now... Instead of covering you in basilisk venom."

At that, the tall woman, likely a sergeant by her command over the rest of them, she straightened slightly, yet she still gripped at the handle of her spear. "You'd be caught in the crossfire..."

Even with the white fabric on her mouth, hiding her expression, there was a certain gleam in Lightning's eyes, fueled on by equal parts fear and utter adrenaline, and she crooked a single index finger to gesture at her mask.

Stiffening, the sergeant fought back a slight grimace, before she lowered her voice just to mutter under her breath. "Clever bitch..." She glanced over at Fang's shawl, which was entirely near enough to be dragged over her mouth in an instant, just to protect her from the fumes.

Lightning kept perfectly still, waiting until the sergeant suddenly signaled to her troops, and as soon as the line of soldiers parted, Lightning grabbed at Fang's arm, dragging it with her right hand, just to rush on towards their destination, fleet of foot and spirit.

"Basilisk venom?" One of the soldiers, his face had gone so very pale. "Why didn't she just take the damn test?"

The sergeant hissed quietly, clicking the tip of her tongue against the top of her mouth. "Probably all hopped up on some voodoo bunk... Might've set off the sensors."

"But was she bluffing?" Another guard reached for his own throat, just to make sure he hadn't actually inhaled anything toxic. "She was _bluffing_ , right?"

The sergeant braced the blunt end of her spear against the cobblestone path, leaning on it with a rather wry smile. "No, I've dealt with enough of Etro's ilk to know they _hardly_ ever bluff; they must get off on it, all that danger..." She gave them all a small shrug, before she looked back at the city walls, up at the seagulls circling above. "You'd have to, wouldn't you? To make a blood pact with the goddess of death..."

* * *

Lightning felt her boots tapping down on the stone, felt the blood in her veins run quicker and quicker, and she gripped at Fang's forearm in a way that made sure the needles wouldn't activate.

"Light?" Fang almost laughed when Lightning suddenly let go of her arm to hand over a slim, sheathed dagger. "Could've given me this beforehand..."

Lightning just kept running, reaching into her sleeve to deactivate the entire mechanism. "Didn't think it'd get that rough." She looked up at a nearby street sign, and only then did she start to slow, just to see the tiny, circular emblem that had been carved into the wood itself. "Follow the eyes..." Lightning glanced up at the sky. " _Her_ eyes."

Fang followed Lightning, chasing after those little circles, the watchful eyes, those intricate symbols left behind by fellow members of the faith.

"Be ready for anything." Lightning glanced at each of the circular marks, and she followed the scattered trail all across the city streets, beneath that towering wall, until she finally faced the very heart of it, the end of the trail itself. "...Interesting."

A steeple rose far above the tiled roof and the clay walls, which wore an old, yet colorful set of stained glass. A large flock of pigeons kept cooing and fluttering around the highest church tower, taking shelter from the falling frost.

Lightning paused, before she tugged at Fang's arm again, just to lead her forward. "They'll help us here."

Fang narrowed her eyes a little, watching all of those noisy birds upon the roof. "I thought that this was supposed to be a way _out_ of the city?" She suddenly caught sight of the huge carving above the wooden doors; there was a feathery, heart-shaped face, rounded and calm, with those two dark, sharpened eyes, ones that bore right through her.

"It probably is." Lightning turned to point at the city wall, which rose so far above the church itself. "Trust me on this one, okay?"

Fang took a deep breath. "Okay..."

Lightning stepped up towards the doors, pushing one of them open with the edge of her arm, before that drifting incense, it filled her senses in such a familiar way, enough to ease out a bit of the tension from her limbs.

A lone figure sat beneath the main altar, below the stone statue, one of a robed woman with outstretched arms, wide wings, and a hood that seemed quite similar to the carving above the door.

Lightning cleared her throat. "Excuse me."

The sitting figure, slim and petite, she rose up to face them. "Oh? Welcome." She caught sight of Lightning's necklace, and she smiled at the imagine upon it. "...A sister."

Lightning looked the young woman over; she was donned in ceremonial robes, silver bangles, and there was even a pale smear of ash upon her forehead. "If we're interrupting anything, I apologize-"

"Oh, no." The young woman stepped down across the silk carpet, past the steps, towards the main pathway, which lay in between only a small number of wooden pews. "We don't get many visitors lately... As I'm sure you might know."

Lightning smirked ever so slightly. "We won't be visiting for long."

The young woman nodded, before she looked up at the doorway, and then at the way that both of her visitors were breathing so heavily, even the tiny trickle of sweat upon Lightning's brow. "Do you seek asylum?"

"In a sense..." Lightning glanced over at Fang. "We have a friend who told us we could leave the city from here."

"Ah." The young woman waved at them, strolling over towards the western side of the hall, up to a locked door. "I do hope you have a boat waiting down there..."

Fang chuckled a bit, still trying just to catch her breath. "Not exactly."

The young cleric reached for a large key from the pocket of her robes, before she used it to unlock the intricate door, which had once been carved with a great number of symbols and imagery; Fang could still see those dark eyes, the feathers, even sharp talons near the door handle.

Lightning listened as the mighty door creaked open, and after a moment or two, it revealed a rather small storage room, yet most of the crates and ceremonial garb were coated with a thin layer of dust.

"It's right this way." The cleric stepped towards another doorway, only it was already unlocked, and she waved for them both to follow after her. "It's a very long walk down, though... But the stairs are all made of stone, so there's no worry of wood rot."

Fang glanced around at all of the unused supplies, and she almost frowned when she caught sight of an abandoned silver necklace, one which was resting rather lopsided at the top of a wooden box.

Lightning followed on through the dusty rooms, down to a somewhat inconspicuous bookshelf beside the back walls. "Let me guess, pick the right one to take down..?"

The cleric muffled a small giggle with her sleeve. "No, no... Much too obvious." She reached up on tiptoe to tap at an almost invisible wooden tile near the top of the bookcase, which began to creak and shift, rolling on over a hidden mechanism to reveal a long, dark tunnel inside the stony wall. "Let me go get a candle."

The young cleric stepped back towards the main hall, and Lightning waited, standing there beside Fang, just trying to relax once again. A few moments passed, and it almost felt as if they could start to breathe freely, yet every so often, an odd little sound would start to creak deeply within the old church, and it sent them right back on edge.

"Think we're out of the woods yet?" Fang slowly leaned back against one of the dusty stone walls, glancing down at where she'd attached the dagger to her belt. "They might've run off to find all their friends..."

Lightning shook her head. "This is a church, we have legal asylum." She leaned back as well, right next to Fang. "Unless the laws are different here."

"I'll just feel better once we're out _outside_ again." Fang let her head thump quietly against the wall, and her left foot began to slowly twitch back and forth, tracing invisible circles near the ground. "These cities are nice and all, but..."

"Just a little too cramped?" Lightning almost smiled, before she reached up to wipe away the sweat from her brow. "Way too many people."

" _Exactly_." Fang closed her eyes for a moment, breathing just a bit more slowly, trying to force away the sheer adrenaline from her veins. "I'd almost forgotten how hectic it can be... Vanille _loves_ cities like this, and I can't say that they aren't fun, but it can be pretty damn draining." She stared up at the etchings upon the ceiling, at the outlines of fluttering moths, most of which had the symbol of Etro carved right into their wings. "It just doesn't feel like home..."

Lightning looked up when the young cleric returned with a candle, one that was already quite drippy with beads of melted wax.

"Now, this is quite a climb..." The cleric gestured at the tunnel. "We're far above sea level, you know." She stepped forward, and her sandals softly tapped down against the stone steps, while her candle lit the way, illuminating the pale, ancient paintings upon the walls.

Lightning stepped down next, with Fang right behind her, but when they reached a small curve in the stairwell, the bookcase rumbled shut behind them.

"It's the stone, here." The cleric knelt down to point at the unusual tile that she'd stepped on, before she glanced back up at the way they'd walked down from. "When you step on it twice from here, the gate opens; my father says that the lost ones, the priests of old, that _they_ built this place... And they used this tunnel to help the faithful escape persecution."

Fang frowned. "Persecution?"

The cleric stood up again, nodding. "We are _very_ lucky to be born in such a time... So much less violence in the world, even if it might not seem that way." She looked over at Lightning's weapons, still somewhat hidden by her cloak, but it was only a warm smile that crossed the cleric's face. "The hunters, they keep the balance."

Lightning stepped down again when their guide continued on, though she found herself looking around at all of the faded paintings, at those sleek swooping owls and dusty little moths, creatures of the night.

"What's with all the birds?" Fang pointed at one of the images, a barn owl who almost seemed to walk upon two legs beside a group of robed humans, only it stood just as tall as they were. "Is that another Etro thing?"

"Her patron animals..." The cleric gestured at the walls. "The owls, her hunters, and the moths, her peaceful caretakers."

"That's a _big_ owl." Fang tried not to laugh at the absurdity of such a sight. "Or is it meant to be symbolic?"

The cleric giggled quietly. "Oh, it's just part of the old story..." She looked back over her shoulder at Lightning. "I'm sure you know it?"

Lightning nodded. "We all do..." She tipped her head towards Fang. "I'll have to tell it to her later."

"It's a long enough climb." The cleric cleared her throat, stepping down across the stony stairs. "The recorded legends state that long ago, when humans took their very first steps upon the earth... That Etro appeared before them." She held up her free hand to gesture at the air, and her robes almost seemed to flow like water. "Etro could see that they were _plagued_ , hunted by both beast and sickness alike, so she took pity upon them, giving them the gift of her blood."

Lightning murmured under her breath. "The first pact."

"Yes, but it began to thin over the years, as everything does." The cleric looked up at the painting of a mighty, armored figure, one who was spearing his weapon down into a coiled, serpentine creature, straight through the scaled, glimmering throat. "The humans, they no longer needed to pray for her, and because she had given herself over to them, her own lifeblood, her power waned... But as _everything does_ , the world changed."

Fang almost grimaced at the painting of so much spilled blood, which flowed down in great torrents from within the massive beast.

"The world _changed_ , _and even the keenest of the hunters found that they were far too weak to face the greatest of all foes_." The cleric held her candle aloft, before she squinted her eyes against the darkness. "So, another pact was made, only Etro decreed that while her people would always be utterly free, that she needed something in exchange for her great power, so that it wouldn't wane again."

Lightning spoke again, tracing over the curves of her silvery pendant. "Blood."

The cleric nodded. "A bond between the beast and the hunter, even the goddess herself... Her silver runs deep within the earth itself, her own life force."

Fang tried to look at each of the paintings, though she was careful not to slip upon any of the stairs. "But where do the owls come in?"

"Her most faithful, her _angels_ , they were given the greatest gift she could muster..." The cleric sighed, shaking her head. "That boon, it is lost to us all."

Fang met Lightning's gaze.

"Some say that the spirits of the faithful dead still wander the earth, only with wings given to them by the goddess..." The cleric stepped down towards a small stone platform, where she started to push aside a tangle of cobwebs, long abandoned by any living spiders. "But, like everything else in the old books, you just can't tell what might be fact or fiction."

Lightning looked back down over the stairwell, following after their gentle guide, the one with robes like the silk of a dusty wing, and the voice of someone very, very small.

"And these days, it almost feels like we're lost again... Dying out." The cleric looked back over her shoulder, and she tried her best to smile at them. "I apologize, I shouldn't-"

"Don't worry about it." Lightning tried to smile as well, for the girl almost reminded her of a much younger Serah, a girl still untempered by the world, meek and somewhat timid. "Family, right? We're all we've got."

The cleric nodded, and she smiled just a little bit wider. "...Yes, we are." She turned back to face the stairs again, carefully stepping down over each one. "We're almost there."

Fang stretched her arms. "It'll be nice to get outside again."

"You're telling me..." Lightning glanced at yet another painting, one that depicted a stone bridge between the edges of a mighty canyon, where she could see that a group of humans were traveling across it. "You just don't get the freshest air in the city, you know?"

Both Fang and the young cleric nodded.

"Once we head north..." Lightning paused, gazing at the image of a tall, armored knight, one who held his sword almost like a shield, as if to brace it against an impending blow. "There won't be so many settlements, will there?"

Fang shook her head. "Islands, mostly."

"Are you booking passage by ship?" The cleric paused for a moment, before a slight blush crept over her cheeks. "I apologize, I shouldn't be so nosy..."

"We have another way of getting there." Lightning glanced down once a thin ray of light appeared in the distance, illuminating the long, stony tunnel. "It's a little more unconventional, but it works..."

Fang smiled at the distant light, and she quickened her pace a bit to keep up with her companions, walking down until they were finally beside a door again, where she could just start to catch the strong scents of the sea.

"I only hope this isn't rusted over..." The young cleric took out another key from her pockets, fitting it in the lock, before she tried to push the wooden door. "Um, could you maybe..?"

Both Fang and Lightning stepped forward to help press against the door, and they gradually forced the way open, even with such rusty, stubborn hinges.

" _Damn_." Fang chuckled when there was finally enough space for her to fit through. "They don't make them like they used to..."

Lightning slipped out from the doorway, and beneath the sudden sunlight, the brightness of it all, she had to pause there upon the sandy beachfront, blinking against the light.

"Are you sure you'll be alright out here?" The young cleric peeked out once Fang had walked through as well, and she couldn't see any sort of ship or watercraft upon the water. "I'd hate to leave you here if your transport isn't-"

"Like I said, don't worry." Lightning stepped back towards the wooden door, leaning against the edge of the frame. "Do you need help getting this shut again?"

The cleric nodded. "We haven't used it in years..." She still held the tiny candle in her hand, and the wax had dripped down even further, to the point where it was starting to collect within the base of the metal dish. "Now, good luck to both of you... May Etro always be with you."

Lightning smiled softly. "And you."

It was quicker work to push the door shut, and when it finally eased back into place, Lightning almost sagged against it, slowly turning around to face the wide blue ocean, finally outside, finally _free_.

Fang sat down in the sand, looking out at the gentle waves. "I think I need to brush up on my history... If all of that stuff in there was true, then I hardly know anything about Etro."

Lightning took a moment just to breathe. "We aren't exactly... We aren't the same as other religions, Fang." She sat down as well, still leaning against the door. "Take Bhunivelze, for example, most of the people I've met from his faith... They're _way_ too eager to tell you everything about it, all the shining details, but there's always another side to everything." She looked out over the crashing ocean, and she could feel the wind on her skin, in her hair, even against the silver chain at her neck. "We don't hide that side, but we don't show it off, either."

Fang slowly moved to face Lightning again.

"We're hunters, and we're _killers_... There's nothing much more to say." Lightning reached down to unsheathe one of daggers, watching the way the steel glinted in the sunlight. "We might do it for the better of humanity, but it doesn't negate what happens."

"Well... I don't think that's a sin." Fang laughed so quietly, so softly that Lightning swore she might've imagined it, if not for the way her mouth tipped up, revealing those pale white teeth. "A _sin_ , that's killing and then denying it after the fact, or worse, killing for no reason, but what _you_ do... It's all population control."

Lightning stared at the metal contraption on her wrist, still concealed beneath the sleeve of her jacket. "Promise me something, Fang?"

Fang nodded. "Sure."

"If I ever go too far... If I ever do cross that line-" Lightning reached down to tug back the hide, the fur lining that kept the device so well-hidden, and she carefully unstrapped it from her arm. "If I ever turn into what I'm hunting... I want you to _stop_ me."

"But you _didn't_ fight them, Light." Fang slowly rose up again, brushing the sand away from her knees. "You showed a lot of restraint back there."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut when Fang settled down beside her, but she could suddenly feel the warmth of her skin, even before Fang reached out to touch at her cheek, gently stroking along her jawline.

"I wanted to... I _wanted_ to kill them." Lightning's voice began to crack, straining just a bit, but she kept her eyes shut tight. "I saw them again, I _saw_ _it_ , and if I hadn't killed them all first-"

"Light?" She could still feel Fang's hand on her face. "Saw _who..?_ "

Lightning tightened her fingertips down into fists, pressing them deep into the sand. " _Animals_." She almost shivered, and she felt that crawling itch in her spine, the need to eliminate, to smear away the threats into oblivion, to get them away from herself and everything she so dearly loved. "Wolves... _Walking_ wolves, wendigoes."

"Light, look at me." Fang suddenly gripped at Lightning's chin, just tight enough to get her attention, to draw her out from the dark. " _Look_ at me."

Lightning's eyes slipped open, glassy and distant.

"You were hurt... And you went through _hell_ , Light, so I'm not about to ask you to heal from it." Fang traced one of her fingertips over the curve of Lightning's face, up to the space between her cheek and lip, over those canines she knew so well. "But when you get like this, when you lose that part of you, it makes me feel _helpless_."

Slowly, gradually, Lightning's gaze slid back into focus. "...I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault." Fang smiled despite the pain, despite the sheer fire in Lightning's eyes, that wild one deep inside, the snared, struggling animal, the girl that had such silent cries. "...It's not your fault, love."

Lightning slowly released the contraption in her hand, letting down against the sand with a thud.

"All that adrenaline, huh?" Fang stared deep into those bright blue eyes, gazing at them until they finally grew clear again. "You must've just run out there... All the thoughts come rushing back, don't they?"

Lightning nodded. "Fight or flight... Focus on the target."

"And we _reached_ it." Fang kept her voice down to a whisper. "We're out, Light, we made it."

"We are, aren't we?" Lightning let her gaze drift over towards the waves of the sea. "We can keep going."

"We can..." Fang smiled softly, and she reached for one of Lightning's hands, holding it tight beside her own. "Walk with me?"

Lightning glanced down at the dark vial of basilisk venom, at the needles, ready to spit with a single twist of the mechanism, the sharp flick of her wrist. She reached for it, slowly, before she pulled out the vial with her fingertips.

"Nasty stuff, isn't it?" Fang leaned in to examine the swirling black liquid. "What's it do?"

"Temporary paralysis and not-so-temporary nerve damage." Lightning slid the cap of the vial back into place, sealing it from any possible leakage. "If it doesn't kill you within seconds, that is."

Fang winced at the sound of such things. "How the hell do you extract something like that..?"

Lightning almost smirked. "Very carefully."

Fang stood up upon the sand, beneath the brisk ocean winds, waiting for Lightning to stash away the strange little device back inside her backpack, along with the dark vial of such a deadly toxin. "All that poison of yours..."

"It's not poison, it's venom." Lightning quickly slung her backpack up and over her shoulders again, before she rose back to her feet. "They're pretty different."

"Oh?" Fang reached out for Lightning's hand again. "They both knock you down dead, don't they?"

Lightning took hold of Fang's hand, letting her guide them both towards the shore, beside the lapping waves. "Poison is deadly when you touch it, inhale it or ingest it; there are poisonous plants, mushrooms, even certain animals, like frogs... But venom has to be injected, at least in most cases, _very_ rarely by inhalation." She thought back to her remaining vials of hydra blood, but those were actually quite a conundrum to categorize, for it was already extremely deadly by sheer proximity, though she quickly reasoned out that even though it was poisonous to inhale, the utter corrosion was simply a bigger threat to deal with.

"You and Vanille, you're gonna get along just fine..." Fang rolled her eyes, kicking at a stray drift of snow on the sand. "Oh, that toad is poisonous? Let's go hug it anyway, _'I'm immortal'..._ "

Lightning choked back a quiet laugh. "Immortality in a certain sense; I still wouldn't let her hug anything toxic..."

"You're telling me." Fang chuckled a little, and she strolled along in silence for a while, before she glanced back to see if that same look had fully left Lightning's eyes, the cornered one. "You feeling any better?"

Lightning nodded, gazing down at the way her boots left such muddy prints within the snowed-over sand. "I told you before, Fang... I can handle this."

"I don't doubt it, but everyone has their worries." Fang spoke against the wind, but she still kept her voice down. "I just don't want to lose you, okay? It looks like you're suddenly a thousand miles away when you get like that..."

Lightning ran her fingertips over Fang's palm. "It feels like it."

"Does it..?" Fang tried to find the best words, the right ones to say, but as the moments stretched on, she found that she only had a few left to speak. "Does it happen very often?"

Lightning shook her head. "Just when the situation is stressful, and not in the usual way-" She reached to tap at the handle of her sword. "I can face danger just fine, it's only when..." Lightning paused, looking back up at the city walls, at the seagulls drifting in the wind. "It's only when it _reminds_ me of something."

"Then we can manage..." Fang squeezed Lightning's hand, before she suddenly turned in place, looking deep into her eyes again. "You ready to fly?"

Lightning waited for a very long moment, just to listen to the shrill cries of the gulls, the wind in her ears, even the whispering sea. "Yeah."

Fang's hands went aglow, and in a mere moment, she was gone, standing there as a wyrm yet again, so powerful and tall. Lightning kept very still, but she stepped forward when those big green eyes lowered down to peer at her, and when Fang's snout nudged at her shoulder, she reached up to touch along each scale that stood within reach.

"Let's get going, Light..." Fang moved her head down even further. "Before someone looks over that wall and gets a _real_ nasty shock."

Lightning placed her hand right between Fang's eyes, against that pitch black hide with so many shiny scales, gazing into the deep green of her irises. "We'd better move along the beach, then... They'll probably spot you if you fly from here."

Fang waited, keeping still while Lightning clambered up and over her wing, towards the spot that she usually perched upon, only she turned to rest somewhat backwards, laying against the curve of Fang's long neck. Lightning could feel it when Fang stood up to walk forward, though she couldn't see the way ahead of them, only the gentle sway of that long, dark tail, and then the crashing waves of the sea.

Fang almost chuckled at the way the base of her neck had become a makeshift hammock, but with the sheer stress they'd both been through, she had little desire to ask Lightning to move. "Now, old crusty back there, she said to look for an island near the western shore..." Fang kept moving across the sandy beach, and as she walked, she noticed that she left behind two clawed footprints, and then another pair with only the outline of her wings. "To find the 'old one'."

Lightning stared up at the sky, slowly propping her feet up against Fang's satchel. "And do you want to do that?"

Fang tried to shrug with her wings, still walking across the sand. "She did ask me to... Said it was in exchange for getting us out."

"You should keep your word, then." Lightning slowly relaxed into the rhythm of Fang's pace. "She didn't lead us wrong back there, did she?"

Fang looked back up at the city wall, and then down at the sparse sort of forest near the edge of the beachfront, mostly bits of rough scrub and undergrowth, but it soon spread out into actual woodland. "There's been something strange going on today, Light..." She kept walking, moving on down into the light spray of saltwater, until her footprints began to wash away with each step. "I really thought something was calling me this morning, but it could've been just my imagination."

Lightning slowly turned, moving over on her side to rest against the elegant curve of Fang's neck, just so she could watch the splashing waves. "What if it really is calling to you?"

Fang paused for a moment, and when Lightning finally turned over all the way, she could feel that tiny heartbeat again, thudding so quietly against her scales.

"Let's go, Fang..." Lightning hugged at Fang's neck, before she rose back up again, sitting in that more normal spot, right between her wings, braced against the massive satchel. "Lets _find_ it."

And so Fang moved, she started off along the shoreline, stepping faster and faster until she could slip herself into a full run, and only then did she lift up her front limbs, those massive wings, kicking herself off from the ground. Lightning looked at the dark webbing between each of Fang's digits, at how it stretched back down towards her body, almost to the base of her tail. Each gentle beat of those wings, it brought them higher and higher, up in the air.

 _Keep an eye out for an island._ Fang's inner voice echoed out from her scales, rippling away from where Lightning was touching them. _Western coast... We're already on it._

Lightning stared out across the sea, gazing off towards the opposite side of the continent, which was just a small strip of gray off in the distance, where the ocean stretched on into the land.

 _I haven't been this close to the ocean in a long time._ Fang dipped her head down to sniff at the brisk, salty winds, and she could feel the air rising up from beneath her wings, enough to keep her gliding along for a while. _But for some reason... You never really forget it._

 _I know what you mean._ Lightning kept one hand upon Fang's scales, but she still held on to the strap of the satchel with her other, for the wind was somewhat turbulent, jostling them both every so often. _But the water, it always looks so different out here._

Fang thought back to the memories she'd occasionally glimpsed of Lightning's childhood, of the thin green seawater, cool and calm, lapping against those long, pale beaches. When she looked back down again, into the dark blues, the foamy whites of the spray near the edge of each wave, Fang knew that they must be very far from wherever Lightning's island was.

It dawned on her then, that her human companion was just as much of an odd duck as Fang herself might be, a mere fish out of water. Fang could walk the streets and be utterly hidden, yet there was always something there, something that whispered to her, something that insisted she was out of place, that she was just a hawk among vipers, one bite away from crashing down to the earth for good. And her companion, was she a wolf among sheep? Fang turned her head slightly, watching the way that Lightning stared out over the horizon, off towards the west. Or was she more of a bird, like her, an owl among so many swarms of mice?

Lightning kept looking down at the ocean, tracing absentminded little designs along Fang's scales. What could her draconic friend be thinking about in that thick skull of hers?

Fang flapped her wings against the wind, and she flew onward for what felt like hours, out over the coast and the long, roaring waves, until she finally caught sight of a tiny speck off in the distance, a small island upon the blue. _See that?_

Lightning nodded. _Yeah._

Fang dipped down ever so slightly, angling her wings against the flow of wind, letting it carry her over the gusting waves. _What do you think might be down there?_

Lightning shrugged, and she had to squint just to keep the salty air from stinging her eyes. _No idea._

 _Let's just keep our guard up... No sense in letting it go._ Fang turned herself to flap along a wide crest of air, speeding down towards the tiny island, until she was able to circle all around it, still far above the ground. _Now where to land..?_

Lightning's eyes went wide when a sudden streak of white swept up to travel beside them, rolling through the air with such grace, such poise, that she almost felt the urge to call out to it. A barn owl, sleek and feathered, it flapped down into Fang's flight path, circling all around the little island beside them.

 _Fang, look at that!_ Lightning stared at the fuzzy, rounded face, at those pitch black eyes that stared right back at her, but there was such a great amount of warmth in that darkness, so much that she felt her own blood begin to stir, thrumming deep within her veins.

 _Yeah, don't look now, but there's even more of them._ Fang began to circle downwards, flapping above the island itself, until she was quite a bit closer to the rough, stony surface. _They'd better not be territorial..._

Lightning peered over Fang's winged shoulder, yet she could only watch as the entire flock scattered into sight, flying alongside them, and her ears rang when one of them let out a shrill screech, a call that echoed right down into her bones.

Fang touched back to the earth with a quiet thud, and she quickly grasped the rocks with her hind limbs, letting those long, black talons grip against the stone, until she could find a spot to put down her wings without harming what was between the boulders... So many different clutches of pale white eggs.

"This is-" Lightning narrowed her eyes, watching as the owls all flew back down beside them, perched along the jagged rocks. "Fang, this isn't natural; barn owls _don't_ flock together... And they definitely don't nest in the winter."

Fang snorted when a particularly brave bird fluttered up to perch atop her snout. "They sure look like a flock."

Lightning slowly edged her way down towards the base of Fang's wing, using it to make her way to the stones below, but she was also quite careful not to harm any of the scattered nests. And yet, none of the parental birds even made any attempt to ward her away, in fact, one of them moved to nudge against the edge of her ankle when she finally took a step forward.

"Friendly little buggers, aren't they?" Fang looked up at the dark talons resting against her scales, before she gently shook her head back and forth to send the owl away. "They're supposed to be birds of prey, right?"

Lightning knelt down beside a clutch of eggs, and she felt her eyes widen even further when the mother owl stepped out to nuzzle at her hands, brushing all of those soft, tawny feathers against her palms.

Fang kept her perch upon the stones for a while, before she let herself start to change. After a moment or two, she reappeared in her human form, resting atop the edge of a large rock. "What _is_ it with you and birds?"

Lightning stiffened a bit when she realized that many more of the owls were approaching her, and that some of them were even flapping up to perch along her shoulders. "I have no idea-" She almost winced at the sight of those long, sharp talons, but the birds seemed very keen not to harm her, or even the clothing on her body, for they kept their hold quite gentle.

" _Angels_ , the girl said..." Fang chuckled quietly. "You think any of that was true?"

Lightning just scoffed under her breath, trying to stand back up with all of the birds upon her shoulders and arms, but when she moved her whole body with a quick shake, they all flew off again, landing back along the stones. "I don't care either way... If they're friendly, that's good enough for me." She quickly walked off along the rocky island paths, looking around for any hint of what Fang might be searching for. "Come on, Fang."

Fang soon stepped down from her own perch, and she followed on after Lightning, between the nests and ragged stones, even the tiny bits of frozen brush that grew in between each crack of the rock. "What if _this_ is what the captain meant? All of these birds..." She looked up at the watchful owls, some of which were following along with them.

Lightning shook her head. "She told you to ask the 'old one' how to 'hide your glow'..." She paused when another owl flew out into her path, circling back around to fly over both of their heads, until it landed a short distance away, shrieking along with wide, outstretched wings. "You really think they're what she meant?"

Fang shrugged. "This one wants us to follow him, just look at his wings." She pointed at the way the owl was flapping so slowly, as if to beckon them on. "Either that, or he wants us to piss off."

Lightning stepped forward again, and when she approached the screeching owl, he simply flew off a short ways away, before he started to repeat the gesture again, urging them onward.

"What a weird island." Fang let out a quiet sigh when Lightning swiftly followed after the bird, before she walked on as well. "Weird island, weird birds..."

"I thought you liked odd ducks?" Lightning clambered up over a sharp incline of rock, using the bottom of her boots to help brace herself against the stone. "And I have a feeling that this is just going to get weirder and weirder."

Fang chuckled quietly, before she let herself shift back into her dragon form again, stepping up over the incline with ease. "I do like odd ducks..." She reached back down to grab at the scruff of Lightning's cape with her teeth, though she was careful not to damage it, helping her travel up the slope as well.

"You'd better not slobber on that!" Lightning found the climb much easier with such strength to aid her, yet the sight of those teeth, so close to her spine, they sent flashing signals all through her head, making that sharp sense of fear prickle right back into her skin. "...And don't you _dare_ rip the fabric."

Fang's voice was a bit muffled. "I won't." She finally stepped back when Lightning reached the top of the stony hill, releasing the base of her cloak.

Lightning's mind suddenly swept back to that day on the beach, to the heat of the sun and dragon fire, when an all too familiar set of teeth were more than ready to rend her apart, to spill her blood against the sand; but when she looked at the light in Fang's eyes, at the gentleness there, she slowly began to push those memories away, latching onto the time when Fang had helped her move around the mountain caverns, carrying her along at her own pace.

Fang lifted her head to look out over the island path. "It looks a little more rocky up there..." She turned to face where the strange owl was still screeching occasionally, flapping both of his wings. "Climb up again?"

Lightning slowly stepped over towards Fang's nearest wing, and she used it to climb back up upon her usual spot. "Thank you."

"It's no problem." Fang stepped down towards where the owl stood, following it even further, off to where the island rocks grew even more tall and jagged. They looked just as sharp as savage talons or teeth, and there were even some that rose up like the edges of so many old, rusty blades. "Not the most welcoming place, is it?"

Lightning suddenly felt another owl touching down against her shoulder, though she made no effort to try and shoo it away. "I have a feeling they don't get many visitors around here..." She glanced down at the pendant near her neck, at the round, silver eye, silently staring back at her. "Or if they do, they might not be so well-received."

Fang lowered her head down to move beneath a thick column in the rocks, one that had fallen down to create a natural archway. "I think they know that we won't try to mess with the eggs."

Lightning nodded, but she winced when the owl started to preen her hair, and she nearly grimaced just a bit. "They seem... Calm, around your dragon form."

Fang kept following after the stray owl, careful not to slip upon any of the stones, and it was only a moment or two before she caught sight of the ocean again. "End of the line?" She stepped over to look down at the sea, at the waves that roiled with such thick foam, before she finally spotted something out of the corner of her gaze, just a tiny patch in the rocks, sheltered in shadow. "Or... Maybe not."

Lightning held on tight when Fang traveled down over the thin path of rock beside the ocean cliffs, but when she saw the owl on her shoulder as it leapt away, flying off over the strong wind of the sea, a moment of calm filled her senses, just to watch the way it could glide along so delicately.

"Hey, look at this." Fang lowered her head down to peer inside the cave, one that wound a short ways into the earth, and when she squinted her eyes, she could see just the faintest hint of light inside. "There's-"

The guide owl let out a screech from overhead, before he flapped away to join with his fellows, leaving both Fang and Lightning in solitude.

"There's something _here_." Fang knelt down to let Lightning climb to the ground, before she moved away slightly, changing back into her human form. "Just keep your guard up, okay?"

Lightning nodded. "I will."

Fang stepped towards the edge of the cave, before she inched forward to peer inside.

Lightning walked over as well, but she kept herself right up beside Fang, trying to catch any hint of what might be awaiting them within the cave, but she could only see that soft, flickering glow.

Fang exhaled, before she suddenly straightened up, stretching out her arms. "You know what..? Screw it." She strode inside before Lightning could even get a word in edgewise, casually traveling on down into the cave. "Oi! Anyone home?"

Lightning hissed through her teeth. " _Fang!"_

But Fang just kept walking, because the mere thought of acting as a mouse, even if just for a moment, it bruised against the sheer swell of her pride, her very worth as dragon, a _wyrm_ , a beast forever feared across the land; she was not meant to sneak around in hushed tones, no, if there was something calling for her, she'd call right back and approach it directly, let the formalities be damned.

"Fang?" Lightning followed after her, gripping at the handle of her sword. "You see anything yet?"

Fang stepped down along the winding rock, the narrow pathway that led deep beneath the earth itself, but she didn't speak for a long moment, not until she finally caught sight of what was casting that peculiar sort of glow. "...Yeah."

Candle wax dripped down along the weathered walls, and the light itself, it flickered so silently, while a lone figure sat at the very center of the cavern. A ring of dust, likely sand, it circled all around him, turning in upon itself, forming the crest of a watchful eye, and within each row, even more candles sat against the stone.

A voice, so wisened and weary. "You... You are here." The figure kept facing the opposite direction, away from where Fang stood. "What twist of fate..? What makes this day any different?"

Lightning's eyes went wide at the peculiar, yet familiar voice, that accent, and at the outline of a human who wore the robes of a monk, but she kept her thoughts to herself, staying very close to Fang's side.

"It is... Winter, is it not?" The nomad kept gazing up at the stone walls, at the heart of the earth, at each vein of liquid silver, the lines that dripped like the edge of a burning candle. "The little ones, they speak of the cold."

Fang just stood there, waiting, but she still didn't speak a word.

"My friend has told me of your arrival... The good captain, I owe her a debt." The nomad, the ever-weary nomad, he finally rose up to his feet, aged beyond his years, before he slowly turned to face them. "Long have I waited... Long have I searched."

Lightning felt those sharp, piercing eyes upon her, watching her like a predator again, yet when she looked back into them, she finally realized that they were both quite the same.

"And long have I hunted." A thin, ragged glow enveloped the nomad, and Fang suddenly let out sharp snarl, stepping out in front of where Lightning stood. A scaled neck, strong wings, and a jaw of what seemed like endless teeth, and yet, he only settled himself back down against the stone, curled up within the circle of Etro's eye. "And now... You are finally here."

Fang gazed at her fellow wyrm, her kin, a dragon of so many countless years, and she suddenly felt her own heartbeat quicken. "Why did you... Age?" She stared at those dark purple scales, the orange eyes, such fire deep within them. "We're _immortal_."

"I am... Only an echo." The dragon settled his weary chin down against the rocks, resting there. "Most know of me as Aubergine, now... You may call me that, too."

Fang kept standing in front of Lightning, but when she looked back over her shoulder, there was little fear in those bright blue eyes, as the curiosity had grown far stronger.

"Yet, beneath another sky, under a set of different stars..." Aubergine's voice went hushed and distant. "I was known as Bahamut... But I've become something far different now."

Fang suddenly stepped forward, kneeling down beside the old, wisened dragon, careful not to disturb the circle of sand. "How is this even possible?"

"Part of what I was... It is always with you." Aubergine closed his eyes, even when Fang reached out to touch along his forehead. "Your wings, your teeth... Your spirit."

Fang realized in that moment, peering down within his soul, that the old one, there could be no magic, no power of the gods that might possibly keep him from withering away, and yet, his physical form was snared by immortality.

"Do not hold to despair." Aubergine began to breathe very deep, and he moved one of his wings to shelter them both, keeping the candlelight at bay. "I live a life of resting, now..." His lungs strained again, before he opened his eyes to look at her. "I watch over the angels and their children, and they live... They live on."

Fang suddenly bowed her head low, still clutching at his scales. "I _remember_ you."

"What is it... You would seek here?" Aubergine slowly turned to look at Lightning, who hadn't yet moved from the mouth of the cavern. "Approach, if you wish."

Lightning slowly stepped forward, walking across the flat, dusty stone floor, until she could sit down beside Fang, still sheltered beneath that wide, royal wing, such a dark purple, so much that it almost looked black.

Fang fought back the bitterness from her throat, the anger that the one so close to her, _her spirit_ , that he could have ever been languishing the years away, even without her, wandering the world in solitude.

"Tell me what you seek." Aubergine watched Fang try to keep the tears away, that saltwater in her eyes, and he almost sighed when she swiped them all aside so fiercely. "Where are... The others?"

Fang exhaled, breathing in a low, ragged way. "Vanille, she's been caught in stasis... A l'Cie." She felt her hands grow raw against those dark, smooth scales, yet the sudden surge of heat didn't phase her in the slightest. "We're out to kill a Fal'Cie."

Aubergine's great eyes flicked back over towards where Lightning sat, and she stared deep into the long, black slits, the pupils that felt like they could see right into her.

"And Light, she's gonna help me..." Fang moved her hands away from Aubergine's scales, watching the flicker of fire upon her palms, how slowly it waned, dying out beneath the chill in the air. "She's been traveling with me, so we can kill it and get Vanille back."

Aubergine stared at the lone hunter within his cave, yet when finally he saw the rounded symbol on her pendant, he visibly began to relax. "A messenger of the goddess."

Lightning leaned herself against Fang's arm, before she nodded. "Believe me, we didn't start on the best of terms."

Fang scoffed under her breath, but she still slung her arm around Lightning's back and shoulders, holding her close. "You nearly jammed a _sword_ in my skull." She moved over to press a brief, chaste kiss against the crown of Lightning's head, before she mumbled her next few words into that soft pink hair. "Talk about weird introductions..."

Lightning just rolled her eyes, but she slowly relaxed against Fang's side, resting beside a creature who was so very close to both of their souls, so much that his presence didn't even seem quite unusual anymore.

Aubergine closed his eyes, before he spoke again. "You treasure her."

Fang kept her arm around Lightning's back, curling around to hold at the base of her forearm. "What's with people _saying_ that today? Yeah, she's... We're pretty damn close."

"How much do you know... _Truly know_ about yourself?" Aubergine kept his eyes shut. "But you have the gift of youth... Do you still not know?"

Fang's brow furrowed a bit, and she leaned forward slightly. "If there's something I _don't_ know, just spill the beans already."

"Immortality is a _gift_..." Aubergine opened his eyes again, and he lowered his wing down, tucking it back against his chest. "It was gifted to us in the early days... A time when death was quite foreign, even to the gods." He inhaled, breathing in the rich scents of the sea. "By definition, it is eternal life, but that very same gift can be destroyed... And it can be _shared_." Aubergine slid his gaze back towards Fang. "You do not often prefer the company of mortals... I know this, now."

Lightning tensed up a bit, even with Fang's arm around her. "What are you saying, exactly?"

"Oh, the good captain..." Aubergine's breath grew hoarse. "Forgive me, I have not spoken at such lengths in many years... I met the fair captain in a time of great strife in the world; she was lost and injured, stranded at sea." He suddenly let out a wheeze, so quiet and soft, but Fang could see it shudder through his entire body. "She was a hunter... A hunter of beasts, like _me_ , and yet when I saw the look in her eyes, that _storm_... She wanted to live, so I carried her on my back to shore." Aubergine blinked at Fang. "How she reminded me of you."

Lightning felt something blooming in her mind, a realization so sudden that she barely even realized it. "How old is Captain Muriel..?"

"I have lost track of the years." Aubergine took a moment to breathe. "But she is... She is quite _treasured_ , for she kept me very safe for many years within the city." He closed his eyes again, bleary and weathered. "Her husband, he perished in the war, and her children have all since outgrown her... Yet she lives."

Fang tried not to frown. "That wound, on her leg?"

"It may someday start to heal... Perhaps." Aubergine's voice drifted off a bit. "I do not know for sure."

Lightning listened to them talk for a while, but even at Fang's side, her mind wandered away to the possibility of such a thing; could she truly be given that same form of eternal life? She almost shook her head, scoffing at the thought, for she'd long since accepted that her own end would likely be at the hands, or rather _claws_ , of some wild beast, even if she hadn't quite yet met her match... Other than Fang herself, of course.

Fang kept speaking to the old dragon, her companion of so many lives over, and while he did try his best to answer her questions, each word he spoke grew more and more weary.

"The world is slowly shifting." Aubergine lifted his head towards the tunnel, towards the path that led back up to the rocky shore. "A great change... We will live to see it again, as it has happened long ago." His eyelids drooped, and he lowered himself again, resting against the cavern floor. "Forgive me, but I must..."

"Sleep." Fang reached up to pat at the side of his head as if they were siblings, a fellow dragon, strong yet gentle. "Get some rest, now, we've still got a promise to keep... But I can promise _you_ , if I'm able, I'll be back someday."

"We can speak in dreams for a while." Aubergine's voice went low. "Go now, but remember... The sea is no true friend of Etro... It lies well within Lindzei's domain, and he grows ever restless."

Fang rose back up to her feet, standing there within the cavern light, beneath the flickering candles. "Can I ask you one more thing? The captain was saying something about a 'glow'..."

"Your spirit, girl." Aubergine chuckled, long and low. "Your _fire!_ "

Fang smiled softly. "But how can I hide it when I'm human? She said that she figured it out when we shook hands."

"A flame can be stoked, and it can be stifled..." Aubergine forced his eyes open for just a moment longer. " _Never_ let it die... Never let your soul wither away, but you can dim it if you must."

Fang rolled her eyes at him. "Mister cryptic, over here."

"Matters of the soul are often cryptic, by their very nature..." Aubergine sighed, before he rose back up to his wings, facing her directly. "Show it to me."

Fang set both of her hands down upon her hips. "Show you what?"

"Fire." Aubergine glanced at where Lightning was still sitting. "I would not want to burn you."

Lightning rose up to her feet, stepping away to stand near the wall of the cavern.

It was a mere flicker, just a spark, before the thin plume of flame swirled out along his tongue, gathering in a great, smoky cloud, before it suddenly began to shift, changing color. Fang stared into the deep blue fire, where an orange hue had been burning away only moments before.

"Our fire is the soul itself... And a soul, it can change." Aubergine closed his mouth again, and the flames were gone. "It can hide."

Fang watched the old dragon lower himself again, laying back down to rest. "Thanks... I'll have to try it." She scratched at the back of her head, as if perplexed, before she glanced over at Lightning. "Been a weird day, hasn't it?"

"Yeah..." Lightning leaned against the rough wall of the cave. "I still have the feeling that it's just going to get weirder."

Fang took a very long, deep breath, before she stepped over to bid her new acquaintance, her old _friend_ , goodbye. "You take care of yourself, alright? I _will_ be back."

He looked up at her with just a bit more brightness in his eyes. "Be safe."

"I will." Fang turned to face the tunnel, before she held her hand out towards Lightning. "...Let's go?"

Lightning took a step forward, gazing down at the way Aubergine already looked as if he'd drifted off to sleep, before she looked back to nod at Fang. "Let's go."

Fang smiled at the sudden warmth of Lightning's hand, holding it in her own. "What a day..." She kept walking up into the tunnel, beneath the soft light of the early evening, until she reached the very top of the path again, near the narrow, windy cliffsides. "Hey, you hungry? We did miss lunchtime..."

Lightning suddenly realized that her stomach was indeed feeling rather hollow, for it gave her a rather pitiful growl when she thought back to all of the food she'd bought. "The mainland's still close, right? We can stop for dinner."

"That we can." Fang stepped out along the rocks, past a single, tawny owl, who called out to them with a gentle screech. "You think they're really anything special? Or just weirdly nice birds?"

Lightning stared back at the rounded face, at how those feathers drifted in the wind, before she shrugged. "I've seen stranger things."

Fang chuckled. "I don't doubt that..."

It was only when they were back out along the wider rocks, and then flying so high again, rising up into the evening winds, surrounded by owls out to hunt beneath the sheer cover of night, it was only then that Lightning knew what she needed to do.

* * *

The fire crackled on, low and gentle. It had a griddle propped up on top of it, yet the slate was long since empty of food.

Fang rested there with a blanket beneath her back, laying in the tall grass, while she toyed with a couple of sparks between her fingertips.

Lightning sat beside the fire with a woven pouch in her hands. She could feel the wind in her hair, against curve of her jaw, and after a moment, she scattered a handful of what looked like dust into the flames.

The light brightened, rising so far above the iron griddle.

Lightning spoke in a murmur, narrowing her eyes in concentration. "The hunter rides..."

The scent of incense began to fill the air, so very thick and pungent.

"The hunter... The hunter _flies_." Lightning clutched the silver pendant between her fingertips. "The hunter flies to slay those who would threaten us... A beast of the unknown."

Fang listened closely to each word, though she was still sprawled out upon the blanket, gazing up at the stars.

"...To grant my quarry a swift and righteous end, and to accept it back into your arms." Lightning peered deep into the fire. "Etro, hear my words." She watched the flames crack and flicker, burning on within the boundless dark. "Goddess of death, I answer your call, may you hear mine as well."

Fang slowly turned to lay on her side, and she smiled at the way Lightning's eyes fell shut.

"We guide to your fold to bolster our own, to keep the hallowed balance eternal..." Slowly, Lightning let her eyes drift open. "May you bring us back alive."


	21. Briar Thorns

The sky was cloudless and clear, lit only by the light of the crescent moon and stars.

Fang took a deep breath of the frigid air, and even though the scent of incense was still quite strong, she could tell how close they were to the towering pines, even without seeing them. Her blankets were splayed out over the grass, above all of the snow. For a just moment, all she could see was the wide, inky sky, and then all the stars, until a soft set of eyes peered down at her in the dark.

Lightning knelt against the blanket, perched right beside where Fang was resting. "It's getting late."

Fang kept very still for a while, watching the glow of the fire flicker across that smooth, pale face, into the blue of her eyes. "It is..." She reached up to touch at the nearest edge of Lightning's neck, easing her fingertips down over to her jacket, towards the curve of her shoulder. "You want to rest here for the night?"

Lightning relaxed against the touch, and her eyes slowly began to slip shut, leaning forward when Fang moved back up to stroke along her neck, so gentle and soothing. "We could try to get in a few more hours of travel..." She stifled a yawn, and her arms almost buckled beneath her, pleading with her just to lay down and take a cozy nap against Fang's chest, but she merely tightened her fingertips against the blanket. "And I'd rather not sleep out in the open."

Fang moved to stroke her thumb over Lightning's jawline. "We'd be safe here."

Lightning slowly shook her head. "It's not about safety. Not exactly." She opened her eyes again, before she reached up to cover Fang's hand with her own. "Believe me, Fang, I've slept outside more times than I can count... I'd just rather find somewhere else in case it snows again."

"I could melt it away..?" Fang smiled at the sudden look on Lightning's face, that silent sort of turmoil that struggled between simply laying down beside her companion or packing up all of their belongings to find another location near the coast.

Lightning almost seemed to sway, before she steeled herself, gradually leaning back. "Help me pack up?"

With a gentle sigh, Fang shrugged against the blanket. "Alright." She waited for Lightning to let go of her hand, before she rose up as well, sitting there among the grass and chilly winds, beneath the tall, swaying pine trees. "Dinner was nice, by the way."

Lightning had already stood up to walk back towards the fire pit. "I'll teach you how to make griddle cakes tomorrow." She lifted a large canteen from her backpack, before she poured out some of the water against her hand, slowly scattering it down against the glowing coals. "Serah used to make them so much, that one day I just threatened to buy us a cow; you need milk to make them, and we were going through it at an _insane_ rate."

"A cow, eh..?" Fang stretched her arms out above her head, before she slowly back rose back up to her feet, walking over to help pack away their supplies. "Sounds useful."

"I just didn't want to add another chore to the list." Lightning kept tossing water onto the coals, dousing them down until they were completely dark, but even then, she used one of the fire pokers from the grill to turn them over, extinguishing every last hint of flame. "Every day, I have to wake up in the morning to feed the horses and mules, and then the chickens, which also have all of their eggs to take care of... I do take a short break after that, unless something needs to be cleaned out, or repaired, but the stables need daily cleaning."

Fang began to stack up a set of plates and utensils, which were still a bit greasy from the chopped onions and potatoes, the meal that Lightning had cooked for them both. "Busy days..."

Lightning scoffed under her breath. "And that's just the early morning; the horses take turns out in the field, grazing and running around if they like, unless it's a training day, and in the spring, if my neighbors need help with planting crops or furrowing out the fields, I know how to hitch up one of the mules to a plow." She picked up the griddle from the ground, before she stashed it back down inside of Fang's satchel. "I do get help with the morning chores, and everyone does something every day."

Fang took a moment to think over what Lightning had said. "Are the horses aggressive? Why do they have to take turns?"

Lightning stifled the barest hint of a laugh. "No, it's just because we have Shiva around... The rest aren't gelded."

Fang tried to think back to the last time she'd heard that specific word, and when she finally began to remember what it meant, she almost let out a low laugh as well. " _Oh_."

"Yeah." Lightning stepped over to pick up both of the blankets from the grass. "That's not to say that I wouldn't consider buying a mare to raise a few foals someday, but right now, we just don't need more mouths to feed." She began to fold up the woven blanket sheets, careful not to let them get wrinkled. "But once the chores are done, I can take some time to relax or patrol the valley... At least until dinnertime."

"Well, once you teach me a bit more about cooking-" Fang watched while Lightning put the blankets away. "I could help out with it."

Lightning smiled a little. "You'd have to be invited over for dinner, first."

Fang grinned as well. "Would I get invited if I helped out with the chores?"

"Only if you left the chickens alone..." Lightning strapped down the opening of Fang's satchel, before she stepped away to lift up her own backpack. "And you'd also have to wake up earlier than Hope to take care of the horses; give that kid a job, and he _never_ stops."

"A good work ethic?" Fang smiled when Lightning sat down beside her. "Sounds like you'd have less chores to do."

"He's just a kid... I can't let him take it every day." Lightning looked up, using the moonlight to see where Fang's face was, for the glow of the fire was long since extinguished. "He deserves time to relax."

"Early teens, you said..? It'd be good for him to have a job like that." Fang watched the way that Lightning's eyes had to keep refocusing within the dark, and for a moment, she wondered what it might be like to have lessened eyesight like that again, unaided by her dormant dragon form. "Responsibility and all."

Lightning took a moment to think it over, just sitting there, resting so silently upon the ground. "I just remember what it was like at that age; he gets so closed off sometimes, and I don't want to push him before he's ready for it."

"You are a _very_ good sister..." Fang reached out to hold one of Lightning's shoulders. "Family isn't always blood, Light, and I bet he's just glad you're looking out for him."

Lightning went silent again for a while, listening to the sounds of the wind, to the creaking trees, even the way that the grass rustled back and forth, before she finally spoke again. "Before we left home... I had to make sure Serah didn't turn out like I did."

Fang frowned slightly, but she kept quiet while Lightning spoke.

"We'd spent a year trying to rebuild, to bury all the ashes... And then, when the world _just_ -" Lightning paused, straining, and Fang could see the sudden swell of tension in her eyes, even within the dark. "We just left... We left almost _everything_ behind, and at first, I didn't even feel angry." She leaned forward slightly, trying to hide away the look on her face. "I was _empty_... I felt empty, all up until I got it _back_ , years later."

"All that trauma, Light..." Gently, Fang squeezed her shoulder. "It shocks you, doesn't it? When you get distant, it brings you back to that moment?"

Lightning nodded, still gazing at the ground. "Serah and I, we don't talk much about home." She looked down at herself, at those hands, the ones that had once held her sister down beneath the waves, keeping her away from such deadly flame, the same hands that had once blistered within the heat of boiling blood and fire, yet they just kept stabbing down upon that scaly neck, rending it apart. "Serah... For a while she wouldn't even talk about how they were gone; she'd just sit there on the sand, like she was sleeping with her eyes open."

Fang didn't even move when Lightning suddenly crept forward, but when she felt her body sink down, resting atop her own lap, it was all she could do to just hold her, wrapping her arms around Lightning's waist.

"I took it all, all for myself... I worked it off, helped everyone get their houses back up, and I took _care_ of her." Lightning pressed her forehead against Fang's shoulder. "I let myself take it all so she wouldn't have to... And when we left, she wasn't empty for it."

"You let her heal." Fang smoothed her hand along Lightning's back, even if she could barely feel much through the thick fur of her jacket. "You... Don't feel empty now, do you?"

Lightning closed her eyes. "Sometimes."

Fang let out a deep breath, and she tipped her head back, gazing up at the sky. "I try not to mince words, Light... And things like that, they aren't just going to heal right away; they might even stick with you for the rest of your life." She held on to Lightning a bit tighter, breathing against her hair, keeping her close. "But these past few days, I've seen you look so _happy_... We can chase that, Light, we can grab it by the horns to keep you from feeling so down."

Lightning curled herself into the embrace, and she held on just as tightly, hooking her chin down against Fang's shoulder.

"No single person is going to heal this." Fang nudged at Lightning's neck with her mouth, though she didn't move to kiss her, only nuzzled. "But we can sure as hell try... And I _will_ try, Light, so you just tell me if there's anything else I can do."

"...Okay." Lightning took a long moment just to revel in the strength of Fang's voice, and the shelter it brought along with it, how each word made her feel like such a thing might actually be true, like she could do _anything_ just as long as they were sitting side by side.

Yet it still clung to her, dragging her limbs back to the ground, for Lightning had taken all that venom, stolen it right from her veins whenever she'd let Serah cry herself to sleep against her shoulder, letting it fester there within her own mind, until it grew thorns as sharp as her sword. Though Serah was no wilting flower, no delicate thing who wouldn't dare grow again; she'd seen that spark in Lightning's eyes and followed along in her footsteps, a proud hunter in her own right, only she was still cast out upon the waves, struggling to cling against the one solid surface that remained, the only thing that hadn't yet crumbed into ashes.

But those teeth hid just beneath the surface, the venom that only Lightning could harness, to let those thorns grow even longer, darker and _sharper_ to protect Serah from the cruel, murky world, and from those who might seek to kill them.

And in that moment, feeling that same familiar hatred as it boiled in her veins, Lightning suddenly realized that she hadn't even told her new friend, that she'd never truly spoken about the other side of that coin. "Fang?"

Fang kept staring up at the stars, stroking her hand over Lightning's back. "Right here."

"Remember when I told you that not everyone is so fond of Etro..?" Lightning leaned away slightly, still resting upon Fang's lap. "There's more than one reason why we live out in the woods."

Fang tried not to frown. "...And why's that?"

Lightning started to tug off her gloves, before she reached for both of Fang's hands, holding them tight. "Back home, no one ever minded when we wore the symbol out in the open, but things were... _Different_ , after we left." She let her mind sweep back those first few days of delirium, when she'd nearly stumbled out across the sand with Serah trailing after her, waterlogged and somewhat timid, for her little sister had only been fourteen at the time, with Lightning herself nearing her sixteenth birthday.

Fang could feel the world all around her start to shift, until it swirled out into her vision from the depths of Lightning's mind, that beach beside the dark blue waves, coated in both driftwood and shells.

Serah's clothes looked rather ragged and torn, and Lightning barely fared better, rather tanned by the sun and speckled with salt from the sea.

Fang's thoughts echoed out into the memory. _Is that really you?_ _Scraggly..._

Lightning looked up from where she stood upon the sand, and she rolled her eyes at the 'voice', though Serah didn't seem to take any notice of it. _**You**_ _try living on a boat for almost year, see if you win any beauty contests..._

She could practically feel Fang chuckle. _Never said you didn't look beautiful._

Lightning thought back to the way that her hair had grown so tangled and dry, and how she'd simply hacked off the longer parts with her pocketknife, just to keep it manageable out on the sea. When she looked back over her shoulder, watching the way that Serah's eyes flicked back and forth, she could see that her hair was rather the same, only not quite so jagged.

"Are we-" Serah lowered her voice, before she paused in place, gazing around at the wide new world, the new land she'd stepped upon, so far away from the island she called home. "Are we really _here_..? I didn't just die out on the boat, right?"

Lightning suddenly gripped at Serah's shoulder, holding it as gently as she could manage. "You are _not_ dead... I'd have slit my own throat before it ever happened."

"Then what if we're _both_ dead?!" Serah's voice went a bit high, but she kept her limbs under control; she'd never bolt in panic, not if Lightning was there. "What if this is-"

"We are _not_ dead." Lightning released Serah's shoulder, reaching for her wrist. "...You still have a pulse, and so do I."

Serah glanced down, before she slowly reached out to check both of their wrists as well. "We... We should find water, that's what dad would say."

Lightning's mind slipped back to the time that her father had spoken to them both, to how he told them to always look for a river if they ever found themselves lost, for humans would almost always settle near a source of fresh water. "Right."

The sky shifted hues with the passing time, light blues for the height of day, indigo evenings, and then dark, pitch black at night.

Lightning struck at the side of a strange, knobbly fruit with her pocketknife, before she nearly shivered with relief, handing it over to Serah.

"Wow." Serah's fingertips were trembling; dehydration would always take its toll far faster than any hunger. "Sort of like a coconut, isn't it?"

"Drink." Lightning helped to steady Serah's hands, holding them still. "The birds are eating them, probably not toxic..." She felt her own voice crack, hoarse from the lack of water. "Just _drink_."

And Serah drank, though she quickly paused, pushing the fruit back over to Lightning's hands. "I just need a minute..."

Lightning frowned when Serah tried to keep herself from retching, for the liquid had such an unfamiliar taste, and once it mixed with the effects of her not having more than a few sips from their canteen within the past day or so, the result was nearly enough to make her poor stomach just give up the fight.

"Serah?" Lightning's eyes went wide when her sister suddenly slumped to the side, so frail and skinny that she could barely even remember what she'd looked like just a year ago. " _Serah!_ "

And the memory surged, fueled on by the sheer haste in Lightning's mind, the _need_ to find help, anyone to keep her only living family from drifting away in the night. She found herself clutching her so tightly, carrying Serah in her arms while she raced off across the sand. Lightning could feel the cool metal of her pendant, how it jingled so quietly while she ran, so much like the long metal wind chimes that had once sang to them all back at home.

Serah twitched, breathing so softly, yet each little rhythm grew more and more ragged, like a gull she'd once seen out on the beach, utterly broken by one of the feral cats of their island.

Lightning grit her teeth, and despite the sharp burn in her legs, the swirl of acid in her stomach, the flashing signs in her mind that she should stop, that she should rest, despite all of it, she just kept running, up until she caught sight of a tiny, lone settlement beside the sand.

Wide eyes, strong, yet pleading, she might have even prayed to Etro if she'd still believed. Lightning found herself running from house to house, hoping that language she spoke would somehow make it through to such strange people, yet most of them took one look at her, at her tangled hair, gangly limbs, even the pale, limp body in her arms, before the door clicked shut in her face.

"Serah, hold on..." Lightning kept racing from door to door beneath the dark of night, knocking at each and every one she could possibly find. "Just hold on."

Serah's eyes fluttered open for a split second, before she let out a hoarse cough, low and wheezing.

It was only when Lightning reached the little stone hut on the outskirts of the village, one that sat near a thin, burbling creek, flowing out towards the sea, only then did the door not close after a moment or two.

The old woman stared at them from beneath a dark hood, but Lightning could see that her face was grizzled and rough, almost like the bark of a weathered tree. "Well, now."

Lightning suddenly felt very small, clutching Serah against herself. "I... We need help." She truly expected the door to slam right in her face, for Serah's breath to finally go still and her body to fall limp, but when the haggard old woman suddenly stepped aside, gesturing for her to enter, it felt like she might just have just been imagining it.

"Gods." The old woman tapped her cane against the floor, and when Lightning moved to step inside, she pushed the door shut behind them. "There's little time..." She urged Lightning forward, towards a small bench with a few flat pillows. "Get her there."

Lightning walked over to the bench, before she gently helped Serah down into a sitting position, but when the weight of her body sagged against her arms, she had to lower Serah down on her back, to lay against the bench itself.

"Light..?" Serah's eyes kept shifting out of focus. " _Lightning_..."

"I'm here." Lightning reached for both of Serah's hands, holding them tight. "Don't you leave me, okay? Don't you _dare_ leave..."

"Severe dehydration." The old woman suddenly returned with some strange contraption in her arms, and Lightning almost balked at the sight of a long needle. "What else could this be?"

Lightning felt a prickle run down her spine; it was the first person she'd ever spoken to aside from her island people, and even back home, the occasional foreigner didn't seem quite so alien, so very _blunt_. "We... We came here from overseas."

The old woman knelt down, tugging her hooded scarf away, before she held out a bottle of some odd concoction, dark and swirling. "Hold this."

Lightning let go of Serah's hands to hold the vial, but once the old woman lowered the needle, she might've just snapped out with those honed teeth, those sharp, gnarled thorns, if only she hadn't seen that silvery pendant flicker in the candlelight, so suddenly revealed when the old woman moved to swipe a damp rag over Serah's arm, before she pressed the needle down beneath her skin.

"You..." Lightning felt her breath grow very hoarse. "You-"

"Do _not_ just sit there like a gaping fish." The old woman held out her hand for the bottle. "We have very little time."

Lightning held the vial out, thought she almost recoiled at the way the old woman snatched at it, snapping the top down against the end of the needle's tube.

"Did you speak to _anyone_ else before you came here?" The old woman watched as the liquid slowly traveled down into the tube, suctioned down to Serah's veins by some sort of unseen force. "Come on, girl!"

Lightning nodded mutely, still trying to catch her breath.

"Then you'll need to leave before sunrise... You need to go far away from here." The old woman finally turned to stare at the pendant on Lightning's neck. " _Hide_ that, in these lands."

Lightning watched the black lines traveling down beneath Serah's skin, how the liquid slowly spread out along the pattern of her blood, deep within her veins. "...Why?"

The old woman paused, still holding the bottle in the air, letting the dark mixture work its magic, before she lifted her head to look Lightning in the eye. "How old are you, girl?"

Lightning felt that gaze burning inside her mind, acidic and strong. "Almost sixteen."

"There are no 'almosts'." The old woman paused again, and then she let out a sigh. "There's a basin of water in the next room, go have a drink."

Lightning shook her head, still kneeling beside the bench. "Not until she's better."

At that, the old woman crooked an eyebrow. "Oh..? A selfless soul is always the first to die." She almost seemed to smirk at the look on Lightning's face. "We live by no masters, but such a thing is only true because we are wise enough to not need them... And you, girl, _you_ are no sheep."

Lightning looked up at that matching symbol, at the eye she knew so well, only the old woman's necklace was quite close to the skin of her neck, tight enough to conceal beneath her scarf within just a moment's notice. "Why do we have to hide it..?"

"Because we walk among sheep." The old woman kept holding the bottle, but she did glance down when Serah murmured something, curling up against the bench. "We walk among those who would run this girl down if only they saw that mark by her weapon, there..."

Lightning looked at the decorated bow near Serah's back, beside the pale leather satchel that their mother had given to her for her tenth birthday.

"Or that symbol on your neck." The old woman sighed. "You said you came from overseas?"

"A village called Bodhum..." Lightning leaned back against the bench, sitting against the cold, stony floor. "We left."

"Then you must listen, and you must learn." The old woman finally set the dark bottle down, before she rose back up to her feet. "To the people of this land, if they should happen to see your sign... You'll be seen as mere rats that the sea coughed up, beasts to be _slain,_ if it were not for the weapons you carry." She set the end of her cane back down against the floor, using it to help her walk across the room. "They will kill you if you let them... Do not let them."

Lightning kept very still, just listening to the sound of Serah's shallow breaths, to the tap of the old woman's cane, even the distant sound of the burbling stream. _Rats?_ They were _hunters_ , not vermin; how could that possibly be true?

She could hear that same tapping even in the other room, but it wasn't long before the old woman returned, carrying a small mug of water in her hand. "Drink."

Lightning accepted it, slowly drinking from the cup.

"...You don't look fifteen." The old woman almost seemed to scowl again, but Lightning could see the veil in her eyes, the gnarls that hid away a strange sort of kinship. "That could be used to your advantage."

Lightning watched the old woman glance at the sheathed sword on her hip, at the belt she'd worn all the way across the ocean.

"Not much of a talker... That's good too." The old woman slowly sat down upon the opposite bench, relaxing against the cushions. "Is your friend the same?"

"My sister." Lightning held the mug with both hands, watching the way that the water rippled in the wake of her mouth. "She talks more."

The old woman glanced at where Serah was resting. "The quiet mouse is hardly ever caught."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "We aren't mice... And we aren't _rats_."

"That has yet to be seen." The old woman had her cane resting atop her lap, and Lightning suddenly caught sight of a rather hidden mechanism near the bottom; it was a slim, folded blade, concealed within the wood. "I tell you this so you won't have to see her pretty head upon a pike, so you won't feel your own neck caught in the grip of a hangman's noose."

Lightning grit her teeth, glaring back at the old woman, at the crone who just kept speaking about death like it was common, of pure _murder_ , as if it was just as simple as stamping an ant down on the floor.

"Have I upset you? Good." The old woman peered off into the distance, staring at the dried bunches of herbs that hung upon the walls, at all of the unusual medicines that she'd likely never use. "You'll find that the world holds little comfort for our ilk."

Lightning steeled herself, taking a breath through her nose in an attempt to keep her anger down; her sister was near to dying already, how could the woman just go on and _on_ about it?

"And if you don't want to live like a rat..." The old woman leaned forward to look Lightning right in the eye. "Then grow out your teeth; be a _wolf_."

Lightning still kept silent, staring back at her, and it was a long while before she decided to speak again. "This place... Is everywhere else like this?"

Slowly, the old woman's gaze began to soften. "No, but true refuge is rare."

Even as Lightning heard those words, she didn't quite feel them sink in, not until many months had slipped by, not until she was far, _far_ away from that little hut near the river, standing tall within a city plaza with Serah at her side. She wore a new shirt, new trousers, new _everything_ , just to replace the torn clothes she'd worn for nearly a year, with only saltwater to wash them.

Serah had new clothes on as well, and she was slowly turning in place, gazing at the sight of such a _strange_ city, one with so much stone upon the ground, and streets that weren't made furrowed sand or dirt, even houses built completely out of bricks, without a palm frond to be seen. "Light, what's _this?_ " Serah stepped over towards where a small animal was tied to a metal pole, and she knelt down, approaching it just like the tamed house cats she'd known back upon the island.

Lightning looked down at the little creature, one with a collar, with short ears and an even shorter tail, before she reached out to hold one of Serah's shoulders, just to keep her away. "Serah, it belongs to someone..."

Serah frowned a little; the animal didn't look aggressive in the slightest, and even then, she could just ward it away with her pocketknife if it tried to bite her.

"Serah, this isn't-" Lightning looked around at all of the passing faces, at the people of such a large village, so much more foreign than any of others she'd seen. "This isn't _home_ , okay? We don't know these people."

Serah just stood there for a moment, as if she was suddenly remembering that there would be no more ocean sands to follow, no lush tropical forests to hide beneath, just the walls, the roads and even the buildings, and then the dense wilderness that awaited beyond.

Lightning kept holding Serah's shoulder, but her eyes went wide when she realized that the pin from the ribbon on her bow, the one with Etro's crest, that Serah had fastened it down upon the collar of her new shirt instead. "Serah, you need to put that away."

But Serah only frowned at her, reaching up to hold the silvery little emblem. "...Dad had it made for me."

Lightning tried not to hiss her next few words. "I know, but maybe you could just wear it _under_ something? Like mine." She looked down at where her own pendant was hiding beneath her shirt. "For safety."

"Light, you're overreacting." Serah smiled at her, gently, before she stepped over to stand at the edge of the street, beneath the overhang of a tiny storefront. "It's just a symbol."

Lightning felt those thorns flare up again, those prickles running down her spine, and she fought the urge to snarl at the sheer sensation, to demand that Serah just _hide_ the damn thing, that Etro wasn't watching over them, _nobody_ was, and that it was only _them_ now, but she stifled it all, holding it down, even if she might later wish she'd done otherwise.

In the back of her mind, Fang's thoughts reached out into her own, still so gentle and calm. _You really did stop believing in Etro, didn't you..?_

Lightning closed her eyes, and she felt her jaw tighten. _I was angry, like I said before... Just a pissed off teenager._

And she remembered it clearly, that feeling in the pit of her stomach when a cloaked figure suddenly stared back at them one dark night, and then the sensation when Serah suddenly had a blade pressed up against her neck, only seconds away from rending into her skin, before everything within Lightning's gaze went scarlet.

She soon sat perched atop the fallen form, staring at the way his ravaged face was no longer even recognizable, at the way each line of blood dripped down across the edge of her knife, trickling off to land against the dark, stony street.

 _Never piss off an already angry teenager..._ Lightning's mind swept back to the way she'd seen the same red liquid upon Serah's fingertips, how the rest of their attackers were already twitching against the ground, gutted like a pile of fish. _Especially not a hunter._

 _This is why you left the cites?_ Fang tried to move through the vision to examine the efficiency of the kill, before she looked back at the memory of Serah, who sported a thin, bleeding cut along the curve of her neck, and she could see the sheer anger in her eyes, gleaming with just a hint of fear and disbelief. _They'd attack you over an emblem..._

Serah dropped to her knees, gripping at the handle of her pocketknife, and she suddenly buckled down beneath the weight of it all, beneath the price of taking not one, but _several_ human lives, lost in the haze of bloodshed and the urge to protect her kin, something that Lightning's stance mirrored quite heavily.

Lightning gazed at the emblem on the neck of her victim, that little marble token outlined in gold, at the diamond pattern with so many golden wings, the symbol she'd soon grow to recognize at a glance.

 _Be a wolf._

She'd seen the blood drip down, watched her blade rip through human flesh for the very first time, yet in the back of her mind, she knew those people hadn't been sheep.

Serah had wept such bitter, silent tears for the ones they'd both slain, but somehow, Lightning knew that she'd do it all again if she had to, for the two of them, they were the only family they had left on the face of the earth. Yet Lightning's stomach grew sicker and sicker at the sight of human blood, of her own slain, distant kin, and it was only when she was gripping at Serah's hand yet again, leading her away from another city with a building that had that golden symbol, it was only then that she realized; those words could take on a whole different meaning entirely.

Yes, she'd be a wolf... She'd guide herself and her sister out to the wilds, into the woods, where all of the _smart_ wolves lived, far away from anywhere with that blinding crest, from the world that wished them both dead.

And yet, even as their home grew more and more solid, she strayed away from the wilds, stealing glimpses into the villages to obtain supplies. But she always paid for them, as her parents used to claim that theft was a _terrible_ thing to commit, that the goods she could buy with her own earned money would always be more satisfying than ill-gotten gains.

She kept on hiding her past faith, hiding away the symbol of a god she barely believed in, if only because her father had gifted her the silvery trinket, and she'd rather have cut off her own fingers than stop wearing it for more than a moment or two. And whenever she'd venture out of the wilds again, back into the villages, she'd often catch the sight of paper postings in the inns, of wild, unyielding beasts, creatures she _knew_ she could slay, and whenever she tested her luck, wearing her silver necklace into town without fear, it was only when she was bringing back proof of a kill that they looked at her with untinged awe.

 _They don't complain once you've done things for them..._ Back in her own world, Lightning could feel Fang's hands upon her own, squeezing them tight. _And not everyone even recognizes it... I can wear it around without worrying much._

Lightning closed her eyes within the memory, but when she opened them again, the world was pitch black, only lit by the starlight, for the moon had long since disappeared behind the trees.

"This is weird, Light." Fang slowly shook her head, and her eyes narrowed down into almost a glare. "Etro's people... At least, back when I used to really hang around human places, there just _wasn't_ that level of hate."

Lightning shrugged. "Times change."

"I don't _like_ it." Fang's grip tightened slightly, yet she kept it gentle enough not to hurt. "I want to figure out the root of this... Find the cause." She leaned forward just to catch Lightning's gaze, so much that there was only a mere breath of space between them. "They treated you like an _animal_."

Lightning slowly stroked Fang's hands, trying to soothe down that temper. "Is it any different from how they'd treat you?"

"I could just fly away from it, but this..." Fang thought back to the droplets of blood upon Lightning's face, the spatter from when she'd slashed out at the one who'd been threatening Serah, the one who'd made that first cut on her throat. "If you hadn't known how to kill them-"

"It's... Not hard." Lightning's voice went very low, though she spoke without anger. "That's the thing, it's not even hard; all you have to deal with is getting past their weapons, or even their armor, and then it's _over_." She could still remember it, that sheer revulsion she'd felt when the old woman spoke of killing, of murder in the streets all due to a simple sign, just a symbol of their faith, but it grew easier and easier to manage beyond each thwarted attempt on her own life. "Humans die pretty easily... That's why I know how to evade."

Fang kept silent for a long, lingering while, and she just held on to Lightning's hands, gazing off into the distance.

"But it doesn't happen everywhere, Fang." Lightning squeezed at her palms. "And now that I'm older, better with my sword... People don't tend to mess with me."

"That's good." Fang spoke with just a hint of teeth, almost a low growl. "...And they'll have to go through _me_ , too." She closed her eyes tightly, thinking back to that memory they'd shared, and the image of a knife against Serah's throat, it stuck against the edges of her vision, nearly driving her down into the same sort of rage Lightning had felt, the instinctual need to protect her kin, as if it was really Vanille in her place.

"Fang?" Lightning felt that swell of anger, the racing thoughts that Fang's mind cast off like roaring waves. "She's alright... Serah can take care of herself."

"I know." Fang carefully hissed through her teeth, before she let her eyes drift open again. "But seeing her like that, it _just_ -"

"Makes you want to stab someone?" Lightning would've chuckled if she hadn't remembered it so clearly, the blood that dripped over her own arms, the sight of Serah ripping her knife down through the belly of one of their attackers, sending him into a crumpled pile against the ground. "You just can't _think_ in a moment like that... You _act_ , and the next thing you know, Serah's alive, all because you stabbed someone in the forehead before they could pull the knife any deeper."

Fang glanced over at where her satchel was still resting in the snow, before she looked up at the distant stars, trying to calm herself down with just the sight of them.

"Fang." Lightning reached up to hold Fang's wrists, and she could feel that thrumming pulse, hearing the way her breath grew so short. "Walk with me?"

Slowly, Fang nodded. "Yeah."

Lightning rose up to her feet. "I only showed you that so you'd know..." She waited for Fang to stand as well, before she reached out to hold one of her hands again. "So you'd know what it could've been like today."

Fang looked down at her satchel, and with a quick flash of transformative magic, it turned back into her smaller bag again. "The way that woman spoke back there, all class until you didn't decide to cooperate..." Fang picked up the bag, slinging it back over her shoulder. "Believe me, if they hadn't had all of those weapons up in our faces, she _never_ would've gotten away with calling you that."

Lightning smiled against the dark, breezy night, feeling the wind brush down across her skin. "I've been called worse."

Fang grumbled a bit, before she stepped over to hug Lightning close. "You're not a bitch."

Lightning felt Fang's body move against her from behind, all pressed up and snuggly, so she slowly held up her own hands to touch Fang's arms. "Well, I _can_ get pretty cranky..." She traced along Fang's wrists again, over where they were resting so gently against her upper stomach.

"Still not a bitch..." Fang mumbled each word into Lightning's left ear. "And everyone gets cranky."

Lightning slowly began to turn in Fang's arms, facing her again. "We should find somewhere to rest."

"We should..." Fang felt her lips brush against Lightning's cheek, so warm and soft. "But if we fly again, you might just fall asleep."

Lightning tried to fight back against the way her eyelids were drifting shut, yet her own mind could scarcely even find the will to disagree with such a statement, so she slowly gave into it, leaning forward to press her face against Fang's shoulder.

"Hey, I've got you." Fang knelt down a bit to hook one of her arms beneath Lightning's knees, and she used her other hand to hold Lightning up from beneath her back, lifting her, carrying her, until they were both moving between the snowy trees, beneath the pale light of the stars. "You're not very hard to carry, are you?"

Lightning mumbled something under her breath, though she was swiftly dozing off, resting the side of her head against Fang's collarbone.

"'Light' is a good nickname." Fang smiled to herself, and she just kept walking down into the forest, into the wilds; even with all of the distant, glowing eyes, those nocturnal creatures of the woods, they were of very little concern to one who could simply become a dragon at will. "Sleepy little bird..."

Lightning snorted quietly. "Thought I was a mouse?"

Fang narrowed her eyes. "No, it's like you said back then; you're no mouse." She hugged Lightning a bit closer to herself. "And you're no wolf, even if you fight like one."

Lightning kept her eyes shut, all nuzzled against Fang's lower neck. "What am I, then?"

"You're Lightning." Fang traveled against the wind, against the cold winter night, walking over the snowdrifts and the earthen hills, deep within the thick scent of pines. "You don't need to be anything else but that."

"Glad you think so..." Lightning's eyes fluttered open when her sense of momentum suddenly paused, but a soothing hand down her spine made her go limp again, relaxing against Fang's body. "Where is this?"

"A hollow tree." Fang kept her voice very low, and she pressed a brief, gentle kiss to Lightning's forehead. "Can you see it?"

"I can't see in the dark." Lightning closed her eyes, before she turned over, settling down against the loamy soil. "Not like you can."

Fang looked out at the snow-covered earth, at the little drifts of frost beside the hollow trunk, and she slowly settled down as well, laying against the earth. "...Luxerion."

Lightning mumbled, pressing herself back along Fang's body. "What?"

" _Luxerion_ , they have the most detailed historical recordings of religion anywhere in the world..." Fang let out a gentle sigh. "See, I used to keep tabs on this sort of thing."

Lightning's nose wrinkled a bit, though she didn't open her eyes. "I've heard the name before... The Order of Salvation has headquarters there."

"That's the _point_... They might be a big bunch of snobs, but they're book smart." Fang wrapped her arms around Lightning's waist and upper back, holding her close. "They'd know why Etro's followers were suddenly being targeted."

Lightning shook her head. "Fang... They're Bhunivelze's people." She slowly held up one of her hands, pressing her fingertips against Fang's cheek, before that sharp diamond emblem, the many wings and bright golden hues, the image of it drifted out between them.

Fang's eyes went wide in the dark. "They're-"

Lightning nodded, nuzzling her cheek against Fang's neck. "They hunt us... But I've always been able to throw them off our trail." She almost chuckled, though her voice was steadily drifting away, already starting to doze. "They might fancy themselves as hunters, but they're the worst damn trackers I've ever seen."

Fang murmured into Lightning's hair. "This is why you keep your identity hidden, isn't it?"

"I'd still be doing it, even if this problem didn't exist." Lightning yawned quietly, before she reached in to hold Fang's shoulder, squeezing it against her palm. "Privacy is valuable."

Fang kept silent for a while, thinking over the possibility of taking a short detour just to calm the rigid tension in her mind, that unsolved mystery. "...Remember when I told you about the island, Nova Chrysalia?" She could only see the top of Lightning's head from where she'd since snuggled down against her neck, but Fang quickly realized that she must have already fallen asleep. "I'll tell you later."

Fang stared out at the world, at the forest that stood beyond the shelter of their tree, at the starlight upon the snow, even at the dry grass rustling so softly in the wind; she looked on with those dragon eyes, sharp and keen, before she slowly let them slip shut.

She dozed, half-awake, but when her mind swiftly tumbled down into a world of endless dark, the land of such deep dreaming, she heard a voice, one who she prayed might hold the answers to all of her problems.

* * *

The rain glimmered against the dark pavement, thick and damp. Slowly, Lightning poked the end of her shoe against a puddle. She could see the tiny, echoed ripples, but when she looked up again, gazing around at what looked like a world straight out of the mind of a _madman_ , she felt quite sure that she was merely dreaming.

Flashing lights, paintings that _moved,_ and then even spoke, chattering on and _on_ , and then all of those strange metal wagons, only there were no horses to been seen, no beasts of burden to drag them onward. When one had first zipped past her, making that soft pink hair fly back within the air it gave off, she'd nearly bolted away from it, to flee away from the wide street with such strange, noisy contraptions.

But since then, since so many more had rumbled past without much incident, Lightning looked down at herself, at the clothes she couldn't even recognize, before she reached for the hem of her shirt. Such _perfect_ stitching, and those unusual designs in the fabric, it must've taken someone years to create it, and yet, when she looked around at the veritable ocean of people, the mass of humans who swarmed around the city streets in what felt like millions, her clothing was hardly even remarkable.

A voice called out above the din. "Oi, Light!"

Lightning kept very, _very_ still, and her heart began to beat so quickly when a deafening noise seemed to shake the world itself, yet nobody else even seemed concerned; they just kept walking, loitering, or sitting inside one of those odd horseless wagons.

"Light?" She felt something touch her shoulder. "What's gotten into you?"

Lightning swiftly turned, gazing back at the face she'd fallen asleep to, only she could see such sharp piercings on her ears, even a tattoo along her bare bicep, curling around her muscles like a clawed, leathery wing.

"Hey love..." Fang kept holding onto Lightning's shoulder. "You look a little spooked."

Lightning blinked when another loud noise blared out, and she fought the urge to shiver. "What are those _sounds?_ "

Fang, such a different Fang, one who wore such strange, detailed clothing, she slowly tilted her head to the side, trying to gauge Lightning's expression. "Who are you and what did you do with Light?"

Lightning almost froze in place, and her rapid heartbeat suddenly felt even more painful, but when Fang suddenly barked out a laugh, reaching in to hold both of her hands, she felt herself relax ever so slightly, though she still stood heavily on edge in such a strange, foreign world, one with so many colors and sights.

"Car horns, from a _car_." Fang nodded at the next blare of noise. "...Are we playing a game?"

Lightning kept herself almost motionless, trying not to simply race away when one of those contraptions went rushing past again, fast enough to crush the both of them to pieces, but the fact that _this Fang_ , this other version of the one she knew, that she seemed so very _calm_ , such an emotion was positively infectious. "Yes."

Fang began to smile, and Lightning realized that her lips were slightly stained red, tinged with something that smelled both sweet and tangy. "Ooh, what kind of game..?"

"I'm... I'm from another world." Lightning looked up at the towering metallic buildings; how they hadn't simply fallen over in the wind, she'd never know. "A world that doesn't have anything like this."

"Okay..." Fang leaned forward to press their foreheads together, and Lightning could nearly smell the source of that red color, almost like fruit, but far sweeter. "What's this world like, then?"

Lightning stared at the thin little braids upon the side of Fang's head, all wound up with beads and dark strings, and she almost felt the urge to reach out and touch them. "This place is so loud."

"It is." Fang glanced over when a yellow taxi rumbled past, and the crowd beside them unanimously shouted at it for spraying out a bit of water from a puddle. "You want to go home?"

Lightning looked up when a raindrop hit the top of her head. "Home..?"

"Are you-" Fang paused, still holding Lightning's hands in her own. "This is still part of the game, right?"

Lightning could feel the noise of the crowds closing in upon her eardrums, and the sheer lights from those strange, flashing things on the buildings, they almost made her just want to drag Fang somewhere else, somewhere dark, just to get away from so much utter chaos... But her stronger nature, the part of her that could keep perfectly calm even with the steel of a sword swiping towards her own neck, it overpowered all the rest of it.

"Light?" Fang let go of one of her hands to check the temperature of Lightning's forehead. "You feel a little warm."

Lightning felt that same shiver run down her spine when yet another sound blared away, though she scarcely had time to think when Fang began to lead her forward, off into the mass of traveling people, down over the sidewalks and streets.

"Here..." Fang rummaged into the pocket of her jacket for something small and very red, wrapped up in a translucent material that Lightning had never seen before. "Cherry."

Lightning felt Fang press the little rectangle into her free hand, but when she looked down to see what it was, the little thing almost looked like colored glass, nothing remotely like a cherry.

"Candy." Fang gestured at her own mouth with a smile. "...Man, it's like bringing home a stray kitten." She squeezed at Lightning's other hand, still holding it in her own. "Either you knocked your head pretty bad on something, or this is a _very_ convincing act."

Lightning felt a sharp frown crease her features, and she quickly looked away.

"Hey, hey-" Fang paused, turning to face her again. "I didn't mean to say it like that... Sorry."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut, and she tried as hard as she could to just wake up, to get away from the world of bright lights and so much loud, clattering sound, so much that she felt like she might just go deaf if she stayed there for even a moment longer, but when she suddenly felt Fang lean forward to hug her, holding her close...

It was as if all of the noise suddenly drowned out, fleeing away from her ears, filled in with that gentle, thudding heartbeat, even the soft, sweetened breath upon her ear, and then the sound of Fang's voice, rumbling deep in her chest.

"We're almost home, okay?" Fang felt much so less heated without her inner dragon fire, but she still gave off such warmth. "What sounds good for lunch?"

It was only then that she realized Fang was speaking in another language, a _very_ different kind, yet every word rang clearly in her mind, and Lightning found that she could speak it too. "I don't know."

"C'mon, Light..." Fang took a step backwards, guiding her on. "You've gotta give me more to work with than that."

And Lightning followed after her, watching as the city moved on beside them. All of the roaming people kept on walking, and the horseless 'cars' kept speeding around, blaring and rumbling, making a mighty racket. She listened to the crowds, though she could barely pay much attention to them when Fang began to rattle off everything that they had left in the 'fridge', even if Lightning had no earthly idea what that might have been.

"And I know you were saving the fresh mozzarella for when Serah comes to visit, but we could always use a little for pasta." Fang reached into her pocket for another piece of candy, which she promptly unwrapped with her fingertips and the edge of her teeth. "What, don't like cherry anymore?"

Lightning looked down at the little red object in her hand, which had grown just a bit softer against the heat of her skin. "It's not a cherry."

Fang's brow quirked up, and she gently licked at her own piece of candy. "Yeah, but it's cherry _flavored_."

Lightning stared at the little red rectangle, before she looked up to see an identical piece between Fang's teeth, and only then did she push the wrapper away with her thumb, easing it up towards her own mouth.

"So, this 'game', in this other world..." Fang kept holding Lightning's hand, gently squeezing it while she walked along, even when they approached a tall building with a very small door, at least compared to the giant glass mechanisms further down the street. "What's it like?"

Lightning followed Fang beneath the thin doorway, glancing around at the narrow, yet cozy hallway, one that led over towards a short flight of stairs. "Do you have forests here?"

Fang chuckled under her breath. "Yeah."

"And fields?" Lightning looked down at the carpet beneath her feet, all swirling and woven with flowers, something that would take _months, or even_ _years_ to create in her own world. "What about small towns, with only a dozen buildings? This place... It's gigantic."

"It's staring to sound like you aren't joking around." Fang stepped up to the stairwell, leading Lightning to the second floor. "Or maybe we should look into signing you up for acting school... Not that you'd need the lessons."

Lightning looked around at all of the thin wooden doors, and when Fang paused to open one of them with a key from her pocket, the urge to just tell her that she wasn't acting, that her story was real, and that _she_ was real, from a whole different world, it became far too much to hold in. "I'm not kidding around."

Fang nudged the door open with the toe of her shoe, before she glanced over to look Lightning straight in the eye. "I think you've just been watching too much sci-fi..." Pausing, Fang narrowed her eyes at the sheer confusion in Lightning's gaze, the raw, _real_ sense that she didn't quite belong in such a place. "Hell, Light-"

Lightning slowly let go of Fang's hand, and she took a step away, backing up into the hall. "This is a dream... Any minute now, I'll wake back up, and you'll be there, just like you were before."

"Light." Fang reached out to hold her hands again, tethering her there, just to keep Lightning from moving away. "Wait a minute, now..." She lowered her voice down to a much softer tone, gently chewing upon that piece of hard candy. "Let's go inside, alright? You must've just hit your head on something, back there."

And for a brief moment, while Lightning was being guided inside the tiny living space, the apartment that lay just above those bustling streets, she wondered if what Fang had said was true; that she might've just hit her head, hallucinating another world entirely, and the thought of it made her sweat much quicker than facing any dragon, no matter how fierce.

"Shh..." Fang began to lead her towards a cozy little sofa, all cushioned with pillows, a few folded blankets, and one extremely lethargic feline. "Just tell me what you can remember, okay?" She reached out to shoo away the cat, who merely mewed at her, inching over to rest upon the edge of the couch. "Do you remember why we went out today?"

Lightning kept standing, waiting until Fang had tugged her down to sit against the cushions of the sofa, which was clearly only large enough for the both of them. "I wasn't _there_ , Fang." She could suddenly feel that strong heartbeat again, for with the way the seating worked, she was rather snuggled up to Fang, and it wasn't long before the black cat had crawled back up to warm itself against both of them. "This is all a dream, just a memory of who I was."

Fang reached over to rub the cat behind his ears, stroking across that soft, dark fur. "So... I'm also there, in this 'other world'?"

Lightning nodded. "You're there."

"Huh." Fang slowly moved her hand away, at the cat almost seemed to grumble, batting at where her fingertips had been. "So what do we _do_ , out there? Same as here?"

Lightning shrugged. "What do we 'do' here?"

Fang suddenly grinned, before she leaned over towards the edge of the couch, reaching for what looked like a thin sheet of metal. But when she opened it up over her lap, Lightning realized that it must have been something utterly incredible.

"Freelance, at least for now." Fang tapped at the strange, flat pad on the bottom of the device to make the light at the top change shape. "Remember this?"

Lightning stared at what looked like a _painting_ , at the image of a curling, twisted briar patch, only it had bright red berries growing out between the green vines, and a tiny pink bird was perched within the very center of it, gazing out from behind so many sharp thorns.

"Because if you don't remember this one, it might just hurt my feelings..." Fang rolled her eyes when the cat tried to climb up on top of the device. "Kitty, no." She quickly closed the strange contraption, stowing it back beside the sofa. "Shoo."

The little black cat mewed when Fang picked him up from beneath his shoulders, but when his paws touched the ground, he soon wandered off into another room of the apartment.

"So." Fang leaned back on the couch, stretching out her arms. "Doesn't seem like you've 'woken up' yet..."

Lightning began to concentrate within her own mind, to reach out for her own version of Fang, the one who hopefully still slept right beside her. _Fang?_

It was a long moment before she heard any sort of reply, and even then, Fang's 'voice' was much quieter than the last time they'd shared a dream. _Yeah, Light?_

 _Just making sure I'm still dreaming..._ Lightning glanced back at the other version of Fang, one who was nibbling away at the candy between her teeth. _These memories are getting_ _ **weird**_ _._

 _I'm still behaving, right?_ It almost felt like Fang had let out a sigh. _You just smack me right over the head if I do anything stupid, okay?_

 _No, you're being nice... Understanding, really._ Slowly, Lightning let herself relax on the couch, before she pressed her forehead against Fang's shoulder, the one with the tattoo of a wing.

"Hey, little bird." Fang reached up to stroke along Lightning's cheek, moving to twine her fingertips into that soft pink hair. "Feeling any better?"

Lightning nodded, before she pressed her face forward, down into the curve of Fang's neck. "Yeah... I almost want to live like this."

Fang chuckled when Lightning crept over to rest on her lap, fully melded, feeling those strong lungs that just kept breathing away against her chest. "Well, you're in luck..."

Lightning shook her head. "A _past_ me was in luck; I want this to happen back in my world."

"I'm guessing we're 'together', then?" Fang stroked her other hand over Lightning's spine, just above the soft, thin fabric of her shirt. "But we don't live together?"

Lightning shook her head. "I offered you a house in my village."

Fang massaged the curve of Lightning's back. "Why not _your_ house?"

Lightning fought the urge to sigh, or rather, to hum at the way that Fang was so easily soothing the tension away from her muscles and skin. "It's small... Only a few rooms."

"So is this." Fang glanced around at the tiny apartment. "I don't take up much space."

Lightning slowly turned over in Fang's arms, gazing at the tattoo on her shoulder, and then at all of the hanging plants beside the windowsill. Some of them grew bright flowers, or even little vegetables, and when she looked over at the rest of the room, it was only then that she realized there were sketches and so many paintings upon the walls, even some forms of artwork that she had no idea how Fang might've managed to create. "What do _I_ do, in this world?"

She could feel it when Fang frowned against the side of her head, resting against her hair. "You don't like to talk about it."

Lightning inhaled the scent of cherry candy, some of which was still thick upon her own tongue, but she could also catch the aroma of the soap Fang must have used, something rich and earthy.

"You really want me to say it..?" Fang hugged at Lightning's waist. "You _have_ to be be telling the truth if you don't remember this."

Lightning closed her eyes with a quiet sigh. "Just tell me."

Fang leaned forward, gradually tightening her hold, before she whispered her words against Lightning's ear. "Well, the checks come in with lines like 'miscellaneous consulting'... But it's all much more of an elimination job, isn't it?"

Lightning suddenly felt herself freeze, listening to the gentle thrum of rain upon the windowsill.

"Not that I'm complaining... It keeps the rent paid." Fang kissed at the edge of Lightning's ear. "I just wish you'd be a little more careful, coming home with that broken nose, fractured ribs... But your hands, they're never bloody."

"What... What sort of elimination?" Lightning cursed the sudden high pitch in her voice, much more fragile than she might've liked. "Please, _Fang_ -"

"You talk about rejecting certain jobs... Too little evidence, not enough to back the claim." Fang kept a tight hold around Lightning's waist, as if she might try to bolt at any movement. "You're the kind of woman who can afford to be picky... There's always a reason."

Blinking against the sudden swell, the emotions running rampant, Lightning shook her head back and forth. "Fang, what _kind_ of elimination?" She could see those long, saltwater scales dripping down across the pale windowpanes, and then those yellow lights of the street, burning so deep within her eyes.

"Contract assassinations." Fang held Lightning close, still whispering against her ear. "But Light, those bastards have it-"

Lightning tore away, and she sat fully upright, alert and utterly wild again, taking in every possible inch of her surroundings at once, and yet, the space around her was so painfully cozy, so quaint and _charming_ that she just couldn't deny it, this _had_ to have been their home at some point.

"It's not indiscriminate." Fang was suddenly holding her hand again. "Light, it's not-"

" _Stop_." Lightning felt those frigid, sharpened words, she felt them curl and slice right through her throat. "I don't... I don't want to know." The sweetness on her tongue suddenly felt so heavy, so very _thick_ that she almost wished that the whole world would just go dark, to let her be dreamless again, but Fang's hand, it just kept holding her there, keeping her back from oblivion.

 _Lightning._ Fang's outward voice mixed in with the rumble of a beast, a dragon, one who could sense the way she was rejecting it all, trying so desperately to escape. _What's wrong?_

 _What's wrong..?_ Lightning almost laughed at the sheer absurdity of it all, that no matter how many times she'd avoided a deadly encounter, spared a human life, that her soul had already taken away so many, had dragged them down to the goddess of death and _abandoned_ them there. _He was_ _ **right**_ _, that's all..._

 _He?_

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut. _The one I killed._

 _The dragon?_

Lightning didn't even nod, she just sat down inside the shadows, curling one of her hands over the pendant on her neck.

 _Light, listen... Aubergine's been telling me a few things._

Lightning still kept silent.

 _And this dragon of yours... Something just doesn't add up. In your memory, the scales were green, right? And the eyes were yellow?_

Lightning grit her teeth. _What does that have to do with anything?_

 _Let me show you._

She felt the darkness swirl away, and suddenly, out of nowhere, another presence moved to enter the dream, standing there as a lone figure in humble monk's garb, only he was shadowed by a dark mist, one that rumbled all around him.

"It is good to see you again."

Lightning watched Aubergine's every move, even when he sat down within the soft, cloudlike substance that drifted on beneath them.

"Fang and I, we've talked over a great deal of things... Including what you've shared about your village."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"You don't seek the reason behind it..?" Aubergine slowly began to shift, looking more and more like his draconic form with every passing second. "Well, then... I will tell you of something else, if that is acceptable?"

After a long moment, Lightning nodded.

The old dragon placed his head down upon the clouds, resting there. "Do you know why I go by this name?"

"Because your scales are the same color as the plant?" Lightning thought back to a deep purple vegetable, an edible species of nightshade, sometimes called an 'eggplant' in certain dialects. "It's not as impressive as Bahamut."

"That is most true, but I am not entirely Bahamut." Aubergine shook his head. "No, as I said before... I am an echo, cast aside from when Fang was reincarnated into this world; imagine a tiny caterpillar, crawling along the edge between death and an entirely new life, and the cover of silk that it leaves behind-"

Lightning almost frowned. "Just a shell?"

"Yes, in a sense..." Aubergine glanced up when Fang appeared in the distance, but he didn't lift his head from the clouded surface. "Bahamut's true spirit, it lives within her."

Fang soon knelt down on her wings, tucking them there beside her chest. "You okay, Light?"

Lightning didn't speak for a long moment, and she let her hands drift down into the misty floor, the hazy surface of the dream. "Not exactly."

Fang lowered her head, curling her neck around where Lightning was sitting.

Aubergine spoke again. "You've told her why our kind was all but exterminated, yes?"

Fang nodded.

"Then... I may have an answer for you." Aubergine's gaze flicked back over to stare at Lightning. "If you wish to hear it."

Lightning reached up towards Fang's silvery horns, feeling the warmth of her soul, the smoothness of her scales, before she slowly started to nod.

"Your spirit, your companion..." Aubergine lifted his head. "Odin, is he not?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes at Aubergine. "Odin is my _horse_."

"I can only speculate, but if a spirit of such caliber were to be cast aside, a shell of what it once was-" Aubergine tried to soften his tone. "And if it were to suffer the pain of so many losses, so many deaths... Of the time spent without his true nature, his nobility..."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut at the sudden memory of a knight in green, of those golden hues and untarnished white, and she almost rose up to strike the notion itself.

Aubergine settled his chin down again. "It may have been instinctually drawn to your presence."

Lightning shook her head, still keeping her eyes shut tight.

"But again, we can only speculate." Aubergine exhaled, breathing a cloud of warmth into the dream. "Dragons, for all of our outer strength, that sudden surge of memories can drive us to try and forget, to wash it all away."

Lightning felt a sharp prickle in her eyes, yet she'd so rarely ever released it, not since she was a child; she couldn't let the venom seep away, no, she _had_ to keep it in. "...I don't believe that."

Aubergine took a deep breath. "How exactly did you kill the beast?"

"I stabbed his brain, right through his skull, and I cut his throat open." Lightning could feel her fingertips start to twitch. "But I _still_ don't believe that, it wasn't _him_... Odin's spirit is back home; he'd never do something like that!"

"That's what he's saying, Light." Fang gently nudged at Lightning's shoulder. "That this might've happened long before either you were born, you, or Odin the horse; that dragon, he might have just been a damn bitter echo, one who barely even realized what he was doing... That's why you cracked his head open so easily."

"We are-" Aubergine let out a long, quiet sigh. " _Significantly_ less resilient than our peers." He closed his eyes for just a moment. " _'We'_ , I have never personally met another of my kind, a shade, a shell... A dragon in name only."

"Hey, don't put yourself down, old man." Fang blinked at the way Aubergine's snout looked rather like her own, narrow and rather elegant. "You had some pretty neat fire to show, yesterday-" She looked over to the side, before she held out one of her wings to hug at Lightning's body. "It's alright, love."

Lightning still had her eyes shut so tightly, as if to block away the dream, all of the sudden revelations, far too much for her to comprehend in only a single night.

Fang spoke in just a whisper. "Get some sleep, okay?"

Lightning felt Fang's wing on her back, so she slowly leaned down against it, letting herself rest within the clouds, the swirling mist, and only then did she let her eyes open once more, quite blurry with that clear, stinging venom.

Fang's face, so soft and human again, she peered down at her from above. "Just sleep."

* * *

Sunlight dappled the pale snow, the trunks of the trees, even the outer bark of a small hollow, where a slumbering figure slowly began to wake.

She first heard the sound of the wind within the branches, the creak of tall, mighty pines, and when she let her eyes slip open, she could see the tiny clearing beside the tree.

Fang was sitting out there, right beside a pile of branches, and Lightning realized that she'd almost definitely copied the shape of her own previous campfires, for it looked more than ready to be set ablaze.

Gradually, slowly, Lightning sat up, blinking against the strong morning light. "Fang..?"

Fang looked back over her shoulder. "Hey."

"I had a..." Lightning winced at the throbbing aches in her head, likely residual pain from the bruises on the back of her skull. "A _really_ weird dream."

"You didn't forget, did you?" Fang waved for Lightning to walk over and join her. "I was having a little chat with Aubergine, but then, when I felt you getting stressed..." She trailed off, waiting for Lightning to sit down beside her. "We talked to you. Do you remember it?"

Lightning shrugged, before she sat down against the soil. "Bits and pieces..." She closed her eyes to focus. "Was that really a memory, back there?"

Fang held out her hand towards the pile of branches, before she let a single, flickering spark fall down towards the very bottom. "Describe it to me."

Lightning slowly let her eyes ease open again. "There was... More sound than I've ever heard before, but then you were there, and we were walking together." She rubbed at the ache in the back of her head, trying to massage it away. "And there were these _things_ , you called them cars."

Fang nodded. "What else?"

"Buildings, taller than any I'd ever seen..." Lightning let her hands fall back down to her lap. "But we lived close to the ground, just the second floor." She narrowed her eyes as the memory grew clearer and clearer, until she remembered that single phrase, whispered so softly against her ear. "I was... A hired killer."

Fang just kept watching the tiny spark, gazing down at the way it tested the brittle branches, slowly growing in size. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

Lightning went very still for a long, silent moment, wide eyed, before she almost let out a snarl, turning to glare at at Fang. "It's not nearly the same."

"...It's _exactly_ the same." Fang's gaze suddenly darkened as well. "I remember that one, Light, they were _monsters_ , humans who lived like _wolves_..." She turned towards Lightning as well, fully, staring her right in the eyes. "They... They took it all, _you_ , and then everything else just-!"

Lightning felt herself go very quiet again, very still, just to watch the sudden fierce glint within Fang's eyes, the unshed liquid that threatened to spill down across her face.

Fang's voice went so silent for a while, and she set her hands down, letting the frost melt beneath her fists. "...We've died, so many times." Her gaze flicked down to the bare forest floor, to the small, frigid space that stood between them. "We've died, we've lost each other, and anyone who dares to take you from me... _They_ deserve to die, too." She slowly leaned back, blinking the swell of tears away. "Just look at me, what a mess... Haven't cried this much in my entire life!" Fang tried to bark out a laugh, but she could only breathe so sharply, leaning over with her hands braced against the ground. "That apartment, it was nothing without you there."

Lightning looked down at the fire. "We had a cat."

Fang sniffed at the warm scent of smoke, and she propped her legs up beside the flames, wrapping her arms around her knees. "We had a _beautiful_ cat... And he'd always wait for you to come home." She closed her eyes for a while, just to try and breathe. "I gave him to Vanille, in the end."

Lightning slowly inched over to the side, carefully letting their shoulders brush together, and after a moment or two, she gently leaned against Fang.

"I never found anyone else... Not that I was ever searching." Fang watched the flames, that tiny flicker, burning away into the morning air. "Messed myself up trying to get back at them, and after that, I wasn't much to look at anymore."

Lightning shook her head. "You're always something to look at."

Fang scoffed quietly. "Not when you've got a whole missing eye, a big scar right under the other one..."

Lightning reached for Fang's hand, holding it from where it was curled so tightly atop her knee. "Always."

Fang started to lean against Lightning as well. "You sure know how to flatter a girl." She turned her hand over so that Lightning could hold it more easily. "Not after looks, are you?"

Lightning shook her head. "I... I do appreciate it, but I'd always rather you be... _You_ , than beautiful."

Fang chuckled under her breath. "Okay, lovebird."

"You called me 'little bird' again, in that one..." Lightning stared deep into the crackling fire. "You had this painting... Do you think you could make it again?"

Fang shrugged. "Things are usually pretty different each time; sometimes I'm good at one thing, and then crap at it in another life."

Lightning lowered her voice down to a whisper. "Do you think you could try?"

After a moment, a long, _quiet_ moment, Fang nodded. "...I can try."

As the fire grew and grew, they made no effort to stoke it, simply leaning against each other for warmth, until the branches had all broken down, turned to coals, low and white, burning away without much flame.

Lightning roused a bit, having dozed off slightly. "...Are you hungry?"

Fang yawned into the morning air. " _Starving_."

"Can you change your satchel back again?" Lightning moved over to examine the low fire, and she gently breathed out against it, building the heat back up with a sudden rush of oxygen. "I said I'd teach you to make griddle cakes..."

Fang smiled a little bit, and once she'd walked over to retrieve her shoulder bag from the hollow tree, shifting it back into a massive satchel again, she knelt down to unbuckle one of the straps. "What do we need for them?"

"A few of those bowls, measuring cups and a mixing spoon..." Lightning exhaled against the fire again. "Flour, baking powder, sugar-"

"Which one is the baking powder?" Fang soon held up a plain package of something that smelled rather like dust. "Is this it?"

"No." Lightning stood up to walk beside the satchel, before she knelt down to rummage around inside it, handing several things over to Fang. "Salt, butter, milk and eggs..." She held up a tiny bottle of something with a dark amber hue. "Syrup, once they're finished."

Fang rose back up to her feet, hauling the supplies over towards the little clearing beside the fire, where the snow had melted away by her mere presence alone. "Alright, what's the first step?"

"Dry ingredients go first." Lightning walked back towards the fire as well. "We have to measure them out." She soon set the griddle down above the fiery coals, before she placed a small iron bowl on top of that, one that held a bit of butter inside, which would swiftly melt atop the heat.

Lightning made quick work of teaching Fang how to scoop out the various powders with the steel measuring cups, and also how to scrape away the excess material with the edge of a knife, back into the package it came from. It wasn't long before a different bowl was filled up with all that they'd require, from the flour to the salt and everything in between, except for a cup of sugar, which was left to the side for later.

"Mix those together, and I'll get the egg..." Lightning reached for a square sort of paper box, one that had a half-dozen eggs inside. "You know, you were talking about some pretty weird stuff back when I was dreaming."

Fang began to stir the dry ingredients together with a mixing spoon. "What sort of stuff?"

"Something called 'mozzarella'? And things in the 'fridge'." Lightning shrugged. "It was just strange."

"Mozzarella..." Fang spoke the word aloud a few more times, testing the way that it sounded in her current language, the common speech of their world. "I don't remember it."

Lightning nodded. "Little things like that, you said..."

"Yeah, they just slip through the cracks." Fang watched how Lightning swiftly split the side of an egg, knocking it against the edge of a different bowl. "Can you teach me how to do that?"

Lightning looked down at the egg yolk, at the way it was drifting around in the thick, translucent liquid at the bottom of the bowl. "We only need one... Maybe next time."

Fang frowned just a little, and Lightning could see the wry smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Don't pout at me." Lightning jabbed at Fang's ribs with her index finger. "I'm teaching you the basics; you don't need to know every step just yet."

"Yes, ma'am." Fang winced at a much harder poke to her ribs. "Yes, lovebird."

Lightning scowled a bit, stirring at the egg with the tines of a fork. "I actually like 'little bird' better than that one..."

Fang grinned to herself. "I'll keep it in mind."

"You'd better, or I might not even share breakfast with you." Lightning soon set down the bowl with the beaten egg, and she gestured for Fang to stop stirring the dry ingredients. "The milk goes in now." She helped Fang get the right amount into another mixing cup, before she helped her pour it down within the dry ingredients. "Stir _slowly_."

Fang did as Lightning asked, gently mixing the powdery concoction. "So, Light... Do you remember anything else from last night?"

"If you're talking about that conversation with Aubergine, I'm _still_ not sold." Lightning picked up the bowl of melted butter, lifting it away with the end of a dishcloth, which protected her fingertips from the heat. "Odin and I, there's something there, something to do with our souls, and he'd _never_ do anything like that."

"That's the point, Light, it wasn't Odin..." Fang took a deep breath. "Aubergine _isn't_ Bahamut, okay? He's the little echo that got left behind, just an empty duplicate, one who could make himself into whatever else he wanted to be... And if Odin had an echo like that, it could have grown pretty damn twisted over the years; he could've just forgotten about us."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Then why is Aubergine so docile?"

Fang kept quiet for a while, gently stirring at the bowl of batter. "I think he didn't try to find me immediately for a _reason_ , Light... Did you take a good look at that cave? It looks like he's been there a while, meditating on that Etro symbol."

Lightning shook her head. "You're just speculating again."

"Hey, it's an educated guess." Fang looked back down at the bowl. "Does this need more stirring?"

Lightning held up the dish with the egg. "Pour this in, and stir it faster than before."

Again, Fang did as she asked, but after a moment or two, she spoke up in a quieter tone. "I've gotta thank you for showing me this... And you can count on me teaching you something, too."

"What sort of something?" Lightning lifted the bowl with the melted butter. "You still owe me a 'dragon dance'."

Fang chuckled. "I haven't forgotten it..." She paused when Lightning reached over to pour the butter into the mix. "Keep stirring?"

"Yes, for about thirty seconds." Lightning leaned back again, gazing over at the heat that rose from the griddle, before she moved to cut a small pat of unmelted butter with her cooking knife, spreading it out across the hot iron surface. "Then I'll show you how to pour them."

"Alright." Fang stopped stirring when Lightning gestured for her to approach, and she smiled again when those soft, yet strong hands helped her to pour the batter down, letting it collect in wide circles right on top of the griddle. "This is more fun than I expected it to be..."

Lightning felt a tiny smile creep over her face. "It's always more fun, cooking with friends."

Fang moved her hands back when the mixture was fully poured, but she still lingered at Lightning's side, staring deep at the look in her eyes. "You really do cope with this fast..."

Lightning blinked, before she turned her gaze back towards Fang, staring at the sheer need in her gaze, the _need_ to remain as close as she possibly could. "There's just no point in dwelling on it..." She slowly reached up to touch Fang's nearest cheek. "It's all venom, you know, _thorns;_ you can't hold onto it for too long."

Fang slowly closed her eyes. "I suppose it is."


	22. Heartbound

Within the snowy clearing, far beneath the rays of morning sunlight, the little campfire crackled on, heating up their breakfast from below.

"I've been thinking about which route we're gonna take..." Fang walked over with a sturdy branch in her grasp. "Look at this, Light." She knelt down to draw a design into the dirt, a rough, jagged line, creating a path that somewhat resembled the coast of the sea. "We're right around here."

Lightning looked down at the tiny star that Fang drew out, which was only around an inch away from the coastline.

"Now, we'll be headed north..." Fang scratched a long trail over the ocean, before she drew out a rather large, somewhat circular landmass beside it. "This is the north pole, but we'll be leaning over to the west by then." She let the map stretch on, back down south, where she drew out a rather unusual island off to the side. "And if you don't mind taking a detour, I'd like to do just a little bit of research in Luxerion on the whole Etro situation."

"I don't think that's-" Lightning paused. "Fang, we're supposed to be going after a _fal'Cie_."

Fang nodded. "And we _will_ , but just a couple days of detouring, Light... It's only scraps compared to how long I've been hanging out here, doing nothing." Fang kept drawing the trail they'd take, down and across the island, out towards to the southern sea. "And we _do_ have the time, okay? It's not that I don't want to get Vanille back as soon as possible... But if we're already in the area, I'd like to get it out of the way."

Lightning glanced back at the campfire, and at the griddle, where the flat cakes were already starting to bubble up near the edges. "I don't think we even need to 'get it out of the way'..." She reached for a certain utensil from the pile of supplies, thought she didn't yet move to flip over the griddle cakes. "I haven't run into one of them in years, and even if I did, I'd keep the symbol hidden."

Fang used the stick to draw out a tiny dolphin, one that danced within the ocean waves, right beside one of the islands. "You don't want to know why it's been happening?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the campfire, at the gentle flames. "It's more that I don't care either way... Listen, Fang, I'm not a nihilist, but this information probably won't even help us; I'd rather do something productive with my time."

"Oh, now this won't do..." Fang bit back a tiny smirk, creeping over to whisper each of her words against Lightning's neck. "Where's all that _curiosity_ gone?" She smiled at those quick little shivers, how they trembled right down Lightning's spine, almost at an invisible rate. "What happened to that look in your eyes when you picked up that compendium?"

Lightning went very quiet and still, but her eyes suddenly fluttered shut when Fang leaned over to nip at the nearest side of her neck. "Way too early for this..."

"I just want my _curious_ Lightning back." Fang settled down right behind her, resting her chest against Lightning's back. "The one who studies bloodthirsty beasts and nasty monsters with a damn passion... Where's she run off to, then?"

Lightning slowly opened her eyes again. "She's just a little tired of monsters."

"Ah." Fang began to hum under her breath, and the sound rumbled right through Lightning's body. "Then what can we do to help with that?"

Lightning reached backwards to grip at Fang's wrists, tugging them to rest at her sides. "We can eat breakfast, and we can talk about something other than contract killings... Or whatever other crackpot theories you have about that stupid dragon." She moved her fingertips around to hold Fang's hands. "We can relax for a while." Lightning watched each flicker of fire, but when the griddle cakes began to darken on the bottom, a rich golden brown, she reached for the flat utensil, before she flipped each of them over to lay upon the other side. "See how they look?"

Fang nodded, resting her chin atop Lightning's shoulder. "Beautiful."

"We just have to let the other side cook, then we can eat." Lightning slowly began to relax again, leaning back against Fang's body. "You can also put berries in them, or even different spices... But they still taste nice without extra things."

Fang slowly moved her arms to hug Lightning's waist.

Lightning let herself drift off for a while, just listening to the sound of Fang's steady lungs, and then even the wind within the pine trees, which were swaying so gently in the morning breeze.

"I'd like to do this more often." Fang closed her eyes, before she hugged Lightning's waist just a little bit tighter than before. "Cooking out in the woods, quiet time..."

Lightning smiled softly. "Sometimes I take short trips to the highland forests with Odin, just to have everything go silent for a while." She thought back to such a gentle creature, her faithful horse, the one who she _knew_ would never turn on her, not in a thousand years. Lightning tried not to let Fang's theory burrow its way down inside her, to break that one barrier within her heart, the shield that kept all the memories of her loved ones safe. "The trees up there, they're taller than any I've ever seen... Like massive pillars."

"Are the highlands still part of your valley?" Fang found that she couldn't stop smiling at the way Lightning was fully leaning against her, so warm and safe, sheltered between her arms. "How much territory do you have, anyway?"

"I wouldn't call it 'territory'." Lightning thought back to those dense woods, to the bandit camp they'd once waged a short war against. "Remember the outlaws I told you about? They lived in a part of the forest for a while, trying to attack us whenever we got close..." She slowly stretched out her legs, though she still kept her boots a good distance away from the campfire. "Let's just say that we have ways of getting up there in the trees, and with Serah and her bow..." Lightning stared deep into the flames, into the warm, snapping fire, so heated and bright. "They treated it like it was their land, their _territory_... Long story short, Serah and I, we decided that we didn't want to live like that, or next to anyone who did. The village is ours, but the woods belong to themselves... We just protect them."

"Noble of you." Fang nudged her nose against Lightning's cheek. "How big is the valley?"

"The lowlands, plains, hills and forests... They take up more than a few miles, but on horseback, I can patrol most of the surrounding terrain in an afternoon." Lightning watched as the fluffy griddle cakes began to turn a light brown near the bottom edge, and she disentangled herself from Fang's arms to start serving them up, stacking an equal number upon a pair of large plates. "But the highlands, the mountain range that we live under, cliffs and tall forests... They're a lot harder to navigate."

"Sounds like a lot of land." Fang smiled when Lightning handed over a plate stacked with griddle cakes, along with a fork and knife to cut them with. "That smells amazing."

Lightning took a very deep breath, smelling the sharp scent of wood smoke, the pitch of pines, and above it all, she could smell the fluffy, flat griddle cakes, soon to be coated in a layer of maple syrup, perhaps some butter as well. "Well... Now you know how to make these." She picked up the bottle of dark syrup, showing Fang how to pour out the right amount, just enough not to overpower the rest of the meal. "I'll teach you how to make potato hash eventually, maybe even tomorrow."

Fang reached for the bottle once Lightning was done with it. "I almost wish we'd bought some cured pork for that..." She drizzled the syrup along the tops of the cakes, and she smiled when Lightning handed her a knife, one with a bit of butter on the edge. "I've gotta say, this is a whole lot nicer than getting stabbed..." Fang smirked at the look on Lightning's face, before she started to spread the butter across each of the fluffy, flat cakes. "Sharing breakfast instead of blows... Not that I don't like seeing you get right up into your element, I'd just rather not be on the receiving end."

Lightning quirked a single eyebrow at that. "Which 'element' are we talking about?"

Fang chuckled, cutting up the cakes into the shape of two crossed lines, so that the syrup could drizzle down into each layer. "That look in your eyes whenever you have something there to _utterly_ focus on... You're like a wolf on the scent; you track its every move, hounding it down until you get close enough to finish it off." She began to slice up a smaller piece to lift with her fork, and she took that first bite, savoring the warm, almost cozy kind of flavor. "I _meant_ what I said last night, you definitely fight like one."

Lightning took a small bite as well. "Then you might like how I spar."

Fang glanced around at the pine trees, and then at the lone, hollow oak that they'd slept beneath. "...Is that an invitation, love?"

Lightning kept staring at her breakfast, cutting the stack of griddle cakes into sections. "It's a challenge."

Fang's lips tugged up into a grin, and she leaned forward slightly, just enough to catch Lightning's gaze. "I should let you in on something, then; I was being modest before... I can hold my own in a tussle."

Lightning tried to bite back a smirk, yet it slowly crept out again when Fang kissed at the very edge of her mouth. "I had a feeling you could..." She swatted the hands at her waist away. " _Breakfast_."

Fang rolled her eyes with just a quiet sigh, but she leaned back again, returning to her plate. "Who says we can't get friendly during breakfast?"

" _I_ do, because we missed lunch yesterday..." Lightning took a moment to chew a small bite of the griddle cakes. "Skipping meals is one of worst things we can do right now, and you'll need all the energy you can get if you're going to be flying over the ocean."

"It's actually a whole lot easier out there, with all the wind..." Fang used the edge of her fork to spread out the syrup a bit more evenly. "Ever seen an albatross? They barely even flap their wings out there, just gliding along for hours."

Lightning nodded. "There was a colony of them on the cliffs, back home." She thought back to the days when her mother would climb along the rocks with her, teaching her the names of all the different birds and sea life, from the tiniest whelk to the massive seals that lounged around on the beachfront, even the outline of distant whales, breaching off from the surface of the sea.

"...I want to tell you something, Light." Fang poked at the syrup on the bottom of her plate. "About before."

Lightning slowly looked back up at Fang, before she nodded.

"And I don't think any differently about you, alright? You did exactly what you had to do, like you always have." Fang set her plate down on her lap, before she reached out for Lightning's shoulder, squeezing it gently. "That life, and all of those people... I'd bet they were hardly any different from bandits, only a whole lot smarter about their internal affairs."

Lightning glanced back down, and she poked the tines of her fork against one of the griddle cakes.

"And it wasn't just white collar crime, it was the _entire_ damn syndicate..." Fang tried not to grit her teeth at the thought of it, at her own memory of barreling down a narrow hallway, firing off a weapon that didn't even exist anymore, not in the world she lived in. "And you, _you_ took them out; you saved a whole lot of people from the grief they would've caused." She suddenly reached out for Lightning's wrist, holding it tight, as if she might just slip away again, fading off into the dark. "You see, Light? It wasn't just killing for killing's sake... It was to _protect_ that life, those lives you've _always_ tried to save."

After a moment, Lightning looked up, and Fang could see that dawning look in her eyes, a quiet realization, spreading so rapidly throughout her entire expression.

"Fang... My parents used to say that killing another person was a sin." Lightning slowly closed her eyes, before she set her plate down to hold Fang's hand in her own. "But they said that for every sin... If you have the right reason, and if the rules get in the way of doing the right thing-"

"They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions... But _I_ say there's a _whole_ lot of wiggle room." Fang let go of Lightning's wrist to touch at the soft curve of her chin, tipping it upwards just a bit. "Is killing someone a sin if the person would have done the very same thing a dozen times over, without remorse?"

Lightning slowly opened her eyes to look back at that sharp green gaze, those _dragon_ eyes, only Fang was still human, still right beside her.

"That's why I don't follow too many rules, Light... They just get in the way." Fang smiled softly. "I just do what the little voice in my heart, what it says is the right thing... Even if that happens to be something _massive_."

Lightning blinked at Fang. "Massive."

"Like shooting up a room full of the bastards..." Fang's grin showed just a hint of teeth, before she evened out her expression, letting her hands drift back down towards her own lap. "I got pretty damn _mad_ , Light... They don't get to take the ones I love without consequences."

Lightning slowly reached for her plate again, returning to her breakfast. "...Thank you for telling me."

Fang smiled again, and she picked up her own plate as well. "I figured it might make you feel better... This is why I told you not to try and remember everything at once, you know?"

Lightning chewed at a bit of griddle cake, nodding. "I'm starting to think that's the right advice."

"Hey, I wouldn't lead you down the wrong path..." Fang reached out to nudge at Lightning's shoulder with her fingertips. "We're partners, aren't we? Buddies to the end."

Lightning stifled a small laugh, but she smiled a bit, shaking her head at Fang. "You get silly in the morning."

Fang smiled back at her. "I get _silly_ when I've got such a nice breakfast..." She moved to the next layer of griddle cakes, and she made sure to spread the syrup evenly. "And such nice company... It's good to have you back, Light."

Lightning felt that smile grow a bit wider, just a bit warmer, until the heat of the campfire almost became unnoticeable.

Fang kept eating, cutting up those flat griddle cakes, but it was only once she reached the very last one that she spoke again. "I think when we really get flying, the ocean's all we'll really be able to see for the rest of the day... It's a long way to the first few islands, out there."

Lightning had already finished her plate, and she'd started to pile up a clump of snow onto the top of it, scrubbing at the surface with a dishrag. "How long can you fly without needing a rest?"

"I've made the trip quite a few times; don't worry about that." Fang gestured at where she'd drawn the map in the dirt. "There's a really distinct cape out on this coast, and if you fly straight northward from a certain rock formation, you'll end up right at the first island."

Lightning held out her plate above the fire for a moment, just to melt down some of the snow. "Will we get there by tonight?"

"If the wind is good, we should hit land before dark." Fang kept eating, almost finished with her plate. "It's a small one, just a thin strip of land, but there are a few trees... Enough for shelter." She paused to lick a bit of maple syrup away from her bottom lip. "And you should fill up that canteen of yours before we get going; not a whole lot of fresh water out there."

"I will, but even out on the ocean, we can catch the snow." Lightning looked over to see that Fang had finished her meal as well, and she gestured for her to hand over the plate. "And if _you_ can catch us some fish..."

Fang smiled. "Oh, I can catch a _lot_ of things."

Lightning started to scrub at the second plate. "...Have you ever fished in a traditional way?"

"Fishing poles, nets, spears?" Fang shook her head. "It's much easier to just swoop down and grab them."

"Yeah, but we're still teaching you to be _human_." Lightning reached over to poke at the edge of Fang's nose, even though she only got a kiss in return, right along the curve of her knuckles. "That's a decent start."

Fang grinned, and she caught Lightning's wrist before she could move away. "A start."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Aren't we on a schedule, here..?"

Fang kissed her hand again. "If you'd like us to be."

Lightning poked at the nearest side of Fang's face with her fingertips. "I would, actually, that way we can skip the detours and be done with this..." She paused, moving to stoke Fang's cheek a bit more gently than before. "It's not that I don't like traveling with you, which I _do_ , but-"

"You want to be home again." Fang's smile went much softer, calmer. "Make sure Serah doesn't shoot an arrow anywhere more lethal..."

Lightning slowly tugged her hand away. "At this rate, I'll have to sneak back home." Shaking her head, she started to gather up the cleaned plates and the dishrag, and then an entire armful of the supplies that they'd used for breakfast. "I'll get a very stern talking to, I can tell you that much..."

Fang reached over to pick up some of the packages as well, before she rose up to her feet, carrying them back towards her satchel. "I bet she'll just be happy to see you again."

Lightning placed the supplies inside, before she stepped back to let Fang do the same.

"So, Light..." Fang smiled, dusting off her hands. "Wanna see something awesome?"

Lightning quirked her brow at that, but she kept quiet while Fang strode back over to the campfire.

"I can _make_ fire, but I can _also_..." Fang hefted the griddle away from the flames, clearly not disturbed by the intense heat of the metal surface, for she merely grasped at the warmth itself, commanding it back into her hands. "...Make other things." Fang soon set the griddle back down into her satchel, before she moved back to kneel beside the fire itself, close enough that she could touch the heart of the blaze.

Lightning took a slow, cautious step forward, watching, gazing down at the way Fang stroked the fire beneath her palms, holding it, _changing_ it, until the embers beneath had gone utterly cold.

Fang kept kneeling there with the blaze in her grip, and her whole face went aglow, before she drew in a deep, steady breath, holding it, before she let it shoot out from her lungs like an arrow.

Lightning's eyes went wide at sharp plume of fire, at the docile, yet ravenous thing within Fang's hands, the wild beast of solid flame; it became a long, scarlet spear, sharp and bladed upon both ends, which she quickly began to twirl, sending the heat away in visible waves.

"Nifty, isn't it?" Fang grinned with that sly, toothy smile, all at once a dragon and a human at the very same time, a veritable fire tamer, so tall and proud. "And that's only the start..." She set one end of the spear down, letting it sink deep beneath the dirt, before she beckoned Lightning over with a crook of her fingertips. "I won't let it burn you."

Lightning took another step forward, and even though she could feel the immense amount of heat, the sheer warmth of the flames, when Fang reached out to hold one of her hands, bare and uncovered, she felt a strange, almost telepathic signal moving out between them.

"Now, I'm gonna use the signature of your soul..." Fang glanced over at the spear again, still holding it in her grip. "It's like a fingerprint, I'm gonna use it to make sure my fire can't burn you; does that sound alright?"

"Yeah..." Lightning looked at the spear as well. "Aubergine said your fire was your soul, didn't he?"

Fang nodded. "Dragon fire is just about the only thing that can burn another dragon; thank Vanille for helping me figure that out..." She chuckled at the look on Lightning's face. "It was an accident, no harm done, but it let us figure out that we could turn each other immune to it, using the right sort of spell." Fang kept holding Lightning's hand, reading each of the lines within that youthful human soul, deciphering the tiny facets deep within, like so many woven shards of fractal minerals. "It's the same sort of magic as changing myself, so I'm actually pretty decent at it..."

Lightning shivered when the swift energy traveled down into her spine, and she almost tugged her hand away when her skin suddenly flickered, just a hint of flame where Fang's skin met her own, but when she realized that there was no pain to be felt, she quickly relaxed again.

"Told you I wouldn't let it hurt..." Fang's eyes went low and smoky. "You're my _friend_ , Light, I won't burn you."

Lightning shook her head. "Just a reflex."

"Ah." Fang smiled, before she squinted to focus on the arcane exchange, the flow of magic between their skin, even their flesh, blood and bones, everything that waited beneath. "I would've done this earlier if we'd had the time... Takes a little while, you know."

Lightning looked down at where Fang's hand was still holding her own. "How long?"

Fang chuckled under her breath. "We'd better sit down again." Slowly, she lowered herself, letting that spear of swirling fire stand beside her, yet she never took her hand away from it. "Won't be too long, though... Maybe ten minutes at the longest."

Lightning's vision went briefly white, and then intensely starry and sharp, so bright and electric, enough that she could barely even tell the difference between it and the snowy forest. "Fang, are my eyes supposed to-"

"Yes, just relax." Fang stroked her index finger over Lightning's wrist, trying to soothe all of the tension away. "It's like a pathway, a map inside your mind... Or even like the words of a book, only they're way too jumbled up for anyone who doesn't know them, so it'll take me a minute to figure them out."

"You can't read my thoughts, can you?" Lightning almost shivered again when her eyes went utterly blind. "Not like the telepathy, before?"

 _I can only read what you want me to read... Or whatever you think about and don't hide._ Fang's voice echoed inside her mind, only it went far deeper than before, like she was actually there in the same body. _My fire is my soul, and to make it 'friendly' with you, it needs to know who you are... I promise it won't hurt._

Lightning's eyelids fluttered shut, before a thin trail of liquid suddenly trickled down her cheek, that single tear, yet it wasn't born of pain or sorrow.

She was simply floating away, drifting down into something she couldn't see, would likely _never_ see, and yet she could feel every twist and turn that curled around her, every line in Fang's mind, the way that inner voice kept whispering to her; it was so close, so _near_ that it felt like her own words, her own gentle rumble, her own soothing speech, digging straight down through her consciousness.

 _It doesn't hurt, right?_

Lightning would have nodded, if only she'd known where her body was, if she hadn't somehow turned into a cloud, or surely something just as formless.

 _Relax, you're still here... It's just mental detachment, like we're dreaming._

Lightning felt herself moving, just a shapeless swirl of dust and what seemed like water, mixed in with whatever Fang's presence was, that rough, almost physical form, only it kept flickering, so heated and bright. _...It feels beautiful._

She could feel the amusement in Fang's inner voice. _More beautiful than the night before last?_

 _Shut up..._ Lightning wanted to give her a wry laugh. _Don't ruin the moment._

 _Because_ _ **that**_ _was pretty damn beautiful..._ Fang's presence kept brushing back against her own, and Lightning realized that it was sheer fire, roaring so gently into every last inch of their tangled souls. _I mean it, as cliche as it sounds... You're beautiful both inside and out, and I get to say it from experience, now._

Lightning felt the warmth of Fang's soul, how it began to gently twist around her own, tethering them together like a long, winding serpent, or even the neck of a mighty dragon. And she was flying, suddenly so weightless within midair, held together, until Lightning was absolutely sure that whatever she was feeling, at just how strong it was, that it was surely beyond the level of her own mental capability. They were cast down into the waterless sea, floating beneath the endless waves, sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness, but Fang was always there, always present, and she kept herself close.

And Fang kept reaching further, burning through each solid layer of her mind, beneath the thought patterns, those little memories that hid behind locked doors, growing closer and closer the very heart of Lightning's inner self. But when she was finally there, finally within... Fang almost felt herself freeze at what she detected.

It was wound up so _tightly_ , so close to Lightning's spirit that at first, Fang almost assumed it must've been something her soul was simply born with, only a harmless abnormality, yet when she drew even closer, feeling it, examining it, she grew quite sure that the presence was something absolutely unnatural.

 _Light... There's something here._

But Lightning's thoughts had grown quite blurry and slow, and then hazy, even dreamlike.

Fang tried to feel it again, to inspect that strange, wispy thread of brightness, but when her own soul reached out to brush against it, the little thread simply drifted away, out of existence, before it appeared in another place. Fang paused, throttling her own mind to try and figure out what it was, what the presence could _possibly_ be, before a sudden realization swept over her like a frigid breeze.

 _Is this another Etro thing? I mean, with a blood pact, all that stuff with the charms, it's got to be linked to your soul somehow..._

Yet Lightning's consciousness had long since curled up against Fang's own journeying mind, wrapped beneath those warm, sleepy coils, weary from such a foreign experience.

Fang could feel a rumbling sensation, the same she'd felt when Lightning doubled over from the pendant on her necklace, that charm with enough power to electrocute any lesser being.

 _Now listen, you..._ Fang hid her thoughts away from Lightning, channeling them straight into the unusual line of energy. _Light's been asking me to get over my grudge on you guys, but I swear on my own life... If you dare take her before she's lived a full-_ Fang suddenly remembered Aubergine's words, but whether the old dragon's power was truly a universal gift, she still wasn't sure. _I don't care if I have to come crashing down on your own damn front door, wherever it is... And I don't care if you're a goddess,_ _ **nobody**_ _hurts Light._

The presence, silent and fleeting, it merely drifted on within Lightning's soul, not deigning to speak.

 _You think we're all just specks of dust, don't you?_ Fang wanted to snarl, to snap out and rip the thing right away from Lightning's inner being, and if she hadn't already spoken to her of that sheer loyalty to Etro, Fang might've just tried it right then and there. _You think we're like toys, things you can wind up and forget about... But you didn't forget her, did you?_

Fang felt the anger swelling up within herself, at the loss of the voices, the ones she'd heard so many years ago, when the gods had spoken so freely, giving gifts in the very same way. While Fang scolded herself for such jealousy, realizing that she was indeed quite grateful that Lightning still had that gift, it still sent an ache deep into her heart, sharp and unyielding. But then, Lightning's presence, even while unconscious, it swirled out, surrounding her as if on instinct, strong, so calming, like gentle feathers against her soul. She listened to the quiet chords, those strings within Lightning's mind, some of which were tangled, some not, yet each different sound struck a unique part of Fang herself, enough to make her understand.

 _I'm fine, Light... Just getting it all out._ Fang turned back towards the wispy thing, the odd being in Lightning's soul. _But_ _ **you**_ _, whatever the hell you are... Even if you really are Etro, I'm watching you like a hawk, you got that?_

She could feel her own fire, her own soul, and Fang envisioned the act of baring her massive teeth, long and sharp, eager to tear apart whatever might threaten Lightning or the rest of their family. Fang thought of her long, scaled neck, ready and coiling, and her claws, splayed out and easily able to rip or shred, even the fire itself, her soul incarnate, that living, _breathing_ weapon. But even then, Lightning's presence kept those flames at bay, small and fluttering, like so many birds flocking all around her, until Fang's soul went very still, very quiet, before she turned back to the task at hand.

A human soul was bound in flesh, so Fang went to work, adding her own mark upon that signature, that story in Lightning's bones, into each little fractal, the framework in her blood, until the fire began to roar as gently as it could.

 _You still here, Light?_ Fang kept weaving those lines, that latent energy in Lightning's body. _I'm almost done._

Lightning's thoughts began to stir, but they were groggy and slow, still mired in the sensation of being twined with Fang's own consciousness.

 _Trust me, this'll all be worth it once I have to be a little more helpful in combat..._ Fang began to thread in the lines of her own soul, her own flames, she wound them deep within the mixture, yet she left Lightning's soul with little more than a receptive design, one that could sense her own presence and speak back to it. _Don't want to accidentally set you on fire, you know._

Lightning slowly drew herself back into a waking state, though she could barely feel much of anything other than that same floating sensation, bodiless and vague. _Fang..?_

 _I'm right here, just making sure you'll be fireproof... At least from me._ Fang drifted away from the act of threading their signatures together, and she tried to nuzzle at Lightning's presence, just to keep her calm. _Could you hear what I was telling you before?_

Lightning kept silent for a short while, but she soon pressed back against Fang's soul, nuzzling her in return. _I don't think so... What were you saying?_

 _That I'm binding our 'fingerprints' together, making sure my soul can't burn you._ Fang felt the sudden exchange, like water and ink flowing out within each other, mixing in and coloring the space between them, sharing the very core of their beings. ... _What happened to not getting 'friendly' so close to breakfast?_

Lightning would have blushed if she could. _This is... Weirdly intimate, isn't it?_

 _Only because you keep pushing at me._ Fang thought of a warm, easy sort of smile. _Trust me, it isn't as intense if you don't make it happen that way... But you won't hear me complaining._

Lightning slowly moved even further, down into the depths of Fang's own soul, and even as it seemed to get more and more sweltering the longer she pressed on, she felt no pain. _Is this the same as going between worlds?_

Fang envisioned a quiet laugh. _No, probably not... More like a waking dream._

Lightning felt the very heart of Fang's inner self, that sheer white fire and the sparks within her soul, only inches from becoming physical.

 _Like what you see, there?_ Fang envisioned another laugh, and she let herself swirl around Lightning's presence. _Don't go too far; I'm almost done binding us._

Lightning felt a small twinge of sadness, one that rippled out into Fang's form.

Fang paused. _What's wrong?_

Lightning pressed in a bit further, nudging at Fang's presence. ... _I almost don't want this to stop._

 _Yeah._ Fang nudged her back. _But we're still using up time in the physical world._

 _I know._ Lightning curled up again, a bit smaller, letting Fang finish with each tiny, intricate design, woven all throughout her soul. _It just feels nice._

 _Well, there's no reason we can't do it again... Just maybe not in the middle of the woods._ Fang thought of a smile when Lightning's presence began to twitch, likely in amusement, by the feel of it. _But it's going to seem pretty weird when we get back there, and it might even feel like pain, but trust me, it's not._

 _I trust you._ Lightning could feel those threaded lines, and she could sense all of the swirling details upon her own 'fingerprint'. Somehow, she knew that Fang had altered her soul, yet the pieces were still intact, simply altered a little bit to recognize her again.

It was as if they'd been gliding along, floating above the clouds and weightless space, but when a swift tug suddenly drew her into the sensation of falling, a sharp dive, when it suddenly tore Lightning back out into the reality of her own body, down, down, _down_ into that physical being, the place that felt so far, _far_ away, it was almost too much to bear.

Her vision, something she hadn't needed within her own soul, it gradually slid back into existence, still so tinged with blotchy patches of white.

"Hey..." Fang's voice was almost deafening, even if it was only a whisper. "Relax, it'll take a minute."

Lightning tried to speak, but it felt as though her thoughts just couldn't connect to her own throat, and the sudden flare of spasms in her muscles made her seize up, squinting and squeezing her eyes shut in pain.

"Light, it's _not_ pain; listen to me, okay?" Fang's voice, she could hear each word she spoke, and then slowly, it brushed down against her cheek. "The first few times are always weird... Your mind just doesn't realize that you aren't hurt, so it's just sending out pain _signals_ , not the real deal."

Lightning's breath felt as if it'd simply shattered inside her neck, ripping her lungs out into shreds, yet when she finally drew in shaky, ragged breath, she realized that nothing was amiss with her physical form.

"Just breathe." Fang's voice was suddenly at her ear, soft and low. "It's alright."

Lightning kept on breathing, choking against her own throat.

"Shh..." She could feel Fang's hands stroking at her back. "Light, it's _okay_."

Lightning tried to speak, tried to move just a single muscle in her body, but the moment she even thought of doing so, her mind swept itself back into overdrive, sending out those signals tenfold.

"Is it different with others..?" Fang's voice grew a bit more uneasy. "Hold on, Light."

And then she was floating, skybound again, only it came with a sharp, prickling pain, though she could finally see Fang again, in full view.

 _What the hell's going on in there?_ Fang's thoughts crept down into the surface of Lightning's mind, searching for source. _Light, listen, I need you try and focus on what I'm looking at, okay? Just follow me._

Lightning grit her teeth to try and ignore the pain, and she nodded, slowly, before she eased her physical body down, pressing her forehead against Fang's shoulder, just to gain some sort of grounding point.

 _Can you see it?_ Fang's inner voice rippled through her mind. _You just have to make it realize you're here, that it doesn't have to worry._

Lightning followed after those long, murky trails, those little flashing points that Fang's presence gave off, traveling down through her own consciousness until she reached the outer surface, drifting right along the edge.

 _That's it, keep going._

She could feel Fang guiding her along, deep into the source of the pain itself, the part of her mind that was truly panicking, quite unsure if she was truly still inside her body or not.

As she focused on it, pushing the source of fear away, Lightning slowly felt herself creeping back within her own skin, deep into the lines of her blood. When she finally managed to reach the point of the painful signals, rapid and frantic as they were, when she tried her best to soothe them, it all gradually began to go dull.

"There you are..." Fang kept her voice down to a whisper. "You alright?"

Lightning nodded, utterly numb, resting her chin against Fang's shoulder.

Fang kept very silent for a long while, before she murmured just a bit louder than before. "Light, look at our hands."

Lightning just kept breathing, trying to keep the pain from swirling back out again, but when she finally felt able to lean away from Fang's body, to look at where their hands were linked, swathed in fire...

"See?" Fang smiled at the gentle, whispering flame, at how it gently flickered between their palms. "Told you it wouldn't burn."

Lightning kept very still, just to watch that constant blaze, to feel it against her skin, to listen to those soft, quiet sounds.

"Now we can spar without worrying about it..." Fang nodded at the scarlet spear, which was still sticking right out of the ground. "But maybe not today."

Lightning nodded. "Not today... That was _intense_." She closed her eyes for a moment, leaning back a bit, though she still kept her hand linked with Fang's, just to feel that fire. "How long was I out?"

"In your head? Just a few minutes." Fang began to stroke her thumb over Lightning's palm, leaving a trail of bright flame. "Now, Light... I might need your expertise on wilderness situations."

Lightning slowly narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

Fang kept looking into Lightning's gaze, and at the smooth outline of her face, but also at the massive, narrow visage right behind it. "Someone's _curious_... Didn't think they liked fire."

Lightning felt herself become suddenly quite aware of the presence behind her back, beside the empty campfire, yet she didn't move a single muscle, not until Fang slowly stood up.

"Back off, _puppy_..." Fang's spear moved like liquid, such sharp, swirling flame, but the creature at the edge of their campsite, it just kept staring at the blaze. "Come on, now... I don't want to burn your sorry hide if I don't have to."

As she turned to face exactly what Fang was looking at, Lightning's eyes went wide at the sight of a dire wolf. It was a species of monster that could grow more than twice as large as average wolves, twice as bold, and _infinitely_ more deadly. The dire wolf simply stared at the spear, before those huge yellow eyes slid up to examine Fang's face.

"Back _off_." Fang gave it a quiet hiss, looking the beast straight in the eye, refusing to give up even an inch of space. "I don't care if you think these woods are off limits, we're just visiting."

Lightning crept backwards, slowly, yet she never took her eyes off of the wolf, even when she knelt down to retrieve both her sword and her bow from the hollow tree.

Fang narrowed her eyes, before she stepped forward, yet the wolf took off in a flash, turning tail back into the cover of the forest undergrowth, rustling around in the gnarled bushes.

Attaching her sword to her belt, Lightning could hear those short little yelps and barking calls, the telltale sign of an entire dire wolf pack, and she carefully readied her bow. "Fang, we should _leave_."

Fang kept holding her spear, glancing around at the forest itself, trying to track the location of each massive beast. "Yeah... Think that was the alpha?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "No, alpha wolves are basically a myth; they live in family groups, a mated pair and several generations of offspring... But I have no idea if that one was a parent or not."

"Really?" Fang almost smirked at the bits of flying snow, even the sound of heavy paws racing all around the outskirts of the clearing. "Good to know... Grab your backpack, okay?"

Lightning had already slung it on across her shoulders. "Got it, but what about your satchel?"

Fang shook her head. "I'll take care of it; just be ready to climb up my wing."

Lightning watched the flashes of bright yellow eyes, of the dire wolves in the snow, sharp teeth hovering just behind the dense, yet barren thickets. Yet when Fang was suddenly enveloped in fiery light, retaking her dragon form, it was only mere seconds before Lightning raced up the side of her nearest wing, readying her bow from high atop Fang's back.

Fang could hear the ragged sounds all around her, the frigid yowls and low, deep baying, but she held her ground, revealing her own teeth with a loud, sharp hiss.

A mighty wolf snarled back at her, pacing around in the snow.

"Fang, we'd better get moving..." Lightning kept her bow trained upon one of the largest of the pack, a creature who seemed intent on waiting silently by the sidelines, though she knew it would be ready to strike on only a moment's notice. "How much of a running start do you need to fly?"

Fang chuckled, long and low. "I've got enough-" Her voice cut off with a spray of sparks and sharp breath, before there was _fire_ , bright and roaring, whirling out from whichever direction she deigned to point her mouth.

A few of the wolves yelped and whimpered, scattering away from the flame, but the elders, the larger beasts, they stayed both still and silent. It was only when Fang made sure that none of the forest had caught fire, only then did she suddenly race forward, reaching for the strap of her satchel to clamp it down between her teeth, before she flared her wings out, forcing the nearby wolves away with a gust of billowing air.

Lightning bit back a cry of surprise, and she rushed to put her bow away, bracing it around her back and chest, before she grabbed at Fang's neck for whatever purchase she could find, but they were still moving, running so very _fast_ that she barely had time to grab at Fang's scales before they were aloft, up in the air, rushing out through the space between the trees.

 _Just hold on..._ Fang swerved away from where a wolf was trailing her from the ground, and she rose up towards a small gap in the lofty pines, beating her wings just as quickly as she could. _Hold on, Light!_

 _What the_ _ ** _hell_**_ _ _d__ _o you think I'm doing?!_ Lightning struggled to keep a hold upon those dark scales, but they were so smooth and flat, barely enough to keep her tethered, and without the satchel on Fang's back, almost acting as a seat, Lightning found herself skittering down between those broad, moving shoulders. _Fang, you've got to-!_

 _I'll land, I'll land, just a minute!_ Fang watched the blurry outline of such territorial wolves, hounding her along with her every move. _They're not gonna make it easy._

Lightning's heart skipped when her hands suddenly flew loose, and the sudden sight of the open air, the feeling of utter weightlessness, of her soft, pink hair fluttering all around her, hiding only half of Fang's body from her view, it made her stomach sink like a heavy stone.

She was falling, hidden beneath the shadow of a dragon, with the cries of wolves right below. _Fang..._ It felt like her whole world had slowed to a crawl, like itself time had inched to nonexistence, but there was no voice from Fang to answer her, no physical link between them... Not until those massive talons suddenly swooped down into view.

It was a primal thing, the urge to strike out at them with her sword, to fight back, to ward away those sharp claws, the steely, predatory muscles within Fang's digits, but when Lightning was suddenly caught, plucked from midair, pulled away from the rather grim fate of falling to her death in the forest or having the wolves finish her off if the impact didn't kill her, when those huge talons swiftly grabbed her away from such a thing, Lightning felt her own lungs gasp out in relief.

 _I've got you... I_ _ **told**_ _you I'd catch you, didn't I?!_ Even as Fang's inner voice returned, echoing out from the softly scaled pads of her feet, Lightning could sense the sheer panic in her words. _I won't... Won't let you fall._

Lightning grasped at one of the taloned toes that kept her in place, just to hug it, hold it close. _You... You damn stupid lizard..!_

 _The stupidest._ Fang kept flying out into the air, turning off to the north, far up and away from the tips of the snow-covered pine trees, high into the sky above. _I'll try to find somewhere to land, then I'll put my satchel back on, okay?_

Lightning tried her best to relax, tried to make herself not think about how she was only a muscle twitch away from falling to her death once more, but she still knew, far above those worrying instincts, she knew that Fang wouldn't drop her.

 _I've got you, sweetheart._ Even from Fang's inner voice, Lightning could still feel the strain in each word. _I won't_ _ **lose**_ _you, okay..? I've got you._

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut tight, still clutching at the talons that held her close. _...I'm okay._

 _You don't have to lie to me, Light._ Fang dipped her head down to look at the foot that was keeping Lightning aloft, at her three front talons, and then at the back one, even at the little hooked claw further up her leg. _It's okay to be afraid._

Lightning almost laughed, breathing out in sheer shock from the rush of adrenaline and utterly panicked nerves, before she realized that her hands were shaking _. That was..._

Fang kept on flying, but Lightning swore that she'd let out a laugh as well. _Pretty damn intense?_

 _Yeah._ Lightning slowly began to open her eyes again, gazing down at the world below, but her stomach nearly lurched at the sheer rate of constant motion, the way that the trees felt close enough to reach out and touch. _Do you see anywhere you can land?_

 _Look right up ahead; there's a ridge over there_... Fang angled her wings to glide forward and down, swooping out over the snowcapped trees, through the brisk morning air. _I'll land on one foot so you can get back down on the ground, but then I'll need you to move away so I won't run into you._

 _You step on me, and you'll be picking daggers out of your toes for weeks..._ Lightning tried not to look down at her own two feet, which were still drifting along beneath her legs, out in the open air. _So you'd better watch your step._

 _Yes, love._ Fang rolled her eyes, still flying off towards the stony, snow-covered ridge. _Get ready to move._

Lightning braced herself, feeling the way that Fang even tried to help her upright as they raced down over the rocks, and when she finally felt her boots touch the snow, Fang's talons went loose enough to let her stumble away. Each of those wide, dark wings sent massive gusts of air while Fang tried to hover there, but she was quickly forced to land as well; her talons, long and sharp, they grabbed at the snow and rocks to slow her down, before she landed in a rather lopsided way, skidding forward with a soft, muffled thump.

Lightning just knelt there for a long while, trying to breathe, to catch her breath again, until she slowly rose back up to her feet, trudging out through the deep, powdery snow. Fang had since rolled over upon her back, and both of her wings were sticking right up in the air, while each digit curled somewhat inward, almost like fingertips. Her scaled satchel was laying a short distance away, abandoned in the snow, at least for the time being.

"Hey." Lightning took another long, deep breath, before she slumped down against the snow, resting right there beside Fang's face. "That was... A nice save, back there."

Fang smiled at her, a dazed, toothy grin. "Nearly scared myself to death."

Lightning tried to smile too. "A dragon, _scared_..?"

"Everyone gets scared." Fang slowly curled her neck over to the side, nudging at Lightning's shoulder with the end of her nose. "Even dragons."

With her right arm, Lightning hugged at the elegant curve of Fang's snout.

"But we made it, didn't we?" Fang spoke in a quiet tone, barely even moving her mouth. "Having a dragon for a friend isn't so bad."

"Sure..." Lightning leaned back to punch at Fang's forehead rather halfheartedly, before she slowly shook her head back and forth, trying not to smile. "Just as long as you like death-defying stunts and getting chased by _dire_ _wolves_."

Fang chuckled a bit. "Oh, I think you like the thrill..."

Lightning slowly slumped to the side, resting herself beneath one of Fang's eyes. "Just as long as the 'thrill' doesn't include falling off of your back and then getting grabbed right out of the sky... It's just _fine_ , then."

Fang smiled again. "I did grab you, though."

"You did." Lightning closed her eyes, breathing deep. "Just promise me that you'll always wear your satchel from now on..."

Fang nodded, but she was careful not to jostle Lightning from where she was resting. "You know, next time I shed my scales, I could make myself a necklace... Something easier for you to hold onto."

Lightning opened her eyes a bit. "You said it happens every hundred years?"

Fang nodded again. "Last one was about... Thirty-seven years ago."

Lightning scoffed. "That's older than I am."

"Well, yeah-" Fang paused, thinking back to the island with so many owls, and to the dragon who rested so far beneath the earth. "But if that whole immortality thing works out like the old man said..."

Slowly, Lightning closed her eyes again. "Even if that _is_ true, I don't know if I'm ready to be immortal."

Fang lifted one of her wings up to tap at the top of Lightning's head. "What, you're just gonna nod off one day and leave us all alone..?" She chuckled when Lightning swatted her wing away, but Fang merely lifted her head, nuzzling them both far down beneath the snow, until her own face was buried beneath it, before she let her voice lower itself into a croon. "Light, that's just not _fair._ "

Lightning quickly smacked at the scales on Fang's nose, clawing at them, trying to work her way back up above the snow. "You _dumb_ lizard..!" She exhaled heavily, before she finally managed to shove Fang's snout away. "You really think we're going to live through even an average human lifespan without killing each other?"

"But I thought we were _friends?_ " Fang just kept grinning, before she set one of her wings down in the tiny snow ditch. "Oh, I think we'll turn out just fine..." She chuckled when Lightning grabbed at her wing claw, using it to climb back out from the snow. "Admit it, you love this."

Looking away from anything to do with Fang, Lightning shook the snow away from herself and made a rather unsavory gesture with her right hand, before she reached for the gloves in her jacket pocket, tugging them back on.

"You'll flip a dragon the bird, that's _awfully_ brave..." Fang smiled with all of her teeth. "You sure know how to make a girl feel appreciated."

"What, you want me to grovel..?" Lightning suddenly smirked to herself, glancing back over her shoulder, before she rose her voice to a slightly higher pitch. "'Oh _Fang_ , you're so brave for facing all of those dire wolves'..."

Fang's grin only widened, and her whole body rumbled with a laugh.

"'And how you just flew away from them like a damn blessed _chicken_ , that was _so_ impressive'." Lightning tried to fight back the growing smile on her face, but it just kept creeping up. "'Oh, yes, just make me immortal right now, these antics are _exactly_ how I'd love to spend the rest of my life'..."

"See, your _tone_ says sarcasm, but those eyes of yours..." Fang dipped her head down to catch Lightning's gaze, resting only inches away from her face. "They tell me all I need to know."

Lightning poked at the silvery little scales beneath Fang's horns. "Maybe I just have a weakness for someone I liked in a past life... Or you could just be lucky."

Fang smiled again, but it was softer, with far less teeth. "I think you're _fond_ of me."

Lightning merely swatted at Fang's nose, before she walked over towards where the satchel was still resting in the snow. "You're just charming... Gentle and charming, and you know how to be patient."

"Not hard to be patient when you're probably the oldest hag on the planet..." Fang stepped over as well, before she dipped her head down to draw the satchel strap up and over her neck and horns, where it slid down towards her upper back, resting right between her winged shoulders. "Not that I've been counting."

Lightning stood there in the snow for moment, gazing up at Fang, before she stepped back towards one of her wings. "How close are we to the coast?"

"Not far..." Fang knelt down and waited for Lightning to climb up to her back, and she smiled when she felt that familiar hand brushing beside the strap on her neck, holding it tight. "You'll be okay to fly again?"

"Yeah." Lightning tugged off her gloves once more, before she gripped at the smooth, dark material, making sure that she had the rest of the satchel to lean against, almost like the back of a saddle, or a seat. "We'll still make it there by nightfall, right?"

"Yeah, better grab a snack on the way over..." Fang stepped towards the edge of the ridge, gazing down at the forest below, at all of the swaying pine trees, gently pushed back and forth by the wind. "You've still got those chocolates in your backpack, right?"

"Yeah." Lightning glanced over shoulder. "But chocolate for lunch..? I think I'd rather just eat some of what we bought at the market."

Fang slowly rose up on her hind legs, flaring her wings out in the breeze. "Or I could catch us a fish or two." She chuckled, leaning forward ever so slightly, until she finally let herself drop, diving on down over the ridge. _How about I grab one and cook it in midair?_

Lightning rolled her eyes. _You'd have to be pretty damn talented to do that._

Fang smiled against the wind, flapping her massive, mighty wings. _Oh, don't underestimate me..._

* * *

Beneath the midday sun, they'd flown far out over the rocky shore, off into the sea winds that rose so high above the crashing waves.

Fang spread her wings out wide, gliding along each crest of brisk, salty air, and though it was almost silent enough for her to speak out loud, with the occasional roar of the waves and wind, she decided to use her inner voice to communicate. _So, how's the fish?_

Lightning was holding onto the strap of the satchel with one hand, while simultaneously picking at a rather charred chunk of marlin flesh with her other. She had to place her free hand back down on Fang's scales to answer her, which she did after finishing a bite. _Better than I thought... You used less heat this time, didn't you?_

 _Well, I was thinking about what you said before, about using dragon fire..._ Fang trailed off when she caught sight of yet another huge, leaping marlin, which she swept right down to grab at with her hind talons. _Those griddle cakes, they were technically my handiwork._

Lightning thought back to the tiny spark that Fang had used to light the branches. _If you can control the heat to a certain degree, I might just take back what I said about not using it..._ She pulled away another chunk of cooked flesh from the fish, slowly chewing it to examine the texture. _But you could still use some refinement._

 _It's the thought that counts, right?_ Fang held up the fish that she'd caught in one limb, curling her neck down to blast it with a rather quick bout of flame, before she took the entire thing between her teeth, still flapping both of her wings to keep herself airborne. _Hey, if I toss a raw one back, could we cook it for dinner tonight?_

Lightning grimaced a bit. _You nearly missed with this piece..._

 _I'll be careful._ Fang paused to swallow the marlin whole, though she did chew along the spikier bits to soften them up, not to mention the swordlike nose. _This is the first time since we met that I've been able to hunt on the fly._

Lightning leaned over to watch the way Fang swooped down again, grasping yet another fish into those long, dark talons. _It's certainly impressive._

 _Ooh, I could get used to these compliments..._ Fang chuckled, before she doused the fish she'd caught in fire, killing it instantly, only a split second of pain. _Fish, it's really the only kind of meat that just doesn't taste good raw._

Lightning smiled a little. _You've never had a raw fish platter before?_ She almost chuckled when Fang made a rather disgruntled noise, swallowing down the charred marlin. _Fang, when it's prepared right, it can be much better than cooked._

 _I'll believe it when I taste it..._ Fang leaned back to lick away the saltwater from her mouth. _See, you grew up on an island, you'd know this stuff better than I would._

Lightning reached down for another bite of her own lunch, before she adjusted her hand against the satchel strap, just enough for it to reach Fang's scales as well. _My mother wasn't native, not technically... She told me the story of how she came to the island, bringing her faith with her. It was actually one of the reasons she got with dad in the first place..._ She smiled at the memory of the time when her mother had suddenly doused her father with a cold bucket of water out on the beach, and Lightning almost swore she that could hear the sounds of their laughter again, or even Serah's, from where she was splashing around and giggling by the shore.

Fang felt a deep twinge in her own heart, for Lightning's memories had drifted out into her mind as well. _They really loved each other, didn't they?_

Lightning glanced down at where her hand was still resting against Fang's scales. _They loved pranking each other... But there were always hugs between them, and chaste things, you know? They were never very far apart._

 _...I can tell they loved you and Serah, too._ Fang looked down at yet another leaping fish, but she passed it by, focusing on the ocean ahead. _That's important, Light, that's something nobody can ever take away... Those memories are yours._

Lightning thought back to the day when she'd caught a rather large halibut off of the harbor piers. Her mother had helped her prepare it into a raw dinner for the four of them, placed atop fluffy bits of rice that they'd bought from a marshland village, before they seasoned the dish with foreign spices and freshly diced vegetables.

 _Woah, Light..._ Fang began to feel how the memory suddenly intensified, even past her visual senses, so much that she could almost share in the way it had once tasted. _I didn't know we could do that._

Lightning looked down at Fang again. _Do what?_

 _I swore you showed me what it tasted like, just now..._ Fang smiled a wide, toothy grin. _You weren't kidding, that's actually good._

Lightning thought the idea over for a moment, before she let her mind wander back to the time that her entire family had been out on the beach to grill up colorful a rather fish, one called a dorado. She remembered the scents of the briny ocean, the sound of the wind in her ears, even the way that the sunset had drifted down between hues of bright orange and a dark, mellow blue. She remembered the way Serah showed off just how far she could shoot a stray seashell with her practice bow, and how her father had knelt down to ruffle Serah's hair, praising her for just how accurate the shot had been. And she remembered the look on her mother's face, the sudden swell of pride in her eyes, and how she'd later felt butterflies in her own stomach when they'd performed her first initiation rites, for that day, it had been Lightning's tenth birthday.

The rite was said to be an ancient blood ritual, yet no matter how macabre it might've sounded, the goddess of death needed only a drop to welcome her into the fold.

Long after Serah had been tucked away to bed, her mother sat there beside Lightning, out beneath the stars, while her father spoke the words aloud from an old, leather-bound book, one that he claimed had been passed down through his family for dozens of generations. And then, a birthday gift; it was a slim, silver dagger, one that Lightning knew would someday be melted by a dragon's fire, but at the time, she'd simply accepted it from her father's hands and drawn a minuscule cut along the edge of her own thumb, offering her blood back to the goddess.

And that was it, aside from the happy tears from her mother, and the gift of her first real sword, which was from her mother as well. It was a blade of steel, a far step from their wooden practice tools, and then came the silent promise that their odd little faith would not yet fade away into the night, and that was all they needed.

 _That dagger... It was important, wasn't it?_ Fang kept gliding over the ocean waves, flapping her wings every so often. _If it was for your initiation..._

Lightning shrugged. _It might've given me my first connection to Etro, but just as long as I have my charms, I don't need it._

Fang almost frowned. _I was going to mention, earlier..._ She trailed off for a while, trying to think of the best way to explain the situation. _Light, I felt something strange in your soul, something that I don't think was originally a part of you._

Lightning narrowed her eyes. _What sort of 'something'?_

 _It was a wispy little thing, one with a mind of its own._ Fang angled her wings down to catch a cresting wave of air, riding it on into the north. _And_ _I told it that it'd better be behaving itself, or I'd go right back in there and take care of it once and for all... But I figured that it might be an Etro thing, so I left it alone._

Lightning glanced down at where the silver pendant was hiding beneath her jacket. _Fang, I do have a connection with Etro; that's probably exactly what it is._

 _I had a feeling it might be._ Fang stared at the ocean waves, at the deep blue sea, so far beneath her wings. _You know, you guys really are the most secretive of the well known religions... I used to spend a lot of time in Luxerion with Vanille, just reading up on the old histories._

 _We're secretive because there's not all that much to hide._ Lightning looked out at the horizon, before she turned to gaze towards the rays of sunlight up above, shining down across the sea. _It's just a single ritual, and then you're done... Aside from actual hunting, that is._

 _Oh? You might want to change your mind about Luxerion, then..._ Fang chuckled against the wind. _There's tomes about different initiation rites, the differences in beliefs between geographical sects of the faith, even stuff about the whole 'culling of monsters', back in the day._

Lightning shook her head. _Everything but that last one is just for clerics, and to be honest, we're not even in the same league as each other... They're priests, worshipers, everything that Etro's tenets don't ask for; it's a nice idea, but all they're really doing is fawning over that idea, nothing more._

 _Hey, that's not entirely true... Clerics organize and preserve all of the literature and historical records; it's not just blind worship._ Fang glanced back over her shoulder to peer at Lightning. _I have a feeling you don't go to church very much._

Lightning almost laughed. _Never, there wasn't one back on the islands, and even now, why bother?_ She glanced towards her pendant again. _I have my own brand of loyalty... As long as Etro keeps helping me, I'll keep up with the hunting prayers._

Fang smiled again. _We're more alike than I thought._

Lightning closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the chill winds against her face, the sensation of being so free, so wild above the ocean spray. _We're two of the same, Fang... I don't answer to gods who don't care._

Fang felt a familiar twinge in her heart, the sharp pang of loneliness she'd carried on for all those years, long before she met Vanille, and even then, once she'd been locked away in crystal... No gods had been there to answer them. _The same..._ She suddenly felt the soothing touch of Lightning's hand upon her neck, and Fang let out a quiet sigh, flying on beneath the light of the sun.

 _I'm sorry._ Lightning ran her palm along those smooth, dark scales. _You were... So alone, I wish I could've been born earlier._

Fang shook her head. _Don't waste a wish on that. You're here right now, aren't you?_

Lightning nodded. _Fang, I won't leave you... You hear me? I_ _ **won't**_ _leave you, not unless I have no other choice._

 _I know, Light..._ Fang kept flying over the ocean waves, further out into the north. _I know._

* * *

It was early evening by the time they'd touched down upon the island shore, brightened by the light of the setting sun. Fang carried a single fish in her talons, but it was a rather large one; a long, blue marlin with a yellow stripe down either side.

"Alright..." Lightning stepped down to the frosty sand, gazing out over the beachfront, before she gestured towards a more sheltered area, one that stood beneath several snow-covered trees. "Now you get a lesson on grilling."

"Fun stuff." Fang hopped along on one foot, carrying the fish in her claws, though she was still relatively balanced with both of her wings upon the ground, acting as front legs. "Cooking out on the beach, beneath a beautiful sunset, with such a _sweetheart_ to boss me around... How much more whimsical can it get?"

Lightning kicked at a stray patch of snow, scattering it across the sand. "It could actually get a lot more whimsical, just as long as you don't poke that thing with your claws..." She looked back over her shoulder, towards where Fang was still carrying the marlin along, yet she'd only broken its neck with her other foot while in midair, careful not to puncture any part of the body with her talons. "Just set it down once I get out the cloth."

Fang almost smiled at the memory of such useful fabric, the kind that seemed almost impossible to stain with blood. "Whimsical... Is that a promise, Light?"

Lightning placed her backpack down with a rather coy smirk. "We'll see."

"Oh, not fair, not fair at all..." Fang kept balancing upon her wings and hind leg, holding the marlin between her talons. "No appreciation for me these days."

Lightning fought the urge to flip Fang the bird again. "Here, put it down." She reached out to spread the cloth over a rather flat area of the sandy beach, one with enough space to set up the grill. "I'm going to show you how to gut it."

Fang stepped forward to set the fish down against the fabric, before she stepped back, changing back into her human form, though not quite before she'd dropped her big satchel down upon the sand.

"Alright." Lightning took out a sheathed blade from her backpack, one that Fang hadn't seen before. "This is a fillet knife."

Fang nodded, and she quickly sat down beside her.

"I'm actually pretty glad you broke the neck..." Lightning ran her hands along the rather massive fish, testing the strength of the scales. "These can grow even bigger than dolphins, you know."

Fang nodded. "That kind takes more than just a bite... I even have to chew."

Lightning lowered her knife down between the marlin's head and neck, before she carefully began to saw right through the scales and flesh, down to the bone in the very center. "Back home, they had to use knives as big as swords for the massive ones..." She watched the dark blood flow down along the fabric, but she just kept cutting through, tugging away the head, then the inedible bits of tail, even the fins. "We're lucky though, this is actually a smaller one."

Fang watched the way that Lightning sliced a thin slit from the end of the marlin's tail up towards the gills, before she reached right in to tug away all of the guts and innards, making sure that the cavity was clear.

"Canteen, please?" Lightning's hands were fully coated in blood by that point, and she gave Fang a tiny smile for going to her backpack to retrieve it. "Just pour some down in here."

And Fang did as she asked, sprinkling a good bit of water into the inner part of the fish, before Lightning set to cleaning it out, making sure that all of the unsavory remains were washed away.

"Now, scaling." Lightning looked at her fillet knife again. "A lot of people like cooking fish with the scales on, myself included, but if we're cooking marlin steaks, then they should be taken off." She gestured for Fang to move closer. "I'm going to show you the right motion."

Fang nodded, letting Lightning take hold of her hands, guiding her down into the process of working the scales away. Each stroke felt almost fluid, yet somewhat rough, almost like the way she'd cut off the meat of the deer.

"Want to try it on your own?" Lightning slowly let Fang take full hold of the knife. "We still need firewood... And I'll start getting the grill ready."

Fang just kept on scaling the fish, working the knife down smoothly. "What about once this is done?"

"Then I'll show you how to cut it." Lightning stepped over towards the ground beneath the trees, and she knelt down to pick up the driest bits of branches she could find. "After that, we'll clean the pieces again, next is seasoning, and then... We can start cooking." She picked up a handful of dry, mossy material, enough to make decent kindling. "I still remember when mom taught me and Serah how to clean a fish."

Fang paused for just a moment, glancing over her shoulder.

"We'd eat a lot of other things, but fish was definitely a staple." Lightning picked up another branch. "It was how we earned money for things; we'd spend all afternoon gutting fish down at the docks..." She knelt down to pick up a few more stray sticks, placing them down at the top of her armful. "I commissioned a horse whistle from the local smith, just because I wanted a horse of my own someday... I'd seen them in storybooks, the ones about the guardians of the old kings, all the knights."

Fang looked back at the fish, before she started to scale it again, turning it over to rest on the opposite side. "Did you want to be a knight?"

Lightning kept quiet for a long moment, gathering even more sticks. "I wanted to be one of the hunters that followed Etro's faith, the ones from the early days... Back when dragons weren't so rare." She stood up again, before she turned around to carry the branches back down towards the sand. "So, I bought a horse whistle so that it wouldn't feel like such a long shot, so that if I had it, earned it with my own money, then I'd have keep my promise and get a horse someday."

"And now you have Odin..." Fang narrowed her eyes at a particularly stubborn patch of scales. "Does he listen to the whistle?"

Lightning almost chuckled. "He doesn't need it, but it's one of the only things I managed to get across the sea." She looked over towards where she'd set down her sword and bow, before she glanced at where her necklace was resting beneath her jacket. "It was more of a symbolic gesture, really."

Fang quickly worked away the rest of the scales, before she set the knife down to watch what Lightning was doing. "Do you think he'd like listening to the flute that Sazh made?"

Lightning shrugged, and she busied herself with placing the branches down into a rather large pile. "I haven't played an instrument since I was a kid..." She thought back to the smooth little shells with strategically placed holes to change the tones, or the hollow animal horns that her parents would sometimes fashion for her and Serah, though when the noise became too much of a bother, they'd often be repurposed into a container for herbs, or other such supplies, or even just as a decoration.

"I can play a few notes..." Fang felt the ocean wind as it swept through her hair, and she looked down at her hands. "It's been more than a couple hundred years, though." She picked at the fish blood beneath her fingernails. "We could give it a spin after dinner."

Lightning kept placing the sticks down against each other, making sure that the foundation was steady. "Just don't set it on fire."

Fang grinned. "With a such a cool carving like that? No _way_..." She rose back up to her feet, before she wandered over to where Lightning was setting up the fire pit. "Want me to get the grill?"

Lightning nodded. "I'd appreciate it."

Fang walked back to her satchel, and she knelt down to rummage through all the various supplies, until she finally reached the place where the grill was still folded up. "Anything else?"

"Salt, pepper and olive oil." Lightning stepped away from the branches, dusting off her hands. "And if you'd like to start the fire..."

"It'll be my pleasure." Fang carried the grill over, along with the rest of Lightning's requested items. "And you can even stick your hands in there."

"Are you sure it works like that?" Lightning watched the way that Fang set down the supplies, before she helped to position the grill over the fire pit, clasping down the metal supports on each leg, and then she made sure that it was angled across the very center. "Does it still keep your signature?"

"Of course..." Fang lit a single spark against her fingertip, which she quickly tossed down into the mossy material at the base of the branches, before she stepped over to create another small spark between them, placing it down upon Lightning's palm. "See? Doesn't hurt."

Lightning watched the tiny, flickering glimmer, but she almost frowned when it began to die away without Fang's warmth to aid it. "Doesn't this hurt you, though? If it's still a part of your soul..."

Fang shook her head. "It's more like-" She took a moment to think of the best way to explain it. "Like fingernails, or hair... They're still a very real part of me, but it doesn't hurt to cut them away."

Lightning quirked an eyebrow at that, but when the spark finally faded into nothing, she let her hands drift back down to her sides. "So when you breathe fire, it's like growing hair?"

Fang chuckled. "Hey, it's not a perfect metaphor..." She reached for Lightning's hands again, and the sudden flames blooming from between their hands, each bit of fire fluttered out so gently beneath the evening light. "You were going to show me how to cut the marlin."

Lightning stared into those eyes, those deep, watchful eyes, such a pretty green in the dark shade of the trees, almost like the forests back in Sunleth. She barely even noticed that sly little smirk on Fang's lips, nor did she realize just how close they'd become, or even that Fang had just asked her to help get dinner prepared, and when that gentle mouth suddenly brushed up against her own...

"You, Lightning, are _unusually_ easy to distract." Fang spoke in a low, quiet tone, though her voice was slightly rough, even that she was gently biting at the edge of her own bottom lip. "Why do you let your guard down around me..?"

Lightning exhaled, and she let her eyelids droop a bit when those strong, clever arms wrapped themselves around her upper waist, drawing her even closer. "Because I trust you."

"...I trust you, too." Fang let her lips part, slowly moving against those short little breaths, before she brushed the very tip of her tongue against Lightning's bottom lip. "But I've have the feeling you'll be pretty cross with me if we don't get dinner started."

Lightning blinked, gradually realizing just how much she wanted to forget the whole ordeal and just let Fang do whatever the hell she wanted, but those quiet little grumbles in her stomach, they fought her every step of the way.

"Tell you what." Fang slowly held up their hands between them, still intertwined, still whispering with just a hint of dragon flame. "Let's finish dinner, and then if you're in the mood, later tonight... We can finish _this_."

"That-" Lightning swallowed away the slight cracks from her voice. "That sounds... Reasonable."

Fang grinned, all teeth. "Now, show me how to cut up a fish?"

Lightning slowly detached her hands from Fang's grip, before she stepped away, towards the cloth with the marlin carcass. "It's not too complicated." She sat down on the sand to pick up her fillet knife, but when Fang suddenly knelt down right behind her, she swiftly felt a blush creep out across her neck. "You just... Work in sections."

Fang purred into her ear. "Sections."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Cleaning a fish isn't supposed to be a turn-on, Fang."

"Never said it was." Fang just kept sitting there, watching the way that Lightning held the knife. "But I do like watching you work..."

Lightning fought the urge to shove away such a pesky partner, such a cheeky woman- _dragon_ -thing, whatever the hell she was. "You're just trying to distract me."

Fang slowly shook her head. "I'm trying to see how easy it is."

Lightning rolled her eyes again, but she quickly began to cut the marlin down into rather large pieces, some of which she sliced down into smaller, flatter bits. "Get my canteen again?"

Fang glanced at where the big waterskin was resting just a short distance away, and she stood up to retrieve it, before she carefully uncapped the top.

"It's always important to wash these first." Lightning almost smiled when Fang sat down beside her, offering to pour out a bit of water. "We can season them after this, then get them on the grill." She got to work on cleaning away the excess blood from each chunk of fish meat, readying them to be further prepared, all while Fang began to copy the way she did so, spreading out the water against the surface of the steaks.

"Do you still grill outside like this, back home?" Fang poured out a bit more water from the canteen. "Your new home, I mean."

"It's hardly new at this point." Lightning moved to shake away the water from a piece of fish, before she set it back down on a clean part of the cloth. "But yes... Certain holidays, or nice summer nights, sometimes we'll even cook wild boar out in the field, share it with everyone."

"Wild _boar?_ " Fang started to smile, remembering the strips of jerky that Lightning had once shared with her. "You're making this place sound like the damn promised land."

Lightning smiled softly as well. "Nights like that, it makes all of the hard work worth it..." She thought back to last the time she'd been at such a gathering, watching the neighbor children chase fireflies around the open fields, while most of the adults were busy dancing or speaking among themselves.

She remembered the way Serah had coaxed Snow into a slow dance, how he'd seemed so very reluctant at first, but when Lightning herself turned a blind eye to the whole ordeal, he'd swiftly eased into the motions, twirling Serah around so slowly, so gently, so much that Lightning almost felt all of the prior apprehension melt away. She knew, deep down, in the part of her mind that she might never admit to, that Snow and her little sister did indeed make a wonderful match. Yet there was a part of her, the part that still saw Serah as the silent, near-comatose child out on the sand, shattered by such a sudden loss; if Snow were to ever have a change of heart, to be yet another life that had left Serah behind in the dust... Lightning knew that it might end in far more than tears.

"You look pretty serious." Fang began to set down another piece of cleaned fish. "Something on your mind?"

Lightning paused for a moment, watching while Fang reached to clean the very last marlin steak. "Just the situation back home... I'm really not trying to ruin anyone's fun, Fang, but-" She paused, before she looked down at the sand that she was sitting upon, and then at the streaks of blood dripping down from the pale white fabric. "Someone needs to be the adult... Someone needs to protect her."

"To protect Serah?" Fang kept cleaning the piece of fish, washing the red grit away until it was shiny and clear, almost ready for the grill. "What do you need to protect her from?"

Lightning slowly folded her fingertips together, staring at the blood on her hands. "Pain... Loss, from being alone."

Fang nodded. "How old did you say she was?"

"Twenty-two, twenty-three next spring." Lightning looked down at the fingerprints on each of her digits, at the dark coating of red that stood in between each line, against each curved, spiraling signature. "She's not a child anymore, but I still... I _still_ need to watch out for her."

"Then you just need to find the right balance." Fang set down the final piece of fish, before she leaned forward to catch Lightning's gaze. "You just need to find that point between overbearing and watchful... To let her have that freedom, but still leave enough for her to fall back on if she needs it."

Lightning tried to scrape the blood away from her fingertips. "You make it sound so simple."

Fang smiled. "It _is_ simple... It just looks a whole lot bigger when you aren't looking at the thing from a distance." She gestured at the various pieces of fish. "You think the fire's ready for these?"

Lightning looked over at the flames that crackled beneath the metal grill, and she nodded, lifting up one of the steaks. "Yes, but we still need to season them."

So Fang watched, examining the way that Lightning coated the first piece of fish in olive oil, before she rubbed a rather generous amount of salt and pepper down into the surface.

"And that's about it." Lightning soon held up the finished product, ready to be placed above the heat. "Think you can help me with the rest of them?"

Fang nodded, and she reached for one of the marlin steaks and the bottle of olive oil. "You know, for such a menial sort of thing..." She poured down a small bit of the oil over the steak, careful to spread it out in the same way that Lightning had showed her. "Like I said before, this is a whole lot more fun than it sounds."

Lightning reached for another piece of fish, and she couldn't help the tiny smile that crept across her face.

"I mean it." Fang smiled as well. "You're good company, Light."

"Glad you think so." Lightning reached for the olive oil. "Guess I'd have to be, to wait thousands of years for..."

Fang looked up from seasoning the marlin steak, and there was a glint in her eyes, something distant, yet nearly at the same time, a paradox, simultaneously comforting, yet still a source of bewilderment. "We're... We've been bound by something deeper for a long time, Light, just like I said back up on the mountain." She looked deep into Lightning's eyes, those same eyes that she'd seen staring back at her from beneath the lights of a massive city, those same blue irises she'd seen look so scathing within a life of great turmoil, when they'd grown up as sworn enemies, though even if over time, they'd found more than just a single thread in common.

It was those very same eyes, always the same, and Fang still remembered them from the time when she'd carried Lightning out from the crumbling ruins of a lost city, without a single word of common language between them, but the long, sturdy splint that she'd attached to Lightning's broken leg, it spoke more clearly than she could ever hope to say.

And even then, the Lightning that sat beside her, born to the vastness of the world, a tiny village out in the sea, there was still the same look in her eyes, that trust, that love, the very same heart, bound so tightly by the threads that ran far deeper than either of them could see.

Fang closed her eyes, and she smiled. "I'd call us soulmates, but I have a feeling you aren't too into the sappy stuff..."

Lightning almost rolled her eyes, but she soon found herself smiling as well. "...Only for you, Fang." She kept working on their dinner, but that stubborn little smile just wouldn't leave her face. "Only for you."


	23. Uprooted

The marlin steaks sizzled against the metal grill, and a long, white plume of steam drifted out into the ocean breeze, carried off over the island itself.

"Not a soul for miles." Fang closed her eyes to fully feel the wind on her face. "Way too small for a settlement, isn't it?"

Lightning glanced around at the tiny island, and when she squinted at the small grove of trees, she could almost see right over to the other shore. "I sure wouldn't build anything here... Definitely not a settlement."

Fang leaned back on the sand, bracing her hands against it. "I used to hang out a lot on this other little island... Right off the coast of Yusnaan, so I'd be able to see fireworks nearly every night."

Lightning looked down at where Fang had slumped down against the beach, laying flat on her back. "That was the one with 'constant parties'?"

Fang nodded, and she opened her eyes to stare up at the evening sky, at all of the dark purples, the reds and blues, even a long stripe of orange where the sun was slowly setting. "Yeah, Nova Chrysalia is a _weird_ place... You've got this huge range of mountains in the center; it all makes for some pretty strange geography." Fang held up one of her hands to trace out the shape of a tall triangle into the air. "You asked me how much I know about biology, which isn't too much, but I _do_ know some of my geography... The mountains block the wind and clouds from passing through, which is why the desert exists."

Lightning kept looking at the fire beneath the grill. "It's a desert island?"

Fang shook her head. "No, just the Dead Dunes... There's that, then there's Yusnaan, Luxerion, and then the big old forest between the two of those, most people call it the 'Wildlands'."

Lightning began to trace a small design into the sand. "And you want to go to Luxerion."

Fang chuckled quietly. "Trust me, it's not my usual sort of crowd." She looked over at Lightning's face, the one she'd once seen look so pale, so very _lifeless_ , and even the mere memory of it sent the fire right back into Fang's veins, stirring up her temper again. "But if there's someone after you..."

"They're not-" Lightning paused for just a moment, before she glanced back over to meet Fang's gaze. "Not after _me_... Not specifically, just the emblem." She slowly reached under the collar of her jacket, retrieving the slim, silvery charm. "It's probably just some weird offshoot with a grudge."

Fang squeezed her eyes shut. "...I still don't like it." She let her expression soften when she felt Lightning's hand touch her shoulder. "Light, I just can't ignore a threat like this; if there's really some wacko fringe-sect out there trying to kill off Etro's people, you can bet your ass that the Order's gonna know something about it."

Lightning stoked her hand over Fang's shoulder. "I can handle it, Fang."

"Just for a few days?" Fang slowly opened her eyes, and she let herself look rather pleading, though only for a moment or two. "Just let me get to the bottom of it... A few days, and if I still can't find anything, we'll head back out on the road right away."

"The 'road'..." Lightning almost rolled her eyes. "You're the one _flying_ us, Fang; you can go wherever you want."

Fang reached up to hold Lightning's hand. "Hey, I can't lose any more of my family... I just _can't_." She watched those sharp blue eyes examine her, searching for whatever knowledge she might hold within, but Fang kept it locked away tight, hidden behind the single mental barrier she'd put up between them. "Light, when I was... Wild, when Vanille helped me get back out of that stuff, part of the way we even managed it in the first place, it was to make sure we'd keep each other safe."

Lightning frowned when she felt Fang hide away her next few thoughts.

"But I messed up." Slowly, Fang shook her head back and forth, and the sand rustled quietly beneath her hair. "I didn't listen to my gut instinct when we first went into that damn place... And Vanille suffered for it." She let her gaze flick back over towards Lightning's face. "And you want to know what that very same feeling is telling me right about now?"

Lightning reached up to brush away a lock of Fang's hair from her face, tucking it back down behind her ear. "To go to Luxerion?"

Fang nodded. "To find out just how deep this whole thing goes, how much danger you might be in." She gently caught Lightning's hand again before she could move it away. "Know your enemy, Light... It's always better to be prepared."

"Know your enemy." Lightning closed her eyes for just a moment, before she opened them to see the way that Fang had moved up, sitting upright on the sand right beside her. "Let's just try to not let our enemy know that we're learning about them."

Fang smiled softly, and she leaned forward to press their foreheads together. "Listen, if it's anything like the last time I visited, it's all just a bunch of stuffy old librarians, maybe a few guards out at the front... But nothing worse than that, and we could always take a quick detour if things get too hectic." She blinked, gazing deep into Lightning's eyes, but when she caught that sly, almost mischievous glint in them, Fang's grin went just a bit wider. "Oh... Now, what's _that_ , Light?"

Lightning only hid such a smile away, slowly closing her eyes again.

"...Give me a hint?" Fang felt Lightning's breath brushing against her cheek. "Just a hint."

"I was thinking about the fireworks." Lightning almost scolded herself for the wistful tone in her voice, a longing sound, one that almost tickled the back of her throat. "How you kissed me that night."

"I'm not always too keen on the classics, but that was-" Fang smiled when Lightning inched just a bit closer, almost sitting upon her lap. "That was... It was _real_ nice."

Lightning opened her eyes, before she reached for both of Fang's hands. "If we keep going at this rate, dinner's going to burn..."

Fang squeezed at Lightning's hands, but she quickly released one of them to drag just a bit of heat away from the fire, calling it back into her own soul.

Lightning took back Fang's hand again, holding it close. "...But I _am_ hungry."

Fang smiled. "So am I."

Lightning smirked, nuzzling at Fang's nose with her own. "Hungry for _dinner?_ You flew for hours today..."

"Yeah, but it's only going to get further from here." Fang slowly kissed at Lightning's upper cheek, right beneath her eyelashes. "There's this long, thin line of high elevation in the ocean, right here, but until we reach those northern continents..."

Lightning frowned a little when Fang stopped kissing at her cheek to talk clearly. "Fang-"

"We can follow them up all the way past the north pole, but then-" Fang's breath suddenly hitched, and she felt herself go quite silent when Lightning gently bit at her lower jaw. "Light?"

Lightning inhaled through her nose, leaning further forward into Fang's lap. "You've been flying all day, figuring out where to go, _all day_..." She smiled softly against Fang's cheek. "You should just-"

A rather sharp, disgruntled sound echoed out over the beachfront.

Both Fang and Lightning went very still and very, _very_ quiet, but it was a rather long while before either of them chanced to breathe even more than a low whisper.

"There's..." Fang stared along the wide, sandy beach, at the short grasses that led up to the small clump of trees, but there was really nothing of note to be found. "There can't be anyone else out here, right?"

Lightning turned around to stand up against the sand, ignoring the way Fang gave her a rather pleading look.

"Light, it must've just been-" Fang paused when Lightning suddenly stepped over to the grass, towards where she'd picked up those fallen branches for their fire, and it was only when one of the tall pine trees almost seemed to shift into focus, only then did Fang realize what had actually occurred. "Oh."

Lightning knelt down beside the tallest, oldest tree. "Are you a talking tree..?"

The tree didn't move, nor did any of its long, fuzzy branches sway any faster than the wind would allow them, but after a moment or two, it did begin to speak. "I do prefer silence to speech... But yes."

Lightning fought back a tiny smile. "You could've mentioned that; we wouldn't have done anything to make you uncomfortable if we'd known."

The tree almost seemed to examine Lightning for a moment, which was rather strange, due to a lack of eyes or any physical way to see, but it managed the task without delay. "...The dragon will keep her fire to herself?"

Lightning nodded. "She won't burn you."

Fang soon stood up to approach the grove as well, and she tipped her head back slightly to examine the unusual tree, though it didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary, at least in appearances.

"There's a talking chestnut tree close to where I live." Lightning stared up at the lofty boughs of the pine, at all of the dark green needles that sheltered the tiny grove. "Do you have a name?"

The tree spoke almost immediately. "What need have I for a name?"

"Hey, do the other ones talk?" Fang gently prodded at one of the other pine trees, tapping at it with the end of her shoe. "Or is it just you?"

"Only I." The tree's voice went a bit lower when Fang drew close, growing dark and prickly with caution. "The wyrm will keep her distance..!"

Fang moved to sit down beside Lightning. "Hey, 'the wyrm' won't burn your damn trunk, so just relax." She stared up at the tree, leaning back slightly to examine it. "A talking _plant_... I always thought that was just storybook stuff."

Lightning spoke very quietly. "I've read how some scholars think they might be- Not _errors_ , but just a very odd case of soul placement." She waited to see if the tree would speak again in response, but when it didn't, she kept on explaining the theory. "Even though plants are alive, most of them just don't have anything even resembling a soul."

After a moment of silence, the tree finally spoke again. "Why have you traveled to this place?"

Fang glanced down the hill towards their campfire. "Just resting the night, we won't be here long." She looked back up at the tree. "Must be... Strange, not being able to move."

The tree's voice went a bit more sly. "...It must be 'strange' to have no roots to speak of."

Fang's mouth quirked into a small grin. "Must be strange to have no _legs_."

"Alright, knock it off." Lightning nudged at Fang's arm with her elbow. "Go check on dinner, would you?"

Fang just rolled her eyes a bit, glancing back up at the pine tree. "What... You have business with grumpy, here?"

Lightning shook her head. "You're the one learning how to cook, so go over there and look at them, then come back and tell me what you see."

Fang rose up to her feet again. "Alright, just don't blame me if it barks at you." She dodged a quick swipe from Lightning, and with a low chuckle, she swiftly made her way back down to the beach.

"No more of that, Fang..." Lightning narrowed her eyes from where she was sitting beneath the grove. "Tree puns are _truly_ the lowest hanging fruit."

From back down beside the campfire, Fang never looked more proud of someone in her entire life.

The tree almost seemed to grumble. "...The two of you are absolutely _insufferable_."

Lightning lowered her gaze in apology. "Is there anything we can do for you? I mean, if you can't-"

"You creatures view your legs and wings quite highly, do you not?" The tree kept talking without pause. "Would your young, feeble mind simply fall to pieces if you were ever tethered to one place? I mean not to insult such differences, but one should not assume that because I am immobile, that I am in pain."

After a long moment of silence, Lightning blinked at the tree. "...The chestnut likes it when I bring him spring water, or bury food for his roots, that's all I meant to imply."

The pine seemed to think over those words for a while, before it started to speak much more gently than before. "Then I apologize for assuming the least of you."

Lightning nodded. "It's alright... You probably don't get much company here, do you?"

"No, nearly none at all." The pine spoke as if it was remembering those many ages long past, the years of silent solitude. "There have been those who sail here to rest, and there are also those who've chosen to take certain rocks away, or even my fellow trees, but they have not yet taken me." The pine kept speaking, and those wide, green boughs began to rustle in the wind. "The hippocampi often swim past this very shore, and while they do seem to enjoy basking in the sun, they are not much for conversation."

"Hippocampus..." Lightning thought back to a certain beast she'd learned of in one of her aquatic monster compendiums, a rather peaceful creature with the top half of a horse and the bottom half of a long, serpentine fish. "Nothing more dangerous than that?"

"There was an Ophiotaurus, once... A rather rude fellow who always took the brightest patch of sun." The pine's voice went rather wistful at the mere thought of such lovely sunlight. "But he was soon hunted for his horns and hide, and I cannot say that I am not glad to be rid of him." The pine paused again, and Lightning almost sensed what it was about to say next. "And you, _you_ walk like a hunter... You _breathe_ like a hunter, and that earthblood around your neck, that is of Etro, is it not?"

Lightning felt the cool touch of silver against her throat, and she slowly reached up to reveal the pendant.

"A messenger." The pine's voice rumbled and creaked. "What message do you carry?"

"That a Fal'Cie needs to pay for what it did to one of my friends." Lightning let the pendant fall back against her neck. "And that wyrm, over there? She's got the same very message, and she's a friend, so don't worry about her fire."

"Ah, but that is no mere wyrm." The pine's voice went very soft. "A dragon, far older than any one of us, tree or beast."

Lightning glanced back at where Fang had taken up the initiative to keep tending to their dinner. "She's a friendly dragon."

"Friendly or not, fire will burn all within its path... Friend or foe, flesh or bark; you would be very wise to keep your eyes wide open." The boughs of the pine began to grow more and more motionless, until a sudden gust of wind made them rustle again. "But a Fal'Cie... All wisdom is lost in the face of a young god."

Lightning watched as the dark pine needles scattered across the ground, watching how the wind blew them around in every which direction. She was rather reminded of that wise old chestnut tree, one who also seemed quite keen on the world that lay beyond his roots, and just as inclined to share that knowledge with her.

"And the gods seem to have grown even more silent than I, have they not?" The pine tree went quiet for a long while, swaying gently in the wind. "But perhaps it is our own ears who cannot hear them."

Lightning didn't much care to comment on the fact that the old tree _had_ no ears.

"Perhaps we must look deeper, far out of sight?" The pine's low voice was almost lost within the gathering wind, and Lightning's eyes burned all the brighter when the ground beneath her echoed slightly, trembling beneath her fingertips. _Perhaps they still speak to us... Perhaps we must only learn how to listen._

Lightning didn't even react to the footsteps padding back up from the beach, she only sat there, gazing deep into the lines within the bark, at the fingerprint swirling right at the edge of in her vision, and it was only once Fang tapped her shoulder that she looked away.

"Hey, how's this?" Fang held up a slim fork with a bit of cooked fish on the end. "I flipped them over just a minute ago; the other side's the same."

Lightning stared at it for a moment, before she reached out for the offered piece, blowing out a gentle breath against the steam. "...I'll help you get them plated."

Fang glanced up at the pine tree, though she didn't move when Lightning started to walk back down the hill; it was only when Lightning called for her that Fang moved back to the beach, back to the campfire that crackled on into the evening.

"We should bring these up there." Lightning tipped her head towards the tiny slope. "Maybe bury a few, if it wants... See what else it has to say." She knelt down to start plating up the marlin steaks with a spatula, checking each piece to make sure that it was all fully cooked. "That tree might be a little cranky, but-"

"You had that look again." Fang was lifting up a small handful of utensils from her satchel. "Like you were staring at something I just can't see."

Lightning paused.

"Don't worry about it." Fang smiled a small, easy smile, waiting for Lightning to finish up with all the fish. "I'm used to stuff like that; Vanille gets the same look all the time, like she just hears something I can't hear, sees something, out in the air... Something way beyond me."

Lightning kept lifting up the marlin steaks to put them down on a large platter, before she placed a few of them down on the smaller plates. "I think different people are sensitive to different things."

"She used to see ghosts." Fang watched the way that Lightning stood up again, holding plates in both hands. "Not just your run of the mill phantoms, little spooks in the night... _Real_ ghosts. Real to her, at least."

Lightning took a very slow step back towards the slope. "Was she- Did she have a pact, Fang?"

Fang knelt down to lift up the larger plate. "No... Why do you ask?"

Lightning's mind swept back to those cold, ashen days, the endless nights out upon the beach when Serah would say nothing at all, just staring out into the darkness.

"Light?" Fang carried the big plate up the hill, following Lightning towards the place where she sat down again, right beneath the tree. "Light, what's wrong?"

Lightning stared down at all the winding roots of the pine, the tree who had grown quite silent again. "Ghosts are just souls who haven't yet left for Etro's realm."

Fang sat down as well. "You sound like you've met a few, yourself."

Lightning nodded with a rather somber expression, almost as if she was staring far beyond the tiny forest, out into the deep, dark sea. "Serah, she could see them... After almost everyone burned, after they all _died_ -" She slowly let her eyes slip shut. "Most of them moved on to Etro, but there were a few who stayed behind... The ones who just wouldn't let go."

Fang watched how Lightning's eyes fell open again, but they were still so hazy, so very distant.

Lightning thought back to the way Serah had gone so utterly pale, silently pointing at a certain spot on the beachfront, but it was only when Lightning tried to hone in her gaze on it, focusing upon the distant figure in the dark... Only then did she recognize one of her fellow villagers, one who had recently perished within the flame. "...You can help them move on if you try hard enough." Lightning reached for one of the single plates of steak, and she used one of the small knives to cut the marlin apart. "But there are some who just _won't_ go."

Fang reached for a small plate as well. "You think it's another Etro thing, why you see them?"

Lightning nodded. "They're _dead_... We're messengers of death, so what else would it be?"

The pine tree spoke after just a moment of silence. "Eyes beyond sight... Etro's gaze."

"Oh, _now_ you're feeling chatty?" Fang bit down on a rather sizable piece of marlin, before she slowly waved the pointy end of her fork at the tree. "How do you know about Etro, anyway?"

The pine tree almost seemed to rumble. "Shortsighted _wyrm_."

"Hey, I've got the best damn eyes of anyone!" Fang fought the urge to simply snap back at the talkative tree, or even worse, to summon up a few sparks between her fingertips. "I don't see any eyes on _you_ , woodbrain."

"...That is _precisely_ the point." The pine spoke with a rather dark edge, brittle and deep. "Your sight might be keener than any eagle, loftier than any looking glass... And even with such gifts of future vision, you cannot see anything that lies beyond your own snout."

Fang grit her teeth with a low, stifled growl, and she slowly narrowed her eyes at the ground.

"A sailor once spoke to me of the colors of the ocean." The pine kept speaking in low, deep tones, but they grew softer and quieter with each passing word. "That the sea is dark blue and green, he said, and often as black as coal beneath the night, yet when I asked him for the true color of the earth's inner core, for the color of his own _soul_ , of the heart of the world that he walked upon, he had no answers to give me."

Though she was listening rather closely, Fang didn't even look back at the tree; she just kept eating her plate of fish, staring down at the ground.

"I cannot see you, or even your messenger friend... But for everything I cannot see, I can _feel_ this world tenfold." The pine rumbled rather appreciatively when Lightning moved to bury a few of the spare fish steaks beside its roots. "I can feel the fire in your veins, wyrm, the desire in your heart to shield your beloved ones from harm, and I can feel your great age, though you may be gifted with a youthful soul... And I can feel your many, _many_ years of solitude."

For a long moment, Fang stared back up at the pine with the eyes of a human, but by the time she'd finished the plate of marlin, it was a pair of dragon eyes that peered at the tree.

"I can feel your deepest fears, the force that drives you to stray so very far from your own roots." The boughs of the pine began to creak. "You fight not out of cruelty... But because at heart, you are _kind_."

Fang was standing upright on her wings, watching those long, dark shadows as they flickered out from the nearby fire, at how they danced along the gnarled bark.

"You've slain a Fal'Cie to protect the ones you love."

Slowly, Fang sat down on her hind limbs. "My family."

"Veins of kinship run deeper than any other." The tree spoke in a hushed sort of way, for those words were only for the three of them, and them alone. "But there are still those that can still run deeper... _True_ family, you know it well."

While she was listening to the pine tree, Lightning began to cut up a bit more fish from her plate, but she swiftly smacked Fang's nose when she leaned in to sniff at it. "Just get some more your own."

Fang nudged Lightning's shoulder. "Yours smells better."

Lightning gently knocked at Fang's snout again. "There's nothing different about them."

The pine tree almost seemed to sigh at their antics, though it resigned itself to simply tolerate the odd pair that sat beneath its branches.

"Just lemme taste it to make sure." Fang began to nibble at the edge of the plate with her long front teeth, careful not to dent the cast-iron surface. "Just a _little_ -"

Lightning smacked down on Fang's snout again, pointedly shoving it back towards the big platter with the rest of the steaks. "Why do you think I cooked _all_ of these?"

Fang only chuckled, rumbling quietly when Lightning tried not to hiss at her.

"...You're a _greedy_ dragon." Lightning nudged at the scales on Fang's cheek. "All those stories about troves of gold and gemstones, but you only seem interested in hoarding food."

"Among other things." Fang lifted up one of the fish steaks between her teeth. "And who's to say I don't have a nice, cozy little cave somewhere with a whole lot of 'gold and gemstones'?"

Lightning fought the urge to roll her eyes. "I thought you were more into stocks?"

"Yeah, but liquid funds aren't _nearly_ as shiny." Fang nibbled at another marlin steak, savoring the rich taste of salt. "Plus a big room full of coins is a whole lot more impressive than just a few marks on paper."

"I suppose that's true." Lightning looked down at the pale flesh of the marlin, at how it wasn't nearly as thin or flaky as other fish might be, truly worthy of the 'steak' title. "What sort of stocks do you deal in?"

"Anything that isn't just flash in the pan." Fang fought the urge to lick at the big platter on the ground, for it would surely earn her yet another swat on the snout. "You know, stuff that'll stick around over the years, dependable things... But, you know what they say: high risk, high reward."

"I've read about the market." Lightning chewed on a bit of steak, thinking back to the lone book on arithmetic and the worldly exchange of money, though she'd stopped reading it at the point when such things seemed impractical. "But I don't think I'd want to invest."

Fang sneaked in a long lick of the salt that had collected on the bottom of the platter. "And why's that?"

"Because I'd rather earn it with my own two hands." Lightning pointed at the beach, towards where her sheathed sword was resting against her backpack. "The money I use, the things I buy, it all translates back to the work I've done... To the monsters I've killed."

Fang watched the way that Lightning's expression began to soften, before she felt those gentle hands on her snout, kind and warm.

"Just be glad I like _you_ more than the sound of that bounty." Lightning smiled when Fang's eyes went just a little bit more narrow. "All that work, climbing up that mountain... I guess I got a friend out of it instead of payment."

Fang stuck out her pointed, draconic tongue. "You got more than a friend."

Lightning leaned back to the side, though she still kept petting along those dark, smooth scales of Fang's snout. "Much more."

The pine tree made yet another very disgruntled sound. "...Please do not forget that I am present."

Lightning fought back a tiny blush. "Sorry."

Fang only grinned, showing nearly all of her teeth. "Sorry, _tree_ , not enough pollination going on for you?"

The tree grumbled out loud, as if it might seriously have been considering the act of dumping a huge pile of pine needles on Fang's head.

But before long, Fang let out a soft, quiet sigh, and she rolled over to rest on one of her wings. "Talking trees... What are they gonna think of next?"

Lightning shrugged. "There might be even more weird things up north." Her mind wandered back to the time when she'd read about such places, of the cold, bitter tundras, and of the deep forests that grew even darker than the dead of night, even those creatures who lurked just beneath the snowfall, those massive things with coats of pure white and long, terrible teeth. But above it all, she remembered the sketches of old human ruins, of those grand, crumbling palaces that once belonged to the northern kings, lost to the bitter trials of time. "It's still a long flight... Even longer to get back south."

Fang nodded. "The Fal'Cie and Luxerion will wait; they're not going anywhere."

Lightning soon set down her empty plate, letting it rest on top of the larger platter. "But we do need to pace ourselves." She glanced over at Fang again. "No use running into a fight without any energy."

Fang smiled at her. "Don't wanna end up losing before it's even begun..."

Lightning patted at Fang's snout. "Exactly."

In the deep silence of the little island, they spoke of how many days it would take to reach a stretch of larger land again, and of how Fang could simply land in the water and float while they both rested and slept, and even of how best to traverse the northern kingdoms in order to fly south once again.

Lightning brought up the idea of simply flying west from the first landmass they could find, but Fang countered that the ocean itself was much more harsh and deadly beneath the nearby northern winds, not to mention the perils of unknown sea life, aquatic monsters, in particular.

The pine tree kept very quiet while they spoke, though it did occasionally chime in to offer a bit of advice, or even a warning about certain places, places that it knew could be rather harrowing.

"Some of my own kin grow to the north." The tree spoke softly, for the pair of unplantly beings that were resting below, they seemed to have grown so very weary within the dark of night. "We still speak at times, in whispers, but they tell me _terrible_ things, of savage beings with thousands of slaves, those who reap the land for a boon of earthblood and leave it barren for miles on end."

"We'll keep a lookout for anyone like that." Lightning was leaning against Fang's shoulder, for she'd since changed back into her human form again. "But our fight, it's with the Fal'Cie."

Fang yawned quietly, and she almost looked as if she might doze off at any moment as well. "Yep."

"Should I-" Lightning suddenly yawned in return. "Should I get the blankets?"

Fang mumbled a bit, resting her head against Lightning's hair. "Sure."

Lightning tried to keep her eyes from drooping shut. "Let go of my hand, then."

Fang glanced down; she barely even realized that she'd been gently holding Lightning's wrist.

"Could you put the fire out?" Lightning smiled a little when Fang nodded. "Much easier then dousing it."

Fang rose to her feet a bit shakily, but she quickly evened out her stance. "Dinner was real nice."

Lightning soon knelt down beside Fang's satchel. "You have to eat marlin very fresh; let it get cold, aged or frozen, and the texture gets way too chewy."

"You're turning me into a connoisseur, here..." Fang smirked as she drew the fire towards herself, commanding it back along her hands, where she held it close for a long, lingering moment. "Raw was always good enough before all of this."

Lightning glanced at the fire in Fang's grasp, at the soft, flickering flames, so bright and docile between her fingertips.

"Live and learn." Fang stepped away from where the campfire had once burned, carrying the flame along with her. "I'll keep this lit so you can see."

"Thanks." Lightning picked up the blankets in both arms. "Not on the sand, right?"

Fang glanced at the grassy slope. "Not on the sand."

Lightning carried up the thick sheets towards the grass, before she set them down against the very bottom of the hill. "Hey, Fang?"

Fang stepped up with the fire, glancing around at the tiny island. "Yeah?"

"Thank you for today." Lightning sat down on the blankets, and she gestured for Fang to do the same. "This morning, I mean."

"Which part?" Fang knelt down beside her. "The soul stuff, or catching you?"

Lightning's eyelids slipped shut for just a moment. "Both, I suppose... But I _mean_ it, I wouldn't trade you for any amount of money."

It was only then that Fang noticed the familiar sheet of paper in Lightning's hand.

"Are you really going to bring this along with us?" Lightning stared at the image of a dragon beneath the firelight, a beast that almost seemed to hover right above that long, generous reward. "I mean, I've heard dragons are vain, but _this_ is just-"

Fang smirked a bit. "Excessive? ...I rather like it." She let the fire flicker away from one of her hands, before she reached out for the edge of the reward poster. "Swift, fearsome, such a _big_ bounty on her head..." Fang gently tugged the paper away, admiring the way that the artist had drawn her long, sweeping tail. "Almost too perfect."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "I think you just like the attention..." She didn't flinch, didn't even move when Fang leaned so very close, only a breath or two away. "Scratch that, you _love_ the attention."

Fang smiled that sly, clever grin. "Worthy of a dragon, wouldn't you say?"

Lightning tried to ignore the way Fang's voice rumbled out just like a purr. "Just don't go razing any more fields for it... That's not work from an _admirer_ , Fang."

"Far from it." Fang stroked the curve of the parchment with just a soft whisper of sound. "They _fear_ us, Light, they fear us for our strength." She smiled when Lightning closed her eyes again, growing so silent while each word brushed over her cheek. "The only real friends we have, they're our family... They're the only ones who can see past it."

Lightning felt her face heat up when Fang gently kissed at the nearest curve of her cheekbone, though it was brief, almost chaste.

"Let's get some rest... Long day tomorrow." Fang snuffed out the fire in her hand, and she smiled when Lightning pulled her in for a hug, nestling them both down against the blankets. "Off to the north and all."

Lightning nodded against the fabric of Fang's shirt, all cuddled up beside her neck. "A few days, right?"

"Maybe less if I get a nice tailwind, just enough to speed things up." Fang turned over to rest on her back, and she smiled when Lightning moved along with her, resting just as close as before. "But I've slept out on the ocean once or twice... It's not bad if the water's calm."

Lightning tried not to grimace at the thought of it. "I might just tie myself down to you so I don't fall."

"If it makes you feel better." Fang yawned silently, snuggling closer, and a low, quiet hum left her lips. "But listen, Light... I won't lose anyone, not again."

Lightning kept her eyes shut. "Don't promise that."

Fang held her a bit closer. "I can promise that; I _can_ do it, Light."

"There's just... There's too much." Lightning whispered each of her words against Fang's cheek. "There's just too much in the world that can end us both... End us in _seconds_."

Fang narrowed her eyes against the darkness, at all the stars so far above, and at deep silence of the night. She thought of the untamed things, of the beasts that stalked the wilderness, so harrowing and cruel, but only to those who they did not know; she nearly likened herself and Lightning to such creatures, a pair of wild things out there within the trees, clever and swift, yet they were just as fragile as all the rest... As what they hunted for.

But there was that same stubborn, lingering doubt, the kind that she wished she could smear off the face of the earth with just a swift strike of her talons; it was the doubt that told her Lightning's words were wise, that she shouldn't have made any promises she couldn't keep.

Lightning began to murmur under her breath. "Don't overthink it, okay?"

Fang slowly closed her eyes again. "Okay."

Yet it crept on, that same way she'd felt when she had gone with Vanille into the vestige, breathing fire upon anything within sight, just to choke the entire tunnel system with such fumes, such a raging heat would have surely been deadly to any beast of metal and wire, and yet, when the Fal'Cie rose up to face them...

Vanille had lashed out in a way Fang had never seen her attempt before, a true dragon in her own right, snapping down and tearing at the mechanical beast, so worthy of the flames that spilled away from her teeth. Yet when it was finally done, Fang had merely watched, for she could only watch, gazing out at the way those tawny scales sharpened off into crystal, the way those soft, green eyes slowly glazed over, frozen deep within the stone.

Fang knew Vanille that was her kin, perhaps not of blood, but the line that ran between them was just as strong, just as caring. And it was in the very way that their connection fractured, breaking away in the very same moment that Vanille had been lost, it sent Fang's own heart down into a long, relentless freeze.

She'd waited, guarding that silent, crystal chamber, waiting for Vanille to awaken again. Bhakti, just as patient as always, he would occasionally come scuttling back with an offering of food or water, or the possibility of an answer beyond the vestige, but Fang was far more than steadfast.

And on that day she'd stepped into Aubergine's cave, seen the way that his scales had lost nearly all of their luster, when she'd seen those old, tired wings, Fang almost thought that she was seeing her own reflection in the crystal again... Of a dragon who refused to leave for more than a mere moment to hunt for herself.

Fang had grown so very weary, so hollow inside, and it was only when Bhakti didn't come back for so many years, only then did she finally rise up, ready to venture out into the world again, ready to find the one who could sear the frost away from her bones.

And Vanille's crystal, it remained just as silent as it had ever been, waiting for the day that an answer might reveal itself, hidden somewhere, deep within the fabric of death.

* * *

There were eyes in the field, a sharp gaze along the grassland. A cloak of soft hide, a hood with long, pointed ears, a necklace of teeth and stone... And then the spear, another sharpened tooth beside the bite of metal, likely from a rather sizable beast.

Fang took her name from such things, from the wild lands that awaited beyond her tribe's territory, from the creatures who stalked that very earth, both feral and utterly fierce. And like those beasts, she held herself very near to the ground, not quite a crouch, but close enough.

Something had fallen in the dark, that previous night. A shooting star? An odd stone from the heavens above, something quite alien and strange? Either way, it had simply flared out into the black of night, painting fire across the sky.

And down below, beneath the light of day, Fang kept on traveling, silently moving through the tall grass. Maybe the object was something small enough for her to bring back to the village, to give as a gift, only if it wasn't dangerous, of course...

Fang smiled at the thought of Vanille, how her eyes would likely go so _wide_ at such a rare present, especially if it was something she could craft for greater use. She reached up for the necklace beside the teeth of a massive feline, touching the little shard of obsidian that Vanille herself had whittled down into a fine point.

It was the bond of sisterhood, even if Vanille was born to a different clan, somewhere far away, further than Fang had ever ventured. Such things ran even stronger than the lines between Fang and her own sire, for her mother had long since left for somewhere just as far away, and her father... He kept silent, content to simply watch over the village. Yes, he'd be sure to slay whatever beasts might roam too close, but there just wasn't that _drive_ , that rapid fire in Fang's soul that brought her to where she stood upon that fateful day.

It was a rather jagged cliff, grassy and tall, and as she knelt down to survey the valley below, Fang heard a distant call from up above. A small smile tugged at her lips. It was nearly the only thing her father had personally given to her, besides his knowledge of the hunt, the only gift that brought joy to her heart during those days...

It had started back when she was a child; her father had simply walked home into the house one day, carrying something in the crook of his arm, and when Fang finally looked up to see what was being given to her, she almost gasped in shock; it was a strange, dark egg, so very smooth and silky beneath her fingertips.

Just as black as the obsidian at her neck, yet it had remained silent for days. She kept it warm with soft rags and the gentle heat of the hearth, just enough not to harm it, and when it finally hatched, _finally_ revealed such a tiny, featherless form, she knew exactly what to name it.

Up upon the hill, Fang held out a gloved hand, letting the massive, flapping eagle land right atop her wrist. "Bahamut..."

Those sharp yellow eyes, almost orange in hue, they scanned the lower grassland as well, and Bahamut began to fold his long, black wings against himself.

"Any idea what it is?" Fang reached up to stroke the dark feathers on his neck, and Bahamut merely fluffed out his wings, gripping down upon the leather glove with his talons. "Well then... Let's have a look."

Just a flick of her wrist, and the eagle was off, soaring back out over the plains, just a pair of dark wings in the wind.

Fang watched him flap away, before she knelt down again, slowly making her way the rocks. It was long, perilous work, for a single misstep would mean a broken leg or a severely sprained ankle, not to mention the bitter fact of being stranded down there at the very bottom. Yet Fang merely skimmed along the edges of the cliff without even a glance or two at the valley below. When she finally reached the tall grass again, stepping down into the field, Fang looked up to follow the skyward path of the flying eagle.

She'd once been told by the seers, told that because she was born beneath the sign of the dragon, that she was the same blood of those who'd once conquered great nations, the stock of mighty, ruthless armies, one who might bring their entire tribe back to glory...

Fang fought the urge to let out a scoff at such a notion, and she reached down for the canteen at her belt. A quick swig of water washed all of those thoughts away, that there might be any chance of such a thing, of another warlike tribe out there in the plains. If there was no one to battle with, no rivals, what point was there to having the blood of war?

Even though she'd seen many travelers, the sort who didn't cause trouble, of course, for they'd sooner avoid her presence than be run down on the end of her spear; even though she'd spoken with the very few people who could understand her tribal speech, they all had next to nothing to tell her of any armies, of grand destinies from the stars, any such nonsense.

Fang reached up to wipe the sweat from her brow, traveling on at a steady pace. The sun had risen towards the very height of the sky, and while it offered Fang no shade, her skin was rather tanned from such long journeys, and her natural hue was well accustomed to the heat. And even though the day stretched onward, winding off into the afternoon, by the time she approached that strange, crackling trail, the razed path of smoldering grass, Fang barely even had to pause to catch her breath.

Bahamut fluttered down beside an odd bit of stone, poking the end of his beak against it.

"Hey, not yet." Fang shooed him away from it with just a snap of her fingers. "Might be dangerous."

The dark eagle flapped back up into the air, circling around the strange path of crumpled, blackened grass.

Fang knelt down to hold her ungloved hand beside another piece of stone, though she quickly drew it away from that sudden swell of of heat. It was more than enough to make her wince, standing up again. "Fire... From the _sky?_ " She glanced up at the sheer brightness of the sun, and at all of the thin, rolling clouds within the endless blue.

Bahamut called out from somewhere up above.

Fang turned back to face the width of the path, to the grass that burned on so slowly, clouding up the air with thick, dark smoke.

Again, the eagle called, before Fang caught sight of how he swooped towards somewhere up ahead.

"Alright, on my way." Fang trekked across the upturned earth, clambering over the blackened ground with broken grass stalks and patches of lingering flame, all with those strange, crystalline stones, shards that burned like fire itself. " _Hell_..."

It was there at the very center, the end of the trail, one with such a long, translucent light, it was there that a stone had fallen so very far from wherever it called home.

Fang just stood there for a moment, as if she had been frozen in place, before she slowly made her way down towards the crater, suddenly a predator again. Indeed, if such a strange thing was something to be reckoned with, her spear might yet see blood upon day, it might strike at the heart of whatever had struck down across the earth below.

"Up." Fang signaled for Bahamut to assume that there was a hostile presence nearby; she'd seen him take down creatures three times his size, from lone wolves to small elk, all from the sheer strength of those long, deadly talons. "Now, wait."

Bahamut kept circling above the wreckage, watching for any hints of movement.

Yet the tall, massive crystal, it didn't even move, nor did it seem to change much. Fang stared at the way the inner lights flickered without sound, how each of the tiny, fractured pieces, how they almost seemed to glimmer beneath the sunlight.

Fang stepped up towards the nearest edge of the shining rock, gazing down inside, but there was little to see. The way the stone grew more and more clouded up inside, as if to hide away whatever minerals might be deeper down, she just couldn't tell what might be waiting within.

"Huh." Fang gently tapped at the rock with the toe of her boot. "Just a big crystal?" She sat down after a moment, signaling for Bahamut to relax. "...Gonna be hard to convince anyone into helping me haul this back."

Bahamut flew down to perch upon one of the natural grassland rocks, one that had likely been turned over by the force of the craterous impact.

"Think I could chip a good chunk away?" Fang stretched her arms out, still gazing down into the depths of the crystal. "Might fetch us a pretty sum, even if it's just decorative."

Bahamut glanced around at the plains, just to make sure that they were truly alone.

"But there's no way in hell I can drag it all back." Fang reached for one of the splintered pieces upon the ground, a smaller crystal, one that nearly burned at her fingertips to touch it. "Well..." She glanced down at the borrowed tool on her belt; the pick was a small one, not a well-used contraption by any means, but it was strong enough, and hopefully sharp enough to crack the larger stone.

Fang stashed away the smaller crystal into the pocket of her trousers, before she lifted the pick from a slim loop of leather on her belt, approaching the massive crystal again.

Bahamut almost seemed to wince at the first sharp strike, though he kept very still on his perch, watching the way that Fang chipped away at the stone. Her arms were rather toned and muscular, easily able to keep up with the steady pace, and by the time she'd broken away a very thin sheet of the unusual mineral, only a few beads of sweat were trickling down her skin.

"Stubborn stuff, isn't it?" Fang rolled her shoulders to keep them from tensing up. "Makes you wonder where it came from." She could still feel the deep energy of the stone, that strange, fiery sensation that made her skin prickle and twinge like the heat of a forge, but she just kept hammering on, breaking it apart bit by bit.

Bahamut's feathers stood up on end when Fang hit a certain point within the stone, one that made a rather deep lingering hiss, and he let out a sharp screech when the crystal began to give off smoke.

And it was only then that Fang realized, only then did she _finally_ see what the clear stone had been hiding away, and the sight of it nearly made her drop the metal pick. There, within a small hollow in the crystal, there was an all too familiar shape, utterly humanoid and organic, only it was frozen within solid stone.

Fang's breath silently caught on the back of her throat, and after a moment, she slowly raised the pick again, chipping away much more gently than before. As the air rushed out into the inner chamber, the solid figure almost seemed to light up and glow, touched once again by the breath of life, given freedom from such deep stasis. Fang pulled away the layer of clear rock, the sharp glittering stones, all up until she could fully see the glowing figure, the woman who slept within the crystal.

Many long moments passed in silence, all except for the wind on the plains. When the figure finally took form again, only within comatose flesh instead of such clear rock, only then did Fang see the thin white clothing and the strange weapon at her hip.

"Damn..." Fang's voice left her mouth in a whisper. "What the hell are _you?_ "

The woman didn't move or speak, didn't breathe, not until the full extent of the crystal sleep finally left her flesh. Her chest suddenly seized up, struggling for a mere moment, before she opened her mouth to gasp, choking upon very the air that filled her lungs.

Fang frowned, and she slowly tugged more of the crystal away with her pick, at least until she could reach in and lift up the strange woman by her knees and back, pulling her away from the small, stagnant chamber.

The woman just kept wheezing, and as Fang knelt down against the dusty earth, she finally noticed the odd shade of hair on her head, such a soft pink, almost like the morning sky.

"...Who are you?" Fang spoke it more to herself than to the awakened woman, still helping her to simply stay upright upon her lap.

The woman hadn't yet opened her eyes, and she was still breathing in hoarse little gasps, almost as if she might have been unaccustomed to the air, to the alien atmosphere that she'd somehow crashed upon. Fang felt a deep twinge in her heart, though she did keep eyeing that odd metal weapon, but before long, she looked back up at the woman's face, and only then did she realize what her ears looked like. They were right there in mostly the same position as human ears, only they were pointy and _feathered_ , soft, white tufts of plumage.

Fang fought the urge to reach up and touch one, for the woman was still struggling to catch more than just a small gasp of breath, wheezing like a small bird who'd smashed herself into the side of a tree, and she was indeed bleeding, Fang realized. That pale curve of her face, there was a long cut upon her cheek and one on her forehead, leading up into that soft, pink hair, while one of her pointed ears was a little bit lopsided, likely from the lack of consciousness.

Fang slowly helped the woman settle down against the surface of the outer crystal. It was a cooler patch of stone, and she was soon propped up in a sitting position, one where she could breathe deeply of the air in such a new world, and then hopefully open her eyes, even with all of the shallow cuts and scratches on her arms and legs.

"Hey..." Fang moved her trusty spear away from the sheathe on her back, just as a precaution, sticking the end of it down into the coarse, blackened earth. "You alright?"

The woman began to breathe just a bit more steadily than before, but her shoulders went very tense at the sound of Fang's voice, enough that the little feathers on the back of her neck stood upright, something that Fang hadn't even noticed were there before.

"Easy..." Fang reached over to grip at the haft of her spear. "Just relax."

Sharp, yet hazy eyes opened up to see an unfamiliar sight, that of a woman with feral clothing and _teeth_ upon her necklace, and then the strange tattoo on her shoulder, it gave off a rather savage sight, of a jagged jaw and long fangs, ready to tear prey apart.

"Hey, you listening to me?" Fang cursed under her breath when those _sharp_ blue eyes, when they suddenly narrowed in unrecognition. "You can't understand a word of this, can you?"

Her only response was a rather murderous gaze, along with the sudden flattening of ears, still so pointy and soft, so much that the mere sight of them made Fang fight back a laugh; _how_ was such an adorable thing meant to be threatening? How could they look so silly beside the woman glaring daggers at her, one with such strong looking arms, one who had a weapon, who seemed perfectly capable of holding her own in a fight?

Fang slowly leaned back, still gripping at her spear, but she let her shoulders go slack, relaxing them in an attempt to coax the same reaction from her unusual guest. The feathered woman glanced down at Fang's arms, yet when she tried to back away, she suddenly found out that she'd been propped up against the side of the crystal, a realization that made nearly every muscle in her body go tense.

"Hey, come on." Fang kept her voice low and smooth, trying to make it sound as soft as she could. "No need for that."

A sudden sort of helplessness flashed within that sharp gaze, even though she looked more than ready to grab her weapon and lash out; those steely blue eyes stared back at Fang, trying almost desperately to understand the words that she was speaking.

"You have a name, feathers?" Fang slowly tilted her head to the side. " _Name?_ "

The woman just stared at her with a rather blank expression.

Fang let out a sigh. "Where the hell did you come from..?" She slowly lifted her free hand to point at herself. "I'm _Fang_."

A long silence crept out over the blackened crater, and the woman merely glanced down at one of the wounds on her arms.

Fang clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, before she pointed at herself again. "Fang."

The woman's eyes flickered up to look at Fang's hand, and then she glanced at the outline of her face.

Fang kept pointing at herself. " _Fang_."

Slowly, the woman opened her mouth to try and speak, but her throat was likely cracked and ragged, and she nearly wheezed when she tried to repeat the phrase.

"Hey, relax-" Fang leaned forward, but she winced when the woman suddenly hissed at her, enough to make her keep a good distance away. "You're bleeding, girl..."

The stranger simply leaned back against the crystal again, breathing heavily from the sudden exertion. Fang slowly realized that the woman must've been in the crystal for a very long time, or at least suffered quite badly from the stasis.

"Here." Again, as slowly as she could, Fang reached down for the satchel on her belt, before she removed a thin roll of cloth from inside it. "At least get those wrapped up."

The woman's gaze drifted back as Fang held out the bandage material, but it was a long, silent moment before she even considered to accept the cloth. But when that soft, wary hand finally approached her, slowly reaching for the offered thing, Fang only smiled, and she gradually leaned back once it had been taken from her grasp.

The feathered woman swiftly set to bandaging herself; at least that sort of thing was familiar, not like a strange, seemingly wild person out in whatever strange planet she'd landed on, one who had _teeth_ on her jewelry, like an animal out in the woods. Fang, she'd called herself? But the meaning of the word was lost on a foreign mind, one who didn't understand the language of such a different place, a world with much heavier air, with strange inhabitants, and most of all, _none_ of her fellow avian kind.

Or at least until he caught sight of the big black eagle, one who was watching her with a sidelong gaze, both curious and aloof at the very same time. But was enough, just enough, and with a single murmured word, she called out to the creature, one who seemed similar enough to the various species she once knew, and she waited upon thin breath to see if it might respond.

Slowly, Bahamut leaned to the side, listening to those quiet sounds. While the little clicks were far more interesting than the mere sight of a strange human, the one who his master had somehow gotten out from a _stone_ , he still didn't quite understand the meaning behind those nearly silent calls. And yet it was enough to make him approach, flapping on down to rest upon the earth beside her.

Fang watched the exchange with mild curiosity in her eyes but inside her mind, her thoughts were _reeling_ ; a woman from within a crystal in the sky, feathered and foreign, one who spoke to birds? Could she truly be communicating with the eagle?

It was only a moment or two before Bahamut lost interest, but he did allow the strange woman to hold out her hand towards him, and he even moved to nudge at her palm when she didn't dare approach him any further.

After a moment or two, Fang held out her arm. "Bahamut, up."

The feathered woman looked up at the same time that the eagle fluttered off to Fang's wrist, and a silent sort of understanding crossed her gaze; it was a look of sheer relief, of both wariness and intrigue, all in just a single glance.

Fang smiled at Bahamut, and she pointed up at him, repeating his name out loud.

"...Bahamut." The woman's voice still sounded hoarse, but her words were more than clear. "Fang?"

Fang pointed at herself.

"Fang." The woman sounded just a bit more sure of it than before, and when she pointed at herself, there wasn't any doubt left in her tone at all. "Lightning."

Fang's brow quirked at that; the word wasn't foreign! Could there possibly be some overlap between them? Could this woman have been born upon the same planet..? It was only when she looked at the pendant upon Lightning's neck that she knew for sure; the word itself was definitely one she was familiar with.

A jagged bolt, though it'd been smoothed down at the edges into two long, sharp points, and it had a similar sort of crystal inlaid upon the metal surface, one that glittered when it caught the sun at just the right angle.

Fang slowly lifted her arm again, and Bahamut flew off into the air. "You're still bleeding, you know..." She pointed at her own forehead, and then at Lightning's face.

Lightning slowly reached up to touch her own skin, tracing the cut down to the wound her cheek, and she started to frown a little bit, as if she hadn't even realized it was there.

"I have a friend who can patch you up better." Fang glanced at the makeshift bandaging on Lightning's arms and legs. "Not that you didn't do it well, just that-" She sighed when that very same look swept over Lightning's face, the blank signal that meant she had no earthly idea what Fang was saying. "Never mind, let's just get moving."

It was only when Fang stood up to walk a few paces away, only then did she look back at all of the scattered wreckage of the crystal, with only a single piece in her pocket to show for it. Well, that, and the unusual woman who was slowly rising up to her feet, brushing away the dust from those feathers on her ears.

"Lightning..." Fang smiled when that sharp blue gaze flickered over to meet her own, clearly in recognition of her name. "Just follow me, okay?"

And Lightning stepped forward, walking barefoot against the earth, all except for the feathers at the back of her heels, pointing down from the height of her ankle curve.

"A weird day, isn't it?" Fang shook her head at the sight. "Crystals from the sky, a woman with _feathers_..."

Lightning glanced back down at the broken vessel, one that Fang might never know was an escape pod, or that her homeland wasn't anywhere near the planet that they stood upon; no, even if Lightning herself didn't quite remember in that moment, she'd been deep in stasis for centuries by that point, and she was far, _far_ away from the place that she'd been born.

Fang gestured for her new acquaintance to follow, waving with the hand that didn't hold her spear. "Hey, no use standing out here."

Lightning's thoughts flashed off to the sight of a dying sun, and then tiny blue planet off in the distance, displayed upon a wide, mechanical screen. She even thought back to the face of someone she knew so closely, a person that her mind just couldn't place within the haze of reawakening, though somewhere deep down, she had a feeling that they had once been kin.

"Lightning?"

Lightning looked up again, at the one called Fang, who was standing just a bit further down the path of flame.

"Listen, nobody's forcing you to follow me, but-" Fang paused, holding in the words that she knew Lightning wouldn't understand, wouldn't possibly feel, yet she spoke them anyway. "You won't last long out here if you don't know the terrain." She leaned against the blunt end of her spear, gazing at the lost look in Lightning's eyes. "I'll help you out, okay?"

Even if the words didn't reach her, didn't register inside her mind, Lightning knew that _tone_ , such a genuine thing, and it made her slowly walk up to follow after Fang.

"That's it." Fang moved on with Bahamut just above, circling around beneath the afternoon sun, beneath such a different sky, even if it was the same shade of blue. "Just stick with me, alright? I won't let anything hurt you."

* * *

Fang woke in a deep, cold sweat, breathing in the scent of that soft hair, the pink locks that were nestled up right beside her face.

The silence of the island only broke with the distant sound of the waves, and Fang fought the urge to shiver, or to even check if Lightning's ears had actually changed. She swiftly scolded herself for even thinking of such a thing. No, it was merely a new memory, one that she'd never dreamt of before, yet it held a _vividness_ that she'd only ever felt in snippets, hardly ever a full experience.

Fang's arms tightened around Lightning's torso, one that had no feathers, no crystal stasis, nothing but who she had grown to become in that same life, a woman born upon the very same planet as Fang.

"Shh..." Fang breathed in and out, speaking softly to calm herself, for her mind was still reeling from such a striking, unusual dream. Most of the memories she'd experienced allowed her to have at least some semblance of control, enough that she could speak freely or even deviate from the past, but that one... She hadn't even realized she was dreaming, not until she'd woken up in the dark of night, frozen and raw from such a solid feeling.

 _Feathers_ , Fang mused, snuggling back up against Lightning's cheek. Feathers fit for a bird, not a woman, and yet she'd had them all the same. What a strange idea; Fang had even glimpsed scraps of what Lightning had been thinking at the time, and the thoughts themselves seemed just as utterly foreign.

Lightning squirmed slightly in her sleep, though she quickly settled back down against that warm, familiar presence, one who'd been the very same thing in so many countless lives. Fang was almost always there, so steadfast and proud, and as much as it might give them both safety and comfort, it felt all too clear that the worst could happen again; that she could briefly falter, she could _fail_ , and the thought of it kept Fang awake for what felt like hours on end, tossing and turning against the blankets.

It was only when Lightning roused for just a moment, when she leaned forward even in her dozing state, when she wrapped her arms around Fang's upper torso, tugging her so very close, only then did they both settle down, relaxing into the darkness again.

Lightning slumbered on, and Fang swiftly joined her, gently swept to sleep by those distant, rumbling waves.

* * *

She woke to the break of dawn, to the seagulls calling out above, but when Lightning forced herself to open her eyes, slowly rolling over upon her side, Fang's arms kept her firmly against the ground.

Lightning grunted quietly. "Fang..."

Fang just kept sleeping, and a soft sound left her nose, tickling at the back of Lightning's neck.

"Mmh." Lightning moved to mumble against the blankets for a moment or two, before she wriggled free from Fang's grasp, all too warm beneath the bright light of the morning, even within the gently falling snow. "Fang?"

Fang didn't wake, though her chest and upper belly kept easing up and down, breathing those soft, gentle breaths.

Lightning propped herself up on both hands, and she blinked against the morning sun, before she let out a soft little yawn, almost too delicate for such an accomplished hunter. Yet there was nobody else to witness it, none but the strange talking pine at the top of the hill, though it didn't seem any more talkative than before. Lightning let her mouth drift shut with a quiet click of her teeth, and she leaned back, stretching out her sleepy arms, until she felt awake enough to stand up.

The waves were lapping down against the beachfront, quietly crashing off into the morning. A gentle wind raced all about the sand, and Lightning felt as it coursed throughout her hair, blustering against her skin.

She made her way up the small field of grass, to the little hill that led up to the grove of trees, and it was only when she was standing in front of the tallest pine tree that she sat down again, gently pressing her hands against the bark of those tangled roots.

Lightning closed her eyes, and she thought. _Teach me to look deeper... Teach me to listen._

The boughs of the pine creaked quietly in the wind. _You ask me to teach a fish how to fly._

Lightning bit back a soft smile. _I'm not without wings._

The tree kept silent for a long while. _...Very well._

It was rather like the way Fang had made them meld together to alter her soul's fingerprint, only Lightning felt quite sure that they were not traveling down within a soul... No, it was something far different than that.

She was so very far from herself, slowly detaching from the realm of blood and skin, of the primal magic deep within her bones, gifts from the goddess herself.

 _You are quick to learn._

Lightning felt herself suddenly fall backwards, though she was still so utterly motionless, yet another paradox of head-spinning proportions.

 _Do not search for what you can see... Do not even search in the first place; only listen, learn, and take in the lessons that the world will reveal to you._

Lightning's vision had gone completely dark, and unlike the warm sort of presence she'd felt with Fang, she felt so _alone_ in the void, in the endless shadow, within those deep, rich reaches of the earth itself.

 _Not a void, human... But the world that lies beyond sight._

Lightning tried her best to focus on what the tree's words meant, to find what it spoke of, but the darkness only grew more and more shaky and unreachable.

 _A leaf does not search for water!_ She could practically hear the tree snarling at her. _Patience, girl, it will find you._

It felt like the minutes slipped by without end, parched and stagnant, so much that Lightning felt the urge to retaliate at anything within her reach, at the tree, at the darkness, even the gods themselves, or the wolves that ran in such swift circles around her head, snapping at her with such eternal, slavering ferocity.

 _You are a bulwark; do not let them harrow you._

She was in motion suddenly, after an eternity of rest, sinking her own fangs deep down into the hide of her opponent. Drumbeats, far louder than her own heart, and then a shrill yelp of pain, one that echoed deep within her own throat, but she wouldn't let go, _couldn't_ let go, not until the thick coat of blood had run all the way down across her chin.

Her venom ran like fire, blooming out into thick, flowering vines, enough to protect her own spot in the darkness, the place where her soul was residing. She breathed in, and the scent of rosewater finally touched each and every one of her senses, gracing her with the will to grow.

 _The scale of patience tips both ways; if you do not rise to an opportunity, another will dive in to take it._

And the light flashed, the sudden eyes of a god, a heartbeat deep in the earth.

 _Run._

Lightning ran, chasing after the thin trail of light, so breathless and honed, a wolf in the night, a bird in the wind... An owl in the dark.

Her footsteps echoed into the shadows, rippling out like waves of weightless water, and the sounds it made, casting off, each string flew at her skin, at her eyes, at the feathers in her path, even down within the depths of her own thrumming heartbeat.

And there it was, the rhythm of her own living, _breathing_ soul; it was just as alive as the spirits of the world, the creatures of the land and sea, of the air and the wood, primal and dark, yet blinding at the very same time.

Another paradox, the voice of the earth itself, only she could hear it clearer than she'd ever heard it before; there was no light without a shadow, no life without death, but the eternal balance was tipping further every day, blanketing the world in such silence, such doubt. Gone was the prayer, that reverence of the gods, their very lifeline towards the many souls of the world; if an ear was not listening, it would hear very little of what any voice had to say, no matter who chose to speak it.

 _This world is nothing without change... And change, it always tips the scales._

Lightning felt the strong wind in her hair, felt herself growing further and further away from the light, back into the world she'd left so far behind, even though she suddenly clung to the sudden sort of clarity, digging her fingertips down like claws. She wanted to plead for it, just to stay for a while longer and help her truly try to understand, but she found it was rather like clinging to a rock out at sea, for she slipped further and further away with every passing wave.

 _I have taught you all that I can teach._

Her eyelids snapped open, so bright and alive in that sudden moment, so much that she had to squeeze her eyes shut again with a low, almost pained sort of growl.

"You would ask for more than you've been given?"

Lightning reached up for her eyes, feeling that same familiar ache in her head, the strange disorientation from leaving her own body behind. "No... Thank you."

The pine said nothing for a long time, not until Lightning opened her eyes again. "Go to the east of this island, dig at the sand beneath the pointed rock."

Lightning rubbed at the edge of her forehead. "Why?"

"Decades long past, a rather odd group of seafarers buried something there... I never spoke to them personally, but their cache might be of use to another human."

Lightning just sat there for a while, attempting to get used to the fact that she'd just left her own body behind, and then come back to it yet again. But when the dizziness and aches began to finally fade away, she slowly rose back up to her feet. "I'll take a look."

"I only tell you this because you are of a different stock than most." The tree kept quiet for another long moment, so much that Lightning almost stepped away, yet before she did, it spoke up again. "A kind hunter... A wise hunter."

Lightning pulled her pale white cloak just a bit closer to herself, warding away the chill of the winter frost. "You seem wiser."

It was the first time she'd ever heard the tree make any sort of noise somewhat similar to a laugh, and even then, it could have been another disgruntled sound, or even just a dismissive grunt.

But it was still something, Lightning thought as she made her way to the east, to the rocky sand below the grove, it was _something_ that made her sure the tree had laughed. She looked over towards where Fang was still sleeping in the grass, all snuggled up in the blankets, and the sight of it made Lightning feel so much less cold within the wind.

Winter had taken full hold over the world, and while she knelt down to dig at the sand with a stray bit of driftwood, she could even feel the frozen sand beneath her knees, crunching quietly against the hide surface of her pants. Even if their destination might be well within the tropics, it would only grow more and more frigid from there on out. She kept digging at the sand, wondering if the wily old tree had simply sent her out on a fool's errand, though she just kept letting the sand pile up, beside her, searching down into the beach until the driftwood hit against something with a sharp _thunk_.

Lightning paused, before she reached in with her hands to brush the sand away from a rather strange crate, one with handles at the top and sides for easy lifting. She hauled it out, clambering away from the hole she'd dug, and it was only then that she noticed the presence of a rather sleepy Fang.

"Treasure hunt...?" Fang smiled, still more than a bit drowsy at such an early hour. "Lucky _you_ , finding something nice like that."

Lightning sat down beside the trunk, gesturing for Fang to sit as well. "I had another talk with the tree; it said a group of people buried this out here."

"Then let's hope they won't miss it." Fang had that gleam in her eyes, one that Lightning had a feeling was only coaxed on by the lure of a good mystery. "Well then, open it up?"

Lightning leaned over to examine the clasping mechanism at the lid, but it wasn't locked, luckily, for she was able to lift it up with hardly any effort at all.

"Hm." Fang leaned over as well, gazing down at all of the unusual little trinkets, some of which looked to be rather valuable, while some seemed far too tarnished and full of rust. "Think those books are still good?"

Lightning reached down to pick up one of the leather-bound novels, one that held a title that she couldn't quite understand. "It doesn't look too weathered."

Fang picked up a small necklace from the crate. "Why do you suppose they buried this..?" She turned the pendant over to examine the smooth, pearly surface, and she realized it had a carving of a rather dignified woman on the back. "Someone's personal treasures... How long has this been down there?"

"The tree said decades." Lightning set the book back down, before she lifted out a notepad from the crate. "Fang, I have a feeling we should bury this again."

Fang twirled the tiny necklace between her fingertips, but she soon placed it back down beside the rest of the unusual baubles. "Not exactly a pirate bounty, is it?"

"If only." Lightning skimmed the notes for a moment, though all of the words were written in a very foreign language, one that she just couldn't wrap her head around. "If I could read this, or any of those books-"

Fang leaned over to examine it. "Oh, it's just a list of components."

Lightning looked back down at the strange, scrawling words, before she glanced back up at Fang. "You can read it?"

Fang nodded. "What, you think I've just been hanging around for all these years without picking up a few things?" She grinned at the look on Lightning's face. "I bet you there isn't a language I _don't_ know by now."

Lightning shrugged. "I get by just fine with the common speech."

"Yeah, but then you can't tell if anyone's talking trash behind your back..." Fang watched while Lightning set the notepad back down, closing up the lid of the trunk. "Throwing shade, you know."

Lightning tried not to chuckle at such an odd phrase. "Do you really care what other people think about you?"

"Now that's a loaded question, and you _know_ it." Fang sent Lightning a mock-scowl, but she still moved to help her haul the crate back down in the ditch. "It depends on the situation, really."

Lightning reached for the piece of driftwood again, but when Fang suddenly reappeared in her dragon form, simply pushing at the pile of sand with her nearest wing, the makeshift shovel seemed rather unnecessary at that point.

Fang yawned again, gently patting the sand down with both of her wings. "Got a new memory, last night... In a dream."

Lightning looked down at the frosty sand beneath the pointed rock, before she started to walk back towards the slope. "What sort of memory?"

"Weird one... A world where my dad was still around, for once." Fang sniffed at the brisk morning air, following on after Lightning. "And I found _you_ in something that looked a whole hell of a lot like crystal stasis."

Lightning paused, standing halfway up the hill.

"I'm not even kidding." Fang's tail flicked back and forth against the sand. "It was real strange, once the air hit the inner crystal... You just _woke_ _up_ , like it hadn't even happened."

Lightning took a moment to think. "Was I... A l'Cie?"

Fang shook her head. "Didn't seem like it, but you didn't seem like you were in any mood to let me check."

Lightning tipped her head slightly to the side. "To 'check'?"

Fang only smiled, grinning that odd, dragon grin. "...That's not the important part, Light; the real thing here is that _you_ got yourself out of stasis just as soon as I busted the outer crystal open; not counting the Fal'Cie, just imagine if we could find something that could do the same thing for Vanille."

Lightning turned around to keep walking up the hill. "And where could we find that kind of thing?"

Fang looked down at her wings, following after Lightning again. "Well, if it's knowledge we need... Not to sound like a broken record, but those libraries in Luxerion, they'd be our closest bet."

Lightning paused again. "'Broken record'?"

"Just an old saying, one from a different world." Fang walked on towards the grove, moving beneath the boughs of the lofty pines. "Hey, bark-for-brains?"

The pine tree didn't even care to respond.

"Real nice of you to tell Light about that treasure and all, but it looks more like someone's personal things... Not something for us to take." Fang settled herself down upon the ground, leisurely stretching out her wings. "Appreciated, though."

Lightning stepped out into the grove as well. "Thank you."

The tree almost seemed to growl when one of Fang's wings 'accidentally' whacked against it, which caused quite a large amount of pine needles to fall down from the branches above.

"Grumpy, aren't we?" Fang yawned, and she sniffed at the rich scent of pine. "But the question is: is your bark really worse than your-"

" _Fang_." Lightning reached up to swat at the end of Fang's nose. "Be polite..."

"Right." Fang fought the urge to knock or scrape her horns against the moody tree. "No more tree puns, then?"

The pine held a rather wry tone to its voice. "Perhaps if you chose not to conceal your general dissatisfaction with life behind such juvenile attempts at humor..."

Fang glared at the tree. "Bold talk for a big damn pile of _timber_." She glanced back at Lightning. "See what I mean about talking trash?"

Lightning tried to fight back the headache in her temples. "Fang, enough."

Fang settled back down against the ground, resting her head beside where Lightning sat. "Dissatisfied... Yeah, _right_." She frowned a little when Lightning kept touching around the ache in her forehead. "You okay?"

Lightning nodded. "Just _way_ too early for squabbling." She reached out to pet Fang's scales, gently stroking at the top of her head. "Make nice, okay? The tree was nice enough to try and teach me something earlier this morning."

Fang nudged at Lightning's shoulder. "What sort of something?"

Lightning paused, glancing down at the translucent image upon her palm, a sort of hazy, flickering thing, not quite physical, yet still not unreal, all at the exact same moment in time. "...Sight beyond vision."

* * *

It was only after a quick breakfast of eggs that they started to fly again, soaring high above the little island, and then out into the open air. Fang flapped her wings against the strong winds, flying out over the roaring sea. She focused upon the rush of air, so much that her outer thoughts seemed rather silent and still, at least to Lightning's touch.

The strange image had left her hand within mere moments. Lightning she wondered if she really should've asked the wise old pine about what it really was, though she reasoned with herself that the tree must have been growing rather weary of their general presence.

Fang's satchel was resting on her back again, full of their supplies. Lightning leaned back slightly against the woven scales, holding onto the strap at Fang's neck, and she began to wonder why her companion had grown so quiet.

 _Hey, Fang?_

It was a moment before Fang replied. _Right here, Light._

 _Are you... You're doing okay, right? If that-_

 _I'm all good, Light. Just didn't get as much sleep last night as I could've._

Lightning almost frowned at that; it felt like Fang had been slumbering beside her all throughout the night, but she didn't voice those concerns telepathically.

 _Light... What would you say if I told you I have doubts?_

Lightning gently ran her fingertips down across Fang's scales. _Doubts about what?_

 _About the Fal'Cie... About my own damn self._

Fang almost seemed to sigh within midair, for a great ripple of motion appeared to echo throughout her entire form. _About if we're really going to get Vanille back or not._

Lightning closed her eyes against the wind, against the cold, salty air of the ocean. _I'd tell you there's no room for doubt... But it does tend to make room for itself, doesn't it?_

Fang laughed, only it was a low, rather spiritless sound. _You're damn right it does._

* * *

There was a blizzard out at sea.

Fang's dragon form rocked back and forth within the waves, but she just kept paddling onward with her hind legs, keeping herself afloat with both the warm air in her lungs and the width of her wings, though her entire body would surely be soaked in saltwater by the time the wind died down.

Lightning reached for the length of twine from her backpack, which she tied down into several knots against the strap of Fang's satchel, struggling to keep hold of it within the wet, howling din of the sea.

Fang kept her head high above the water, and she dozed quietly, not quite asleep, yet not awake, either, just enough to regain enough energy to get herself airborne again.

It was with a long sigh, with the snowflakes resting heavily upon her fuzzy hood and on her mask, it was only once Lightning was quite sure that she was securely tethered, only then did she finally relax, despite the crashing waves.

The northern sea seemed rife with ice and rime, both chunks and sheets bobbed away within the surface of the dark water. They were rather sharp and quite possibly deadly if one got too close, but even in her dozing state, Fang had just enough spacial awareness to blast them away with her fire if a piece came within striking range.

Lightning watched the movement one such ice floe, such a blurry, shapeless thing beneath the rapidly falling sleet. It almost looked like a soft blue cloud against the black hues of the late evening, but when it drew just a bit nearer towards one of Fang's wings, it was given the same harsh treatment as the last one. That _fire_ , a sparkling flame, raw and powerful, Lightning couldn't help but stare at the way it flickered away and burned, melting back the thick sheets of glittering ice until there was no more left to speak of.

After a moment, Fang lowered her head again to doze.

Lightning told herself that she should rest as well, just to sleep away the storm... But ever since she'd been a young child, there was just _something_ about the violent display of the natural world that captured her attention. Whether it was just a single strike of electricity, or a fierce gale wind out at sea, or even the howling, ruthless maw of a dark, unrelenting snowstorm, it was far just too much for her to miss even a single moment of the display.

She remembered the day when she'd looked upon Bodhum from a great distance, from the little boat rocking back and forth in the angry waves, how it looked so small, so _fragile_ , like it had never seemed before; she chalked it up to her own maturity, that she was simply growing into herself. Yet even then, beneath that savage onslaught of rain...

Lightning drew herself back to the present, to the way Fang's wings looked so very cold down in the sea, frigid enough that she almost wanted to climb out there and hug one, just to make sure that they hadn't grown numb beneath the chill.

But that inner fire, it kept the layers of sleet from piling up atop Fang's scales, and it made the snowflakes shimmer and hiss as they trickled on down towards the ocean waves.

Lightning slowly closed her eyes to think of warmer times, to the day she'd raced Serah back home from a fishing trip, so utterly youthful and free. They'd been each given a hug upon their return, as per usual, but the memory of how she'd simply taken the gesture for what it was, just a simple, almost meaningless embrace, before she'd gone off to spend the rest of her day... Lightning found herself yearning for _one_ more chance, just the opportunity to hug her mother more tightly than she'd ever done before, just enough to drag her away from that terrible fire...

Had it only been an echo? Lightning leaned forward against Fang's neck, thoroughly insulated by her own thick clothing, but that deep, gentle warmth still brought her some measure of comfort. Had the same dragon who'd ripped so many lives apart, had it truly been her own spirit's darker form, a twisted mockery of such a loyal friend? She would have tried to detach herself from her body again, to go searching for answers in the dark, if only the sea hadn't grown so terribly restless and vicious, and if only the wind wasn't pushing them both around like bits of stray ice, floating around on the surface.

Lightning reached out to stroke Fang's scales with the pad of her gloves, offering just a scrap of affection and comfort, one that she hoped would be enough. How many hours had they floated there?

Fang let out a long yawn, even when her tongue was suddenly battered by sleet.

"Fang..." Lightning felt her own voice echo in her throat, felt the wind steal it away just as soon as it left her lips. "I'm here, Fang."

She wasn't sure if Fang had even heard her. Perhaps she'd simply felt the way she was touching the scales on her neck, but when that long, serpentine neck slowly twisted back to let Fang's snout nudge Lightning's shoulder, offering the same small comfort in return, the world suddenly felt all the more silent again.

Lightning reached up to stroke along the side of Fang's head, whispering away into the night. "I'm right here."


	24. Silver Lining

The morning sun broke through the steady snowfall in long rays, trickling down over the calm sway of the sea, up and across each wave that crested and roared.

Lightning slept against the curve of Fang's lower neck, breathing almost silently beneath the heavy wind. Her left cheek was pressed up against those dark, smooth scales, lulled to sleep by the warmth of that constant inner fire.

Fang paddled her wings against the frigid water; she had each of them folded at the perfect angle to propel herself forward, just enough to aid her hind legs as she swam. The gentle snowfall kept fluttering down from the sky, and Fang had to fight back a sneeze when a bit of melted water tickled at her nose.

The waves kept flowing up and down, calm yet mighty, surging with a quiet howl. Fang glanced down when one approached, but she kept very still when it brought her aloft for just a split second, before she was lowered back down at the end of the swell.

Lightning stirred slightly, mumbling against Fang's scales.

Fang whispered her words into the wind. "It's just a wave, Light..." She kept paddling her way through the icy waters, intent on making some good distance. "Get some more sleep."

Lightning muttered something else, before she rolled over to rest upon her back, seated in a more upright position.

Fang closed her eyes for a moment or two. She could sense Lightning's steady heartbeat; even through all of that thick clothing, she could feel the constant little rhythm beside her own. Fang gradually began to go still, floating there against the frigid waves, just a small speck out at sea.

Black scales and wolf hide, a dragon and her hunter.

After a long moment of silence, Fang sniffed at the briny air. "Won't be too far, now..." She slowly opened her eyes again, mentally envisioning the long path that would take them out to the next shore, an island much larger than the last, yet it was still only a small patch of land compared to the sheer bulk of the northern continents.

Lightning mumbled again, and before long, her eyes began to slip open.

"Didn't mean to wake you." Fang kept whispering her words, and she smiled when the familiar touch of Lightning's gloves petted out across her neck. "Are you warm enough over there?"

Lightning nodded. "It'd take a lot more than this to get through my coat..." She let out a quiet little yawn, before she slowly sat up against Fang's back, glancing at their surroundings. "So much different in the daylight."

Fang looked back over her shoulder, and she craned her head down to meet Lightning's gaze. "Quite a storm last night."

Lightning yawned again. "I'm just glad you can float..."

Fang chuckled quietly. "We'd be _very_ sorry right now if I couldn't... Maybe I'm just too full of hot air, eh?" She only smiled when Lightning merely bopped at her nose with a gentle hand. "Heat rises, they say."

"And you think you're hot stuff?" Lightning smiled to herself, but she glanced away to hide it from Fang's curious gaze. "You do make a nice place to sleep, I'll give you that."

Fang almost seemed to purr. "How kind."

Lightning fought the urge to poke at Fang's snout again. She turned back around instead, gazing out over the tall, rising waves of the sea. "Any idea how we're going to get airborne?"

Fang smiled a rather crooked grin, before she moved her head back around to the front, paddling onward with her wings. "Hang on tight."

Lightning did as she said, making sure to grip down upon the strap of Fang's satchel. She had to fight herself from smirking at the way Fang paddled off with the full force of her wings, skipping along at the surface while her hind legs pushed on as well.

"I mean it, this could get rough..." Fang narrowed her eyes in concentration, before she shoved off a bit, leaping out from one of the high waves, yet it wasn't quite enough to send her skyward. "Doing okay, Light?"

While Lightning felt her stomach drop at the sensation of falling, before they both splashed down again into the sea, she only nodded, grabbing on even tighter to Fang's satchel strap. "Can you manage this on days without such huge waves?"

"Yeah, just takes a bit more effort..." Fang soared on again, crashing down against the nearest rising wave. "Next one, Light!"

Lightning leaned forward in anticipation, and she tightened her grip when Fang suddenly rose up again, flaring out her dark wings against the frigid, snowy air, before a mighty flap sent them aloft, even with all of the water trickling down from the edge of her scales.

Fang tipped her head back to call out with a quiet roar, though it keened onward through the wind and the sky, until she was fully flying again, soaring off above the deep blue sea.

Lightning kept holding on tight, but after a few moments of conversationless flying, she decided to pull off one of her gloves just to speak to Fang telepathically. _How much further until we reach land again?_

Fang smiled against the wind. _Not far._

* * *

It was only after a mile or two that they caught sight of a wide, forested island, and by the time Fang had touched down with a certain form of sea life caught within her talons, the sun had risen up towards the top of the sky.

Lightning nearly grimaced at the sight of the blooded dolphin, but she knew just how much energy Fang needed to fly so far in only one day. And after all, certain species of porpoise were considered delicacies in some distant lands, though Lightning herself usually preferred the taste of non-mammalian ocean dwellers.

Fang had settled herself down on the beach to rest, tearing back chunks of dolphin meat in her long, sharp teeth, barely pausing to chew them up before she swallowed.

Lightning walked out across the sand with her backpack slung on her shoulders, and she took a moment just to see what Fang's stance could tell her; with her wings sagging against the beach and her tail a bit less swishy than usual... She must have been utterly exhausted.

"You want a bite, Light?" Fang used one of her wing claws to turn the dead dolphin over, exposing the side that she hadn't yet torn apart. "I'll even cook it if you want."

"Thanks... But I think I'd rather take a look around." Lightning stepped over to stroke at a certain part of Fang's snout, one that wasn't yet coated in blood. "Just get some rest, okay?"

Fang smiled, and she closed her eyes when Lightning petted along the smooth, layered scales. "If you insist."

Lightning gently tapped at Fang's forehead. "I mean it, you've been working hard... Must've been swimming all night back there."

Fang slowly opened her eyes again, and what she caught within Lightning's gaze, she swore that the mere look of it turned her heart straight down into mush. "...You can be real sweet sometimes, you know that?"

Lightning tapped once more with her fingertips. " _Rest_."

Fang watched while Lightning set down her backpack upon the sand. "I will, Light... Don't go too far, okay?"

Lightning took out her drawstring quiver from a certain compartment in her pack, attaching it down against her belt. "I'll be back before long." She lifted her bow to carry it in its usual place, lightly strung across her chest and upper back, before she picked out a certain charm and one of the big canteens from within the backpack. "Get a fire going if you like... I might just bring us home some dinner if I can find anything out there."

Fang nibbled at a bit of tasty dolphin flesh. "With all this flying around, anything's appreciated." She glanced down at Lightning's backpack. "You wouldn't mind if I take a look at those books from town?"

Lightning gave her a tiny smile. "You paid for half of it, Fang."

"It's still _your_ backpack." Fang smiled as well, licking away the blood from her own teeth. "Better to ask permission, you know?"

Lightning started off down the beachfront, and she waved at Fang from over her shoulder. "Just behave."

Fang merely chuckled to herself, before she lowered her head back down to pull out a long strip of dolphin meat.

Lightning walked on across the sand, gazing up at the hilly fields that led up towards the forested land. She knew it would be some time yet before she found any trace of animal life, for the beach stretched on for what looked like miles, though she was sure that it was much shorter than that.

That sudden feeling of solitude, it hit her like a silent wave, still so strong and deep. While she rather enjoyed the general levity Fang's company, being alone again, it brought a sense of ease back into her entire being; just to be out on the trail once more, able to stretch her limbs and move with her own body again. All those hours spent upon Fang's back, while Lightning did indeed have to hone her concentration upon the flux of the wind and clouds, that harsh turbulence and the random gusts of air, doing so simply wasn't the same as moving forward on her own two feet.

She was a hunter at heart, and when she hadn't been pursuing her true livelihood for so many days on end, it felt more than a bit taxing on her overall spirits.

Lightning clambered up the grassy hills, out towards the boreal forest that stretched across the entire island, winding down into small dips and snowy valleys, even a river that fed off into the ocean from a lake. Though she would have to wait a while to see the fresh water, for the land was quite hilly and dense, home to thick, gnarled brambles, shrubs and trees that grew quite clumped together. Many of those tall pines had toppled down to the earth from lack of sunlight and water, and it was more than a simple task to clamber up and across such bristly things, over upright branches and spiky thickets, tangled up so much that they rivaled even the tightest of knots.

But it was what she _lived_ for, for that hunt, the challenge of maneuvering the land and eventually besting whatever she might come across. Lightning didn't even pause, not until the quiet whisper of water touched her keen, listening ears.

The waterskin canteen was rather hollow from all of those days out at sea, and while she had been able to fill it up with snowfall and let that melt down against her body heat, the taste of it was rather dull compared to groundwater.

So Lightning made her way on through the thick forest, all up until she caught sight of the dark, shaded lake, wide and glassy, rippling from each gentle gust of wind. Far above, a sparrow called out in recognition of her presence, and while it wasn't quite a warning song, the shrill chirps were more than enough to let all of the other birds know that it had spotted something upon the ground.

Lightning moved to kneel down beside the water, and she uncorked the top of the canteen to drink the remaining water, before she dipped it down beneath the surface of the lake. She filled it to the brim, gazing down in quiet admiration of such clear, beautiful liquid, though she knew that it was not yet safe enough to drink. Standing water was often rife with bacteria, and while in certain times, Lightning had chanced the risk of drinking it without first heating it to a boil, more often than not, such things only led to stomach cramps and dizziness, something that she'd rather prefer not having to explain to Fang.

While there was also a river leading out from the lake, the running water there wouldn't have had long enough time to let the bacteria die off, so Lightning felt more than content with what she'd collected. She strapped the canteen back down against her belt, before she started on towards the forest at the end of the lake.

Bird calls echoed out over the woods, so far up into the air, but Lightning almost seemed to ignore the quiet songs, at least beyond the solitude of her own mind. Certain sounds often meant different things, like danger, for example, or a warning that she herself had crossed too close to an active nesting site, though that was rather impossible in the middle of winter.

She made her way down towards the edge of the water, past the little gray birds that hopped around in the snow, likely searching for pine cones to pluck the seeds out from for food. She could see another creature further out in the distance, a small and silky beast, yet Lightning had no true need for an ermine pelt, nor even such a small amount of meat. No, she was after something that could replenish Fang's energy beyond a shadow of a doubt. Flying at such great lengths had surely taken its toll, even if Fang hid the way that it made her almost collapse upon landing once more. She was tireless, that one, but Lightning knew that everyone had a limit.

The minutes slipped on into brief hours, and the sun rose up even higher into the sky. Lightning kept traveling throughout the silent woods, beneath those filtered rays of light, peeking in through the snowy branches. The trees above her path were standing at a slight incline, for the ground curved down into another small valley, but when Lightning suddenly caught sight of something off in the distance, she didn't even pause to get her bearings upon the steep slope.

It was a small, broken tree, stripped away of the tender nutrients that had been locked inside, the telltale sign of a large enough animal to do such a thing. She could see several slim, cloven tracks scattered all across the area, though most of them led off in a single direction, further on down into the woods.

Lightning knelt beside the mangled tree, and she reached into the snow to pick up a tiny strand of brown hair. She lifted it between her index finger and her thumb, turning it over to examine the width and curve near the root, before she slowly reached inside her pocket for a certain bit of silver.

Just a single, gentle press, and the world came alive with hundreds of colors and pathways of scent, branching out along the trail of a group of roe deer, one single stag with a whole herd of does.

Lightning rose back up to her feet, closing her eyes, before she slowly reached for her bow.

* * *

Fang stepped back out along the sandy beachfront, careful to not to tread upon the small pool of blood where the dolphin had been resting; she'd already hauled the stripped carcass back into ocean waves, where it'd soon be cleaned even further by the tiniest fish of the sea.

She stood there in her human form again, examining the pale leather backpack that Lightning had left behind. It was only a moment or two before Fang sat right down beside it, more than ready for just a little bit of innocent snooping.

There was a certain object, one that Fang had first noticed back she looked through the backpack up on the mountainside. That fateful day when Lightning's sword came crashing down upon her skull, when Fang later noticed the stray backpack out by the rocks, she was sure to bring it down to where she'd set Lightning's unconscious form against the blankets, before the impulse to see what goodies were hiding away in the backpack, it just grew too great to bear.

And that very same curiosity drew her back to the unusual things in that bag, like those vials of glimmering blood that were sheltered within a padded compartment, one of which had a little bit less of the liquid than the other. Then there were the various charms that Lightning kept in an even smaller pouch, and then all the different types of knives for different jobs, whether it was slicing or skinning hides away, cutting up vegetables or tossing out towards someone's head.

But then, there was a most unusual thing, a thin metal trinket with tiny glass beads that never seemed to stop moving. Fang picked it up with a quiet murmur of curiosity, turning it over in her hands to examine such meticulous craftsmanship, the care that must've gone into such an unusual device.

She knew that Lightning was surely a strange one, an odd duck of sorts, and as much as Fang had grown to adore that side of her, what _possible_ use could she have for such a pretty, yet useless little thing? Fang held on to the metal globe for a while, poking at each of the beads to see if there was just some function she hadn't noticed, but no matter what she did to provoke it, those beads just kept spinning around and around again, quietly whirring against the sound of the ocean waves.

After a moment or two, Fang let out a soft sigh, before she set the trinket back down where it had been before. There were _much_ more interesting things in the backpack, for sure, and she was rather keen on finding them.

A pouch of strong incense, the little wooden instrument with the odd carving of a horse, then another silken case that held dried medicinal herbs, even a roll of thin cloth for bandages and some rather soft sanitary paper for more daily usage. Then there was a folded note, one that Fang wasn't sure was private or not, so she left it right where it was. She held up one of the slim daggers that Lightning had worn back in the city, such a deadly looking little thing with a somewhat hidden vial in the base, likely put there for some purpose or another. It was one that Fang discovered could also be incredibly lethal, for with only a quick flick of her wrist, a thin needle jutted out from the handle.

" _Damn_ , Light..." Fang murmured under her breath, before she shook the knife back again to sheathe the injection device away. "You and your poisons."

She placed the dagger back down in the backpack, reaching for something less likely to potentially murder her before Lightning even returned from the woods. There was a strange little case resting right beside the knives, and Fang picked it up before caution could get the best of her.

But what she found inside, the mere sight of it, such a thing made her heart sting harder than any poison. And there, it was a tiny, painted image, framed in thin glass with a rather lovely metal frame; it held the image of two people, one of which was holding a tiny infant, while the other had a young child sitting atop his lap.

For a long while, Fang stared at the woman with such familiar, rosy hair, only her face was of someone she didn't recognize, just a stranger in the past. The man who sat beside her, his hair was a little bit darker, yet still fair, the sort of blonde that almost looked like a pale brown near the roots, almost like the shade of Lightning's eyebrows, only much less pink in hue.

"Oh, Light..." Fang's voice barely left her throat. "You've always got them with you, don't you?" She looked at the older child, still in her first few years of life, painted in such soft oils and pigment. "Them... And Serah." The little infant had her eyes closed shut, all bundled up in a fuzzy blue blanket, cradled close to her mother's heart. There were those same soft wisps of pink hair on her head, and her little baby cheeks, they were almost just as rosy in color.

But when Fang tilted the frame to the side, just a hint of burnt paper revealed itself near the edge. How had it survived the dragon's fire? Perhaps some other object protected it back then, or something stronger might've fallen on top of it to stifle the flames, just enough for one of the young girls to discover and salvage it, to carry it all the way across the sea, to their new home, so very far away.

Fang slowly tucked the painting back down into the shelter of the leather case, pushing the clasp back with an almost reverent sort of care. She set it back beside all the rest of Lightning's things, before she leaned away, letting her mind wander off to places much further than her eyes could see.

She remembered a different world, a place that held a grand, sprawling city, one with a long river that ran straight through the center. It was her own daily chore to go down and fetch a bucketful of water from the shore and then bring it back home again. An orphanage, she recalled, one that let the children roam the streets after they were done with lessons for the day, and on one such occasion, when she was dipping the bucket down into the river to earn her free time for the day...

There was a girl, one she'd never seen before, a young girl with such strange pink hair, one who sat upon the opposite side of the shore.

Fang had simply paused, holding the bucket beneath the surface for far longer than she really needed to, all up until the girl scowled at her for such blatant staring.

And then, just when Fang was about to grin and heft the bucket up in her strong arms, an older woman, though she was still young in adult terms, she stepped down from the stone stairwell to take hold of the young child's hand, gently leading her to somewhere else in the city.

Fang had caught sight of the woman's face, the soft features and that dignified sort of poise, the way she walked so elegantly down the narrow cobblestone street beside the river railing, guiding the little girl alongside her.

Lightning's _mother_ , as Fang would later come to know, she was almost always the same in each and every world, without fail, or at least in the ones Fang had happened to see. As an adult, she was the spitting image of Lightning herself, though her face was still a bit different at the jawline and nose, just as unique as all people were.

Slowly, Fang leaned back to listen to the ocean waves, to the distant calls of seabirds up above, and she wondered for a moment whether it was better to have barely known her own parents, like her past lives so often did... Or to bear the curse of that pure, boundless love, only to have it ripped away time and time again, forging the young girl who carried a far different name, changing her into the Lightning she always seemed destined to be.

Always the same name, that same element of power... Fang tipped her head back to look at the midday sun. The other name was something she never spoke aloud, not until Lightning herself might feel open enough to share such things, but Fang knew that the little girl named Claire, that she was always the object of such a heavy curse, even if it might just be the recurring catalyst, the same force to bring her soaring to her own greatest heights.

Could 'Lightning' even exist without the death of Claire? Fang knew that not even Serah spoke of that previous name, not after Lightning took it as her true title, as a reflection of who she'd grown to be. She'd tossed away her old skin, the child who just couldn't bear the pain without it, and she only grew onward, rising up to push back against the troubles of the world, bearing as much pain as she could for Serah. For Lightning was quite the same; she did fight out of both desperation and need, of course, but it was _kindness_ that drove her in other times. She drew her blade to protect, not to harm, even if it meant bloodying her steel yet again within an enemy.

Fang kept gazing at the sky, at all of the speckled little clouds that trailed out over the sun. It almost felt magnetic, the way her eyes flicked back down towards the green hills, then the trees above, before she looked back at the sunlight again. She knew that Lightning needed time alone, needed the space to roam free and lose herself in it all for a while, and Fang, she would give her just that.

Yes, she'd rest up for them both, she'd be obedient to one of the only people who could ever give her a command and get away with it. Fang grinned at the thought of that, of Lightning with a little scowl on her face if she saw her doing anything to cross against such direct orders... And if Fang wasn't so utterly tired from all the flying, she might've just been inclined to do that very thing, perhaps incite a sparring session, get pinned down, surrender, _only_ for her, only for the way she could just lean up all of a sudden and get exactly what she'd wanted from the start.

Fang flopped down to the ground with a slight grimace, cursing the exhaustion in her bones. Maybe Lightning would just take pity on such a thing, the dragon who'd worked so tirelessly to bring them there, and maybe she'd even get a few more kisses out of the ordeal.

A tiny smile crossed her lips. Fang reached over into the backpack for the smaller book of magic. Maybe the route to such affections would be earned more easily by further hard work. If she could, perhaps, learn one of the most simple spells, or at least try her best to grasp the basic concepts, maybe then Lightning would see just how seriously she took such things, and then creep over to push the book away for better access...

Fang shook her head swiftly, shaking out the thoughts that would surely lead to more distraction. She had a book in her hands and determination on her mind, and even one entirely cranky pine tree to thank for not getting lucky a few previous nights.

She stared at the magical diagrams and scowled, truly wishing that she'd hadn't had those second thoughts about setting the damn thing on fire, at least for just a moment, just enough for a little bit of petty revenge. She had a feeling that Lightning wasn't often so quick to initiate, and it was _so_ good whenever she did, like back with a bit of 'stolen' chocolate, for example...

Fang almost swore again, and as remembered that soft, fiery touch, the mouth with such a beautiful taste, so sweet and wanting and-

She clamped the book down on her face and let out a sharp, yet muffled curse.

* * *

The forest was utterly still beneath the steady snowfall, silent and seemingly calm, all except for the sharp scent of fear on the wind.

Lightning slowly rose back up to her feet again, hefting the cleaned carcass of a small doe on her back, careful not to move the blooded parts into a position to stain her clothes.

One of her arrows was reddened, at least until she'd gently swiped it against the ground, leaving only a slight smudge of blood upon the snow.

Her upper limbs, muscular and solid, they kept the legs of the deer held secure over her shoulders, and she slowly began to walk onward again, before she leaned out ahead to haul it on throughout the forest.

* * *

Fang read through the first few chapters of the thaumaturgy book by the time a pair of footsteps echoed against the sand, though she had little to show for her efforts. The spells were seemingly hidden behind _hours_ of meditation and energy honing, not to mention the fact that focusing her inner energy into something other than fire was a much harder task that she first thought it might be.

But there, up on the grass, there was Lightning again, completely within her own element, hauling an entire deer on her back... Fang almost sighed to herself, before she quickly sat up again to help Lightning get the carcass down upon the cleaning fabric without incident.

When the doe was laying there above the sandy grass, Lightning reached up to wipe away the sweat from her brow, gazing down at the quarry that she'd brought out from the woods. "Hey."

Fang stared down at the gutted doe. "Hey."

Lightning leaned back to catch her breath for a moment, before she pointed at the deer. "Dinner."

"I figured." Fang reached over to stow the book away into the backpack. "Look at you, haven't lost your touch..." She smiled softly at the slight gleam in Lightning's eyes, the subtle weariness from carrying back what was likely almost as much as her own body weight in flesh, although roe deer were rather well-known for being small. "I'm almost jealous."

Lightning slowly quirked an eyebrow at that. "Jealous of... What?"

"You're very good-" Fang leaned back on her hands, bracing them against the sand. " _Very_ good at what you do, and it's only been what, an hour or two? And then you bring this back, not a wild goose, even a rabbit... No, you bring back an entire deer."

Lightning stared down at the glassy, lifeless eyes of her prey. "You looked... Tired." She reached down into her backpack for a more specialized skinning knife, the one with the hook. "More food means more energy, right?"

Fang tipped her head to examine the way that Lightning had previously gutted the deer. "I can get by, Light... I don't need as much as you might think." She leaned forward again, still resting upon the sand. "You aren't worried about me, are you?"

Lightning slid the edge of the blade back up towards the doe's chest and neck. "...Everyone worries."

Fang waited for a long while, watching those swift, expert cuts, the way the knife almost seemed to glide beneath that soft brown hide, but several moments slipped by before she spoke again. "I appreciate the thought." She didn't even blink when Lightning set the fur aside, moving on to cut apart the carcass. "I need to do something for you, then."

"...It's not a give and get back sort of thing, Fang, it's just _give_." Lightning placed one of the hind haunches down on the cloth, likely for her own dinner that night. "We're-" Both her voice and body stilled, and her eyes almost seemed to drift away, anywhere but that sharp green gaze, the one with such powerful, piercing warmth. "We're... Together? It's supposed to be like this."

Fang fought the urge to laugh in disbelief. "We share a night like the one back in town and you aren't sure if we're _together..?_ "

Lightning's face went rather flush with a deep, burning pink, and she swiftly went back to sectioning off the blooded deer limbs. "...I've never _been_ in this kind of thing; how the hell should I know?"

"Sweetheart." Fang waited a while for Lightning to even glance back up at her eyes again. "Listen... We're together if you say we're together; does that sound okay?"

Lightning swallowed a rather shaky breath, yet to her credit, she fought nearly all of the blush back down with just a curt nod.

Fang leaned away on her hands, feeling the warmth of the sand beneath her fingertips. For a while it was all she focused on, just that, and then the way that Lightning seemed to have only let the thought sink in at that very moment, likely having put it far out of her mind before.

"...We're together."

Fang wasn't sure if Lightning had truly spoken those words, for her mouth scarcely even seemed to move.

It was only when she set her knife back down again, nearly finished with her work, only then did she turn to look Fang in the eye. "We're here... We're together."

Fang smiled then, easy and calm, before she let her eyes slip shut, just to savor the warmth of the sun.

* * *

The moon rose low into the evening, but the sunlight still spilled across the waves in a bright, brilliant orange, almost as if the sun itself was sinking down beneath the sea.

Lightning simply drifted there, bare and freezing within the ocean waves, but that wonderful warmth, the feeling of how Fang was sitting right there behind her, sheer fire in human form, it kept the cold at bay.

"Doing alright?" Fang glanced at where their clothes lay in a jumbled heap upon the grassy shore, before she stared at how the curve Lightning's neck was practically trembling, but whether it was from sheer anticipation or the cold, she didn't quite know. "If it's too chilly out here-"

"No." Lightning stared at the deep blue sky, at the shimmering hue of the ocean, feeling the waves lap steadily over her skin. "...Just as long as you stay near."

Fang nodded, and she hugged Lightning a bit closer from behind. The scent of their campfire still drifted out over the sea, as well as the scent of cooked venison, and Fang realized that her stomach felt quite full of that same aroma as well. That heavy sort of feeling, it made her eyelids droop, somewhat drowsy, and then rather smitten with the desire to cuddle. So she pressed herself even closer, all snuggled up against Lightning's back.

"You're getting good at cooking meat and fish." Lightning blinked against the crisp ocean air, feeling the water as it flowed all around her body, gently swayed by the long, evening waves. "A quick learner... I might not have much left to teach you."

"There's always other things." Fang swept her hands down over Lightning's arms, gentle with that powerful, crackling fire, the sort that clung there to her skin without so much as a scrap of pain. "That cake you mentioned a while ago, I'd like to learn that."

Lightning felt the flames go even deeper than her skin, felt the touch of Fang's strong soul within her very bones, that tiny little fingerprint that did so much to the physical world, even with only a small change within.

"Tickles, doesn't it?" Fang watched the fire as it danced in her palm, and she let it tumble down into Lightning's hands. "Like a life of its own."

Lightning held the vibrant flames before her eyes, gazing at them in both quiet awe and curiosity, before she shivered again at the feeling of Fang's lips on her neck.

"No talking trees out here, right..?" Fang felt Lightning's body rumble with a silent laugh, and she smiled as well, whispering against the softness of her skin. "I swear to whatever gods might be listening; if seaweed can talk-"

Yet Lightning couldn't stifle it then, she laughed so quietly, slowly leaning back against Fang's chest. "There's nobody else out here; I didn't see any hint of human activity... Or talking trees."

"There'd better not be." Fang stole a glance back at the island shore. "Because that was starting to get _real_ nice, the other day... Interruptions, you know, they're not very appreciated."

Lightning stared up at the sky, resting her head back upon Fang's shoulder. "...There's always a silver lining." She looked at all of the soft clouds in the sky, remnants of the howling blizzard.

Fang took a moment just to breathe, to listen to those steady sounds of the wind and ocean, and she could feel the gentle thrum of Lightning's heartbeat beside her own.

"And there's just something about the sea..." Lightning closed her eyes. "It feels like home."

"That's good." Fang snuggled close again, hugging her arms around Lightning's waist. "You deserve it, you know? Being so sweet."

Slowly, Lightning turned in Fang's arms, within the sway of the saltwater waves, up to her chest in the sea. "I do care about you."

Fang reached up to stroke Lightning's cheek with her thumb.

"I don't care about a lot of things." Lightning glanced at the deep blue water around them, though she was basically sitting upon Fang's lap beneath the surface, with only a whisper of space in between. "There's just too much... Too much going on, too many lost chances; we have to choose what to care about."

Fang stared into the warmth of Lightning's gaze. "Is it really a choice?"

Silence again, and Lightning looked out at the sea once more, all up until Fang's thumb gently drew her back, touching so softly against her chin. "It isn't... It just happens."

Fang watched those clear blue eyes flicker back up to meet her own gaze, and the sight of them brought forth a smile.

* * *

Moonlight fell on hushed voices, brief kisses strewn between each muffled word, all pressed up against the blankets on the grass, enough that Fang had to pause and gasp out her next few breaths for just a moment, feeling the sheer pressure of Lightning's teeth against her bottom lip.

"Light-" Fang felt her whole body shudder when Lightning let go of her lip, only to take her mouth again in a silent, yet desperate hold, kissing away the very breath from her throat. "...Lightning."

"Hm?" Lightning's eyes were nearly shut, and she had a blanket covering her from above, but there was little sight needed when she wouldn't move more than an inch or two away, intent on discovering every single spot that made Fang shiver. "What is it?"

Slowly, Fang wrapped her arms around Lightning's back, and she felt a deep groan rumble in her chest, though it was quickly stifled by that warm, insistent mouth, those constant kisses and gentle flicks of her soft tongue, the breaths that shivered out between them.

Lightning almost squeaked when Fang suddenly caught her lower body with both legs, all curled up and snug against her backside and thighs, though she couldn't help but whimper at the feeling it brought on, that slick, deep heat between her own legs, how it pressed right there against Fang's own core.

"Light." Fang's eyes were hazy, clouded with such need, such love, and she reached up to hold the sides of Lightning's face in her hands, stroking over the curve of her cheeks. "You know how I feel... That I care."

Lightning tried to squirm even closer and get back to kissing her senseless, but Fang's hands kept holding her there, enough to draw out a quiet groan of frustration, and then almost a soft little whimper.

"Light, I don't want you to think I'm only in this for... _This_." Fang stared at the look on Lightning's face, a subtle pout that probably wasn't quite of her own will, just a product of being restrained from forging forward. "I'm in it for you."

Lightning reached for Fang's shoulders, squeezing them just as gently as she could. "Let me feel you."

And Fang finally relented, moving her hands away from Lightning's face to let her begin again, smothered and taken and utterly loved, kissed right down into the very brink of inner brightness, even in the dark of early night.

Lightning trembled when Fang's strong hands found the curve of her hipbones, holding, stroking and strong, drawing nearer and nearer to the warm point that waited between them, that mess of curls and damp skin and nerves, the place that made her shiver and freeze, even if her skin felt just as fiery as Fang's soul. And it was her smooth fingertips, just the feel of them brushing so close, Lightning tried not to lose focus on the rhythm of their kiss, but when one of Fang's gentle digits slipped inside...

She cried out so softly, pressing her forehead down into the blanket beside Fang's head, wracked by constant shivers and those sweltering inner waves, the warmth that coiled so deep inside her lower belly.

"You like this?" Fang stroked the wet skin with her index finger, pressing down deep with the center of her hand. "...Tell me, Light."

Lightning couldn't stop trembling with each silent stroke, so far inside that it reached the certain bit of herself that brought her almost right into silent delirium, white-hot and breathless from just the touch alone.

Fang turned to murmur against her ear, yet each touch grazed over her own wetness, turning her voice rather low. "I need to know."

"Yes..." In a whisper, Lightning ground that single word out against the building pressure, the tightness in her throat that made each little breath so ragged, before she suddenly cried out again, nudging right up against Fang's neck. " _Fang-_ " Her spine bowed, arched tight with those wracking shivers, and her breath caught so swiftly, so suddenly that it came back out in a shuddering gasp when her inner muscles seized, clenched so tightly against Fang's touch.

Fang stroked her free hand along the curve of Lightning's spine, riding out the crest with her other, all up until Lightning trembled yet again, keening and whispering all throughout her climbing high.

Lightning breathed out into the darkness, and she cried again when that coil finally snapped, finally let her find release against Fang's hand, against those clever little fingertips that stroked her so very deeply. Her limbs felt so utterly heavy and warm, but her mind was swimming around without weight, within a world without ground or even the concept of falling, not when she'd already fallen so far, only to be caught again by those strong, steady arms.

Fang ran her clean hand though Lightning's hair, listening to the sharp pitch of her breath and those shivering sounds, all while she kept stoking the proverbial fire with her other fingers, still moving deep within Lightning's warmth.

"Fang?" Lightning mumbled against the softness of the blanket, before she slowly drew herself back into the world around her, shakily pressing her nose against the side of Fang's cheek. "You're still-" She couldn't help but whimper, and then suddenly buck at the next long, deep stroke, just a little bit rougher than before, enough to make her voice crack and go breathy again.

Fang closed her eyes with a warm smile. "Doing alright?"

Lightning fought the urge throttle that sly little voice right then and there, if only the act wouldn't hinder that delicious pressure inside her abdomen, nor the sharp, blinding heat that surged right back up again with a promise to fulfill.

"I think you like this..." Fang felt those heaving lungs above her own chest, the way Lightning squirmed and then bucked so sharply against her hand again, only with a long, low groan instead of any intelligible words. "It's alright to just let go... Just let it take you for a moment."

Lightning wanted to speak again, to kiss away that wonderful smirk from Fang's face, but it still felt like she could only breathe in hoarse little gasps, all with those long fingers that had a seemingly direct line to her motor functions, able to render her so very speechless and endlessly tight, even without letting her rest for more than a moment or two.

Fang slid her thumb over each slick, velvet fold, drawing out those little whimpers and gasps, until she began to draw so much nearer and nearer to the one soft, swollen spot, the place she knew would finish it all. " _Breathe_ , love." She hugged Lightning tight and rubbed the pad of her thumb against her clit, blissfully savoring each and every little last tremble and cry, the way she pressed so close, so near to Fang's own skin, warm and lovely and shivering there without much more than a moment of stillness. "I've got you."

Lightning shuddered heavily with her sudden, heavy release, and she almost keened again with a long, breathy sigh. She collapsed in the throes of utter chemical contentment, before she went quite limp again, trembling and and clingy against the comfort of Fang's body.

Fang lifted her hand up from between them, heated and overall quite strained from the whole ordeal, though she simply moved to let it rest against the blanket for a while, listening to the way Lightning's breath slowly grew less and less intense.

Beneath the early stars of the early night, in the gusts of the ocean breeze, Fang went very silent for a while. She knew that just as soon as Lightning recovered, she'd likely be back to kissing them both breathless again, drawing closer and closer to returning that same act of release, yet for a while, when the light of the campfire still flickered so softly against the beachfront...

Fang hugged at Lightning's shoulders, feeling that steady heart and lungs as they moved in that gentle rhythm again, so far from what she could muster in other states. That part of her was so soft, so polarizing from the sheer strength and savagery of her other side, the side that would do absolutely anything to never endure the pain of loss again, never again have to mourn another loved one, lost to the dark realm of silence.

For Lightning, she was fire as well, warm and loving in one moment and then just as quick as a flash, she could _burn_ , she could be as fierce and as wild as she needed to be, just to keep them all safe.

After a moment, Fang smiled to herself. "You still awake, there..?"

Lightning mumbled something against Fang's collarbone, before she moved to press just a few feathery kisses against the curve of her neck.

Fang's smile tugged even more at her mouth. Lightning wasn't so much a of paradox, she knew, just a dual-sided sort of thing, a steadily flowing balance between fire and ice, kisses and steel, the sword at her hip and the love in her heart, those thorns put in place to hide away the soft, gentle roses.

Lightning took a very deep breath, before she slowly rose up her arms, still shaking and trembling just a bit, though there was nothing in her gaze to even hint at the possibility of fatigue.

Fang stared up into those sharp, watchful eyes, and she knew she was in for an ordeal.

* * *

The moon rose high into the midnight air. A pale, glowing light illuminated the beachfront and the waves, turning the into ocean a deep black, yet it also made each crest of water look so bright and blue.

Lightning sat upright beside the fire, holding a skillet in her hand, the one that she'd bought very early on back at the market. She also held a bag of corn kernels, and she slowly poured them down into a thin layer of steaming hot olive oil, while a small dish of butter had been left aside to heat up beside the embers.

The big, fluffy blankets were just far enough away not to catch from the flames, but Lightning still sat close enough to hold out the covered skillet and let the heat of the fire do its magic. She stared at the thin swirls of steam beneath the glass covering, before she felt a familiar presence move close again, so very near and warm.

"What's this?" Fang's voice was still a just a bit hoarse. "What are you making, Light?"

Lightning quickly realized that Fang hadn't yet retrieved her clothes from beside the blankets, for there wasn't the sensation of fabric at her back; no, it was bare skin that had pressed itself up against her undershirt.

Fang sniffed at the air. "Smells nice."

Lightning reached up to touch the closest side of Fang's face, feeling the same sort of fire that crept beneath her skin. It warmed the both of them to the point of not needing thicker clothes, even within the chill of a dark winter night. "Just watch... You'll see." She let her free hand drift back down towards the blankets, where she found Fang's own palm, moving to entwine each fingertip between her own. "It'll smell even nicer before long."

And indeed, with a sharp tap against the heights of the glass lid, one of the corn kernels suddenly looked rather white and puffy, before another joined it, and then another, all jumping around and popping up from the base of the pan.

Lightning angled her head back to see the look on Fang's face, and she felt her heart twinge at the almost childlike wonder, even if it was just a quiet sort of awe, both silent and soft, yet it was enough to be touching, nonetheless.

Fang leaned forward to examine the fluffy little things, watching the way that they hopped around in the skillet. "It's not normal corn... Is it?"

"No, it's normal." Lightning shook the pan to evenly distribute the oil and heat. "When you make it like this, it's called popcorn."

Fang kept leaning forward against Lightning's back, and she smiled a little when the entire dish began to fill with the puffy morsels, all up until Lightning moved it away from the fire. "What's the butter for?"

Lightning picked up a much bigger bowl to pour the popcorn into, before she reached for a small pouch of spices, then some fine salt and a spoon. "It's all for flavor." She picked up the edge of the butter dish with a spare rag, before she poured the liquid down over the fluffy kernels, spreading it out into the bowl. "Some people just use butter and salt, but back home, we always make it with a little something extra."

Fang's nostrils twitched at the scent of something quite lovely indeed, a somewhat spicy smell that drifted out from one of the pouches, one of the things that Lightning had bought back in town. "Which one is that?"

Lightning smiled, just a tiny little smirk at the edge of her lips. "That's a secret, at least for now."

Fang grumbled quietly, leaning a bit closer to Lightning's shoulder. "You and your secrets..."

"It's a little bit like pepper." Lightning poured just a pinch or two of salt into the bowl, alongside the bright red spice that she'd sprinkled down on top of the popcorn. "Much sweeter, but it still has a kick."

Fang slowly reached for one of the kernels, only to be swatted away with the end of spoon. "Light?"

" _Patience_." Lightning started to stir up the buttery mixture, gently tossing the popcorn around in the bowl. "It needs to spread out first."

Fang sighed against Lightning's shoulder. "It smells _really_ good."

Lightning nodded. "I know, but it's much better like this..." It wasn't long before she placed the spoon away. "Here, it just needs to cool."

Fang didn't pause, though, she simply reached for a small handful, holding it against her palm, until she lifted it up to inhale the scent.

"Fang-" Lightning stared at the light layer of steam near her skin, before she remembered that it was Fang's own flame that flickered away in the campfire. "It really doesn't burn you, does it?"

Fang tried a small bite of popcorn, and her mouth slowly tugged up in a smile. "Yeah, it shouldn't burn you either, not with my fingerprint in there." She tapped at Lightning's nearest hand. "If you can handle my fire, then you can handle my heat, for sure..."

Lightning fought the urge to roll her eyes, before she turned around against the blanket to fully face Fang again. "I think I'd rather not take my chances."

Fang shrugged, and she puffed out a tiny bit of flame from between her lips, just enough to flicker at the space between them.

Lightning set the bowl down upon the blankets. "Stupid lizard."

"No... Dragon." Fang held up a single kernel of popcorn. "Say it?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Lizard."

Fang ate the kernel herself, before she slowly reached for another piece. "Dragon."

Lightning finally did roll her eyes. "...Dragon." She had to truly retrain herself from biting at Fang's fingertip when she offered her the single piece of popcorn, gently pressing it to Lightning's lips.

Fang smiled when Lightning finally accepted the little gift, but just as soon as she'd finished chewing, a rather muffled _'lizard'_ earned her a look of somewhat amused disapproval.

"Cheeky." Fang picked up another tidbit of popcorn. "But I don't think you'd ever be... So _open_ with any mere lizard."

Lightning felt a small flush grace her features, but she kept herself quite steadfast and still, gazing back at the look in Fang's eyes with a steely force of her own. "You're... A very exceptional lizard." She reached for a handful of popcorn for herself, and she still kept her eyes locked on Fang's face while she chewed it. "And a more than exceptional human."

"How flattering." Fang slowly leaned in to nudge their noses together, before she leaned back for another bite of popcorn. "But I don't think lizards have fire or wings."

There was that sudden spark of mischief in Lightning's eyes, just a slight glimmer beneath the light of the flames. "Like I said, exceptional."

Fang leaned back against the blankets again, settling down on her side. "And earlier, was _that_ exceptional?"

Lightning's blush didn't leave her face, but her eyes were calm and cool. "You tell me."

Fang could still feel those deep little aches in her limbs, an almost appreciated side effect of being roughly pinned back to the ground, rolled over with sharp, clinging kisses and somewhat gentle bites, and the sudden memory of Lightning's breath in her ear, whispering ever so softly...

Lightning watched the changing look in Fang's eyes, and she almost smirked to herself, before she reached for another handful of popcorn.

After a moment or two, Fang exhaled a long, breathy sigh at the mere thought of it. "...More than exceptional."

Lightning crossed her legs on the blanket, sitting upright and rather elegant, not a hint in her stance that she'd ever been doing such wild things within the dark, much less having also been there on the receiving end. "Good answer."

* * *

The moon left them in the later hours of the night, covering the world in thick darkness again. The fire was out, taken back into Fang's soul, where the heat kept them both quite warm within the chilly winds of the beach.

Lightning curled herself up in the blankets, covered by the thicker of the two sheets, and while she did share the fabric with Fang, more than a bit of extra cloth was resting over her own skin. Yet it was Fang's own doing, for if Lightning was actually going to sleep out there in the cold in only her underclothes, even with such a fiery cuddling partner... Fang was more than ready to stand on the side of caution.

Yet she looked so still, such an untouchable peace in her features, dozing off into the night with only a whisper of sound at her mouth. She was breathing so softly, and each tiny puff of air upon Fang's skin made her smile again, nuzzling closer to the warm scent of Lightning's hair.

"Still awake?" Lightning's voice barely left her lips. "... _Sleep_ , Fang."

"I will." Fang kissed at the very top of Lightning's head, where she could smell the scents of the sea, then the forest she'd been walking beneath, and even just a hint of that fresh soap from a few days past, even if the city felt like a distant memory by then. "Let me know if you get cold, okay?"

Lightning snuggled herself closer to Fang, breathing slow. "Okay."

"We might even reach the northlands tomorrow..." Fang listened to the sound of Lightnings' steady lungs, and then the soft, quiet heartbeat near her chest. "Maybe... But we might need to stop again before then."

Lightning yawned so softly that it was silent, just a quiet breath in the night.

"Thank you for dinner." Fang hugged Lightning close, savoring that sense of both safety, comfort and warmth. "And for the popcorn."

Lightning pressed one gentle kiss against the pulse of Fang's throat, but that was all she could do before she was taken away by sleep, lulled off into the silence and the dark.

"Sleep well, Light." Fang slowly closed her eyes, and she began to settle herself down into a soft slumber as well. "...See you soon."

* * *

The sun rose high over the great plains, near darker clouds that were rolling in upon a strong wind, far above the pair that walked over the grasslands in silence, all except for the occasional labored breath.

Lightning lagged behind just slightly, though she did her best to keep up with her strange new companion, hurrying to maintain a steady pace.

But Fang noticed those short little gasps, even if they were almost soundless. "Okay... Break time."

Lightning's ears twitched slightly at the sound of Fang's voice.

"Rest, break time, whatever you'd like to call it." Fang pointed at a nearby rock, before she made her way over to sit down upon it. "Come on, Lightning."

Lightning just stood there for a moment or two, before she slowly made her way over as well.

"Here." Fang lifted the canteen from her belt, from which she took a good long swig of water, and then swallowed it. "Nothing bad, see?"

Though Lightning seemed more than a bit hesitant to accept the waterskin bag, when Fang practically dropped into in her hands, she took just a moment to sniff at the contents, before she took a rather long drink as well.

"You do get pretty thirsty out here." Fang stretched out her arms beneath the heavy sunlight, and she knew she'd be lying if she said she didn't catch the way that Lightning examined those toned, muscular limbs, even while she was still sipping at the water from the canteen.

Lightning lowered the waterskin from her lips, before she reached up to wipe the tiny droplets away from her mouth.

"Not exactly a desert, is it?" Fang set her hands down upon her lap. "But it gets pretty damn close in the summer... Though it looks like we'll be seeing a storm tonight." She slowly let her legs sway in the humid air, barely brushing against the bottom of the rock. "Anything like this where you're from, Lightning?"

Lightning's eyes still seemed blank at those other words, all up until Fang spoke her name again. "...Light."

Fang paused for just a moment. "Lightning, or Light?"

Lightning looked away, and she narrowed her eyes at the ground, before she spoke something in a language that Fang had never heard before.

"A nickname, then?" Fang waved to get Lightning's attention again, pointing at her body with the very same hand. "Light?"

Lightning nodded.

Fang smiled ever so slightly. "Lightning?"

Lightning nodded again.

"Alright then." Fang glanced up when Bahamut called out from far above them, soaring on through the midday sky, near the steadily gathering clouds. "Wish I could just _ask_ where the heck you came from..."

Lightning glanced back at the ground again, and her shoulders began to stiffen at the sound of frustration in Fang's tone.

"A crystal from the sky." Fang traced out the memory with her fingertips, the way she'd seen that sudden, brilliant flash in the sheer dark of night, how it burned and seared a trail into the atmosphere, falling so swiftly towards the earth. "How did you get up there, then? If you're really human, just with all of those feathers... You've _got_ to be from the same planet, right? You nod when I say something right, and your name, it's the same as something here..."

Lightning just kept staring at her feet.

"...What a headache." Fang sighed, before she lowered her voice to sound a bit gentler than before. "You've got a home, don't you? Somewhere I can help you get back to?"

Lightning still didn't move, and she didn't react to any of Fang's words.

"What in the world am I gonna do with you?" Fang set her hands back down on her lap, gazing off into the distance. "I can get you back to the village and patch you up, but those ears of yours, they're just gonna bring us more questions than answers." She glanced over at Lightning again, before she peered back out at the plains. "I guess you could stay in one of the guest houses, at least until we can figure this out... Nobody's used those in months."

But when she finally looked back again, at the spot on the rock where Lightning was sitting, Fang almost didn't realize what she was looking at, not at first.

A long, slim neck, a gray, curved beak and bright eyes, just as blue as Lightning's had been before, only she wasn't the same at that point, not at all.

Fang stared at the pale, folded wings, the limbs where her arms had been only a moment ago, before she slowly looked down at the sharp talons upon the rock, and then those fluffy, feathered legs, like a bird's, but a bit longer, resting beneath those wide, black-spotted wings.

Lightning stared up at the bright blue sky, but she was still panting slightly, so unaccustomed to the air of the foreign world.

It was a long moment before Fang spoke again. "You're a _bird_."

Lightning slowly lowered herself down on the rock, thoroughly winded by having changed her form so soon after the effects of crystal stasis.

"You weren't a bird before." Fang leaned over to look at the tiny black streaks on the feathers of Lightning's neck, and then at the pointed, fluffy ears upon either side of her head. "Shapeshifting magic? That's... That's _fairy_ tale stuff, Lightning."

Lightning moved slightly at the sound of her name, still struggling to catch her breath again, for she was even panting through her curved, hooklike beak.

"You know, without those ears, you'd look just like a gyrfalcon." Fang glanced at the sharp talons again, those sharp black claws upon such soft, gray bird-feet. "Only massive."

For Lightning was almost the same size as she had been before, though Fang reasoned that she was likely a fraction of the weight in order to fly, _if_ she could fly, that was. But Lightning seemed in no state to prove it, not with the taxing fatigue of having left crystal stasis, and then of changing forms, nor the stress of an entirely new atmosphere.

Fang blinked, before the bird of prey was suddenly gone, replaced by the exhausted form of a human, the strange woman who called herself Lightning.

"It's alright..." Fang stood up again, stepping out into the grass. "We'll help you out, okay? And knowing the seers, they'll think this is a good omen or something... Falcons are said to be lucky, you know."

Lightning lifted the canteen again, and she slowly held it out towards Fang.

"Thanks." Fang softened her voice a bit, slightly raising her pitch in an effort to ease away some of the weariness on Lightning's face. "You won't understand this, but I'm just gonna speak nonsense for a minute, okay?"

As they walked along again, Lightning's eyes tracked the way Fang spoke, the subtle creases in her skin that signaled a smile, and the tone of her voice brought forth an unconscious sort of relief. Just the sight of a friendly face in such a strange land, someone who gave her fresh water to drink and was now speaking such soft words to her, it brought a bit of levity to the whole situation.

"And that's why you never buy fish on Tuesday, or go for a swim on Mondays..." Fang smirked slightly at the look in Lightning's eyes. "Now bacon, that's good almost every day, especially if you have a friend who knows a pig farmer." She kept walking forward, clipping the waterskin bag back against her belt. "All this talk about food and it's not even dinnertime..."

Lightning followed after Fang, somewhat clueless to the entire conversation, one-sided as it was, but the sound of Fang's voice made it much easier to keep walking beneath the heat of the sun, out into the long, winding grasslands.

"And dad makes dinner on Friday, always." Fang tried not to frown at the thought of him. "That's today."

Lightning tilted her head slightly at the sound of Fang's tone.

"I still live with him... There's more than enough room, now." Fang tried to keep her shoulders from slumping down. "I'll probably keep the place forever, not like there's anywhere else to go." She glanced over her shoulder at Lightning. "Not that I'm complaining. I grew up there, it's a real nice house."

Lightning just kept following her across the plains.

"You're not bleeding as much as before." Fang looked back again to point at her forehead. "Vanille can tape that up, get some ointment on it so it doesn't get worse."

Lightning spoke something in that sharp language again, not in a hostile way, yet her words were a little more than exasperated.

"I know, you don't understand." Fang looked up towards where Bahamut was still following them, flying high above the grassland. "But it's better than silence, right?"

Lightning frowned a little. She kept very quiet for a while, until something caught her attention up ahead. Fang didn't seem to notice it, so Lightning paused, quietly calling her name to point it out.

Fang paused as well, before she stepped back over to look at the little object, likely the discarded skin of a snake, or any other ground dwelling reptile. "Yeah, that's cool." She knelt down near the odd little thing, and she lifted it up to discover that it had once indeed belonged to a snake, for the shape was almost perfectly narrow. "Snakeskin."

Lightning knelt down as well. "...Snakeskin?"

Fang nodded. "From a snake." She put her fingertips to the ground and drew out a winding shape in the dust, making a soft hissing sound between her teeth. "Snake."

Lightning reached out to touch the smooth, translucent scales. "Snake."

Fang smiled. "Yeah."

Lightning watched at the way Fang's expression moved, the signs of affirmation aligned with the word 'yeah', and she quietly stored it away in the same mental spot as all of the other words she'd learned. She stood up again, pointing at the grass beside the dirt.

Fang's gaze followed to where Lightning gestured. "Grass."

Lightning nodded to herself. "Grass." She stepped over to point at the dusty earth.

"Ground." Fang stood up as well, before she pointed out into the air, at all of the dark clouds. "Sky."

Lightning nodded yet again. "Sky..." She paced forward, not looking at anything in particular. "Sky."

"Yeah, you've got the feathers for it." Fang stared at those fuzzy, pointed ears. "But I don't think you should go flying off just yet."

Lightning paused again, before she slowly turned around to look at Fang. "Lightning." She pointed at herself, and then up into the air.

Fang's face went a little bit blank. "What, you want to go up there?"

Lightning examine the confusion in Fang's gaze, before she knelt down again to sketch something out into the dust. "Fang?"

"Right, right." Fang knelt down again too. "What's up?"

Lightning drew out a rounded sort of shape, only the image had the unmistakable look of a building, only it didn't seem to have much more to stand on than just a few narrow stilts.

Fang leaned back a bit. "House... Your home?"

Lightning frowned slightly, before she pointed upwards again.

"Is that your home?" Fang tapped at the earth beside the little drawing. "In the... In the sky?"

Lightning tried not to sigh, before she spoke something in her own language yet again.

"Maybe... Beyond the sky?" Fang slowly rose back up to her feet. "Another world?"

Lightning just kept staring at the ground.

Fang frowned a little bit, before she slowly reached to touch Lightning's shoulder, prompting little more than a flinch. "Light." She waited for Lightning to meet her gaze again, and when she did, Fang pointed down at the drawing, and then back at Lightning herself. "Light..." Fang pointed at the drawing again. "Home."

Lightning glanced at where Fang was still touching her shoulder.

"We'll get you home, okay?" Fang tried to smile, before she pointed at Lightning once more, and then at the drawing in the dust. "Lightning, _home_."

Slowly, Lightning shook her head.

"Why not?" Fang watched the way that Lightning used her fingertips to cross out the picture of a house. "You don't want to go home, Light?"

After a moment of silence, Lightning pointed up at the sun, before she made a sudden sort of symbol with both of her hands, as if something had swiftly pushed all of her fingers apart.

Fang kept very quiet for a moment. "We'll figure something out, okay?" She gestured for Lightning to stand up again and follow her. "We'll get you patched up, get you a place to stay... Then get you back home."

Lightning said nothing for a while, not until they'd traveled on across the plains, past a rocky trail that ran through a wide patch of rising terrain, though the hills, the low valleys and scrubland, not until they reached the outskirts of a wide, distant city, one that stood on the edge of much greener grasslands, even a forest further on. "...Fang?"

Fang paused. "Yeah?"

Lightning stared at the sight of the city, and just a flicker of hesitation crossed her face.

"Light, it's okay." Fang gestured at the different tiers of the civilized land, at the little farms that stretched out into fenced-in fields, to the thatched houses that lay much closer together than any others, even the tall house of the seers, the only building to rise more than three whole stories up into the air. "You'll be okay."

But Lightning didn't even move when Fang moved forward again.

"Lightning." Fang's expression went a little more weary, bearing the strain of being unable to simply translate. " _Safe_ , okay?" She would have reached for her spear to set it down on the ground, if only such an action wasn't likely to be seen as aggressive. "Safe."

Lightning still didn't budge an inch.

Fang thought for a long moment, listening to the soft sounds of the grassland, before an idea dawned inside her head. "Safe..." She knelt down to start tracing something else into the dust, gesturing for Lightning to come and look.

Lightning knelt down to peer at the image of little stick-figures all standing together, and some of their tiny arms seemed to be holding each other's hands. She watched the way Fang drew small houses all around the people, and then what looked like a ferocious, toothy creature with a spear stuck right into it, with another figure standing behind the person who'd killed it.

"Safe." Fang pointed at the person who was near the hunter. "Lightning, _safe_."

Lightning's ears twitched a bit.

Fang smiled at the way such movement looked, before she reached back for the hood of her cloak, the skin of one such terrible beast. She held it up over her head, revealing the long, furry ears that looked rather like a lynx's, only the creature must have been just as enormous as a lion.

Lightning held back a laugh at the way the big pointy things looked near the top of Fang's hood.

"Animal." Fang pointed at the fuzzy cloak. "Animal skin."

Lightning's eyes widened slightly. "'Snakeskin'..?"

Fang shrugged. "Animal skin, but close enough." She felt the shade of the hood on her head, but it was more than a bit too insulated to keep there in the summertime heat. "Let's get inside, okay? Much cooler indoors."

Lightning watched as Fang stood up, and while she herself still hesitated for a moment, the gentle, continued coaxing and the soft words drew her forward again, moving on towards the distant village.

"And if anyone even makes fun of your ears, they'll have to answer to me." Fang tugged her hood back down to point at Lightning's ears. "They're pretty damn adorable... At least in my opinion."

The feathery little things almost looked like they twitched of their own volition, listening to the sound of Fang's voice.

"I'm just glad you can't understand that..." Fang smiled at the feathered ears. "You're not hard on the eyes either, Light."

Lightning tilted her head slightly in response to her name, but when it didn't seem like Fang had much more to say, she just kept following her towards the village, past a long, sprawling paddock with much greener grass than the plains.

Fang suddenly paused. "Horses..." She pointed at one of the big animals off in the distance, a spotted creature with a white muzzle. "Horse."

Lightning looked over as well, and her eyes slowly widened at the sight of it. "Horse."

Fang smiled, before she moved on. "We'll be having a full conversation in no time." She kept walking for a short while, but when they approached another pen, a smaller one with little horned creatures inside, she pointed at the one that stood closest to the fence. "Goats... Goat."

Lightning glanced at one of the docile beasts, a rather lazy individual who was munching at the grass. "Goat."

"Yeah, you've even got the pronunciation down." Fang walked on again, further towards the first few houses, the homes that belonged to the farmers. "Maybe Vanille has some spare books around... Something to get you used to the language."

Lightning paused at the sight of a pale gray dove atop the roof of a hut, and she watched while it drank a bit of water from a dip in the metal gutter. "Fang?"

Fang followed her gaze towards where Lightning was looking. "Bird."

Lightning nodded. "Bird."

Fang pointed at Lightning herself. "Bird?"

After a moment of silence, Lightning shrugged.

"...You aren't making this easy." Fang sighed, before she whistled for Bahamut to fly down and land on her wrist, an action that sent the little dove flapping away rather frantically. "Bahamut."

Lightning stared at the big black eagle, and she nodded.

Fang pointed again at her friend, at the tamed, rather docile bird of prey. "Bahamut, eagle... _Bird_." She pointed at Lightning again. "Bird?"

Lightning just shrugged.

Fang tried not to huff in frustration, before she gently reached to hold up one of Bahamut's wings. "Wing." She slowly moved it back and forth. " _Wing_." Fang then pointed back at Lightning. "Wings."

Lightning finally nodded.

"You've got wings, but you're not sure if you're a bird?" Fang almost gave a wry chuckle at the thought of that. "Alright, whatever works for you..." She lifted her hand to let Bahamut fly upwards again, off into the air.

Lightning stared at the way the eagle flew away, and her ears perked up when he circled off towards the town, flying so high above the houses, beneath the clouds that were darkening even further.

"Let's get you fixed up, then." Fang glanced at the scratch on Lightning's cheek, before she motioned for her to follow. "Vanille shouldn't be too busy; it's almost evening, after all." She walked on into the path between paddocks, off towards the roads that were paved with loose bits of stone. The road moved further towards the denser houses, winding all in and around the area with little rhyme or reason other than convenience. "I've gotta give her this, anyway."

Lightning blinked when Fang revealed the big chunk of crystal from her pocket, such a sharp, luminous thing, likely a shard that had fallen off from the outer surface when the main craft had crashed, fractured within the extreme heat of entering the atmosphere.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Fang glanced over her shoulder to look Lightning. "You don't mind, right?"

Lightning didn't seem to have any objections, for she was much too busy glancing around at all of the nearby buildings, even the small number of people who were out and about in the light of day. She didn't know yet that most of the villagers would likely be inside, using the coolness of the shade to work in relative ease, but the fact that the streets were mostly empty, such solitude almost made her exhale in relief.

Fang kept leading the way on into town, staring right back at anyone who gave Lightning's ears more than a second glance, and she kept traveling until they approached a certain workshop, one with a tiny house that had been built right into the side.

"Right..." Fang stepped up to the front walkway, a short stone stairwell that led up to the small wooden shop. "Vanille, you home?" She knocked twice at the door, and it was only a moment or two before it swung open from inside.

"Fang!"

She was tackled in a tight hug within mere seconds, but Fang just smiled, hugging back while she spun the young woman around in her arms, the one who seemed so very energetic and swift.

"Fang, I didn't know you were coming over today! I would've made something special..." Vanille hugged Fang even tighter until she set her back down again, right on the steps of the stairs. "Oh, I do have some cookies from yesterday, but you don't like lemon very much, right?"

Fang shook her head. "No, lemon's fine... But that's not why I'm here."

Vanille quirked her head to the side, so bright and inquisitive, but before she could even speak, Fang had turned her right around to see exactly who was waiting down there at the bottom of the stairs, someone who made Vanille's eyes go very, very wide.

"Oh." Vanille's gaze darted up to the shallow cut on Lightning's forehead, to the one on her cheek, and then to her ears, before it flickered back over to the cut once again. "Oh, you're hurt, aren't you..?"

Lightning didn't speak, but she slowly glanced away towards the rest of the village streets.

"She doesn't know the language yet." Fang tried to smile at Lightning, waving for her to walk up the stairs. "We've got a few simple words down already, but beyond that..."

"Fang, who _is_ she?" Vanille took a step forward when Lightning didn't move. "She... She can't be from anywhere around here, right?"

Lightning flinched slightly when Vanille reached for the side of her cheek, but to her credit, she kept very still, letting her new acquaintance examine the wound.

"I don't think she is, either..." Fang glanced at the open door. "But we should really talk about this inside."

Vanille nodded. "Okay." She tried to smile brightly at Lightning, even going so far as to reach for her hands to guide her forward, something that was met with more of a flinch than acceptance, even a grimace or two. "It's alright... What's your name?"

Fang answered when Lightning didn't speak. "Lightning, or Light."

Lightning's ears twitched again, but she slowly followed Vanille and Fang into the front doorway of the house, before she blinked at the sudden change in brightness.

The little workshop was indeed a little bright, but it was nowhere near as luminous as the open streets. Only a few open windows and a small number of candles kept it from darkness, for the day was far too hot for using the hearth.

Vanille led Lightning over towards a small bench beside the nearest window, gesturing for her to sit down and wait for just a moment.

Lightning glanced around at all of the unusual trinkets on the tables, the potted flowers and herbs that seemed almost endless, and then the strange tools kept so very neatly upon hooks on the walls, even the workbench that had a rather foreign woodcarving on top, one of an animal she just couldn't recognize. There were numerous bookshelves and stacks of wooden crates, some of which had already been opened to reveal big bundles of extremely colorful cloth. Lightning glanced over at Fang again, before she turned to examine a certain stack of shelves upon the wall, platforms that had jars upon jars of dried plants or other odd things, some of which even looked like they had once been something liquid, or even alive.

"Did you put these on her, Fang?" Vanille knelt down to look at the bandages on Lightning's legs and arms. "A little strange, but enough to keep the blood inside."

Fang shook her head. "No, she didn't seem like she wanted me to get anywhere near her, not at first." She sat down on the bench as well, flexing a few of her toes within her sandals. "And the strange thing is, the thing that fell last night... I found her out there, frozen solid inside a _crystal_."

Vanille almost began to refute such an idea, but when she watched as Fang took out the very mineral in question from within her pocket, that dubious expression changed into one of unrestrained awe. "You're serious..?"

"Yeah." Fang turned the sharp stone over in her hand, watching the way that Vanille readied a fresh roll of bandage material, a water canteen, and some antiseptic ointment. "Had to chip my way down in there, but once the air hit her..." She nodded at Lightning. "Woke right up."

Vanille tugged one of the bandages away from Lightning's left knee, and she frowned at the way the cut almost looked like the work of a wild animal, or something with very sharp claws. "Wow."

"I'm not exactly sure what to do with her... She doesn't seem to be from this _planet_ , Vanille." Fang glanced back down at the crystal shard. "People from beyond the stars, just like those old stories."

"You should go see the seers." Vanille rubbed a bit of the ointment down into the washed cut, frowning slightly when Lightning hissed at her. "It's okay, it just stings a little..."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut and leaned back against the wall.

"But yeah, the seers-" Vanille paused to tape the bandage shut with a bit of sticky paper. "They could help figure you this out, right?"

Fang shrugged. "Worth a try... But they're not gonna get back to me for a while, are they?" She glanced out at the opposite window, towards where the sun was already lurking closer and closer to the horizon. "Too late today to leave them a note, and with Saturday and Sunday being prayer days..." Fang turned back to face the workshop. "What do I do with her, Vanille? Just stick her in one of the guest houses for a while?"

Vanille narrowed her eyes, before she spoke in a slightly harsh whisper. "You'd better not... Look at her, Fang, she's _scared_."

Fang looked over at Lightning. "She's not scared."

Lightning did indeed have that quiet sort of confidence on her face, but when Fang took a moment longer to stare into her eyes, she finally caught sight of a small bit of uncertainty, only it was rather well-hidden behind such a solid gaze.

"Maybe a little scared." Fang tried not to sigh. "What, then? If I can't take her to the seers, can't put her in a house-"

Vanille sat back with a bit of paper stuck to her fingertips, before she leaned up to rub a bit more ointment into a cut on Lightning's arm. "You _can_ put her in a house... Just one where she won't be so stranded and alone." She turned to smile at Fang. "You've got a spare room, don't you?"

Fang looked away. "More than one..."

"Well, then, you just let her stay over there with you until we can figure this out." Vanille stood up again with a bit of cloth, one that was dampened with an herbal ointment. "Now, hold still!"

Lightning almost winced again when Vanille cleaned the wounds on her face, but she still didn't move, tolerating the sharp pain by clenching her teeth together.

"How do I explain this to dad..?" Fang leaned back to stare at the ceiling, before she gently tapped her sandals against the floor. "What am I saying? He probably won't even notice her, not unless she steps on his foot or something."

Vanille gave Fang a rather wry smile. "He's not oblivious, Fang... Just quiet."

Fang narrowed her eyes at nothing in particular. "He wasn't always like this."

"I know." Vanille taped a tiny bit of cloth to Lightning's cheek, sheltering the wound from the world beyond. "But I don't think he'd mind, Fang; he never minds when I'm over, does he?"

"Nah." Fang looked back down, and she tried to smile at Lightning. "Well, what do you say, Light? Hang out with me until we figure out what to do with you?"

Lightning just stared at her, though she winced again when Vanille rubbed some more ointment into the scratch on her forehead.

"Oh, you'll just have to teach her how to talk..." Vanille beamed at Lightning, before she taped down another piece of cloth to the cut. "Someone from a falling crystal? With those funny ears... Oh, she's gotta be from somewhere exciting!"

Lightning gave Vanille rather a sharp look when she suddenly hopped up and down, but it wasn't nearly as cold as her previous scowls.

"She can talk, just not in any language I've ever heard." Fang waited for Vanille to settle down. "And that's not the only thing." She leaned forward to examine those soft, feathery tufts, imagining the other form that she'd seen before, the falcon upon the rock. "But it might be better to keep this between us... She's a _shapeshifter_ , Vanille."

Vanille went very still again, gazing at Lightning's ears. "Really?"

Fang nodded. "Turned into a bird right in front of me... Looked too tired to fly, though."

"Then you need to get her some food and a good night's rest." Vanille reached over to pat at the side of Lightning's arm, right beside the spot where she'd placed another bandage. "You'll be all better soon, Lightning, won't you?"

Lightning glanced at Vanille with a much more gentle expression than before, almost reminiscent of fondness.

"Aw, see... She likes _you_ , Van." Fang smiled, before she moved to gently poke at Vanille's forehead. "You think she'd feel better if you went home with us to dinner?"

Vanille's eyes crossed to follow the trail of Fang's fingertip, before she held back a tiny pout. "It's Friday, Fang, you know I've got group tonight... But maybe tomorrow? I'd love to, really-"

"No problem." Fang patted at the top of Vanille's head. "And thanks for the help, kiddo... Got a present for you."

Vanille almost began to dispute the factuality of the term 'kiddo', for she wasn't nearly as young as she'd once been, but when Fang handed over the crystal shard, so full of that strange light and color, Vanille's eyes went so very wide again. "Oh, Fang..."

"You can make something out of it, right?" Fang reached over to tap at the surface of the stone. "And there's a whole lot more of it back there, but I had a feeling that I needed to get back here and have her wounds checked out..."

"Oh, Fang, it's beautiful!" Vanille stepped away for just a moment to pick up a small looking glass from her workbench, before she returned with it to examine the shard of rock in greater detail, holding it out for Fang to see. "I've never seen anything like this..."

"Pretty, isn't it?" Fang stared at the tiny fractal designs in the crust of the stone, and at all of the little facets inside, swirling with such brightness, yet clouded by so many mineral streaks. "And I don't think Light even cares that I took it."

While Lightning did indeed glance at the crystal as well, she made no more effort to touch or take it, or even to acknowledge it any further than that.

"I'll have to get a good look at it, then..." Vanille walked back to put both the crystal and the looking glass down on her workbench. "Maybe someone at group will know how to cut it properly."

Fang smiled at the thought of the local craftsman's guild, which was a rather small, yet dedicated group in their village. "I can always head out and get more, unless someone else goes after it..." She looked over at Lightning again, and she suddenly felt her breath go very still; what if some other person had found her, out there? Would the encounter have gone nearly so well? What if they'd hurt her, or even worse?

"Okay, now the goods!" Vanille stepped back over with a small plate of cookies, smiling all the while. "I've got about an hour left until group, so if we're gonna try and figure this out before then..?"

Fang accepted one of the cookies with a nod. "You still have those books on outer space, right?"

Vanille offered the plate towards Lightning. "Yeah, but they don't have anything on _people_ out there... Other than speculation; _aliens_ , you know." She frowned a little bit when Lightning hesitated, so she picked up a cookie of her own to show her that it was very safe to eat. "But we could always take a look."

"I think we should." Fang munched down on the lemon cookie, and while it was just a bit too sugary-sweet for her taste, it was far better than the standard fare. "Just to see if there's anything in there, even a hint about where she might be from."

Vanille giggled when Lightning picked up a cookie from the plate. "It's like she's never seen one before..."

Lightning sniffed the pale little wafer, before she slowly bit down on the end.

Fang reached for another cookie. "They've probably got different food, wherever she's from." She watched the way that Lightning chewed so slowly. "Let's just hope it's not bad for her."

Vanille's smile suddenly faltered. "But she's... She's pretty much human, right? It won't upset her stomach, will it?"

Fang gave Vanille a tiny shrug. "Better than going hungry, right?"

Vanille pulled up a small chair and sat down upon it. "Oh, I hope so..." She reached over to pat at one of Lightning's knees. "If you get a bad bellyache, just tell Fang, okay? We can try to fix that, too."

Lightning kept chewing the cookie rather quietly, still with that distant sort of look in her eyes, almost like she might've been trying to remember something.

"I think she'll be okay." Fang looked at the little white tufts on Lightning's ears. "She seems like a tough one, after all."

* * *

Within the waking world, Fang still slept the night away. She stirred every so often in her slumber, and yet she still didn't wake.

Lightning followed on beside her, cuddled up beneath the blanket. There wasn't even an inkling in her mind, not a clue that Fang might have been dreaming of their past, of a world so far beyond their own.

Fang snuffled quietly in her sleep, not quite a snore, before she moved to subconsciously tug Lightning closer, mumbling the night away.

* * *

The sky had darkened to much greater depths of black, and the scent of rain loomed heavily in the air.

"Oi, dad?" Fang peered out into the doorway, setting her spear down upon a rack on the wall, before she leaned forward to search for any hints of occupancy within the front rooms. "Dad, you home?"

Silence, all except for a low, distant rumble out on the plains.

Fang strode through the doorway, waving for Lightning to follow in after her. "Home sweet home... Don't worry about being formal, I don't even bother." Once she'd pushed the door shut, she stepped over to sit down on the wicker sofa, slumping against the fluffy, cushioned seat. "I'd tell you to take your shoes off, but... You know, barefoot."

Slowly, Lightning stepped inside the living room, and she glanced all around at the strange residence, one without metal walls and floors, without wide windows that reached the ceiling, or even places to leap out into the sky below... She suddenly halted that entire train of thought, remembering that she was now upon a planet that was seemingly made up of all one piece, that she didn't live on a floating island anymore, suspended in place by so much artificial gravity.

"Have seat if you like." Fang unclipped the straps of her sandals to tug them off from her feet, stretching out her toes as she did so. "Dad should be back soon, probably out getting stuff for dinner."

When Fang gestured at the sofa, Lightning walked over to sit down as well, before her ears perked up at another peal of thunder.

"Hey, do you like storms?" Fang gave her a very soft smile. "'Lightning'... You'd have to like it, wouldn't you?"

Lightning glanced over at the sound of her name.

"It's all gonna be alright." Fang leaned back on the couch, propping her feet up on a similar bit of wicker furniture. "We're safe here, you got that?"

Slowly, Lightning leaned back as well. "...Safe."

"That's right." Fang nodded, closing her eyes. "Home." She pointed at the room around her. "House, home, whichever you'd rather call it."

Lightning looked down at her bare feet, silently remembering the simple little picture that she'd drawn in the dirt.

"I'd start dinner myself, but it's sort of a tradition." Fang kept her eyes shut, though she crossed one leg over the other, before she set her arms back down on her lap. "Dad makes it on Friday, always has." She soon heard yet another rumble of thunder, and only then did she open her eyes. "Even back when mom was around."

Lightning stared at the glass window near the front of the house, but she looked away from it when Fang suddenly rose up again, walking back over towards the door.

At the first patter of rain on the roof, Fang let out a loud whistle into the damp, chilly air, before a rather massive form flapped down into the front doorway.

Lightning almost smiled at the sight of Bahamut.

"Hey, buddy..." Fang watched how her companion so easily avoided knocking into anything, whether it was the walls or the furniture, or even the screen door that led towards the kitchen. "He usually sleeps outside unless the weather's real bad."

Lightning didn't even flinch when Bahamut suddenly landed upon the small table beside the couch, and she slowly extended her hand, petting along the soft, dark feathers at the top of his head.

"Glad the two of you get along." Fang flopped back down to the couch. "Birds of a feather, huh?"

After a moment of silence, Lightning moved her hand away, but when Bahamut called at her with a soft sound of protest, she reached over to pet his neck one more time.

"Don't listen to him, he's just a big baby." Fang signaled for Bahamut to behave, and he quickly flapped away to perch atop a tall wooden stand near the windowsill. "I've had him ever since he hatched, you know." She looked over at Lightning again. " _You_ didn't hatch from an egg, did you? Nah..."

Lightning slowly leaned her head back against the sofa.

"Aliens, huh?" Fang leaned back as well. "But I do rather like your feathers." She pointed at her own ears. "See? No feathers here."

Lightning looked at where Fang was pointing, before she slowly reached up to touch one of the slim, feathery tufts.

"Ears." Fang tugged at her earlobe. "Ear."

Lightning nodded. "Ear."

"That's good..." Fang smiled at her. "You'll have this stuff down in no time."

Lightning looked up at the sound of a closer noise, a loud, echoing rumble that rose far above the patter of rain, and her ears swiveled back to catch more of the residual echo.

"Funny little things." Fang almost wanted to reach out and touch one, just to examine it. "They sort of move around and-"

The front door swung open with a quiet creak, before a tall man with a covered basket under his arm walked through.

"Hey, dad." Fang stood up again. "Hope you've got enough there for company..."

The man glanced over at his daughter, but then his gaze flicked down to the visitor on the couch, the strange woman who slowly turned around to look at him.

"She's, uh-" Fang cleared her throat. "Not from around here."

Fang's father stared at those odd, feathery ears, and at the blue eyes that peered right back at him, and a moment of silence filled the room, all up until he finally nodded his head. "...I suppose there's more to it than that." He gently kicked away his shoes, before he made his way over towards the kitchen. "Does our friend here have a name?"

Fang walked over as well, and she waved for Lightning to follow. "What do you say?" She pointed at her again with an expectant sort of gaze.

Another rumble of sound nearly shook right through the house. "...Light." A split second of brightness flashed from far above the windowsill, illuminating her body from behind. "Lightning."


	25. Thundersong

The rain pattered on outside the house, drumming along down the wooden thatches of the roof.

"And then, once I got into the middle of the thing-"

Lightning saw the shadows of the crackling fire, and she watched them flicker along the walls. She listened to those strange, yet friendly voices that passed back and forth, trying to see if she could catch any familiar words.

"It was... Like as soon as the air hit her skin, she just _woke_ _up_." Fang leaned forward from where she was sitting upon a tall wooden chair, busily slicing up a pile of green onion stalks against the counter. "She just woke up, from solid _crystal_."

Fang's father was sitting down as well, cutting up what looked like a large yellow pepper. "Solid... Crystal."

Fang nodded. "I know how crazy it sounds." She glanced over at Lightning, who seemed to be quite busy with watching how the rain trickled down across the windowpanes. "But after the weekend, I'll get her over to see the seers, try to figure this out."

Fang's father just kept cutting up the yellow pepper, and a long silence filled the room.

"She doesn't talk much." Fang went back to dicing up the long green onion stalks. "And the only word we have in common, it's her own name... At least as far as I know."

Lightning slowly looked back at Fang. She was also sitting upon one of the tall kitchen chairs, just as silent as a ghost.

"Unless there's other words we haven't found yet." Fang pushed a pile of the chopped onion stalks off to the side, before she reached for a big fresh pepper, one that held a bright red hue. "She seems friendly enough, though... At least now that the shock's worn off."

From the corner of his gaze, Fang's father carefully eyed the strange weapon at Lightning's belt, but he said nothing to indicate that he would rather it be away from the kitchen table.

"And she drew a picture in the dirt, it almost looked like a house." Fang glanced down at her own reflection on the edge of the cutting knife, before she began to slice up the red pepper. "Then she just kept pointing at the sky."

A long, solid silence filled the room, only punctuated by the sound of sharp knives and rhythmic chopping.

"So... Is it alright with you if she stays in one of the spare rooms?" Fang looked up at her father again. "Just until I figure out how to get her back home."

"She doesn't seem destructive." Her father kept his gaze upon his work. "But we also don't seem to know if it will stay that way."

"Yeah, but, Dad, if-" Fang shot Lightning an almost apologetic glance. "She's not a wild _animal_ , okay? She's... Listen, even if she's not really human, she's still a _person_."

"Looks can be deceiving." Her father picked up the pile of chopped onion stalks, carrying them over towards the bright heat of the wood-fire stove. "But we can at least give her the benefit of the doubt."

Fang glanced away for a moment.

"Would you mind starting on the rest of this?" Her father gently stirred at a big pot of rice. "There's a beef flank still in the basket."

Fang nodded. "Yeah, just a moment." She started to cut up the rest of red pepper, before she pushed the sliced pieces over to pile up with the rest of them. "So... Did anything happen while I was out today?"

"Nothing unusual." Fang's father soon held up a cast-iron lid to cover the pot of rice. "There _was_ a bit of a scuffle, though..."

Fang's eyebrows quirked at the sound of that. "Really?" She stood up to retrieve a rather flat package from the basket, one that was wrapped in thick parchment paper. "What sort of scuffle?"

Her father just stood there for a while, likely lost in thought. "Well, a rancher's prize horse apparently broke loose, then it ate a rather large amount of another man's crops... Needless to say, neither of them were very pleased."

Fang unwrapped the package to reveal the slightly marbled surface of the flank steak. "Must've been a fence we didn't see today..." She glanced over at Lightning. "I showed Light a few of the horse paddocks, some of the goats."

Lightning glanced up at the sound of familiar words.

"That's it..." Fang began to cut up the beef flank. "See, she's learning this real quick."

After a moment of silence, Lightning leaned back slightly, resting her right arm against the countertop.

"See this, Light?" Fang pointed at the flat piece of beef. "Meat."

Lightning tilted her head to examine it.

"And this sort of meat, it's _perfect_ for stir-fry." Fang kept slicing off long strips of the flank, rather skillful with the end of a knife. "Dad's favorite, isn't it?"

Fang's father started to cut up a large white onion bulb right beside the stove. "I suppose so."

Preparing the beef strips turned out to be rather quick work, and it wasn't very long before both Fang and her father were able to start cooking them within a well-oiled pan, along with the chopped white onion slices.

Lightning examined the process just as closely as she could, but whenever Fang paused to look back and speak to her, she tried her best to look a bit more disinterested, yet still polite.

Next came both hues of the bright pepper slices, which were left to cook alongside the meat until they were almost soft, and then the small green onion stalks sizzled down beside all the rest of the colorful food. Fang's father reached up into the cupboards for a few small bottles of strange spices, though the bottle of salt was the only thing that Lightning could recognize. It was soon sprinkled down over the rest of the food, before a thick, dark sauce hissed right out into the mixture, changing the whole scent of the room.

Lightning listened to the brief conversations between her newfound friend and the _very_ quiet man, and after a moment or two, she began to remember a certain something, the people who weren't quite as strange, the people who didn't have round ears or live on the ground. The people who looked like her, lived like her, spoke her native language so fluently... She watched as the warm, pale steam rose up over the stove, utterly lost in both thought and memory, at least up until a wide dish was suddenly set down in front of her.

"Watch the heat..." Fang's father pointed down at the stir-fry, gesturing at the wide plumes of steam. "Does she understand not to burn herself?"

Lightning didn't move towards the food, though, and she merely nodded in thanks to the host of such a strange wooden house, one that stood so very firm against the hammering rain.

Fang tried not to roll her eyes, carrying her own dish back towards the counter. "She's not a kid, dad... She can tell when it's too hot."

Fang's father set his own plate down as well, and he pulled up one of the tall chairs. "I seem to remember a certain someone always being far too eager at dinnertime..."

Fang nearly scoffed. "I could _handle_ it-"

And then, a very small smile, one that she hadn't seen for far longer than she could remember.

Her father poked the end of a fork against his plate. "You're very lucky your poor tongue still even works."

Fang stared at that sudden look, at the quiet glimmer in his gentle eyes, but it so _quickly_ slipped away, vanishing within only a mere second or two, before her father, he was utterly back to business again. It tugged so sharply at her heart, weighing down to what felt like the lowest hollow of her stomach, so much that the food on her plate didn't seem so appetizing anymore.

Lightning glanced between the pair of them, from Fang to the quiet man, the one who looked like he was definitely related to Fang by blood. What could have happened there, just a moment before? The man had been smiling, and Fang looked almost shocked, but as the moments passed by, she was just staring down at the wooden counter again, drained of something quite crucial.

Slowly, Fang picked up the fork beside her plate. "Yeah." After a moment or two, her eyes flickered over to look at Lightning. "See, you just blow on it to make it cool." She held up a bit of cooked beef with the tines of the fork. "Like this."

Lightning watched that sudden, silent breath, the way the steam swiftly fluttered away, before she glanced over at the man who was silently eating a bite of his rice, as if he had no other thoughts in the world.

* * *

The rain grew even louder as the night drew on, and by the time each of their plates were clear, those sudden, bright flashes from the windowpanes shone even faster than before.

Fang leaned against the sink, cleaning off one of the dishes with a thick, soapy rag. "You'll be out tomorrow, right?"

"Yes." Her father was scrubbing down part of the countertop, the wide, flat stone that had been built into the wood for food preparation purposes. "Until the afternoon, maybe longer."

Fang turned to look at where Lightning was standing beside her, holding one of the plates in her hands. "Here, I'll get it-" But when Fang tried to take the dish away, Lightning's fingers only tightened against it. "Hey, Light..?"

Lightning quickly stepped forward to copy what Fang had done with the dishrag, soaping it all up and moving her plate beneath the water faucet.

Fang glanced over her shoulder. "See, dad? She's already house-trained."

Fang's father looked up from the counter. "What happened to her not being a 'wild animal'?"

After a slight pause, Fang cleared her throat, before her eyes darted back to peer at Lightning's ears. "Yeah... About that-"

It took far longer than she thought, just to make it sound convincing, even to herself; a lost, foreign shapeshifter, fallen from the sky, locked within a solid crystal, like a page torn right out from a storybook and given a life of its own.

Fang's father didn't speak for a very long while, still silently cleaning the counters, and it was only when Lightning was finished with washing her own plate, only then did he address her directly. "My daughter isn't one to make up tall-tales or fables... If you really _are_ what she claims, then the same rules apply to you as they do for any other guest." His gaze slid back over to look at Fang. "You said you were planning on having her see the seers?"

Fang nodded.

"I'll have a word tomorrow with your uncle." Fang's father leaned back, lifting the cloth away from the countertop. "If she's injured and... So different, then there's really no point in parading her out through so many people."

Fang smiled when Lightning handed over a clean plate. "A house visit?"

"You know how some folks can be." Fang's father tried not to sigh, and he carried the damp cleaning rag over towards the sink. "Nice folks, of course... But they can be _very_ set in their ways." He squeezed out the cloth, washing it down with warm water from the metal tap, which was a convenience afforded only to those who could maintain an underground boiler. He soon stepped away to dry his hands on a different cloth. "An ill omen from the spirits, they might claim."

Fang narrowed her eyes a bit. "Sure, the _spirits_."

" _Their_ words, Fang..." Her father reached out to ruffle Fang's hair, earning him only a slightest hint of a scowl. "I've seen stranger things branded as heresy." He glanced over at Lightning, at the distant look in her eyes. "Try and find a way to explain it to her."

Lightning glanced up when she felt a gaze hone in on herself, and she almost flinched when Fang's father gently patted the top of her head as well, even if it was merely a welcoming gesture. Those wounds _were_ just too fresh, even if they'd been inflicted before she'd gone into stasis, before those many, many years; any touch brought back the visions of such sharp talons, of people scorned, ripping down into her skin even when she brought out her own claws to fight back.

"Alright." Fang rolled her eyes when her father basically disappeared somewhere into the hallway, utterly reclusive yet again. "Now... Let's get that blood out of your hair, shall we?"

Lightning tried not to flinch when Fang reached up to touch those soft pink spikes of hair, the part that draped down near the edge of her face.

"It's alright." Fang kept her hand where it was, well within Lightning's range of vision. "I'm not going to hurt you, you hear me?"

Lightning stared up at Fang's fingertips.

"Blood." Fang tapped at the dark, dried bits of fluid. "Not a good idea to leave it on there..."

And Lightning soon found herself swept away to yet another part of the house, past the front room where Bahamut was fast asleep on his perch, through the thin halls that echoed with the sound of rain, even the occasional crack of thunder.

Fang glanced at the sudden flash of brightness on the walls, but she just kept walking further. "It'll rinse right off."

Lightning suddenly realized that Fang was holding one of her hands, guiding her on through the hallway.

"Here." Gently, Fang kicked a nearby door open with her foot, before she led Lightning inside to point at a very small bench. "Just wait a minute."

Lightning took a slow step forward, looking around at all of the shelves with such strange concoctions inside, though the room itself had an entirely pleasant scent. She could smell both wildflowers and herbs, a deep, earthy tone, and even the stray aroma of honey lingered off in the background. She took another careful step, walking towards where Fang had told her to go, before she sat down as quietly as she could.

Fang was using one of those primitive faucets again, just long, metal tubes that were likely connected to a pressurized water source, almost definitely without magical aid.

Lightning glanced down at her own two feet. There she was, invited right into a stranger's home, given food and shelter from the rain, and all she could think about was how simple their technology was..? She silently scolded herself, scowling ever so slightly.

Fang just kept rummaging through one of the cabinets, perhaps in search of medicinal aid.

Lightning took a moment to gaze at all of the bandages on her arms, before she squeezed her eyes shut. The memories kept slipping away from her mind like raindrops on the glass, but she still recalled that sudden pain, the droplets of blood that slowly floated out into the non-gravity air, round and perfect and so utterly terrible all at once. She wouldn't even shed a tear for them, no, there was simply too much pride left for that, swelling right up in her veins wherever they might be lacking.

"Here, in case it hurts." Fang pointed at the bandages on Lightning's arms, and then at a tiny bundle of herbs from her own palm, all wrapped up in what looked like edible material. "Medicine."

Lightning's feathered ears drooped slightly, but she soon accepted the offered gift, waiting for Fang to tell her what to do with it.

"Eat." Fang gestured at her own mouth and made a chewing motion. "Won't taste too great, but it'll dull the pain."

Lightning did as Fang asked, placing it against her tongue, for it surely wasn't dangerous; if these people truly intended to harm her, they already would have poisoned her meal when she wasn't looking... When had her thoughts grown so _morbid?_ When had she forgotten how to trust? Lightning silently scolded herself again, before she swallowed the little packet of herbs in a single attempt.

"Huh." Fang tried not to frown in sympathy when Lightning nearly gagged, choking upon the utterly bitter aftertaste. "That's what _this_ is for."

Lightning almost refused the next object, but when she caught wind of that sweet honey scent, she slowly reached out to examine it.

Fang pointed at her own mouth again. "Eat."

It was a tiny bar, almost like the strange little treat they'd eaten earlier; it was pale and square, and coated in a waxy, dried layer of honey. Slowly, Lightning bit down on the corner of it, and she realized that it wasn't nearly as unpalatable as it might look, for the texture wasn't really like beeswax, not at all. No, it was more like a hard jelly candy with crumbly bread inside, sweet and tasty all at the same time.

"Good, huh?" Fang picked out her own share of the treat from a small wooden box, before she stowed it back inside the cupboard. "Back when I was a kid, whenever I'd get a cold or something, have to take such awful medicine... Mom always kept these up here so I wouldn't just try to hide under the bed." She took a bite of her own honey treat, and she sat down upon the edge of a large wooden bathtub, one that also had metal plumbing as well. "It's the little things, you know?"

Lightning finished the snack rather quickly, before she slightly dipped her head down in what Fang could only assume was a show of thanks.

"No problem." Fang munched at her own honey snack. "Now, your _hair_..."

After a moment or two, Lightning found herself getting dabbed at with a warm square of cloth, dampened by water from the sink.

"Hey, don't give me that look..." Fang tapped at the edge of one of Lightning's feathery ears. "I'm supposed to be a good host, right? And a good host would make sure you're well taken care of, at least until we figure out where you're going." She chuckled when that very same ear flicked back and forth. "Cute little bugger, aren't you?"

Lightning just sat there with a bit of a scowl on her face, barely tolerating the way Fang tried to clean out every last bit of blood from her hair, even if it involved scrubbing down near the part of her head right next to the cut.

"Right... There we go." Fang soon held up the cloth to wash the blood away, rinsing it down into the sink. "Getting pretty late, isn't it?"

After a moment of silence, Lightning yawned.

"Might be good for you to get some early sleep, get some of that strength back." Fang frowned at the memory of just how hard Lightning had been panting before, so exhausted beneath the heat of the sun. "Is it weird to care this much about a stranger? I just saw how bad you got scuffed up, there, how angry you looked when I got you out of that crystal..." She squeezed the cloth out, before she hung it back up against a rack on the wall. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that."

Lightning's gaze flicked up when she caught the quiet sound in Fang's tone.

Fang stared at the round mirror on the wall, bracing her hands upon the stone surface of the sink. "I, uh... I don't have a whole lot of friends these days, except for Vanille." She glanced down at where Lightning was sitting, before she looked back at that slim reflection in the edge of the mirror, suddenly so different than before. "...You think we could maybe try to be friends?"

Talons suddenly clicked against the tile floor, so quiet against the patterned stone.

"Hell, I'm better with birds than with humans, aren't I?" Fang turned around to kneel beside the counter, and when she slowly sank down against the floor, rather exhausted from the whole day's ordeal as well, she suddenly felt a soft, light warmth moving upon her lap.

Lightning tucked her head down beside one of her wings, all curled up on herself.

Fang's mouth twitched into a tiny smile. "Sleepy, huh?" She didn't reach to touch Lightning's ears, not even when the massive falcon looked back up at her with a gentle sort of gaze, staring at the one who'd sheltered her from the storm. "We should get you to one of the spare beds."

Lightning just examined the look on Fang's face, before she lowered her feathery head to nudge at Fang's nearest hand, letting her long, fluffy ears brush against the curve of her palm.

"Not gonna flinch anymore?" Fang finally stroked at those soft white feathers, though she didn't push far enough to move beneath them. "Who hurt you, Light..?"

Lightning didn't make a sound. She simply rested there with her talons quite slack, while her sharp beak seemed more than unwilling to strike at such a friendly new acquaintance.

Fang gently began to try and lift the weight of the huge falcon, though Lightning refused to be carried, for she simply stepped back down to the floor so she could turn back, to reform within a subtle glimmer of light. And then, she merely sat there, rather the same size within a human form, slim and swift, yet still so drained all the same. Lightning's eyes had such dusky shadows beneath them, and she couldn't quite stop her eyelids from drooping anymore.

"It's bedtime for you, missy..." Fang stood up again, gesturing for Lightning to follow. "We'll figure this out later on." She picked up a small candle from a table outside of the bathroom, and she carried it on down the hall.

Lightning tried to stifle yet another yawn, all while she trailed on after Fang, but when she soon found herself staring out at a mostly empty room, one that was only lit by the light of the glimmering candle, it was all she could do just to keep herself upright.

"Here, it's not too dusty." Fang stepped over to pat at the pillow of the bed. "Get some rest, alright?"

Yet Lightning hesitated, even then, not until Fang slowly moved to sit down on a nearby armchair, still carrying the metal base of the candlestick.

Only then, when Fang relaxed and closed her eyes a bit, only then did Lightning venture towards the soft, fuzzy blankets, those sheets that smelled so much like dried flowers, gently pushing them away to tuck herself in.

"You'll be okay here, right?" Fang listened to a sharp echo of thunder, and she watched the sudden flash of brightness on the windowpane. "Just come and find me if you need anything."

Lightning stared at Fang, gazing out from where she'd crept down beneath the sheets, curled up and almost dozing off already, before she suddenly spoke something, just a soft, almost silent sound, one that lingered upon the edge of her tongue. "Fang." She breathed in, held that breath, and then exhaled it in a whisper. "...Safe."

"Yeah." Fang slowly rose up from the chair, and she carried the little candle towards the doorway, standing there in silence for a while. "You're safe, Lightning... We won't let anything hurt you." She gently leaned back against the doorframe. "You, me, Vanille and dad, we'll all figure this out."

Lightning's gaze, that sharp blue color, it shone when the next flash hit them, so very bright and piercing, even in the dark.

"Rest up, feathers..." Fang smiled in a soft, gentle way, waiting until Lightning's eyes had finally slipped shut. "See you in the morning."

* * *

The storm kept on outside the house.

Fang slumbered within her own room, deep beneath her own soft layers of sheets. She'd fallen asleep against the edge of a book that had once belonged to her mother, which would likely leave a red mark upon her cheek by the time she woke up. But on such a warm, lazy summer morning, even with the rain, there was very little that could get her out of bed besides a true emergency, or perhaps the scent of bacon.

But before the sun even had fully risen, just a hint of yellow light upon the cloudy horizon, she heard a sound. Not any ordinary sound, like the gentle rain that still pattered down, or even the distant thunder that had since grown rather calm, no, it was something much softer, a higher pitch, yet it somehow didn't sound out of place at all.

Fang's eyelids twitched, yet she still didn't yet wake for a long, drowsy while, not until it suddenly grew louder.

A longer note, testing the boundaries placed upon it, the limit that it could achieve, before it finally grew loud enough to rouse Fang from sleep.

Muffled mumbles, muttering, and the bed creaked with a sudden shift in weight. After a moment, Fang sat somewhat upright, ears perked, even if her eyes were still halfway shut.

The sound paused, just a moment, then a quick readjustment, before it kept on.

Fang slowly narrowed her eyes.

With a hunter's grace, silent feet and a swift pace, searching the house for whatever might be making such wonderful sounds. Her ears were keen enough to seek it, to find it there, right within a place she'd been standing in just the night before, one that had a door propped open slightly, just in case her guest might need her.

But there she was, sitting upon the floor beside the bed with an elegant object in her hands, one that Fang knew must have been resting up there on a shelf for years by that point. Lightning kept the bow so perfectly steady; the strings were still taut and primed, as if their previous wielder had never even left them, still ready to perform once again.

Then that music came once more, the gentle song within the sound of a storm, for Lightning had her eyes shut while she played, testing the strange new instrument that was somehow so much alike to one she'd owned back home, only it was made of curved, hollow wood instead of metal.

The notes echoed inside Fang's head, so far above the rain, above the long peals of thunder, above the sound of her own thoughts, consuming her entire mind into a haze of sharp strings and gentle plucking that all blended in to make such a strong, solid sound.

There was no pity, no sorrow to the tune, no regret, only that long, boundless drive of sheer determination, all up until Lightning realized that she was being watched.

Fang tried to smile from where she was standing beneath the doorway. "Good morning, feathers."

Lightning had the instrument, one that almost resembled a fiddle, called a rebec; she had it propped up against herself, with a unmoving bow held steadily between her fingertips.

"You don't have to stop." Fang sat down as well, slowly leaning back against the doorframe. "It's okay, Light... You can play it as much as you want."

Lightning blinked once, before she carefully set the instrument down upon her lap.

"They've got music where you're from, don't they? They'd have to, if you're that good..." Fang stared deep into the early morning light, and even if it was still so clouded up with all of that constant, drumming rain, she could still see the pale glow of the sun, how it danced against that soft pink hair. "It's alright, you can keep playing."

At the gentle tone of Fang's voice, Lightning lifted the rebec again, before the world was soon taken back into the realm of sound.

Fang closed her eyes. She could almost feel each of the little twinges and creaks of the strings, the gentle breath at Lightning's mouth, keeping time with each swift stroke of the bow, within the deep, steady song that could aid the march of an army just as well as a brief summer storm.

 _An army?_ Fang's eyes began to drift open again. Why did the tune sound so much like one of those old traditional songs, the ballad of a mere foot solider within a great war? It seemed as if it was just a single figure within a sea of _thousands_ , yet it was always alone, carrying on and on, all up until the gentle voice of the violin died down, lost in the shadows yet again, just as silent as the world beyond the rain.

And then, the last trick of it all, a second hand, tapping, thrumming upon the hollow wood, just to shock the life right back into the music, the voice that had once grown so weary.

Fang stared at the bandaged wounds on Lightning's face, upon all her arms and legs, and she felt her heartstrings fray just as deeply as the low, steady song.

* * *

The ocean waves sounded off beneath the gentle snowfall. A thin bit of sunlight peered in through the clouds, but it was just as patchy as a woven quilt, only allowing a ray or two to touch the earth below.

Fang woke in a cold sweat yet again, quite breathless, suddenly reeling from a memory so strong, so _vibrant_ within her mind.

And again, she felt the burning urge to check Lightning for new wounds, for more injuries than the healed cut on her arm, or even the light bruises upon the back of her head. It was enough to make Fang jolt upright from where she'd been resting, gazing down at that soft, slumbering form, almost oblivious to the worlds beyond their own.

"Light." Fang inhaled, before her throat almost let out a deep whine, and she tried as hard as she possibly could to make that sharp sense of worry just fade away. "It's good... She's good-" Clutching at the pulse of her own heart, the beat of a living drum, Fang slowly leaned down to press her forehead against Lightning's hair. "You're safe."

Lightning just kept sleeping, but her nose twitched slightly, gently tickled by a lock of Fang's long hair.

"You're safe, no cuts... No flinching." Fang felt that primal force again, the inner urge to just sweep Lightning up into her arms and snarl at whatever might try to harm her, for she _couldn't_ lose her, not so soon, not _anytime_ , not until something finally bested them both. "...You're safe, Light."

The sunlight broke through the cloud cover for a just a moment or two, before it suddenly flickered away again, hidden back beneath the dark.

Fang rose up to her knees, feeling the chill breeze in her hair, on her face, on the eyes that stared out at the island, at the memory of a slim, feathered form, the woman who haunted her dreams. "Why..?"

But there was no answer on the wind, nor in the crashing of the waves, or even the grass upon the earth, whispering as it was.

"Why?" Fang reached up to clutch at her own head for a moment, as if that would somehow let the answer spill forth like water, just to trickle down between her fingertips. "Why _this_ one? Why so vivid?"

And yet, there was no answer.

A snarl, so silent on her lips, curled and primed, a dragon within human flesh. " _Why?_ " She knew the answer would never simply appear, that the gods wouldn't take pity on her, not then of all times, not when she had finally gained more than just a scrap of hope to get by on. Not when had someone there of her own heart, her chosen companion, her _love..._ And yet Fang craved for the truth of the matter, for why she was dreaming of such things.

Her shoulders stiffened at a high sound on the wind, a mere sparrow in the grass, warbling away into the morning light. Teeth, sharp teeth, sharper than any human's, Fang nearly chuckled at the sudden shift, the change in her physical form that only ever occurred when the lines truly blurred, when the dragon took far greater hold.

It was a beast who knelt above the maiden, guarding the slumbering hunter, the one she'd almost slain. Those wild ones, such a pair, a dragon and her unlikely partner.

Eyes with narrow pupils, fingernails that curled out into claws, but she knew it was not time, not the place to breathe out her fire in frustration, even if it couldn't quite harm the one she loved. She forced those eyes to slip shut again, called the talons back into herself, into her soul, back into that raw fire, formless and tame.

Fang slowly leaned away, before she accidentally bumped into Lightning's backpack. Human eyes glanced down at the pale leather pack, likely made of the same wolf hide as that sturdy coat.

Yet it wasn't curiosity that drove her through that morning, even while it still burned so brightly. No, she simply held onto the slim, wooden instrument, carrying it out towards the sea.

Fang stood at the very edge of the water, and she could feel the cold, foamy waves as they lapped against her feet. She looked down at the image of a narrow horse, circling all around the width of the flute, over and under the little holes in the wood, which had been painted in the color of pure, whirling air.

Beneath the warmth of the blankets, Lightning woke to a sound, but it was no ordinary sound.

The breeze played and spun within the thin patches of sunlight, blustering all across the driftwood and the sand, past the steady, traveling feet that drew nearer and nearer towards the shore, down to the woman who sat and played that song, a soldier's song, a wanderer's song, a _dragon's_ song, nearly lost to the whims of the wind.

Lightning paused, standing silently. She held the long, patterned blanket, those flowers all around her, of orchids and small daisies, the soft thistles and peonies, then a lone lotus and all of the lilies woven around it, even the sharp thorns of pale, thorny roses, guarding the entire garden from outside harm.

Fang's eyes were shut, but her ears perked at the soft sound of fabric upon the sand, of a body leaning there, right beside her own, resting so gently against her shoulder.

"Fang." Lightning's voice was still very soft from sleep. "Why do I know that song?"

The last few notes trailed off into the wind, out over the waves, the white crests of water and brine, before Fang slowly set the flute down upon her lap. "Why do you know my voice?"

Lightning yawned almost silently. "Don't be a smartass."

Fang smiled, both crooked and calm. "Because it's _ours_."

"Ours?" Lightning closed her eyes for a moment, and she leaned further, resting herself against Fang's arm. "I don't remember ever having a song."

"You might." Fang turned the little flute over in her hands, and she looked down at the winged helm near the mouthpiece, far above the horse's head. "You might remember... It just takes time."

Lightning nodded with a rather drowsy look on her face, and it was still there in her eyes when she opened them again, gazing out into the sunlight. "I had a weird dream last night."

Fang moved to lean against Lightning's body as well, hair against hair, mind against mind. "Yeah?"

Lightning smiled at the change in warmth. "There was... At least, I _think_ it was a dragon."

Fang's small grin almost faltered. "Anyone you know?"

Lightning shook her head, just enough not to jostle them both. "No, and it wasn't really like any dragon I've ever met."

Fang glanced down at the sand. "What do you mean?"

"It was... It had metal instead of scales." Lightning narrowed her eyes ever so slightly, trying her best to recall. "It was twisted up on itself, all different parts, and almost... Grotesque, but it didn't really _see_ it, I just knew it was there, even when I was walking around."

"Walking around?" Fang slowly leaned away, before she turned to face Lightning directly. " _Details_ , Light; try and tell me exactly what this place looked like."

Lightning kept very quiet for a moment. "...Why are you acting like this?" She reached for Fang's hand before she could even reply, feeling the inner pulse that suddenly raced like wildfire. "Fang, it was just-"

" _Lightning_." Fang's voice rang with such fire, a steel of her own, yet it was only just enough to catch her full attention. "You've never... You've never actually _seen_ a fal'Cie, have you?"

In the pale light of the morning skies, within the salty wind of the sea, Lightning's eyes suddenly went very, very wide.

* * *

"So... It was a garden?"

Lightning tried not to scowl at her own lack of memory. She had her winter coat back on, though she kept her gloves off to more easily slice the russet potato in her hands, adding it to the pile of chopped up sections. "Yes, it looked like a public garden, fountains and benches... The whole place seemed right out of a storybook."

Fang leaned back against the blankets, deep within her own thoughts. "What did the rest of it look like?"

Lightning picked up another potato, and she started to slice it up as well. "Depressing, actually."

Fang's breath went very shallow. "...How so?"

"Well, it wasn't just a dump, you know... Very stately, and there were these beautiful old buildings and stone canals." Lightning looked down at where she'd set down another dish of butter near the fire to melt, right next to where she'd boiled up the lake water to kill off any bacteria. "But it almost felt like everything there had been dipped in gray, hardly any sun, always a lot of clouds."

Fang snorted to herself. "Yeah, 'divine city of light'..." She leaned forward again, moving in to help with the potatoes. "Yeah, maybe next time don't build it over a _rain_ forest, not if you don't want constant rain."

The edge of Lightning's knife paused in the middle of a potato. "You know this place?"

Fang nodded. "Yup, and I think that _you_ , Light, you just had your first vision of the future... _Possible_ future, of course, nothing's ever set in stone." She sliced up one of potatoes rather swiftly, though she was careful to make each piece turn out around the same size. "Luxerion, city of the gods."

After a long moment of silence, Lightning returned to the task at hand. "I must've been mistaken... There's no way a fal'Cie could be inside a city like that."

"Yeah, it's always possible." Fang inched a bit closer to where Lightning was sitting. "Visions like these, they're sometimes full of stuff you'll _never_ see, stuff that just doesn't ever happen... But sometimes-"

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the potato in her grasp. "Fal'Cie make things, _living_ things into l'Cie, so if there really was one hiding inside a major city like this, you think that anyone would stick around?" She shook her head at the thought. "It was a _dream_ , Fang... Just a dream."

"I'm not saying it wasn't." Fang reached over to pat Lightning's shoulder, trying to ease away that rigid tension. "It does sound unlikely, but just because it _felt_ like there was a fal'Cie around... It could've been miles away, and still felt close in a dream."

Lightning's arms went slightly slack, before she slowly began to cut up the last potato. "I just wish it didn't feel so real."

Fang's mind swept back to the sight of pale white feathers, to the woman on the plains, and to all of those bleeding cuts upon her skin, so swollen and red. "...I know the feeling."

Lightning picked up a small piece of garlic, one that she'd taken out from the supplies in Fang's satchel. "There was a cathedral outside the garden."

"Oh?" Fang looked down at the campfire, at the long strips of leftover venison that were sizzling upon the griddle. "What did it look like?"

"A cathedral." Lightning rolled her eyes, swiftly chopping up the garlic. "I don't know, tall and stony? It was a dream, Fang, I didn't get a very good look."

"No need to get snippy with me." Fang smiled a little, and she picked up one of the small onions that was resting near the chopped potatoes. "But from what you've described, it really does sound like Luxerion."

Lightning picked up the bits of potato to drop them down against the surface of the skillet, before she sprinkled the diced garlic in, waiting for Fang to finish with the onions.

"Well, you'll see it soon enough." Fang chopped up the onions in almost the same way that Lightning had sliced the garlic, rather fast and precise, though the narrow chunks were almost just as long as the potato pieces. "We should probably get some shopping done there, restock some of the stuff we've used."

Lightning held out the skillet for Fang to put the onions in.

"You okay, Light..?" Fang tried to catch her gaze, but Lightning only started to pour in a bit of olive oil against the pan, along with the melted butter and a pinch of salt, and then even some of the more unusual spices that they'd never used before. "Light?"

Lightning picked up a wooden spoon to stir it all together. "I'm fine."

"That tone doesn't say 'fine'..." Fang kept her distance for a while, but she still kept searching Lightning's gaze, just to lock back with those eyes again. "Tell me what's wrong?"

Lightning began to cover up the pan with the glass lid, before she pushed it all down beneath the griddle, among the pale white embers, which would bake all of the contents within such a sweltering heat. "It's not important."

Fang kept quiet for a long moment, listening to those thin red strips of venison crackle and hiss, before Lightning moved to turn them over with a different utensil.

The sun had risen far up above the sea, shining out through the clouds and a rather thin flurry of snow. And Fang just sat there with the warmth on her shoulders, the heat of the sun, watching the way that Lightning picked up a strip of meat from the fire to glaze it within a shallow bowl, coating it in some sort of spice and liquid marinade, before she set each piece down upon a clear plate, just to rest the flavor for a while.

"Hey, love." Fang kept her voice very soft. "Come here for a moment?"

Lightning stared out with that thick layer of frost, the sharp ice in her eyes, just to hide away the fragile light, bracing the solid shield before such fear.

Fang whispered into the wind. "Please."

It was very gradual, just a bit of movement and slight leaning, and within the time that it took for the potatoes to start changing into a rich, golden brown, Lightning found herself near Fang's lap again, gazing down at the campfire.

From right beside her, Fang's gentle voice rumbled at her ear. "Now, what's got you so spooked?"

Lightning stared deep into the flames, into the warmth of the swiftly flickering glow. "Nothing." That memory of a distant dream, of red leaves, a season of brilliance and death, the final hour before the dull, numbing cold, when a lone figure would suddenly collapse against the earth, taken back into the darkness once again, it all flashed so brightly within her mind. "Nothing, not just yet."

"Funny." Fang leaned in even further to whisper against her cheek. "It's also funny just how often you forget to hide your thoughts..."

Lightning hissed, though the sound was quickly stifled by a sudden shiver and a great, encompassing warmth, feeling the sharp kiss of those teeth, so gentle upon her skin, the way Fang's mind suddenly took hold of the entire world around them, branching right out from where one of her hands held on so tightly to that pale, ungloved wrist.

 _You're not gonna die. I won't let it happen._

Lightning's eyes fell shut almost against her own will; she swore that she was back within those strong, solid claws again, the talons that kept safe her from the shadows below, holding her just as gently as they could.

 _I told you, you don't have to lie to me... I already understand. You hear me, Light?_

Lightning saw that face again, saw those eyes in the dark, sharp and verdant green, the black scales that kept then both so very warm. ... _I hear you._

Fang slowly began to relax. Lightning could feel it, back their own world, the way her breath gradually went so slow again, how her inner fire started to wane just slightly, not quite as ravenous as before, and then, the world grew steadily bright.

Lightning blinked against the sudden sun, and she slowly reached over to hold Fang's hand. "It's just a basic fear, Fang... I don't think anyone can face death without it."

"Yeah, but you aren't _facing_ it." Fang tried to stifle a somewhat low, almost contented growl, but Lightning had the feeling that her temper was still high, ruffled by the mere subject of loss. "Light, you're... You're _alive_ , you're healing, and I won't let anything hurt you."

Lightning looked down at the sleeve of her coat, imagining the long cut from a talon that hadn't quite scarred, yet she could still remember it, all the same.

"We're together, and that means we're a team." Fang squeezed at Lightning's hand, and with the touch, she could see right into that mind, a mind that didn't always hide behind those thorns, an _honest_ mind, so sharp and utterly blunt at the very same time. "And that _team_ , those partners... They don't just let the other one down."

Lightning felt her mouth twitch slightly, just a small hint of how bright such words made her feel.

"You aren't gonna die, and I'm not, either..." Fang pressed another soft, gentle kiss against her cheek. "Because I've got you."

Lightning's heart kept beating so steadily, and she felt Fang's warm pulse at her hands, that second voice, the nurturing sound, the other life that brought her up to such heights, such places she'd never been before, that she had never known existed. She might have just been content to rest there, gently leaning against Fang's forehead, but the scent of breakfast slowly drew her back to the present, in order to not let it overcook.

She moved to the side, reaching for the strips of venison that smelled so different in the glaze, before she used a cloth rag to pull the skillet out from beneath the griddle, lifting the glass cover to drop the meat inside.

And Fang watched. She watched the way hat Lightning spread out a bit of oil on the griddle again, and then cracked an egg against the edge of it, dropping the thick liquid down against the great heat. "Can I try one?" Fang moved over towards the fire, back at Lightning's side. "If I mess it up-"

Lightning suddenly took Fang's hand in her own, gently placing one of the eggs between her fingertips. "Move with me."

Fang smiled, and she nodded.

It was just as simple as reading the way that Lightning walked, or ran, or even swung her sword down against a target, just a single flick of her wrist against the curved, solid surface, and the egg cracked down along the side, fractured almost perfectly in half.

Fang stared at how Lightning moved in closer to show her how to split it, to quickly pinch at the sides and pull them apart, letting the pale liquid and the yellow yolk drop down against the griddle, cooking away within the fiery heat.

"Now try one on your own." Lightning took her hand away from Fang's wrist. "Same as before."

Fang felt a small swell of confidence, for it was far easier than it first looked, after all. She swung another egg against the cooler part of the griddle again, tugging the shell apart with her fingertips.

"Good, keep practicing." Lightning began to use the tines of a spare fork to pick out the tiny bits of egg shell from the newest one, because even though it was a very good try, Fang's technique just wasn't quite perfect yet. "One or two more, though... Don't want to drown it in eggs."

Fang cracked another egg, one that held less of those small fractures than the previous attempt, more of a single split down the center. "These are going separate from the potatoes, right?"

Lightning's mouth just quirked again, not quite a smile, at least for most anyone else, but that glint of amusement in her eyes, Fang knew it well.

"They go... _With_ the potatoes?" Fang broke apart one last egg, and she let it drop right down against the griddle. "Next to the potatoes? Help me out, here."

"You'll see." Lightning leaned down to check the various contents of the skillet, before she slowly moved back again. "Potato hash can include a lot of things... If we had some bacon, or even cured pork-"

" _Light_." Fang's voice almost sounded on the verge of pain, though just barely. "You're going to make me faint on the spot with that sort of talk."

"You like bacon, do you?" Lightning looked over at where the juice of the venison glaze was trickling down over the potatoes, letting the rich flavor seep inside. "It's a little expensive back home."

Fang grumbled a bit. "Can't put a price on perfection..."

"How about pork chops?" Lightning pulled the skillet back, and when she lifted the cover up, the steam spilled out into the air. "A couple of chops in the oven, apple glaze, mashed potatoes..."

"You're trying to _kidnap_ me." Fang leaned against Lightning's shoulder again, so lazy and warm, closing her eyes for only a moment. "You just want to lure me back to your place with the promise of food like that-"

"And why not?" Lightning poked at one of the eggs with a spatula. "I'll give you a job there... You can do chores, help out with things, and in return, we can eat whatever the hell we want." She waited a moment or two, before she sprinkled a tiny bit of salt and pepper upon each of the steadily cooking eggs. "Back there, you said it was 'our' song." Lightning closed her eyes for just a brief moment. "So it can be... _Our_ home, too."

"Home." Fang smiled when Lightning began to push some of the potato hash down onto a plate, before she lifted a few of the cooked eggs to put on top. "Never had much of a home in this life, not a permanent one."

Lightning dished up another filled plate, setting the bright white eggs down over the colorful mix of food, even when she swore that her ears were ringing with her own implication, a promise for the two of them, for _Fang_. The feeling swelled, almost like a harsh, flooding river, as if only to sweep her away in the rushing tide. But then Fang, like she always was, such a warm, steady force to grab onto, the mighty island out at sea, those talons in the dark, the deadly teeth, always ready to smite their enemies. And then, the fire, it was always there too, so very bright and steady, even if it sometimes seemed to wane.

As soon as she managed to drag herself out of her own thoughts, Lightning bit down on rather a lovey piece of breakfast, and she realized that she might never have to eat alone again, to endure the guarantee of silence; even if they usually ate so quietly, it was more than enough, more than she'd ever need. And if she was to be perfectly honest with herself, it shook her right down to the core, unleashing that very same storm inside, even if her face didn't move at all, kept so calm, always so still and solid.

But she knew that Fang knew. She knew very well of that same fear, of the primal things that always lurked there within the shadows, deep within the past.

"Light, you've outdone yourself, here..." Fang's voice drifted above the scents of vegetables and eggs, of the creature who'd faced that same darkness, an animal who'd once walked beneath the trees, the one to grant them a final gift of life and energy, if only for just another day. "Now I'll really have to dish out for some bacon, won't I?"

Lightning tried to draw herself away from her thoughts again, nodding at her own plate. "If you want to."

And Fang knew, she knew of the way those dark things could crawl right beneath her skin and linger there, the guilt of taking something, _anything_ away, whether it was an unexpected gift, or a whole other life, the subject didn't matter. It was when Lightning truly felt those doubts, the deep part of herself that she'd once tried so hard to extinguish and remove, whenever it grew back again to such great degrees, that was when no amount of logic mattered anymore.

Fang knew that it was when Lightning wasn't sure if it all even mattered enough just to take another step, to wake up for yet another day and move on, to face such things again when nearly all of her daily life had grown so very calm, so much that she just didn't _know_ , couldn't be sure that anyone truly needed her anymore, and only then did the doubt truly take root so deep within.

Those bitter weeds were choking her. They were stealing the life away from the parts of Lightning that truly mattered, and the thought of it, it simply made Fang's blood boil. But she still couldn't burn away the doubt, couldn't bite it and make it bleed, couldn't rip those things out from Lightning's soul and heal her back again, to nurture the grove that was so ingrained against her thoughts, deep within the garden of her mind.

So Fang did the only thing she could do.

"Fang?" Lightning's arm almost seemed to hover between them, held gently, yet so firm within Fang's grasp. "What are you doing?"

Even if it would hurt, even if it burned, Fang would let her see it, let her witness just how much she was needed.

Lightning's eyes suddenly went so blank, and the fork in her fingertips clattered down against her plate, swept off into the distance as she was stolen away, brought to another world, a world where she'd once been lain down upon the dust, bleeding beneath the utter light of a massive tower.

Someone shouted in a language she'd never heard, dragging at both of her arms, tugging her away from the bright, gathering beam.

" _Lightning!_ "

She felt her jaw go slack, felt the blood on her tongue, so _warm_ , and she knew it was her own.

The world went utterly white, then, it bloomed without sound, even though her ears were ringing.

"Lightning..."

She felt fingertips on her cheek. How long had she slept? How long had it been since her whole world had been scorched away, since her family had been lost?

She wanted to open her eyes, but even the act of thinking that made her whole body sting, and it made the voice at her side go very quiet again.

"Light."

She could hear the steady rain outside, and she felt the chill of it on her skin. When she finally forced opened her eyes, she could see the one who was checking the wooden splint upon her leg, gently touching around the new wounds.

 _Fang_ , a different Fang, one with a fur jacket slung across her shoulders and a strange weapon at her hip.

Slowly, Lightning looked down at her own limbs, at the bone that she somehow knew had only just started to heal.

"Light-" Fang paused, before she turned around to rummage through a small pile of supplies, for a little book with rather worn pages. She leafed through the index, past the middle, but it was a very long time before she spoke again. "Weather..." She said something in the other language, something that sounded like a curse. "Bad rain, low water."

Lightning almost choked on the thick scent of dust. "Low... Water?"

Fang held up a metal canteen. "Rain." She pointed at the broad, hazy greens of a forest, at the clear rain that fell upon the leaves, before she turned to find another translation from the book. "Toxic."

Lightning closed her eyes again, and the voice that suddenly left her lips, it was from the one who'd truly lived there before, had been so lost within that past life, fully aware of how little they had left to turn to. "Then we're done."

Fang narrowed her eyes at Lightning's tone. "No."

"Finished." Lightning still felt the steady pain in her leg, she felt as it sweltered and jolted down within her muscle tissue, almost as if it was killing away all of her other nerves. "We're _done_." She didn't move when Fang grabbed the collar of her jacket, didn't react when those eyes, that fire in her gaze, when it suddenly bore down into her own.

"No." Fang stared at those hollow blue eyes, the spirit stolen away by a sharp loss, by the sudden beam of a monolith. "Not yet."

And it was only much later, out within a field of tall, golden wheat, carried there in Fang's arms, even though she'd protested almost the entire way through the woods, only then did Lightning start to feel again.

There were so many bright wildflowers off in the distance, and a wide plume of smoke rose up from where a village once stood. She could feel the steady sound of Fang's heartbeat with each step she took.

"Not toxic..." Fang tried to remember the right phrases. "It's better here."

"Out of range?" Lightning's voice was rather soft, but it almost seemed to crack with each word. "...Where are we _going_ , Fang?" She stared down at her pale broken leg. "There's nowhere else... It'll always find us."

Fang just kept marching on, holding onto Lightning's waist and back just a bit tighter than before. "Somewhere."

Lightning bit back a low snarl. "Nowhere."

But Fang ignored her. She still walked onward, through the long, narrow path that led down between the crumbled buildings, the splintered wood that already held host to a wide amount of fungal growth, some of which could have even been edible.

"Fang..." Lightning tried to stifle the fact that she hadn't eaten anything in at least three days. "Look."

Fang merely glanced at the mushrooms, and she shook her head at the sight of them. "Poison."

So Lightning simply closed her eyes again, waiting for either the heat of the sun, the hollow feeling in her stomach, or even the loss of blood to just take her, to let her finally leave such a place and find Serah again, to search for her in wherever lost souls go.

But when she woke up again, not yet dead, only far more drowsy than she'd ever felt before, and when Fang suddenly held up a rabbit with a lone arrow through its neck, Lightning knew that it would be some time yet before she could leave.

 _There's no giving up, Light... Not even when it looks like there's no other option._

Lightning's voice, the part of her that was still back in her own world, viewing it through Fang's mind, she felt herself prickle with a retort. _Even if I was already dying?_

 _But you weren't._ Fang's inner voice almost sounded amused, though rather weary in a way. _Yeah, your leg was pretty busted up for a while, but it wasn't enough to kill you._

The world drifted on towards an old ruin by the sea, one that stood far out of the range of those massive, watchful things, the roaming towers of unknown origin. Fang was kneeling down beside a pile of leaves, helping her companion to finally stand up again, still wobbly upon that one leg.

 _Almost anything can heal._ Fang's presence grew even stronger, so much closer to Lightning's point of view. _You just have to help it along._

The other Fang, the young woman who stood there on the sand, she suddenly laughed when Lightning took a single step of her own, a firm, steady step. "It really _is_ getting better..."

Lightning snorted quietly. "So is your grammar."

Fang gave her a wry sort of smirk. "Oh? Then let's see you learn _my_ language."

"I don't think so..." Lightning took another small, shaky step, still being held up with Fang's help, with those long, strong arms that gripped beneath her own. "You're the one who insisted in the first place."

Fang's eyes almost seemed to flicker, wandering back to the time when she'd been searching through a recently lost city, careful to only take supplies that had been stored beneath metal or hard packaging, for anything else would surely still be coated in toxin. She remembered the time when she'd been munching away at a tin of cookies, salvaged from a ransacked building, when she'd suddenly caught sight of a broken limb, one that was pinned down beneath a beam of steel... And then the silent, watchful eyes that stared back at her from within the dark.

"I thought you might lose the foot, honestly..." Fang almost smiled when Lightning's toes twitched in disagreement. "You were hurt; I had to get you out of there."

Lightning closed her eyes for a moment. "I was ready to stay... To _leave_."

Fang paused, gripping her arms just a bit tighter than before. "You were ready to die."

Lightning shrugged. "At least you aren't calling it 'giving up' anymore."

Fang looked away. Her mind swept back to the moment when Lightning lashed out one night, finally fed up with being prodded on to just keep traveling, not to give in; she'd called at the top of her lungs, shouting that she'd lost _everything_ in that attack, the sudden beam of energy that had tainted the air, the ground, it killed almost everyone upon contact... All but the fraction of lives who survived.

Fang earned the only injury Lightning would ever give her, at least in that life, that sudden sharp sting in her jaw when she finally struck, finally snapped at such a blind assumption, a boundary far overstepped.

 _It was all just a mistake..._ Her past life had snarled it so low, at the very bottom of her voice, glaring down at the wooden splint on her leg. _I should have gone with them all, died with her._

Fang left her for a brief while, likely to just let her companion cool down, to sleep off the sheer amount of rage in her body. And when the morning light drifted into the cave that they'd been using as shelter, she finally returned. Her words were still simple, untrained in the language she was trying to use, but her meaning came out loud and clear.

She'd lost someone, too.

And then, so many months later, Lightning finally walked again, careful to step gently against the ground. "...There just wasn't anything left to live for."

Fang looked away again, but when she felt Lightning's gaze upon her eyes, she slowly turned back to face her.

"Wasn't." Lightning felt the coarse sand beneath her feet, felt the silent wind in her hair, felt the way Fang's hands were still holding her upright. "There _wasn't_ anything, but now... You're my friend, Fang."

Fang's heart twinged at the sound of it.

 _I'll live for you._

They soon sat beneath the shelter of a low, seaside cave, just listening to the rain. Fang rested her head on Lightning's shoulder, and when a low peal of thunder sounded throughout the earth, she slowly opened her eyes.

Lightning stared out at the deep black sea, and at the sudden flash of white on the far horizon. It was the power she loved enough to take for her very own name, just yet another reason to live on.

It began as a hum, a tiny little thing in the back of Fang's throat, just something to pass the time. And yet it grew, like a small fleck within the deep soil, a seedling that suddenly felt the touch of rain, and it soon changed, growing into an actual tune, enough that she lifted her head up to sing it.

Lightning listened for a long while, just waiting the night away, but when another flash suddenly lit up the entire horizon, she began to join in as well.

The rain pattered down against the sand, and within a brief moment of light and utter clarity, it was gone.

She was back again, sitting there beneath a more familiar sky, upon the sand of an island beach. Lightning paused, and she looked down at where Fang's hand had been holding her wrist just a moment ago.

"There's a whole lot in this world..." Fang took another bite of her breakfast, which was still very warm upon the plate. "A whole lot to live for, even if you can't always see it." She finished chewing on a small strip of venison before she spoke. "And you're needed, Light... We _need_ you, like always."

Lightning glanced down at her own meal, and she slowly picked up her fork again.

"I don't blame you for your doubts." Fang almost swore that she could feel the earth rotating beneath them, that she could feel the light of a different sky again. "Hell, I could start a whole collection of my own-"

"I'm not giving into it, Fang." Lightning nearly thought that she could hear the rain again, or feel the pain of a broken limb. "Sometimes it just... Builds up, that's all."

"I know." Fang closed her eyes, but when she opened them again, there was no toxic haze in the air, one that she was somehow quite resistant to, no beams of energy flaring out through the sky, no pressing reason for them to keep running, all except for the troubles of their own world. Yet it was a far kinder world, at least in retrospect, a world that had gone so very long without the true taste of war. "...And I'll be here. I'll help you through it."

Lightning's mouth twitched, a genuine smile, warm, safe and pleasant. "I know you will."

* * *

The waves rolled on into the early noon. Far above the ocean surface, deep within the low mist that hung like a veil of silk, Fang only had to flap her wings occasionally to keep gliding against the breeze.

Lightning stared down at the sea. How far away had they flown since packing up yet again? She glanced back over her own shoulder, past the spiny frill on Fang's back and the curve of her tail, which was slowly drifting along in the wind, but Lightning couldn't see any hint of the island they had just visited.

Fang flapped her wings again, soaring higher and higher upon a gust of warm air, though the chill never left her, still thick within the wind.

Lightning slipped down into her normal routine of daydreaming, and then of thinking of nothing at all, or even the occasional nap against the curve of Fang's lower neck, even if doing so left a soft imprint of scales upon her cheek. But as the day went on and on, and while they flew further and further across the sea, simple activities like counting clouds or the distant ice floes, it took up most of Lightning's time.

Fang was rather silent, for Lightning had pulled her gloves on because of the cold, and it still seemed that their physical connection just couldn't reach through such a thick hide. But the lack of speech, out loud or otherwise, it granted them more than enough time to recuperate from the more stressful types of social interaction, or even the depths of the bond they'd shared the previous night. It was a time when both the mind and body could rest, and then later on, once Fang's wings were tired again, her thoughts would have since gathered themselves back up to a much better degree.

Lightning yawned softly, gazing down at where she gripped Fang's satchel strap. The breeze was rushing over her clothes, though the thin fabric mask that kept her mouth and nose free from stray snowflakes, while her hood kept the frost out from her hair, just as long as it wasn't blown back in the wind.

And in that moment, when her mind was floating in an utterly blank state, for just a mere instant, Lightning saw the pale light upon her palm again. If it had been any other moment, when she was thinking about more than nothing at all, perhaps she might've felt a bit of a shock at the sight, yet as it was, a sense of quiet curiosity crept out into her mind instead. She found herself wondering why it looked so solid and rectangular, almost like a few sheets of paper that rustled in the wind, but it was a very long moment before she truly recognized it.

That _clever_ tree, had it ever even intended for her to take the objects from that hidden stash? Or had it simply held far greater plans, the inkling to teach her even more, even from such a great distance? She looked down at the fluttering image of light, at the outline of words she couldn't understand, couldn't read, but then, she slowly felt her vision grow dark.

There was a figure sitting in the corner of her gaze, someone scrawling with a tip of a quill, jotting down notes upon the pages of a nearly blank notepad. But when Lightning turned to face the desk that the person sat beside, she realized just how long ago it must have been. Candlelight danced against the walls, and the old king just kept writing down the ingredients to something unknown to her, punctuated every so often by a deep, heavy cough, which he was polite enough not to direct at the paper.

But what sort of ruler could he be? Lightning moved forward, unseen, wandering along in the place beyond sight, beyond her own body, where her presence was less than a mere breath on the wind, a whisper lost within the shadows. Was this strange man, was he one of the ancient emperors of such grand cities, fated to be utterly lost?

He coughed yet again, almost doubling over upon himself, and Lightning realized that the old king was as thin as a man half his age, and just as withered as a plucked flower, left to die beyond the earth. His robe looked far thicker than his own limbs, a coat of rare furs and colored hues, with a grand crown atop his head, golden and utterly encrusted with gemstones.

And yet, he clutched at the notes, the parchment of so little worth, ignoring the rest of his lavish quarters. He gazed down at the list of components as if they were all that had ever existed, all that could ever be.

Lightning felt as the vision began to shift, and she felt herself slip briefly back towards her own body, which was luckily still seated on Fang's back, not toppling down into the sea somewhere.

And then there was a handshake, and a man in a bright green tunic, an adventurer out to collect the requested items on the pages, even if they were quite rare indeed.

She watched as a mighty ship sailed out across the sea, and she listened to the wooden gangplank creak down to meet a different shore, saw the man in bright green venture out into the deep, tropical wilds, returning with the severed head of what looked like a massive, serpentine creature.

Then the crew sailed on, and the next harbor they docked upon was in a much grander place, a city that almost looked as if it could scrape the very top of the sky. The man in green searched for weeks, hunting for an entirely different sort of quarry, but when he finally happened upon a small, dimly lit shop, he found himself lingering there for far longer than he'd planned.

Weeks passed by, and he finally set sail again, carrying the cargo of a rather rare species of dried herb, along with a thin, pearly locket, not to mention the feeling of phantom kisses upon his cheek and the promise to return with his fortune.

Lightning almost wanted to wrinkle her nose at the thought of it, such a saccharine love story, but to her relief, the vision just kept turning and whirling, long past the time when the adventurer slew a massive beast out on the sea, a monster with great teeth and wide, crushing limbs. His sword had struck true, but a blow from the creature sent him reeling away, injured and bleeding upon the deck of the ship.

The months rolled on into years, throughout the entire long list of unusual things, all up until the final gift, just a single feather plucked from the tail of a roc, the very last thing on the notepad. The adventurer, gray and wizened, in a tunic of dark green, aged beyond his youth... He made his way up the empty stairwell of a great palace, knocking against the wide, hollow door.

All that answered was a young voice, a loitering child who sat tall upon the stone banister. "Nobody home?"

The entire vision blurred with all the rare things, the injuries the man had suffered, those many long years out at sea, before the image of the adventurer himself, it all finally paused upon his final gift to a child of his own.

"I do not care what you do with it..." He was laying back upon the sheets, deep within his last throes of life. "But may it bring you more luck than it has to me."

The crate passed through many, _many_ hands, so many lives throughout the years, lost to the sidelines of pawnshops and auctions, and then eventually gifted to one such individual, a young man of great curiosity.

"What things it must have seen..." He peered into the contents of the box, taking the more valuable objects to pay for his own necessities, food and shelter, but he left all the rest, admiring the great age that they must have originated from. "I'll keep it safe."

Yet that very same man soon fell to his fate at the edge of an alleyway dagger, and the box was abandoned once more, for years, until a traveling group of mercenaries came upon it in an unusual auction, one that boasted sealed 'mystery crates' of varying value. The group hadn't had time to inspect the contents before their charter ship set sail again, and the sheer disappointment of only finding a few old books, tarnished metal and mere papers, it was more then enough for them to loudly complain about over a bottle of rum, loitering upon the next island that they came across.

Yet when one of them suddenly let out a giggling snort, when he claimed that their newfound 'treasure' would be much better left beneath the beach than merely tossed into the waves, the rest of them crowed with raucous, drunken laughter, before they all began to dig down with their bare hands into the sand.

And then, a rather observant tree, one who'd been watching the intoxicated men in silent distaste, it kept that certain memory away for later use.

Lightning's vision swam into a blurry haze, drifting back to the world above the sea, back into her own body again, and she looked down to see the full image of a ghostly notepad upon her palm.

Fang kept flying on over the sea, but she blinked when Lightning's hand, a bare, gloveless hand, touched down against her scales.

 _Hey, Fang?_

Fang released a gentle yawn, breathing deeply against the brisk, chilly breeze. _Yeah?_

Lightning kept quiet for a very long moment, but then, a wry sort of thought left her mind. _I think that old tree might've just taught me something else entirely..._

* * *

The snow whirled out into the late evening, when the sun was just sinking down beneath the horizon.

Fang flew forward, up and over the rising waves, but when the last bit of light finally winked away beneath the sea, she lifted her drowsy head against the wind.

The ocean stretched on before them, wide and boundless and so very deep, almost as if it never ended. Fang looked down at all of the many ice floes that drifted south, and she began to fly even further for quite a while, at least an hour more. But when her wings began to ache, and her vision grew rather fuzzy, she let out a loud yawn, puffing out a thin bit of fire to light up the night, if only for a moment.

Fang blinked, before she watched how the tiny embers trickled down into the wind. _No land in sight._

Lightning mumbled something from where she was dozing away.

 _You've still got something to eat from what we bought back there, right?_ Fang craned her neck around to look at Lightning. _Hey, love, wake up._

Lightning's eyelids slowly fluttered open, gazing out into the dark. _Tired._

 _I know, but like you said before, you shouldn't skip dinner._ Fang slowly angled her wings down to glide over the frigid wind, closer and closer to the black abyss of the northern sea. _I already caught a fish today, you know._

Lightning winced slightly when they finally touched down again, splashing and hitting against the water with a rather sharp smack, but she inwardly praised the way that Fang didn't immediately sink, able to quickly paddle with her hind legs to keep them both afloat.

"There..." Fang spoke out loud, for while the waves still rose and crashed all around her, it was finally quiet enough for them both to speak. "Come on, Light, get some food."

Lightning just grumbled against the back of Fang's neck.

"Want me to look around for fish?" Fang swam forward a bit, pushing her wings down beneath the surface of the sea. "Not a whole lot out here, not this far north..."

Lightning slowly sat upright again, and she reached up to rub away the sleep from her eyes. "I'll find something, Fang."

Fang drew to a slow halt, still kicking with her hind legs to tread against the salty water. "I'll keep a lookout, just in case."

Lightning turned around to rummage through Fang's rucksack, and she found some of the carrots that were still left there from their first night of cooking, along with the thick paper carton of milk, almost half-empty from the day when they made griddlecakes.

Fang twisted her neck around to look as well. "Milk and carrots, that's all?"

Lightning gently pushed Fang's snout away. "I don't have any hardtack or jerky left, so... Yeah."

"And the potatoes aren't good raw." Fang looked back out at the sea. "Damn... Wish we'd bought some crackers."

"Maybe in Luxerion." Lightning pulled her own backpack down to get out a knife, one to peel the carrots with. "I'll be fine, Fang; I've survived with less."

Fang's next low mumble or two didn't quite seem to be in agreement, and when she suddenly ducked her head down into the icy water to search for fish, Lightning knew for sure that there was nothing she could say to change her mind.

But then a certain thought occurred, while Fang was looking around for any hint of sea life, for Lightning caught sight of the little plush deer off in the corner of the satchel. Ever since the tree had taught her to look beyond herself, and if she could touch a simple notebook and learn almost all of its secrets, could the same be said for different objects?

Slowly, and very carefully, just so she didn't disturb the little plush from where it was resting, Lightning set her hand down against that soft, well-worn fabric, likely victim to several hugs from certain visions, from the curse of a dragon's great sight. And like before, nothing visible happened when she touched it, but Lightning had a feeling that if she was to try learning about the item's past at a later time, that it might just work in the same way as the little book of notes.

Fang soon lifted her head to breathe again, and she snorted out the water from her nostrils in long, misty jets of hot steam. "Damn things are too far _down_..."

"It's fine, Fang." Lightning got to work on peeling one of the carrots. "I'm not the one flying around all day."

Fang leaned back again to gently snuffle Lightning's hair, before she leaned in to sniff at the carrot peels. "Hey, toss those over?"

Lightning looked down at the sea. "You really think the fish will go after them?"

Fang looked down as well. "Worth a try."

With a shrug, Lightning picked up the pile of peels, before she chucked them away into the waves, watching how they drifted around near the surface. "You'd better stay very still so they don't swim away."

And Fang did just that. She listened to the sounds of wind on the water, and of Lightning crunching a raw carrot between her teeth, but it was only long after she'd finished eating, only then did the first signs of a fish make itself clear.

The little thing was just swimming around beneath the dark, icy surface, and it took only a moment to examine the carrot peels before it started to nibble one, sealing its own fate between a whole different set of hungry jaws, even though those jaws much preferred to give their quarry away, instead.

As soon as the fish stopped wriggling around, Fang focused on her inner fire, on the essence of control that the thaumaturgy book had preached to her. She tried to make her own heat burn down at a similar rate to that of a campfire, slowly cooking the fish between her teeth.

Lightning sipped at the carton of milk, but she looked up when Fang suddenly turned around, holding a steamed fish in her mouth, one that was quite illuminated by the light of the moon.

"Here." Fang's voice was a bit muffled by the fish. "Better than carrots."

Lightning reached up to accept the gift by the end of its tail. "...Thank you."

Fang glanced back at the carrot peels. "No problem."

So Lightning waited for a while, letting the hot fish cool off in the chilly air of the sea, while Fang continued to watch for any more creatures that might dare to wander up towards the surface. She'd occasionally snap back down to grab one up in her teeth, swiftly cooking it with her fire in order to eat it for herself, before she waited for yet another one find its way up there as well.

But the night stretched on, and the school of fish grew much more wise to just how low their numbers had fallen, so the carrot peels were soon ignored again, though both Lightning and Fang had already eaten their fill.

The moon sank down, lowering beneath those gentle waves, and the unlikely pair drifted off as well, deep into the realm of sleep.

* * *

"Alright, feathers... This is how you make breakfast _right_."

Lightning blinked at the warm firelight beneath the stove.

"Just watch this." Fang held up a pan with several strips of thin meat slices on the surface, before she moved it right above the heat of the flames. "Now some people like it a bit more floppy, but I say crispy is the far better choice."

Lightning stared at the way that Fang was looking down at the stove, still a bit sleepy at such an early hour, yet she seemed rather determined to cook the food to perfection.

"You just have to make sure there isn't too much grease." Fang yawned softly. Her hair almost seemed much more luminous in the morning light. "Smells good, though, doesn't it?"

Lightning just kept sitting there on the chair that Fang had put next to the stove, watching the way that each strip of bacon slowly began to sizzle and pop.

"I wonder if you have stuff like this, back where you're from." Fang looked at Lightning from the corner of her gaze. "What sort of place it is..."

Lightning's eyes flickered away from her, for the sound of Fang's voice told her of that bright curiosity inside, the prying sort of desire to learn something new. While she didn't entirely mind it, as it was natural, after all, to want to learn more about something foreign, Lightning just wasn't sure how she could possibly explain anything to Fang.

But as the minutes stretched on, off into the moment when Fang handed her a plate of rather crispy bacon, still hot from the stove, it almost seemed as if she might not press the issue of learning anything more about her. Indeed, Fang just picked up her own plate and sat down on a nearby chair, wolfing each strip of meat down in an astoundingly clean way; she must have been _very_ well practiced not to get any grease upon her nightshirt while still digging into her meal at such a rapid pace.

Lightning slowly turned one the strange strips of meat over with her fork, tasting it a bit slower than Fang did. She wanted to savor the experience of something so new, something a bit too greasy for her own liking, but still overall quite delicious. And it was only once breakfast was over, when they had wandered outside to sit down in the grass while Bahamut began to hunt for his own morning meal, only then did Fang speak up again.

"You know, it's strange, but that song you were playing..." Fang trailed off for a moment, staring at all of the thick wildflowers that grew out towards the plains, for her father's house sat upon the very outskirts of town, all the better to get an early lookout on encroaching wild creatures. "It almost feels like I've heard it before."

Beneath the gentle, foggy rain, Lightning flipped over a tiny strand of grass between her fingertips, something so very familiar within such a strange new world, just enough to keep her grounded there.

"Maybe you could play it again sometime." Fang slowly leaned back to look up at the clouds, and at all of the long rays of sunlight that traveled across the grasslands, shining down from so far above.

Lightning watched as the thin blade of grass began to curl.

Fang didn't quite know when it first happened, perhaps it was just the sudden scent of ozone, or even the way Lightning's face went so very still, so honed in upon the energy within her fingertips, but when a short, sudden snap sounded off, when a sharp flicker of energy briefly jumped against the misty air, and when the small blade of grass suddenly burned away into dust...

"That's... New." Fang almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. "Your name makes a little more sense now."

Lightning watched as the slight bit of electricity danced along her fingernails, soft and almost silent, just a quiet hiss of static, before she slowly called it back down to rest within her blood. Fang stared at the way the those little flashes of light still pulsed from within Lightning's fingertips, gradually fading away until they weren't so visible at all.

"Fang." Lightning slowly curled each of her slim fingertips against her palm. "Safe."

"...If you say so." Fang stretched her arms out beneath the thin drizzle of rain. "I'll take your word for it; you're really an odd one, Light, but the stranger things in life are always much more interesting."

Lightning almost smiled at the calm, easy tone in Fang's voice.

"Nothing better than a good mystery." Fang smiled when Bahamut suddenly flew over towards a small stump in the yard, holding the limp form of a mouse within his powerful beak. "Just as long as you're still friendly, Light... Don't go proving me wrong about this, you hear me?"

Lightning closed her eyes, and she listened to that distant peal of thunder, slowly echoing out across the plains.

* * *

The sea lulled on in the early light, still swaying back and forth, before it gently woke the one who swam within it. Fang yawned with a numerous amount of teeth, long, pointy and sharp, but when she closed her mouth with a low, quiet mumble, it was as if any and all ferocity had simply left her in the dust. And she was gentle, still, even when she craned her neck around to slowly nudge Lightning awake, nuzzling at the side of her face.

Lightning hissed in her sleep, and she nearly whacked at Fang's nose, though her accuracy was severely hindered when her eyes were still sealed shut.

"Hey." Fang nudged at Lightning's shoulder. "Time to fly, sleepyhead."

Lightning murmured in a slightly sharper tone, before she reached out to grab at Fang's snout. "Time to _sleep_."

"It's already morning." Fang yawned again, and the movement caused Lightning's hand to lose her grip. "Come on, we'll probably hit land today... _Real_ land, not just islands."

Lightning finally opened her eyes, blinking so blearily against the low sunlight. "Fine."

"We can find breakfast out there." Fang almost sighed at the thought of her own brief dream, of the wonderful smell that had nearly filled up the entire house. "...You ready?"

Lightning moved to grip at the satchel strap again. "Ready."

It took longer to get herself airborne, for the waves had been so much more high and lively in her previous times within the ocean, but before long, Fang found herself flapping against the wind again, flying far up above the surface of the sea. She felt Lightning move to rest against the back of her neck, and the mere thought of it made Fang smile in that crooked, dragon grin.

The ice floes below, they soon grew more and more numerous, all bobbing and flowing along within the strong ocean currents, and as the minutes grew on into hours, the surface of the water began to look much more white than blue.

Fang's keen vision was the first to catch the slight glimmer of tall ice, of the pale, rising pillar off in the distance, the only hint of land that stood out on the horizon above. _Lightning, look..._

But Lightning had already pulled her gloves back on hours ago, just to protect herself from the cold, and it was only when Fang called out into the air, that long, keening roar that echoed for what felt like miles, only then did she look up to see.

The glaciers shifted so very slowly, so much that neither of them could truly see it from so far away, but every so often, another chunk of ice would fall, silently toppling from the top of the tall, distant cliffs, deep down into the frigid, arctic waters that would eventually start to carry it south.

Lightning tugged one of her gloves off, before she pressed her hand down against the warmth of Fang's dark scales. _Look at that..._

 _I see it._ Fang flew on throughout the windy air, flapping her wings against the strong winter winds, closer and closer to shore. _Listen, there's a place we'll probably stumble across today; I used to catch food there whenever I'd try traveling to get inside the vestige again._

 _Inside the vestige..._ Lightning closed her eyes for just a moment. She could still feel the chill winds on her face, whipping along at the fuzzy hood on her back, through each strand of her soft pink hair. _You said it needs two people?_

Fang nodded. _Yeah, I just couldn't get the damn thing open again, not without Vanille... I tried clawing at it, burning it down, biting it apart, but nothing worked._ She let out a deep, yet silent sigh. _The fal'Cie... Nobody really knows much about them, other than how they're supposedly 'children of the gods', or something like that, but if anything, they've gone rogue._

Lightning's mind flickered back to what the wise old pine tree had once said upon the nature of fal'Cie.

 _Rogue enough to want Vanille to go out and kill one of its buddies... Or rival siblings, whatever the hell it thinks._ Fang snarled against the wind. _It just shouldn't have left me unbranded._

Lightning furrowed her brow at the thought of that. _Why wouldn't it brand both of you?_

 _I've been asking myself that very same thing all this time, Light..._ Fang let out another sigh. _It's just not rational, and I really don't care about the reason anymore; all I know is that it won't have much time left to regret it._

After a moment or two, Lightning looked up to suddenly see the grand wall of ice again, to witness the mighty glacier that rose so high up into the air, far taller than the height that Fang was flying.

 _You ready to see the northlands?_ Fang's inner voice grew a bit less weary, much more eager to see the sight of wide land again. _You've never been out here, right?_

 _Right..._ Lightning gripped down on the satchel strap when Fang suddenly began to rise up, flapping harder against the wind. _I've read books about it, though._

 _Oh, you're in for a sight._ Fang's wings worked at the frigid air beneath them, flying higher and higher, rising almost straight up beside a huge pillar of ice, until she was nearing the edge of that massive, towering glacier. _Nearly there._

Lightning felt her stomach drop at the way Fang's body tilted back, nearly vertical as she rose up even further, so high above sea level that it became just a bit harder to breathe, before the ice suddenly disappeared in a flash of long, ashen green.

For those grand, sweeping plains, the snowy tundra that spread out beneath them, covered in both frost and low, stubborn grass, clinging to life even in the great cold, it all seemed almost endlessly wide.

Fang almost began to hover within the frigid, whirling air, but it was only for a mere moment of time. _Yeah... Welcome to the north._

Lightning's heart felt as if it was rapidly fluttering, and she squeezed her eyes shut tight when Fang suddenly dove down to glide, soaring off over that strange new continent, a world that almost seemed untouched by human hands.

* * *

A thin metal pillar rose up above the crumbling ruin, likely an old flagpole, yet it was bare of any lord's symbol or crest.

Fang stepped silently over the sharp, broken stones, out into the courtyard that nearly teemed with winter wildlife, with pale, hardy flowers and moss, and then, when a small creature suddenly wandered out into the pathway, it only had time to lock eyes with her own.

Lightning listened to that sharp snap of teeth, and then the crunching of both muscle and bone, but she was far too absorbed in her own activities to pay Fang's success much mind. She was sitting there, out in one of the stone pavilions, examining a dusty tablet upon the wall.

But from what era could such a place be dated back to? Lightning reached over to pick up an old metal tool, one that had likely once been used to dig up weeds from the front gardens, a place that had since become practically exclusive to them. The great age of the rusty handle, that much suggested that it had been crafted long before her own time, yet when Lightning brushed her fingertips over the surface of the tool, she nearly jumped when it suddenly crumbled away into chunks of dust, far too ancient to stand up against such things.

"Sorry." Lightning mumbled under her breath, much too quiet for Fang to hear, especially when she was ripping down into her breakfast with such great vigor. "Didn't mean to break it."

The stone pavilion had no reply to give her, nothing but the gentle sounds of the wind.

Lightning tipped her head back to look at the strange carvings upon the ceiling, of the great lords who once rode throughout the plains on horseback, or up upon the shoulders of massive, towering mammoths, a species that she was actually quite eager to see. Even the huge creatures back on Gran Pulse were rather lackluster compared to the sheer giants of the north, the beasts that likely stood just as tall as Fang, or even taller, though without the gift of flight, she'd have a considerably sizable advantage against them.

After a moment or two, Lightning pulled her pale white cloak a bit closer around herself, and she tried not to shiver at the frigid air. It was more than enough for her to pull her mask back up again, and each of her gentle breaths came out a bit less evenly than before.

Yet she was drawn to explore the rest of the withered gardens, past where Fang was busily crunching up and rending a huge wild goat to the bones, where even those bits were consumed for their nutrients as well.

Lightning merely patted at Fang's neck while she walked by, though she made no attempt to distract her from the meal, even when Fang purred so softly at her presence.

The front pathway led on towards the front halls, grand and domed, with stained glass windows that still somehow had their color even after so many years, though it was faded to the point of frail, washed out hues, as if each pane had been melted down somewhat beneath the years of sunlight.

Lightning stared at the wide front doors, which stood almost as tall as Fang at her full height. She realized that she had no way to push or pry them open, not on her own, so she merely walked off to the side again, towards the more wild areas of the gardens, to a massive hedge maze that had since grown out into a veritable forest. The old wooden framework still stood far above, a structure that had once been home to many delicate flowering vines, but it had since been choked with thick, leafy growth, barely allowing more than a few thin rays of sunlight to pass through.

But it was just enough, more than enough for such practiced eyes, for a woman who could hunt beneath mere moonlight, a predator in the dark. Lightning peered around at the dry, crackled earth beneath her boots, at all of the cobblestones that stood unattended and so very covered in dust, and she felt a sudden sense of peace washing over her in great waves. Such a place was _truly_ forgotten, truly left alone in utter solitude, something that nearly made her heart sing.

For it hadn't all gone rotten, and though most of the walls might have crumbled down a bit, the palace was still tall and proud and wild, claimed by the growth of the more natural world. Lightning almost felt the urge to stay there, to remain in that place for more than a short bit of rest, to let Fang eat whatever else she could catch and regain her strength for flying.

Suddenly, a pale, tiny mouse scuttled around in the fallen leaves, and Lightning paused. She watched the frail little thing as it nosed around for any hints of food, before it scurried away again, disappearing beneath one of the tall, leafy hedges of the labyrinth.

Lightning walked on. She stared up at the wild vines that clung so tightly to the bushy shrubs, and she thought back to an old story she'd once heard, that of a terrible beast with the hateful head of a bull, one who'd been locked away, deep within rather a similar maze. The creature was much too frightful to look upon for most souls, too terrifying of a monster to face, and that wasn't even to speak of the horrors of the nigh-inescapable maze, a place where very few humans ever returned from. And even then, all they would speak of was that low, terrible sound, a deep bellow that shook the very walls of the cave, as if it might make the entire structure collapse at any moment.

Though many brave hunters had ventured inside to test their strength and luck, almost none of them were ever seen again, none but a very young man, a shepherd's son, a man who wielded only his own two hands, a sharp wit, and a single cord of string.

Lightning smiled at the thought of slaying such a beast, of returning with the severed head of a cruel, slavering bull-creature, one with such a fearsome reputation. Would Serah be so eager to do the same, to navigate the shadows and then fire her own arrows into the massive creature, helping Lightning from afar? And Fang, she would simply lock horns with the beast, if she could even fit inside the labyrinth, otherwise she would merely charge at it with that beautiful spear, crafted from her own spirit, her own flame.

The maze stretched on and on, further and further into the darkness, over the long, thick vines that grew against the ground itself, rising up to block the way forward at some points. Lightning glanced around at the shadowed tunnels, at the leafy walls that kept her path cloaked in shadow, but when a soft, distant noise suddenly broke the silence, she felt herself go very, very still.

Was she truly alone in there? Fang couldn't possibly have made a sound like that, and even if she could, there was no way for her to have gotten inside the maze while in her dragon form, not without making a louder, crashing noise, unless there was a secret entrance somewhere. But the little sound, an almost pitiful sort of cry, Lightning knew that it certainly wasn't Fang's voice. She knelt down to slowly creep through the thick tangle of vines, even when the edges scratched against her clothes, and she followed after that tiny little sound, further and further into the maze.

The pathway led in against itself, doubling back again, and then curling inward once more, towards a spiraling shape that grew so much more narrow than the outer paths, until finally, she caught sight of the actual center. It was a rounded room, an open chamber with rusted benches and old, stony statues, one of which looked rather like the bull creature from the old story, likely an homage to the fabled beast of yore. And there, beneath what looked like a fractured metal structure, one that had collapsed from such great age, there it was, the source of the noise.

Lightning froze in place, gazing down at what was still crying out, at the whimpering sound that was soon joined with the rather frantic sound of tiny hooves pattering against the stone, and then a cry that only a young child could make, a lost sort of sound, desperate and high.

A little face suddenly stared back at her from beneath the rubble, pinned down and utterly helpless beneath the heavy pillars of metal, yet beneath that face, the human body that wore a thick leather tunic, it suddenly _ended_ , joining somehow, fused there with the distinctive outline of a foal.

Lightning's voice barely left her lips. "Centaur..."

The little foal cried out again, whimpering, pawing at the earth with her hooves.

Lightning moved forward before she could even think, and before she truly realized what she was doing, she'd hauled up some of the metal into her arms, dragging it away from the helpless child. "It's alright-"

The foal stared rather breathlessly at the human who stood far above, but when one of the metal bars that had been crushing down against her foot, when the pressure was suddenly, finally relieved, she stopped crying at once, growing very still and silent while her rescuer kept working away.

"Are you okay?" Lightning almost winced at the way that one of the foal's hooves looked, at how the ankle above it was so very swollen and bloody, likely unable to move without great pain. "Just keep holding still."

The little foal lifted her head a bit to look down at her hooves, before she began to speak in a foreign language, one that Lightning couldn't understand a single word of.

"Just my luck." Lightning grunted as she kept pulling at the twisted pile of rust, the metal bars of some unknown design. "I'll get you out, just hold on."

It took several minutes, and the little foal almost started to cry again, but when she looked up at the sheer determination in Lightning's eyes, she swiftly grew silent once more.

The last bit of scrap was rather pointed and quite rusty, so Lightning was careful not to cut her gloves upon the edge, but when it was finally tossed away, freeing the tiny centaur from her prison, Lightning was rewarded with a nervous sort of sound, almost a laugh, and then an odd, stumbly sort of embrace.

She'd been kneeling down to put the metal away, but when the little foal suddenly bumbled right into her to try and hug so tightly, Lightning fell flat on her back with a dull thud, gazing up from within the tall, dry grass. "Yes, okay..." She couldn't help but smile at the way the young centaur simply flopped against her, hugging around her neck. "You're welcome."

The foal kept very quiet, gazing down at the small bit of shiny silver that had fallen against Lightning's throat.

"You're just a baby, aren't you?" Lightning slowly sat up again, and the foal tumbled gently into her lap, rather content just to have someone so close again, a friendly presence after such a very dire situation. "Where are your parents?"

The centaur had soft, pointed ears, rather like a horse in fact, but her little face was entirely human, like that of a child no older than four. She stared up at Lightning, before she flicked her ears back and forth.

"Can you walk, then?" Lightning tried to stand up again, but all she received was another hug, even tighter than before. "Guess that's a no."

And as she finally managed to rise up, carrying the young centaur in her arms, she had to support the horse half with both arms, while the human half just kept hugging around her neck, shivering slightly in the cold.

"You've got to live somewhere around here, right?" Lightning made her way back towards the entrance of the room, out into the maze, where she tried to mentally recall the way that she'd gone before. "Those clothes are too well-made for someone your age; you have to have someone looking after you."

The little centaur just buried her face down into the crook of Lightning's neck.

"Let's see if Fang can help us find your parents." Lightning glanced down at the dark brown hide of the horse half, at how the young centaur had a big white splotch upon her back, one that had spots of the same deep brown against it. "Appaloosa, huh?"

Without any other name, Lightning's mind wandered back to the way her own steed, how Odin loved apples more than any other food in the world, and she quickly decided to call the little foal 'Apple', at least until her true name could be discovered.

Lightning's boots scuffed slightly against the dusty ground, and by the time she'd finally navigated the twisted, gnarling vines and found her way back out towards the front of the maze, Apple was chattering near her ear, talking along in that same strange language without a care in the world, even if her ankle was still so swollen.

"We should find your parents before anything else." Lightning frowned at the injured limb. "They'll probably have more medical supplies than I do..." It was only then that she looked up to see the hazy sunlight again, and all of the gentle snowflakes that fluttered around in the gardens. "Now, where's Fang?"

Apple glanced around at the courtyard while Lightning carried her even further, but the little foal almost exclaimed at the sudden sight of a massive, dozing beast, so much that she swiftly hugged onto her rescuer even tighter.

"It's okay." Lightning patted along Apple's short brown mane of hair, the human part, just to calm her back down. "Fang's a friend."

"Hmm?" Fang slowly opened her eyes from where she was resting, but they widened considerably at the sight such a small centaur. "Woah..."

Lightning knelt down beside Fang's snout, and she reached out to pat along her scaled forehead, showing Apple that it was indeed safe to do so. "I found her under some rubble, had to haul it off... She must've been caught under there for a while, now." Lightning peered down at just how swollen Apple's little ankle was. "Do you think-"

Apple suddenly started to speak out loud, gesturing all around at the courtyard, and Fang leaned in slightly to listen.

"Ah." Fang nodded to herself, before she spoke something in return, and then, when Apple responded, a deep, draconic sort of laugh rumbled right through Fang's chest. "She's a curious one."

"You can talk to her..?" Lightning almost smiled in disbelief when Apple began to hobble away from her arms, only to stumble right down against Fang's snout. "What did she say?"

Fang lifted her head a bit, and Apple giggled at how she was lifted along with it, all sprawled out against Fang's muzzle. "She just wanted to know if 'the pink one with two legs' was friends with 'the dragon'."

Lightning watched while Fang moved back down again, before Apple stumbled back to her arms. "Can you ask her what her name is?"

Fang spoke something again, but a rather knowing look soon crossed her gaze. "From what I've heard about certain centaur tribes, they don't earn their right to chose a name until adolescence." Another flicker filled her eyes, but it was much more tense than understanding. "And Light... Centaurs are _crazy_ protective over their territory and their young; if they _see_ us even within a few feet of this one-"

"We still have to get her back home." Lightning's face was stern and resolute. "What exactly do you think they can do to a dragon? If we just carry her back there and put her down-"

"And then get shot up with a million barbed arrows, and then poked at with bladed spears?" Fang shook her head back and forth. "No, you can't just show up to them looking like a threat... Trust me, I know from experience."

Lightning didn't react when the little foal started to reach up and play with the longer locks of her pink hair, braiding them down loosely beside her hood. "Then how do we get her back home?"

"We try to get her foot back in walking condition..." With a quick glimmer of light, Fang suddenly reappeared in her human form. "And then we send her out on her way."

Lightning frowned ever so slightly.

"Light, it's all part of nature." Fang reached over to pat the little foal upon her head. "You did a good thing, a _human_ thing, but it's just not worth our lives to keep her out of trouble for any longer."

It was that same deep feeling, the way she'd once sheltered her own kin from the dangers of the world, always kept her within sight, out of harm; the instinct just took hold so deeply, rooted there in the very base of her heart. Lightning tried to force it away, she tried to simply detach herself from the little child who was hugging her yet again, but the pain of it was just far too great.

Fang knelt down as well, and she spoke in that foreign language again, before she laughed quietly at Apple's response, leaning away. "You want to know what she said?"

Lightning nodded.

"She said to thank you for getting her out of there..." Fang sat herself down against the stony pathway. "And that she should really get back home before her mother starts to worry."

Lightning glanced at the swollen injury again. "Ask her if she can walk."

Fang did as Lightning said, but Apple only frowned, and her ears drooped low against her head.

"No, huh..?" Lightning spoke in just a whisper. "You think she could tell her mother not to attack us if we carry her back home?"

Fang almost seemed as if she was about to protest the very idea, but when she looked down at the foal's dewy little eyes, lost and so filled with fright, it was all she could do just to translate the question, waiting for a response.

The centaur language was coarse and consonant heavy, but her practiced ears could understand it quite well: "I will! Mother knows someone just like Pink... With weird legs, so she'll be nice to you, too."

Fang smiled at the chosen moniker. "Her name's Lightning, actually..." She started to translate the words back to Lightning herself, before she translated the name 'Apple' over to the little foal, asking if that was a good thing to call her.

Apple nodded rather vigorously, still sitting upon Lightning's lap.

Fang stood up to glance around at the old, crumbling courtyard. "Alright then, we'll get you back home... Just as long as you promise to tell your family to be _nice_ about it, you hear?"

"I will!" Apple flicked her little tail back and forth when Lightning rose up to her feet as well, carrying the tiny foal on down the pathway. "I was just looking at the funny plants, but then it got too dark, and... I got stuck." Her pointy little ears drooped again. "It was _scary_."

"It must've been." Fang walked on alongside Lightning, traveling down the wide, snowy path. "I'll bet you were brave when Light got you out, though."

Apple's cheeks went pink with pride, and she swiftly nodded again. "Like mother and father, they're always real brave!"

Fang looked out over the front walls of the crumbled ruin, towards the sweeping plains that stretched on for miles on end. "I'd bet they're out looking for you right now."

"Yeah." Apple turned to look at the huge metal gate that led out to the snowy grasslands. "I snuck in under a hole in the wall... I just wanted to see what was inside."

Fang gave her a rather knowing smile. "And were you supposed to try and get here..? Maybe your mother or father said not to?"

Apple frowned, and she quickly tried to hide her face against Lightning's neck, out from Fang's sight.

"I see." Fang looked over at Lightning to translate what they'd said to each other. "Adventurous little thing, isn't she?"

After a moment of walking, Lightning kicked at the rusty front gate as gently as she could, but it didn't even budge. "Very."

Fang soon reached out towards the massive locking mechanism, and as she focused inwardly, her hand grew so very hot that the metal surface itself began to melt, dripping and distorting until she could simply push the whole thing open with the toe of her boot. "Listen, Light, if this turns out worse than we're hoping for-"

"Just change back and fly; I'll keep them off of you until you can circle around and pick me up." Lightning spared a quick glance at the sword on her belt. "Pray for the best, prepare for the worst, that's what they say..."

"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that." Fang turned back towards the little foal, who seemed to have all but forgotten her previous embarrassment of disobeying her parents. "Hey, kiddo."

Apple smiled at Fang. "Hey!"

"You have any idea where your folks might be?" Fang gestured at the plains, stepping down over a short incline that led into the grass. "Any general direction?"

Apple's smile faltered slightly. "We move around a lot... But maybe up by the lake?" She pointed in a certain direction, one that led north, towards the distant range of snowcapped mountainsides. "We always stop near water."

"Alright." Fang translated for Lightning again, before they made their way out towards the grassy hills, though the pale drifts of snow that crunched so softly beneath their boots. "Hey, Apple... How does a little thing like you walk around in so much snow, anyway?"

Apple pointed at her long, dainty legs. "I hop!"

"Ah." Fang smiled again. "Does your mother help you, too?"

"She used to, but then I got taller!" Apple shivered a little, though her thick leather tunic warded most of the chill away, and then the fuzzy undershirt just beneath it, it kept most of her skin from facing the cold. "My baby brother always needs help, though."

Fang nodded. "Do you help him out, too?"

"Sometimes..." Apple frowned, pouting ever so slightly. "But he's so _boring!_ He doesn't like running around or looking at _anything_ ; all even he does is let mother carry him around!"

"Give him some time." Fang looked out along the steep, endless hills, and she listened very closely to the sounds of the whistling wind. "Things always change before too long."

Apple sighed, before she tucked her chin back on top of Lightning's shoulder. "It feels like _everything's_ changing..."

"Just growing pains." Fang smiled to herself, but the warm expression faded when she caught wind of a sound, a very different sound, far from the crackle of snow beneath their feet, or even the whispering breeze. "...Light!"

No, it was a massive sound, a _thunderous_ sound, echoing deep within the hills and the grass, and before either Fang or Lightning could even react for more than a moment, a herd with more centaurs than they could ever count came galloping down from beyond the next incline.


	26. Hoofprints

The centaurs were utterly massive, nearly the size of draft horses, plowing on down through the snow like it was mere dust beneath their hooves. A shrill cry rang out, like that of a horse, yet when the first few scouts galloped on past the hill, fanning themselves out to cut off any means of escape, Fang realized that the creatures were actually quite not as bulky as horses, yet they had the considerable advantage of an upper humanoid form, a body that could sport so much heavy armor and weaponry.

And the sounds, that was what truly made each of her limbs lock up in tension; dozens upon dozens of voices, sharp and high, shouting cries that echoed out into the open air, an entire furious storm of noise, drowning out anything else she might have heard.

It was all that Fang could do just to turn so was standing right at Lightning's back, witnessing the absolute flurry of thick snow and pounding hooves, the way the huge herd immediately moved out to circle them, brandishing such sharp metal spears, which swept close enough that she could immediately feel the chill of steel on her throat.

Yet when Lightning slowly began to move down into the snow, kneeling up to her chest in the soft white power, when she set Apple down beside her, the little centaur tried to climb out towards the barrier of horselike bodies, the wall of long weapons and shields, calling out as loud as she possibly could.

Fang started to kneel down as well, but even as she did so, each of those pointed weapons didn't budge an inch from where they lingered beside her skin.

And then there was yet another great clamor, the overpowering drum of shifting hooves and plates of armor clashing against the crowd, before a single woman, a _centaur_ woman, came bursting out towards the center of the ring, softly crying out in low whispers when her daughter finally hobbled back into her arms.

Lightning felt her own breath quicken beneath the sharp steel at her throat, the long spears that simply refused to relent, not even when the little foal started gesturing wildly at both herself and Fang, pleading with the massive group in that strange, coarse language of hers.

Another wave of motion passed throughout the herd, and another centaur came trotting forth with his weapon drawn, but when he caught sight of the little foal with a white splotch on her back and brown spots just like his own, he swiftly sheathed his sword to kneel down and pull both her and her mother close.

Watching the sight out of the corner of her eye, Fang drew in a slow, silent breath. When she finally let it release again, her voice misted into the air. "We aren't here to trespass, or cause any problems for you... My friend found the girl in a patch of fallen rubble, insisted on getting her back home safely."

A great clamor rose up against her speech, voices pitching all around, and then the sound of pawing hooves, of such eager arms, weapons at the ready, a feverish sort of ferocity and sudden panic that happened all at once, a herd intent on simply removing a possible threat. And yet, just as the sound grew to the very height of their rage, when one of the front runners reared up, a sudden blast of sound made the entire warband go completely, utterly silent.

It was one of the elder centaurs, he'd called out with a far louder voice than the rest of them, stepping forward as he made a sort of bellowing sound, almost like the scream of a horse, or even a bull. His hide was spotless and rather pale, yet he still had the strength to carry a set of grand, shining armor. When he finally trotted forward to look down, addressing Fang, he lowered his ears at her with a rather dark glare in his eyes. "You _dare_ claim that you are not here to trespass? And yet you walk here, upon the land protected by-"

At the sidelines, the mother centaur suddenly called out, holding her daughter so tightly in her arms. "Cygnus, please, they've _brought_ her here!" She stepped forward, even while Apple hugged so tightly at her neck, clearly not willing to stop being carried. "We _owe_ them the benefit of the doubt... At least that much."

Lightning watched the entire exchange out of the corner of her eye, still pressed up against Fang's back, where she couldn't even see the look on her face. "Fang, be honest... Are we screwed?"

Fang switched back to the common language, whispering under her breath. "Maybe not."

The centaur with the splotches, Apple's father, he began to speak up as well. "Please, stand down."

The older one, Cygnus, he simply narrowed his eyes at the pair of human figures, those who knelt so silently within the snow. "...We'll let the chieftain decide." He suddenly moved his spear up and away, and then held up his other hand to his mouth, whistling though his teeth. An entire regiment of centaurs, they all lifted their weapons as well, pacing around and moving through the deep snow, making their way off into a full, racing gallop.

And then, within moments, all that remained were Apple's parents, the leader named Cygnus, and a small number of armored guardsmen, still holding their spears at the ready. But Apple suddenly whispered something to her mother, and after a moment or two, she was carried back over, lowered down to the ground to speak with Fang.

"Hey, kiddo..." Fang took a very deep breath when those weapons were drawn back a bit. "You doing alright?"

Apple nodded, reaching out to hug around Fang's neck, still whispering. "I told them, just like I said!"

"Don't you worry, now..." Fang didn't move her own arms to hug Apple back, just in case the guardian centaurs might have considered it a threat. "You're back your mom and dad; we'll all be just fine."

Apple frowned at all the sharp spears that still remained. "Fly _away_."

Fang frowned as well, before she lowered her voice down to a whisper. "That's a little more complicated than it sounds..."

Apple's mother tilted her head slightly, narrowing her eyes in confusion.

Lightning grit her teeth when the spear at her neck suddenly tapped against the bottom curve of her chin, prompting her to stand upright again.

"Don't worry about us." Fang smiled at Apple, and she slowly stood up as well. "Have your mom take a look at that foot, you hear me?"

Apple's mother suddenly reached out to shake Fang's hand. "I'm Lyra."

Fang almost chuckled when the spears inched back slightly, still well within range of striking her, but far enough to avoid a fellow centaur. "Fang."

Lightning winced when she was prodded forward with another spear, forced to walk again, but when she glanced back over her shoulder, Fang was there, too, following after her as well, yet they were both flanked on either side by the guardian centaurs.

But Lyra, who moved to lift Apple up to rest on her back, she kept very close to the pair of them, making sure that none of the pointed spears got close enough to inflict harm. While Apple's father, he lingered behind for a while to speak with the one called Cygnus, engaging him in a rather brief, yet spirited argument, before the two of them hurried away to keep up with the small band of centaurs.

Lyra kept her voice to a whisper. "You have my gratitude for bringing my daughter back... I'll do whatever I possibly can to see you sent safely on your way."

Fang tried to ignore the spears at her back, and she spoke easily, almost as if she had just gone out for a stroll. "Thanks for that... But I can tell you this, things won't end well if anyone hurts Light."

One of the guardian centaurs barked out an order to be quiet, stamping at the ground as he walked.

"You have no idea who you're talking to..." Fang shot a glare at the pointed spears, at the shining plates of armor all around her, at the utter wall of horselike bodies that kept them both moving within a straight line, prisoners of circumstance. "Hey, why not send just us on our way over the cliffs? Quick death, no mess to clean up."

"This is sacred land..." Lyra still kept her voice low. "Not all of my kind can tolerate the presence of a human, even a departed soul."

Fang grit her teeth, before she slowly whispered back, words only for Lyra's ears. "Who said I was human?"

And that was when Lyra suddenly leaned to the side, looking down at how her child was sprawled on her back, the little foal who'd once hugged Fang so tightly, and the sudden tension, deep within the mind of a protective mother, it was almost too much to bear. Yet to Lyra's credit, she just kept walking on beside Fang and Lightning, still shielding them from her fellow centaurs.

The group passed on beside another scouting party, likely out looking for the missing foal as well, but a sharp whistle sent them all back into a retreat, recalled from the act of searching.

"Fang." Lightning trudged her way through the sprawling field, careful not to trip over the tall drifts of snow. "I'm sorry."

Fang switched back to the common speech. "Nothing for you to be sorry for."

"I just didn't think there would be so many..." Lightning kept quiet for a long while, moving on across the plains with relative silence, and she only spoke again once they had approached one of the tallest hills of them all, a mighty peak that blocked out the whole horizon. "If anything happens-"

"Don't." Fang lowered her voice, trying to speak just as soothingly as she could. "I've still got plans for us, plans that don't include getting stuck up against a pike and left out for the crows."

Lightning lifted her gaze towards the sky. "If anything _happens_... I'm just glad I met you." She might have let out a low, wry chuckle if they weren't right there in the middle of things, stuck between such sharp steel and the moments of time that it would take for Fang to change, moving off into her dragon form before the guards caught wind of what she was doing, and then perhaps think twice about not immediately stabbing Lightning in the back.

But as they traveled on up the massive hill, through the thick, damp snow that clung to both their own clothes and the fluffy legs of the centaurs, once they finally began to approach the top of the incline, it was only then that they realized the full scope of what lay beneath it, just beyond.

Lightning paused, rather breathless, gazing on down at the massive, sprawling field of tents, of even more centaurs than before, all gathered there, camped out before a frozen lake. They were speaking and dueling, racing around in grand circles in the snow, celebrating something with massive bonfires and shared food, even clear, blanketed places to sit down and relax.

The leader of their own little group, Cygnus, he began to walk on ahead, still speaking in soft murmurs to Apple's father.

The spear prodded Lightning's back again, and while she hissed quietly at it, she still walked on once more, down and across the steep incline that led towards the densely packed camp.

Fang started to speak in the centaur language again. "A holiday, or something?"

Lyra nodded. "The season of the spirits... We're all here to pay tribute."

Fang kept her next few thoughts to herself, for she knew that centaurs were utterly fierce about more than just their territory. To them, the land and the stars were more far sacred than anything else, and their faith in such things manifested in the belief of hundreds of earthly spirits, not just a mere handful of gods.

It took them several minutes just to travel down the hill, and then even longer to approach the wide lakeside encampment, but by the time that they reached the outskirts, a small crowd had gathered to stare at the pair of human prisoners. Some of them looked on in curiosity, while some of them almost seemed quite disgusted by the mere sight of them, while others, they simply watched the occasion with rather blank expressions, as if they didn't quite know what to feel.

Lightning glanced around at the settlement, peering at it of the corners of her vision; the snow had been completely cleared away from around most of the tents, packed down into the earth by numerous hooves, and the scent of smoke was utterly thick in the air, along with another earthy smell, quite like the general air of a stable. Yet she didn't voice such thoughts out loud, even if her words wouldn't be understood anyway, because from what Fang had told her before, centaurs were _fiercely_ proud.

Many of the tents bore detailed painted symbols, likely the crests of nomadic different tribes, all gathered there together in a sacred place to pay homage to their deities, their stars, for nearly all of the paintings had at least a single star within the design, no matter how large.

Lightning glanced over her shoulder to see Fang again, but she was only rewarded with another prod of the spear, urging her onward into the bustling camp. As much as she wanted to just lash out and push the damn thing away, she knew it would only spell out her own death; the creatures were strong enough even without their human halves, and above the huge bodies of muscular horses, those sapient arms, the strong hands and fingertips, they looked more than formidable enough to put up a fight.

The group walked on into the center of the camp, past the more solid types of structures, wagons to carry supplies, and even small, rolling hutches with dozens of different species of barn fowl inside, all squawking and clucking within the late afternoon air. There were even makeshift hitching posts where several animals were tied, from small goats to staunch woolly rams, a few hornless sheep, and then even a stray donkey or two.

Lightning blinked when a small face peered at her from behind a tent, another young centaur, though he didn't look nearly as friendly as Apple.

The minutes rolled on, yet it wasn't very long before they approached one of the larger tents, which was surrounded by what looked like an honor guard. They were all coated in traditional red paint, likely symbolic of the blood that ran through their veins, for the lines of deep pigment followed along their limbs and major arteries, even over their second, lower hearts within the body of a horse.

The leader of their own smaller group, Cygnus, he walked forward to hail the guards of the tent, speaking to them in quiet tones, and he occasionally gestured back at his own unit of soldiers, before a single member of the honor guard suddenly reached out to open the tent.

It was then that the metal spear pushed at Lightning's back a bit less roughly, gesturing for her to move inside, yet it didn't follow after her. When she looked back again, many of the centaurs around her were staring down at the ground, bowing their heads what looked like respect.

But it wasn't for her. For there, right within the center of the tent, upon a simple mat of woven reeds, waited a much smaller being; while she still looked rather formidable, her limbs were thin, and her long horsehair was quite coarse and gray.

When the sitting figure glanced out at what lay beyond the tent, Fang realized that the chieftain was indeed a woman, and that it was a rather elderly face who greeted them, one with such distant eyes, a gaze that almost seemed to look right though anything that it turned upon.

Cygnus stepped inside with a bow, before he knelt down beside the old mare, relaying his report to her in a very hushed tone, until she suddenly held up a single hand. He left without another sound.

Fang felt the presence at her side move forward a bit, and she caught sight of Lyra helping her daughter back down to the ground, holding each of her little hands rather tightly.

A low, yet solid voice drifted out from the tent. "You speak our words, then?" The old chieftain turned to address Fang, waving her forward. "How does a mere human come to know the speech of centaurs?"

Fang took a slow step through the small archway, and as soon as Lightning was there with her, along with both Lyra and Apple, someone outside began to close up the leather flaps to keep the chill away from inside. Perhaps the guards simply trusted the strength of their leader, trusted her prowess enough not to take Lightning's sword away, or even the small dagger on Fang's belt... Or perhaps they could simply rush right inside on only a moment's notice, ending the threat before it even began.

"Has my lieutenant relayed false words?" The chieftain still looked at Fang, gesturing for them all to sit. "Speak, human."

Fang sat down with a sigh. "Who said I was entirely human?"

Lyra tugged her daughter just a bit closer to herself.

The chieftain raised a thin, yet bushy at eyebrow at that. "An illusion, then..? Deception?"

"No, no illusions." Fang glanced over at Lightning, hoping that she wasn't too lost without knowledge of their words. "Just a little bit more than meets the eye."

The old, gray chieftain relaxed slightly; she was sitting atop the sheet of reeds, resting on her horselike form, while each of her legs were tucked down beside her. "And why have you come to these sacred lands? Why do you trespass here?"

Fang shook her head. "We weren't trying to trespass, just passing through the area; we wouldn't have even gone out on the plains if we hadn't found-" She gestured at the little foal. "This one, stuck in some old ruins near the cliffs."

Lyra pinned her ears against her head, though she seemed to realize that such a situation was neither the time nor the place to scold her daughter for doing such a dangerous thing.

The chieftain narrowed her eyes at all of them. "Is this the truth?"

Apple tried to stand up on her injured leg, but she had to limp forward a just bit, before she nodded as quickly as she could. "I was stuck there all night, but then she-" Apple pointed at Lightning. "She went in too, and she got me out!"

A long silence filled the room. "...Then there is a life is in your debt." The chieftain released a low, gentle sigh, and the weariness in her eyes began to betray her outward strength, revealing such great wisdom and age. " _Her_ life, a life of youth... A fair trade for the lives of two strangers, I would suppose."

Fang quickly whispered a translated version of the situation to Lightning, who almost exhaled in relief.

The chieftain turned to address Lightning. "Does she not speak?"

"Not in this language." Fang didn't even react when Apple snuck over to hug her again. "The common speech, yeah... But not this."

"A pity." The chieftain turned her gaze back towards the little foal, the one who had created the whole chain of events; she was a bit too young for more than a mere scolding from her parents, undeserving of any true form of punishment, none other than a few stern words. "And _you_ , you are not to leave your parent's sight without their permission from now on, is that _utterly_ clear?"

Apple's ears drooped down low, but instead of hiding behind Fang, she simply nodded, staring down at the ground.

"The child is free to go." The chieftain glanced at Lyra as well. "Do keep a closer eye..."

Lyra bowed her head low in deference, before she stood up to reach for her daughter's hand, guiding her back towards the entrance of the tent.

The chieftain turned back to Fang, and her voice was suddenly much less authoritative than before, a bit more conversational. "We still have matters to discuss."

Fang leaned away ever so slightly. "Oh?"

"It is not often that I have access to news from the world beyond our own." The chieftain gestured at the tent around them, but Fang had a feeling that the implied distance was much further than the encampment itself. "Would you care to tell me what you know?"

Fang glanced over at Lightning. "Well, it's not that I don't appreciate you not trying to kill us, here... But we've _really_ got places to be."

The old mare frowned ever so slightly, yet she tried not to let her face betray the curiosity within. "Perhaps we could speak of... Compensation?"

Fang's upper lip suddenly twitched into a smile. "Now we're talking."

* * *

The day stretched on beneath the falling snow, and the sound of so many voices and hooves filled the air, not to mention the thick scent of incense.

They were brought around the grounds by the chieftain and her honor guard, shown the many ritualistic practices of their temporary settlement, from the huge charts of the starry night sky to the sacrificial practices upon a rather young goat, offering up its very life force to the spirits.

In exchange for news from overseas, Fang was given a choice between gifts; the chieftain's assistant held out a finely-woven sash, a pouch of strange incense, and then a small metal compass, one with so many glittering stars engraved upon the lid.

Fang looked between each of her choices for more than a brief moment, wondering if it might be some form of test, a measure of character, perhaps. While the sash was utterly beautiful, she had no need for any more clothing to weigh her down, and the incense, Lightning already had plenty of her own to share with her. And while Fang fully trusted her own inner sense of direction, the compass almost seemed like the most practical choice, and if for no other reason, she could always just let Lightning use it, too.

A choice between the vanity of silk, the will to stay in once spot long enough to savor such incense, or the decision to travel, to let the compass guide her away to further places, far from where she presently stood. When she made her decision, closely examining the beautiful little compass, a small smile from the chieftain confirmed her suspicions.

Yet while they walked further on through the camp, always accompanied by those armored guards, Fang realized that the chieftain was almost treating them like honored guests, for their guardians would often shoo away any other centaurs who approached with hostile glances, or merely to gawk at such strange visitors. Fang wondered if perhaps the two of them were just unlikely pawns of a political statement, then, or an outward display of tolerance to all the smaller tribes, that innocent beings were definitely not to be slain for mere trespassing.

They were soon offered an early evening meal of roasted goat haunch along with thin boiled roots, and not long after the entire traveling procession settled down to eat, they were greeted by a whole herd of children, led along by none other than Apple herself.

Fang smiled at the sight of a familiar face, before she went back to chewing upon one of the sweet boiled roots, which crunched rather silently between her teeth. "Even up here, you must've felt those shock waves, years ago..."

The chieftain, who had since introduced herself as Columba, she started to frown. "An ill omen when the sea rises up against the land itself... That was a very grave time indeed."

"The Pale Sea." Fang slowly shook her head. "Wasn't so pale then, was it?"

The chieftain kept eating her own meal with a low nod. "It certainly wasn't."

Fang took a brief moment just to quietly pull back a bit of goat meat from the bone, yet when she glanced over at Lightning, what she saw right then, the sight of it made her pause long enough just to hold back a laugh.

Lightning grimaced while so many of the young centaurs tried to braid her hair all at once, one of which was none other than Apple herself, who actually seemed more than a little bit protective of her newfound friend, at least when she wasn't busy tying down ribbons into that soft pink hair.

Fang just watched the commotion with the smallest hint of a smile, though she didn't even react when her own hair was suddenly attended to by none other than one of the more curious adult centaurs, a woman who looked no older than either Lightning or Fang, themselves. It was something she knew was very commonplace in centaur society, for most of them had locks of hair that ran far down their human backs to their more horselike bodies, and one could not usually reach to such lengths without help.

After a moment or two of relative silence, at least between the two of them, Columba spoke up again. "You were speaking earlier about the abundance of rare ore on Gran Pulse?"

"Oh, yeah..." Fang snapped back to the conversation at hand, before she reached over to pat at Lightning's knee in the most reassuring way she could, though it looked as if she might not have much patience left to give. "Lots of old tombs got unearthed, they were filled to the brim with the stuff; I heard that an excavation party found so much of it that they basically flooded the market... Not great for the overall price."

The chieftain began to frown. "I do wish that such things would carry over to these lands... We've fought off more thieves in the past year than I can possibly count." She sighed very quietly, leaning back to glance at the sky. "They journey out here to turn over the earth, to strip it _dry_ ; I can only assume that you have not come to this place to do so as well."

Fang winced when the brush in her hair snagged against a tangle. "No, we're headed back south once we pass by the north pole-" She winced again, wishing that it wouldn't be seen as impolite to ask for such treatment to cease. "We're out for justice, not to dig down in the ground for anything."

"Justice?" Columba crossed one of her front legs over the other one, and her long gray tail swished against the ground. "A noble pursuit... Might I ask what the object of such a desire could be?"

"...We're out to kill a fal'Cie." Fang almost smiled at the way every centaur within earshot went so very still and silent, even the chieftain's honor guard, who were standing in a loose circle around the area. "It branded someone I call a sister... So we're out to _kill_ it, to set things right."

Columba stayed very speechless for a while, even when the shock of such a thing finally wore off upon her fellow centaurs, who slowly moved back to whatever else they were doing.

Fang stared at the ground she was sitting upon, and at the long, hooved limbs on either side of her legs, from the one who was still brushing her hair.

"There is... A very fine line between justice and revenge." Columba spoke just loud enough for Fang to hear. "But from what I have heard of the fal'Cie... There is no reason I can see to defend them."

"It's not revenge." Fang exhaled when the centaur behind her finally let up a bit, smoothing out the soft brown locks of her hair. "Trust me, if it was revenge, I would've already tried to kill it the first time... I'm just trying to get her back out of crystal stasis."

"You truly believe such a method would work?" Columba thought to herself for a moment, before she shrugged. "A brave solution, if so."

Fang smiled a bit. "We're gonna try."

Over a few paces away, Lightning seemed rather relieved when the braids came undone again without ties to bind them, but Apple still insisted on placing a few more ribbons in her hair, before she settled on merely brushing it all out again with a small comb, chattering all the while.

"It's nice to see so many kids like this." Fang nodded at the group of young centaurs. "It's not always a gentle climate, up here... They look really happy."

"There are not many here who would dare approach one of our kind, even a child." Columba glanced over at Lightning. "If this story is true... She is either very brave, or _very_ ignorant our methods."

"You know, I actually don't know if Lightning's ever seen a centaur..." Fang switched back to the common speech. "Hey, Light?"

Lightning took a very deep breath. "Time to rescue me from the torture chamber?" Though she couldn't help but smile when Apple limped over to sit upon her lap again, for her leg was all bandaged up in a thick layer of cloth.

"Not just yet." Fang smiled as well. "But I'm curious, have you ever seen a centaur before this?"

Lightning nodded. "Just once, but the tribe seemed more than elusive... Serah and I were visiting a city to the south; on the way there, we saw a few them out in the fields, but they didn't seem very keen on approaching us."

"I have a feeling that they don't care for most visitors..." Fang smiled at the way a different centaur child was examining Lightning's ears, gawking at how they weren't even pointy or horselike in the slightest. "But you wouldn't really know it from kids like this."

Lightning shook out her hair a bit. "Yeah... But I definitely think I'm done with being the sideshow freak for today." She slowly moved away from the group of children, even Apple, setting her back down upon her own spot of the blanketed ground. "Think we can get going again?"

Fang glanced at where the chieftain was standing up again, talking with someone else in the clearing. "It might be better if we get an escort out of here... Avoid any misunderstandings with the other guards, you know?"

Lightning reached up to pull one out of the long ribbons from her hair, even when one of the children giggled at her. "Go over and ask, then."

Fang rose up to her feet. "Right, right... Just hold your horses." She rolled her eyes when another ribbon was chucked in her general direction.

The chieftain was quietly speaking with one of the honor guardians, but as soon as she caught sight of Fang, she turned to address her. "I've bent your ear for long enough, I see..." Columba smiled rather softly. "And it looks as if your friend is quite eager to be on her way."

Fang smiled as well. "Can't say it wasn't nice, at least once the spears weren't involved, but yeah... We've got a long road ahead of us."

"Then we'll see you to the edge of our lands." Columba gestured for a few of her guardian centaurs to step forward. "But afterwards, even as pleasant as our conversation was... I certainly hope not to see any more trespassers here."

Fang nodded. "If you do, they won't be us." She looked around at all of the tall tents, at the tribes of centaurs all mingling and speaking with each other, joined together for a common cause. "But we won't need the full escort..."

Columba tilted her head in slight confusion.

Back in the little clearing, Lightning smiled softly when Apple limped over to give her one last hug. But when Lyra appeared again, Lightning simply patted the little foal on top of her head, before she rose back up to stand on her own two feet, nodding in farewell.

What she didn't expect, however, was the sudden feeling of a thin wooden container being placed into her hands, an object that smelled like rich, sweetened bread, or even the extra packages with a scent that she didn't quite recognize, though they still smelled rather delicious.

Lyra simply stepped back when Lightning accepted the gifts, smiling softly, a silent show of thanks for the safe return of her daughter. Lightning knelt back down to place the packages into her backpack, and she nodded at both of them in respect.

"Hey, Light?" Fang called out over the clearing. "Time to go."

Lightning clipped her backpack shut again, before she pulled it on over her shoulders. "On my way."

It was a rather silent procession, the chieftain and her honor guard, slowly escorting their prisoners-turned-guests back out into the wide snowy fields, along with a certain little foal who had to limp along just to keep up with them.

The celebrations kept on below, even in that early hour of night, honoring the stars above that began to shine so brightly. By the time their small group had reached the very height of the overlook, atop the hill that rose so high above sea level, the evening sky had grown far more purple than blue.

"Such cryptic words..." Columba only had eyes for Fang in that moment, as if she feared that her strange visitor might just disappear if she took even a moment to blink. "Now, will you tell us why we shouldn't escort you further?"

Lightning stepped over to Fang's side.

"You worship the constellations, don't you? All of those stars." Fang reached out to hold Lightning's hand. "Columba the dove, Cygnet the swan... Lyra the lyre." She smiled slightly, before she felt that sudden flicker that passed between them, the steady hum of a low fire. "But I've always been partial to the dragon, myself."

And it was in that moment, when the snowy hill came alight with magical energy, with the silent flame that didn't quite think to burn, no, it only changed her, made her stand up so tall into the form of a wyrm, so proud and steadfast, lowering her wings down to help Lightning climb onto her back.

The honor guard held up their shields as if on instinct, but they all lowered slightly when Columba slowly signaled with her hand.

Apple ambled forward again, limping on that bandaged leg, before she hugged at Fang's snout one last time.

"You be good now, okay?" Fang spoke just as softly as she could. "No more running around in places like that... Not unless you've got backup."

Apple nodded, but she stepped back again when Fang moved away, lifting her mighty head up towards the stars.

And the small group of centaurs, they merely watched while Fang stepped across the thick snow like a sheet of silk, walking down towards the far edge of the hill, only to run forward when her wings snapped out against the crisp air of the winter night, guiding her airborne again.

Far above, within the dark hues of a boundless sky, the long, spiraling constellation of a dragon shone brightly.

* * *

At least another whole day had passed before they reached the longest inlet of the north, a 'fjord', Fang called it. She had sat right down near the edge while munching on a rather crispy piece of flatbread, one of the gifts that had given to them by a very thankful mother.

"It'll be a few days, maybe more..." Fang felt the cold wind in her hair, the locks of which were still soft and rather silky from such a thorough brushing session. "But we've made good time."

Lightning was eating some of the leftover casserole from the night they had spent alone in the snow. It was a very unusual baked dish that held what she assumed were soft egg noodles and sweetened cheese, likely milked from the goats that the centaurs had brought with them to the gathering grounds.

"Did that reheat well?" Fang could still feel the remnants of a controlled fire upon her fingertips. "Tried not to burn it..."

"Yeah, it's good." Lightning picked up a few of the noodles with the tines of her fork, before she offered them over to Fang, smiling softly when she accepted. "No burns."

Fang smiled as well. "That's good."

They ate in silence for a while, a lunchtime meal atop those tall, massive cliffs, the stony chasm that led down towards an inland river, one that flowed just as lively as the sea.

It was a moment or two before Fang spoke again, still nibbling at the thin piece of bread. "There's a good chance we'll reach Luxerion within a week or so."

Lightning placed the wooden container down, having already finished with the last of the noodles. "We're getting closer every day, aren't we?"

Fang looked out at the distant, rocky cliffside, nearly identical to the one that they sat upon. "Yeah... Feels like just yesterday when you came crashing down on me."

Lightning tried to hold back a smile.

"They always say it's all about the journey, not the destination..." Fang paused, before she looked back over at Lightning again. "But I'm feeling pretty good about where we're going."

"I meant it, yesterday, I'm glad I met you." Lightning's mind began to wander for a while, wondering where else she might've been at that very moment if she hadn't gone off to seek Fang out, or even worse, slain her right there upon the mountainside and returned home none the wiser. "People talk about fate like it's something physical, something _solid_... Something you can't ever even hope to change, but I don't believe in that."

Fang stared at the crashing water that flowed so far below, how it roared so silently from such a great distance away.

"I think it might have brought us together, yes, but it's up to us now to keep things moving smoothly." Lightning slowly stretched out her legs, letting them rest right there against the cliffside. "All of these past lives... We really stuck with each other."

"Grown on each other, you might say?" Fang reached over to hold Lightning's hand, and she gently began to twine each of their fingertips together. "I'm not really into most of the lovey-dovey clingy stuff, you know? But I do like being with you."

"I like being with you, too." Lightning closed her eyes against the brisk, chilly winds. "You know how to be quiet... You know how to give me space."

"Yeah, Lightning without her space is a _very_ cranky Lightning." Fang smiled to herself. "I'm surprised you didn't just tell those kids to knock it off, yesterday..."

"They were just being kids." Lightning opened her eyes again. "I had to deal with Serah when I was a kid, didn't I? I know how to handle them."

Fang stretched out her legs as well. "You did good... And I think they were all pretty happy to meet someone new."

Lightning kept very quiet for a while. "Serah looks after the neighbor's children sometimes, just when their parents are busy; she's been teaching a few of them how to read and write, basic arithmetic." Lightning reached over to snap the casserole container shut, before she set it back down inside her backpack. "Sometimes we buy extra books with spare money, educational stuff."

Fang nodded. "She likes kids, then?"

"Yeah." Lightning tried not to wrinkle her nose. "I don't really mind them either, but they always seem to mess something up whenever she has them over for lessons... A broken cup, maybe, or scuffs on the walls and floor."

Fang's mouth twitched up into another smile. "That's just part of childhood."

"I'd rather it wasn't..." Lightning reached for her canteen, drinking a small sip of water. "I imagine a centaur child would be even worse."

Fang laughed, then, wry and low. "Be glad you aren't dating a centaur."

Lightning nearly choked on a second swig of water.

"Easy, there..." Fang reached out to pat along Lightning's back. "And don't you worry, I'm sterile, like we discussed." She smiled just a bit. "Or at least my dragon side is."

Lightning cleared her throat to give Fang a sharp glare. "...And you're a _woman_."

"Yeah." Fang slowly stretched her arms above her head, before she moved to sling one of them around Lightning's shoulders. "So don't you worry, there won't be any surprises in our future."

Lightning reached up to wipe away the spilled water droplets from her lips, still glaring just a bit in Fang's direction. "You'd better hope not."

Fang just rolled her eyes. "I don't sleep around, Light... You're my first in this life, remember?"

Lightning leaned back a bit, slowly clearing her thoughts for a moment or two. "I'm glad you have such a good memory, then."

And Fang laughed, very quietly, before she leaned over to rest her head on Lightning's shoulder. "It's not all that hard, you know... More of an sort of instinctual thing." She lowered her voice to a soft purr. "A first couple of kisses, back-rubs, chocolate, a wine festival date... Dinner and fireworks, a single bed? It's all very romantic stuff."

Lightning felt a slight blush creeping over her cheeks. "That _was_ a date... Wasn't it?"

"I have no clue what it was if it wasn't." Fang hugged Lightning a bit closer. "And like you said, if we're together, now..."

Lightning closed her eyes again, leaning into Fang's touch, into the warmth of her body, and she felt her heart thrum just a bit faster than before.

"I just love being here with you." Fang smiled, before she turned to gently pull Lightning against her fully, holding her close. "That's the best part... Just knowing that someone has your back, someone looking out for you."

Lightning hugged Fang as well, and though she didn't choose to voice it, at least not out loud, she couldn't help but agree.

* * *

They flew on above the plains, over the daylight that soon brought them back down into night again, and then off into the morning sun. Their only breaks were for meals and rest, or to figure out which direction to go, but Fang's spacial memory was luckily quite ironclad.

And one day, while they were gliding low above the plains, Lightning suddenly spotted a herd of huge mammoths that roamed down below, and while she almost wanted to tell Fang to stop and land so she could examine them a bit closer, the look of those sharp, massive tusks warned her otherwise.

Yet there was still plenty of wildlife to experience, even in the frigid chill of winter. There was another day when the snowfall howled like baying wolves, when Fang had to land again so she wouldn't crash from the sheer white blindness of it all, when the two of them huddled together beneath the whipping winds, resting back to back again.

Fang caught sight of it first, of the pale, delicate beast that stood out there in the distance, and she slowly leaned back to tap at Lightning's hand. But when she turned around to look again, the creature had drawn slightly closer, snuffling and snorting at the wind.

" _Damn_ it, Light, you were right..." Fang breathed out a thick puff of mist, and she wrapped her arm tightly around Lightning's nearest shoulder, pulling her close within the snow, the frost had nearly risen up to both of their necks. "Or am I just seeing things?"

Lightning stared out at the pale, bearded creature, the one who walked like the wind didn't touch it, the beast known only as the mythical unicorn, or perhaps not so mythical at that point.

"Please tell me I'm not seeing things..." Fang almost shivered at the sheer cold, and she let her inner fire swell up to a much greater degree. "Please, Light."

Lightning shook her head. "It's there."

It walked so quietly that they could scarcely hear those slow, gentle hoofbeats, but then, as it drew nearer and nearer, each step only sent out a tiny crunch of snow.

"What does it want?" Fang looked up at the thin, spiraling horn at the very top of the beast's head, almost as clear as a deadly shard of ice. "They aren't aggressive, right?"

"The one I met wasn't..." Lightning's mask was covering both her mouth and nose, and she nearly had to squint against the savage wind. "I caught sight of it, and it tried to run off... But this one doesn't look afraid; it's a lot bigger, too."

The creature paused before them, gazing down with rounded eyes of solid black, before it swished a tail that looked more like it belonged to a mighty lion than any equine.

"What do you want?" Fang almost shivered again, and she quickly grit her teeth against the cold. "We don't have any handouts for you, sorry."

Lightning felt the sudden reflex to grab for her sword, but the beast merely lowered its head for a brief moment, before it turned away to face those great white plains again, slowly walking away.

Fang leaned back a bit, and she gently pulled Lightning closer to rest against her chest, sharing the warmth of her inner fire. "Weird."

"Yeah." Lightning slowly closed her eyes. "Probably just curious."

It was only after they'd both fallen asleep within the storm, long after the winds died down and the world fell so silent again, only then did Fang wake up to notice the small branch of frozen berries in the snow.

"Light, look at this." Fang held up the tiny sprig of plant life, turning it over in her hands. "Where did it find juniper berries so late in the winter?"

Lightning just yawned, before she snuggled even closer against Fang's jacket.

"...Weird." Fang reached out to nibble at one of the dusky blue berries, though she nearly grimaced at the sharp, bitter taste. "No points for flavor, though."

Hours passed by within that little ditch beneath the snow. While Lightning slept the exhaustion away, Fang just kept holding her close, tempering the bright heat within herself to keep both of them utterly warm.

"Just a few more days here..." Fang stared up at the speckled sky, and she could feel the gentle snowflakes falling down against her skin. "We're gonna get you out of there, Vanille." She took in a deep, silent breath, holding it tight, before she let it flicker out once more, rising as a mist on the wind. "One stop at Luxerion, and then straight south."

She could see the pale sunlight behind the clouds, and she watched as it waned, before it grew so very bright again, and then went dark once more.

Lightning mumbled something in her dozing state, cuddling even closer.

Fang closed her eyes as well, and she slowly drifted back to sleep.

* * *

Within the silence of her own room, with a book propped up on her knees, Fang read aloud to the odd, feathery visitor who was lounging atop a low chair.

While Lightning listened as best she could to the strange new language, whenever Fang looked up at her expectantly, all she could really do was shrug.

And then Fang would lean back again, maybe cursing quietly under her breath, before she finally reached over to pick up a much simpler book. "Okay, see this?"

Lightning looked at the image of two people, one of which was holding a bright roll of cloth in his hands.

"See, this guy, he doesn't want to buy anything, so he says 'no'." Fang pointed at the next picture, where the customer was holding up his hands and shaking his head. "No."

Lightning waited for Fang to turn to the next page, which held another similar image, only there was a different customer who was passing over a handful of coins to the person with the cloth, and also nodding his head.

"He says 'yes'." Fang tapped her fingertips against the illustration. "He wants to buy it."

Lightning stared at the drawing for a long moment, before she looked up at Fang again. "Yes."

"Good." Fang smiled, before she closed the book in her hands. "Hang on a moment." She reached over toward her bedside table to take out a few sheets of blank paper from the drawer, along with a rather thin stick of charcoal. "Now, watch this."

Lightning waited until Fang had finished sketching something against the surface, yet for some reason, she carefully tore the paper in half, lifting up the picture of a rather rotten looking apple, before she held up one that looked very fresh.

Fang kept both sketches at equal distances, yet after a moment, she slowly moved the rotten one forward.

Lightning narrowed her eyes slightly. "No."

"There you go..." Fang took the rotten one away, before she held the fresh apple forward a bit. "How about this?"

Lightning's mouth hinted at a smile, but she glanced away, nodding ever so slightly. "...Yes."

"Smart cookie." Fang moved both of the drawings away. "You'll have this down in no time."

They spent the next hour or so with new sketches and different pages of the book, and by the end of it all, Fang was able to hold up the image of a smile, for 'happy', or a frown for 'sad', and even the image of a queasy-looking face for 'sick', all of which Lightning had learned to call by name. And then, when she held up a sketch of someone with a small cut on their finger, Lightning learned the phrase for 'hurt', especially when it was punctuated by Fang pointing at those real, solid injuries, at the bandages on her arms.

"Poor girl." Fang spoke in just a whisper. "Lost and hurt... Not a very good time, is it?"

Lightning listened closely to Fang's tone.

"But are you feeling sad, Light?" Fang pointed at Lightning and repeated the phrase, speaking it in a questioning tone. "Sad?"

Lightning's gaze flickered down to the floor, and she shrugged again.

"Damn." While the word itself held no bite, Fang still felt herself cringe inside, almost just as lost in the moment as Lightning was.

But then, Lightning suddenly stood up from the chair, before she knelt down upon the bed beside Fang, pointing at her as well. "Sad?"

Fang's train of thought almost slowed to a halt at the question. "...No."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Sick?"

"No." Fang shook her head. "It's a lot more complicated than that."

Lightning frowned at the sudden lack of communicative words, and she almost sighed in frustration.

But then, Fang reached for another piece of paper.

Lightning watched the way that Fang sketched out a group of smiling stick-figures, all standing together in a circle, before she drew out another group upon a different sheet of paper, one with only two figures who didn't have any facial expressions at all.

Fang pointed at the first sheet of paper. "Family." She went back to the ones without full faces, for they simply stood next to each other without mouths, but then, she suddenly drew another figure at the side, one with a smile, and then she drew in the smiles on the other two. But then, the sound of torn paper cut through the silence again, and the last figure was set off to the side, before Fang reached down to smudge out the faces of the other two, somewhat expressionless yet again.

Lightning's shoulders went low.

"That's about it..." Fang began to pull a tiny rip down between the two figures, but she stopped halfway, leaving it intact. "There we are."

Lightning slowly reached out for the figure who'd been set aside, and she stared at it for a long moment.

Fang tapped at the picture with two people. "Fang." She pointed at the shorter of the two, before she moved her fingertip to rest above the taller. "...Dad." And then, she reached over to tap at the one Lightning was holding. "Mom."

Lightning mumbled under her breath. "Mom."

"Yes." Fang gently took the paper back. "Mom left." She held both pieces together, before she moved them apart again. "Left... _Leave_."

Lightning looked down at the stray bit of charcoal, and she reached over to pick it up. "Fang?"

"Yes... Yeah." Fang handed her a blank piece of paper. "Go ahead."

Lightning slowly began to draw, careful not to smudge any of the lines. The charcoal made coarse scratching sounds against the blank parchment, and once Lightning was finally finished, she held up the image of quite a few different things.

Fang leaned in to look what could only be a small planet, and then a big, brilliant sun, before she noticed a strange, almost aerodynamic object that hovered there by itself, almost shaped in the way that a bird looked when it was tucking in its wings to dive down, only the object, it had windows like a house.

Lightning pointed at the sun. "Sick."

Fang's mouth twitched into another frown.

Lightning crossed out the sun with the charcoal, making it send out chaotic lines of energy, which soon utterly consumed the tiny planet in scribbles, before she pointed at the strange little vessel that hovered beside it. "Leave."

Fang leaned in even further to examine the odd image. "Lightning?" She pointed at it.

Lightning nodded, before she reached for another piece of blank paper.

Fang waited in silence, but when she finally caught sight of the strange, crystalline vessel with a stick-figure standing right at the side, she had a feeling they didn't need to share many more words to understand it.

Lightning drew the figure to have little feathers on either side of its head, before she sketched out another image, where the vessel was much larger than before, and it had the stick figure sleeping inside.

Fang leaned back again. "So, you left..."

Lightning nodded.

"Why?" Fang reached over to point at the paper with the drawing of the other, bigger object. "If you were _there_ -"

"Fang." Lightning slowly pointed at the bandage on her cheek. "Hurt."

"Oh..." It dawned in Fang's eyes only a moment after she said it. " _Oh_."

Lightning rubbed at her cheek a bit, looking away.

"Someone hurt you up there, didn't they?" Fang set the papers back down on her bed. "Figures... You had to leave your home, and then leave the very same thing you left it in." She tried not to let her sudden temper get the best of her, though she soon found herself standing back up to pace around the room. "If your sun... Blew up, or started going wacky like that, then your planet would've been destroyed, wouldn't it?"

Lightning just kept rubbing at the pain in her cheek.

"So you don't... _Have_ a home." Fang paused, before she started to pace again, only with a much softer tone of voice than before. "What in the hell are we gonna do, then?"

The moments stretched on, and after a long while of trying to wrap her head around the whole situation, Fang stepped over towards the windowsill, leaning forward to stare at the outside world. "Is that thing still out there, somewhere?" She pressed her nose against the glass. "Up in space?"

Another moment of silence filled the room, while the rain tapped on outside.

Lightning let her hand fall back down upon her lap, and she began to grit her teeth for just a moment, before she turned herself around on the bed. "Fang."

Fang nodded without looking away from the window.

Lightning took a deep, steady breath. "Sad... No."

Fang almost laughed at the sound of it. " _Not_ sad."

Lightning paused, running the words through her mind for a moment. "Not sad."

Fang finally looked back over her shoulder. "You're not sad?"

Lightning just kept staring at her from where she was sitting atop the bed, and her gaze didn't waver.

"You're pretty brave." Fang turned around again, leaning back against the windowsill. "Happy?"

Lightning's gaze finally flickered away.

Fang nodded slowly, before she looked back out at the rain again. "Thought so."

* * *

She woke to the sound of a sharp, blustering wind.

Lightning's jacket had been covered beneath a fine layer of snow, and while her hood was pulled up to protect her head from the cold, she was shivering slightly in her sleep, even against the warmth of Fang's body.

But Fang rose up, holding her close, and she focused on the energy within herself, making it grow even warmer than before. "Light... We should keep moving."

Lightning only woke when Fang started to gently squeeze her shoulders.

"We should get going." Fang smiled at the sleepy look in Lightning's eyes. "Lots of ground to cover."

Lightning yawned almost silently, before she slowly leaned back a bit, glancing around at their surroundings. "I think that I dreamt about a unicorn, unless..?"

"No, that was real." Fang looked around for the juniper branch, but it was likely quite covered in the snowfall by that point. "Weird, huh? Maybe they're less elusive up here."

Gradually, Lightning rose up to her knees, clambering out from the little ditch of snow that had gathered up around them in the storm, and she tugged her hood away to fluff out her hair a bit. "I told you I wasn't making it up."

"Right, right." Fang moved towards the edge of the ditch as well, climbing up to sit there beside Lightning. "Or maybe we _both_ just dreamed it."

Lightning shrugged.

"Anyway..." Fang slowly rose back up to her feet, and she began to walk out within the deep snow, gazing around at the wide, sprawling fields. "Almost feels like this place never ends, doesn't it?"

Lightning stood up as well. "Yeah." Her cloak almost seemed to ripple in the wind, flapping so quietly at her back. "Let's go."

Fang took a moment longer just to look around with her human form, before she let herself start to change.

Lightning blinked against the flurrying flakes of snow, and when her vision finally refocused, Fang stared back at her with a draconic form. "Morning, Fang."

Fang smiled rather toothily. "More like afternoon, by now..."

Lightning stepped over to grab at one of Fang's wings, hoisting herself back up to her usual spot beside the satchel. "Whatever."

Fang just kept smiling, and she even let out a low laugh when Lightning was situated, before she began to walk forward through the snow. "Grumpy, huh?"

"Haven't had breakfast yet..." Lightning took off one of her gloves to touch the scales on Fang's neck. _You think we'll reach the coast again, today?_

 _Probably._ Fang kicked off into the air with her hind legs, flapping and fighting to flap her wings against the strong wind, all up until she was finally airborne again. _And after that, we'll be back to flying from island to island again until we reach Nova Chrysalia._

 _Then the vestige..._ Lightning braced herself against the heavy gusts of air, gripping on as tightly as she could to Fang's satchel strap. _And then all the way back home._

 _Sounds about right._ Fang tipped herself from side to side within the air, and she let out a low roar, one that echoed all throughout the snowy plains. _Not bad for a few weeks of travel..._

 _Has it really been that long?_ Lightning let out a silent sigh against her mask. _Serah's going to kill me._

 _No she won't..._ Fang smiled against the brisk, frigid air. _Not when you bring her back an awesome present from Luxerion._

Lightning rolled her eyes. _I think you might be shelling out for that one._

 _Or you could always just try to be extra polite to her lover-boy..._ Fang kept smiling, gliding out along the thick currents of wind. _Maybe even play nice about the two of them being together._

Lightning tried not to grimace at that.

 _Seriously, Light, this could be your golden ticket out of a very angry rant._ Fang turned her head around to look over her winged shoulders. _Just tell her that she's old enough to make her own decisions, and that you'll always be there if they need your support... And so will I._

Lightning felt her arms relax ever so slightly, and she almost didn't realize she had been clenching her teeth together, not until her jaw suddenly went slack. _I just don't want her to leave._

 _I don't think she will._ Fang slowly tilted her head to the side, almost wistful in a way. _You've been traveling with me for how long, now..? A couple weeks at least, and you still want to go back home to Serah when we're done, don't you?_

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut tight.

 _Serah loves you, Light, she isn't going to just run off and vanish._ Fang's inner voice almost seemed to rumble gently. _Sisters always find each other again, no matter how far they drift apart._

Lightning leaned forward to rest her head against the back of Fang's neck. _Why do you always have the best advice?_

 _You don't live for hundreds of thousands of years and not learn these things..._ Fang turned back towards the frigid, rushing air, and she smiled again, loose and free. _That's the thing about siblings, though... There's nothing much stronger than family._

Lightning nodded against Fang's scales. _I just hope they're happy together._

 _Oh, they're probably_ _ **very**_ _happy..._ Fang fought back a low laugh. _The whole house to themselves, nice warm fireplace to sit beside..?_

Lightning narrowed her eyes with a low growl. _Fang..._

 _Yeah, yeah... Just let the little lovebirds have their fun._ Fang flew on into the midday sky, soaring further and further into the north. _We've certainly had our share._

* * *

It was late evening by the time they landed out on the plains, where the snow hadn't yet covered some of the taller, hardier grasses, which made the whole horizon look gray.

Lightning stepped forward to stretch out her limbs; it had been a long, chilly flight, and her legs were sorely aching from the stillness of it all.

Fang sat down on her hind limbs, gazing out over the snowy grassland. "Herd of elk, way over there..."

Lightning let her arms rise up above her head, just to flex away the little twinging aches. "Looking for dinner, are you?"

Fang smiled softly. "Someone else sure is."

Lightning paused to focus upon the hazy outline off in the distance, but her eyes went just a bit wider at the sight of so many huge, stampeding elk, and then the massive dire wolves that hounded their every move.

Fang lifted her wings out to rest on either side of Lightning, folded against the snow, just enough to possibly shield her if any of those creatures decided to look their way, even if it would take them more than a few minutes just to travel that far.

Lightning peered at the roaring bull elk, and then at all of the does who ran as fast as they possibly could, even the older, weakened creatures, but they were exactly who the wolves were after. It was a mere culling, the job of a predatory beast, just to weed out whoever was too slow to keep up with the rest of the herd... A favor, by any other definition, even if the act was more than slightly macabre.

Fang watched the way that such sharp teeth snapped out at their quarry, so silent from far off in the distance, yet she could almost imagine the harsh, frenzied panting of both predator and prey, how the injured elk would call out pitifully from across the plains once the wolves finally tackled it to the ground, ripping and savaging the softer spots of fur, the flesh that would bring the beast down to a final halt, limp and lifeless against the snow.

Lightning stared at the grizzly sight. "It makes you wonder how anyone ever domesticated dogs."

Fang lowered her head down to nudge Lightning's shoulder. "Everyone's got that other side... Even wolves." She looked back out over the plains. "They're a team, they work together."

Lightning nodded. "A family."

The sun sank low beneath the horizon, scarcely visible from behind the whirling snow.

* * *

Lightning leaned down against Fang's shoulder, dozing off into the late evening, sleepy from the rich meal of cooked elk flesh.

Yet Fang lingered on for a while, remembering all of those wolves out on the plains, and she wondered just how similar it had been when she sank her own set of teeth down into an elk's neck, killing it instantly, just to provide such similar food to her own family. She always ate the greater bulk of their quarry's meat with her dragon form, for it seemed to directly aid her energy for flying.

But with so little wood for a fire, Lightning had to make do with her share being cooked beneath dragon flame, though she only ever complained when Fang got any 'slobber' on it. Yet by that time of the evening, she was already fast asleep, leaning against both the sloped edge of a hill and Fang's shoulder, keeping as close as she possibly could to that solid source of warmth.

Fang could still feel the sharp chill of the snow against the back of her head, though she knew it was slowly melting beneath her inner fire. She almost wanted to reach out beneath Lightning's hood to stroke at her hair, but she quickly thought better of the idea; Lightning would only become cranky if she was woken up from such a state, all warm and safe and tucked up against a rather gentle companion.

Yet a source of sleep just wouldn't find Fang's thoughts, at least not at that moment in time. Her mind was far too cluttered with the question of how close they were to the ocean, or how long it would take to cross the sea back south, or even the entire trip back to Gran Pulse. She thought of Vanille, of how she'd likely wake up there to find Bhakti again, and just how happy she would be upon their return.

If that _was_ the correct solution, of course... Fang began to grit her teeth, trying not to let herself spiral out into anger again. She tried to just smother away the doubt within those thoughts of better days, of the time when she finally felt so free from that primal, lurking fear, when Vanille was right there at her side, guiding her out from the darkness.

Fang almost wanted to roll over on her side and curl up, though she didn't want to disturb Lightning's slumber. Would the two of them get along well? Would Vanille want to live in that little village with them, one big family again?

Lightning's eyes slowly flickered beneath her eyelids, likely dreaming of other things.

Fang exhaled, and her breath turned to pale mist in the frigid air. They would soon be back down to the coast again, before long, flying out over the long channels of frozen seawater, down to warmer currents, to those tropical islands and warm, refreshing winds. She slowly closed her eyes, breathing deep.

Sleep only took her away once she finally let her mind go blank, just a wide, empty slate, soon to be filled with dreams.

* * *

"To be honest... I have no earthly idea."

Fang frowned at the seer who sat there in her living room, one who was peering so closely at Lightning. "Is this a joke..? You're supposed to be able to determine this stuff, right?"

"The spirits are often fickle creatures." The seer, a young woman in the robes of a priestess, she just kept staring at Lightning's unusual ears. "If there's something _they_ do not know... Then it cannot be seen to me."

Fang's father spoke up from his seat on a nearby armchair. "Then we can assume that the... Crystal meteor, that it did indeed fall from outer space?"

The seer frowned slightly. "Or perhaps from somewhere else that the spirits cannot reach."

"No, she's definitely an alien." Fang picked up the handful of the various sketches, handing them over towards the seer. "See all that? I've been teaching her words today, just the simple stuff... But she jumped right ahead to this."

"Is is the sun?" The seer stared at the image of a shining circle drawn in charcoal, one that had reached out to smother the little planet beside it. "Another... _Sun_."

Lightning stared down at the floor of the room, utterly ignoring the conversion around her. They'd brought someone in to gawk at her, she knew that much, and the longer that the robed woman kept sending her strange glances and looks of sheer disbelief, the less and less Lightning found herself trying to understand. And then, the final tipping point, when the stranger stepped over again to examine her like something she'd found under a _rock..._ No, Lightning stood up with a rather solid, icy stare, before she swiftly made her way over towards the front door.

"Light-"

She could still hear Fang's voice in the background of that sudden ringing sound in her ears, even when it was drowned out by the loud patter of rain. Lightning felt her bare feet squish against the mud, and she felt the feathers on her ears and neck start to flatten beneath the weight of the falling water.

But she needed the cold. She needed to let that sudden tightness in her chest to dissipate, needed the chill of the liquid on her skin to wash all of those frustrations away. She wasn't a _specimen_ , damn it all, she wasn't just some chunk of stone that'd fallen from the sky! She worried that spending one more minute with that nosy, mousy little woman in the long robes, that she might've just taken everything out on her, something that she couldn't just undo.

It was a long, quiet moment before a gentle hand touched her shoulder, and Lightning froze, just standing there in the pouring rain.

"Light..." Fang's tone was as sympathetic as she could muster. "I'm sorry, some people are tactless; I should've stepped in."

Lightning's ears lowered slightly at Fang's voice, at that mirrored sound of anger, more than just a twinge of frustration and guilt.

"I'm sorry." Fang's hair was slicked down against the back of her neck in the downpour, but in that moment, she couldn't give less of a damn about it, or even her clothes. "You don't have to see anyone else, not if you don't want to."

Lightning suddenly took a step forward, past the little path that led towards the rest of the city, no, she needed the open sky, needed the feeling of cold wind in her hair, away from the confines of such small buildings. But when she turned back to glance at Fang, and at the lost, almost distant look in her eyes, Lightning waved for her to follow.

"...Just need to walk it off, huh?" Fang stepped out to stand beside her, before they both made their way down into the taller grass. "I know the feeling."

Lightning narrowed her eyes, and she thought back to a certain word that Fang had taught her from one of the simpler books, one with the image of a mosquito buzzing around a small group of people. " _Annoying_."

"The one back there?" Fang pointed at the house behind them. "The seer?"

Lightning looked back over her shoulder. "Seer?"

Fang used her hands to draw out the invisible lines of a robe near her waist, and she almost chuckled at the way Lightning grimaced.

"Seer..." Lightning grit her teeth. "Annoying."

Fang nodded. "Sorry about that."

Lightning just kept walking into the grass, gazing up at the sky.

"You want to see something cool, Light?" Fang stepped ahead, and she pointed at the outskirts of the distant forest, which were teeming with low shrubs and wildflowers. "All the little frogs in there start singing whenever it rains."

Lightning watched while Fang stepped on ahead, and she quickly moved to follow after her.

"If it makes you feel any better, she probably didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Fang kept walking on through the tall grass, listening to the steady patter of the rain. "The seers hardly ever get out of that tower, you know? All that meditation and prayer... This was probably the most exciting thing to happen to her all year."

Lightning caught only a few words of what Fang said, namely the simple ones; 'feel', in particular, Fang explained that one to her with several different images, one that had people being affected by things, and then the result of how each those things changed their mood or physical state. The picture of a frowning face, for example, Fang used that one after drawing someone who'd been bitten and scratched by a wild beast, which also taught Lightning the words 'bite' and 'attack', and also 'run', when Fang drew out the little stick figure racing away as fast as it could.

They both kept traveling beneath the rain, into the tall shrubs that made up the first few patches of forested land, and Fang smiled when she heard those tiny little tree frogs, all chirping away into the evening. Yet when she looked back to see a short flurry of feathers, that was all she was able to catch sight of, all up until Lightning suddenly landed upon the branch of a nearby tree, gazing down at Fang with those sharp blue eyes of hers.

"So you _can_ fly..." Fang leaned back slightly to look up at Lightning. "Just don't fall, okay?"

Lightning stepped along the narrow branch, gazing down at the deep green forest, and a sudden flicker of curiosity ran right through her thoughts; just how _massive_ was a place like that? The woods of her own home world had always ended after a short while, but right then, she couldn't even see a stopping point, much less the other side of the forest.

It was with that realization that she spread out her wings again, shaking the rain away, before she jumped up and flapped to fly even higher before, just to find out how many trees there were. She could see Fang, too, still standing down there, and then a roaming group of people back in the town; her eyesight was sharp enough to pinpoint a tiny cricket in the grass at a mile's distance, so when she finally caught sight of the full width of the land...

Lightning stopped flapping her wings, sailing downward for just a moment or two, and her mind nearly ground to a halt. The land upon the horizon was so much more massive than anything she'd ever seen before, and the sheer scale of it, while it was nothing compared to the distance she'd traveled in space, it made her heart feel so much heavier just to think of such things.

Fang almost smiled when Lightning landed again, down in the grass instead of the trees. "Hey, you." She stepped over to kneel beside her, gazing at the form of a massive falcon, one with soft, drooping ears. "Hey... Are you sad?"

Lightning stared at the ground beneath her talons.

"You can still understand me like this, right?" Fang leaned to the side to catch Lightning's gaze. "Light?"

Lightning moved to look at her as well, and it was only then that Fang realized it wasn't sadness, that it was likely just the overwhelming sight of such huge things, of an unknown world. She was only a tiny fish who'd grown up within a single riverbed, and then suddenly to be pushed out to sea without knowing such a place even existed, she was merely floating out there in the open without much of anything to hold on to.

But after a long moment, there was that sudden glint in her eyes, before Lightning's ears went upright, on full alert.

"What is it?" Fang knew from experience that birds of prey had impeccable eyesight, from how Bahamut could spot a mouse and then fly out to catch it even from all the way across a field. "You see something?"

Lightning suddenly flapped, and the swift gust of air almost pushed Fang back a bit.

"Light-" Fang let out a quiet sigh. "What's gotten into you?"

Lightning flew higher and higher, turning, circling, all while looking down at something that waited back there upon the ground.

"Let me guess... You like mice too?" Fang slowly rose back up to her feet, but her eyes were barely fast enough to catch the way that Lightning suddenly tucked her wings in, hurling herself down though the sky as if on instinct, and then, once she came within striking distance of the low, prickly shrubs, she suddenly flared out her talons to dive down against something, before a shrill screech suddenly cut right through the sound of drumming rain.

Rabbits were known to scream when they were in danger or under threat of predation, but the sound was swiftly silenced with a hooklike beak, then with a quick, severing peck to the spinal cord, and then those long, sharp talons, they grabbed out and sank themselves down into the flesh of their quarry.

Fang walked forward as slowly as she could, careful not to let any of her clothes snag against the thorny brambles. "You know, Light... If you were hungry, you could've just said so."

But that massive beak just kept pulling back long chunks of rabbit flesh to swallow whole, while those talons kept on crushing against the little gray creature.

Fang moved to sit down just a short distance away. "Can't keep a bird of prey from _preying_ , I guess."

Lightning finally looked up at her companion, but there was a bit of blooded flesh dangling there within her beak.

"No, it's fine-" Fang grimaced when she was practically forced to take the strip of the raw meat, otherwise it would've been dropped right down against her lap. "I appreciate the thought, but..."

Lightning turned away to keep eating the carcass of the rabbit.

Fang held up the piece of meat between her fingertips. "Not quite bacon, is it?" She slowly reached over to hand it back to Lightning, who merely ruffled her feathers at such a gesture. "Sorry, but I'd rather not eat raw meat out in the bushes."

But when Lightning's ears drooped ever so slightly, even if she tried to hide it, such a thing sent long waves of guilt into Fang's heart, almost enough to make the bloody morsel look just a little bit more appetizing.

"...Only for you, Light." Fang took the tiniest, slightest nibble at end that looked a bit less disgusting. "There, you all good, now?"

Lightning pulled back another long bite of raw flesh, flicking her ears back and forth.

"You've gotta be hungry." Fang recalled the small lunch that they'd both shared over the books that she had borrowed from Vanille, who had dropped them off earlier in the morning, before going back to work. "Birds need to eat a whole lot for enough energy to fly, I know that much." She leaned back a bit, trying to swish a bit of rainwater into her mouth, just to wash away the taste of raw rabbit. "It's a good thing you know how to hunt."

Lightning kept eating, even with the way that the rain grew heavier and more constant at such a late hour, deep beneath the darkness of the the evening.

Fang reached up to brush away a lock of stray hair from her face, though she didn't even try to wipe off the water from her skin. "How's this for a bath, huh?" She slowly leaned back on her hands, tossing away the uneaten bit of rabbit flesh into the grass. "But we should get inside before it gets too dark out here."

But while Lightning tore off the last few bits of edible meat, looking just as proud of herself as a huge falcon could possibly express, it didn't seem as if she was in any hurry to go back indoors. And when the moment finally dawned, when Fang watched her fly upwards again, leaving behind all of the ripped bits of rabbit fur and scattered bones, that was exactly when she realized it.

Lightning simply wasn't the sort of woman to be analyzed, sheltered, or even caged in, for every muscle in her body was simply shouting for her to _fly_ , to explore the strange new place that she'd happened upon by chance, for there would likely never be a way to get herself back into orbit, nor even into stasis again. And she seemed not to be one who dwelled upon those things, always adapting, always reacting, hardly the sort of person to wallow there in any state of uncertainty.

No, Fang realized, Lightning was far beyond it all, beyond the subtle fear that she'd seen just a day ago, fast as her namesake and twice as rapidly reactive. She watched the way those long, pale feathers drifted within the wind and rain, watched how Lightning held out her talons to perch upon another branch, resting from the meal she'd eaten only moments ago.

Fang found her own mind drifting back to the days when she was just a child, when she taught Bahamut to fly. She merely ran around while he screeched and raced after her with his own two feet, but whenever she jumped up into the air, he would always flap his wings to try and join her. They were truly a bonded pair, almost akin to a mother and son, for her face had been the first thing he'd ever seen upon hatching from his egg, and it sealed a permanent mark upon both of them.

She remembered the time when her eagle finally managed to get airborne on his own, and how she'd suddenly stopped running to turn around and look at him. He'd seemed so free and weightless in the air, and her heart almost felt as if it was sinking, for he'd flown off even higher, almost like he'd forgotten her. It was a subject she knew quite well, though, that one could never claim ownership or even friendship over another being, not unless they chose to return of their own volition. Yet when Bahamut suddenly realized just how far he'd flown, and then when turned back around...

Fang fought back a bitter smile. "It's gotta be... It's your choice." She looked up at where Lightning had already started to doze off atop the branch, at those sleepy eyes and drooping ears, at the falcon up in the trees. "I just hope-" Fang paused, before she slowly rose back to her feet. "Stay safe, Light."

It was a long, quiet walk back to the steps of her father's house, where their next conversion was almost just as wordless. Dinner was eaten without more than a sound, though her father did take a brief moment afterwards to ask upon Lightning's whereabouts, before he quietly apologized for not stepping in as well.

"She's an adult, Fang, and so are you, now..." Her father was scrubbing at a plate beneath the faucet. "Adults have to find their own path in life, their own choices."

A near sleepless, dreamless night held such wandering thoughts, the endless wondering if Lightning felt very cold out there in the rain, if her feathers were much too damp to fly again, if she was really ever coming back or not. By the time the first light of the morning began to peek in though her window, Fang was quite sure that her body felt even more exhausted than before she'd lain down to sleep.

She grumbled such low sounds under her breath, pulling herself out of bed. She made her way to the bathroom to wash her face, where she soon began to brush the tangles out from her hair. Fang could see the long shadows beneath her eyes, gazing back at her from deep within the mirror. She paused for a moment, just standing there, before she suddenly swore that her heart skipped a beat from the distant knock at the front door. Fang stopped herself before she could bolt for it; when had she ever grown so _clingy_ to another person, especially just an acquaintance?

"What a mess..." Fang slowly rubbed at her forehead, trying to muster up some semblance of self dignity and poise, before she carefully sauntered back out into the hall, towards the living room, and then up to the front door.

With a quiet creak of the hinges, Fang blinked once, and then twice, before she realized that what she was seeing _was_ in fact an outstretched arm with a dead rabbit held out before her, as well as the face of Lightning herself, who simply refused to meet her gaze.

Slowly, and with great care, Fang began to lean against the doorframe. "A gift, is it?"

Lightning held the rabbit out a bit closer than before.

Fang felt her lips twitch up into a small smile. "Or is this just compensation for dinner, the other day?"

Lightning tried to keep her gaze on the ground, but her eyes slowly slid up to look at Fang, and only then was the gift accepted.

"Not too many holes..." Fang examined the fluffy brown pelt of the rabbit, obviously killed at the neck from what could only have been a rather massive beak. "Nice job."

Lightning glanced down at the ground again, before she quietly spoke one of the words that she'd only learned a day before. "...Books?"

Fang smiled again, and she stepped away, welcoming Lightning inside. "Let's get to work."

* * *

The snowfall soon slowed to a thin flurry, gentle and soft in the low blues of the morning sky.

Fang's nose twitched, and she slid her eyes open to stare at the light of day, back there in her own world again, one where a certain weight on her shoulder was mysteriously absent. "...Light?"

A quiet sound answered her from just a short distance away.

Fang sat up within the deep snow, and she shook out the frost from her hair, blinking against the bright light.

Lightning spoke up a bit louder than before. "Fang, come here."

"Coming..." Fang yawned, rising to her knees, before she stood up the rest of the way, almost standing to her waist in the snow. "What is it?"

Lightning was kneeling down beside something at the bottom of the hill. "It's all frozen."

Only then, when Lightning pushed away a bit of snowfall from the flat stretch of ground, only then did Fang realize it wasn't _ground_ , and that they'd been sleeping on the hill beside what looked like a wide, glassy lake.

"If we had the right equipment for ice fishing..." Lightning slowly leaned away from the frozen shore. "It's just not worth the hassle without a line and bait."

Fang stepped a bit further down the hill, gazing out over the pale horizon. "Well, we can always go fishing out on the ocean again."

Lightning nodded. "Yeah."

Fang took a moment to glance down at where Lightning was sitting, and then at the almost distant look in her eyes. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Lightning folded her arms against the tops of her knees, staring at the frozen lake. "Just remembering; Serah and I always go ice fishing at least once per winter, but at the rate that we might be out here..."

Fang frowned a little, before she slowly sat down as well. "Well, if we do miss the chance, maybe you can make it up with two trips next year?"

Lightning tried to fight back a tiny smile. "It's more of a... 'Let's carry out a bottle of wine and fishing gear to the ice and act silly, just once a year', sort of thing; the fish are just an added bonus."

Fang's eyes went slightly wide. "Well, color me surprised." She quickly smiled as well, nudging at Lightning's shoulder with her wrist. "Lightning, acting _silly_ , in her own words..."

"Like I said, just _once_." Lightning's face went utterly serious again, but there was still a slight glint of mischief in her eyes. "And I always cut us both off of the wine before we get too tipsy."

Fang lowered her voice down to a slight drawl, leaning in to rest her chin against Lightning's shoulder. "Responsible."

"It's the one time that I try to act like... Like we were before." Lightning's gaze dropped down to the ice that stood beneath each heel of her boots. "Like back when we were just a couple of dumb kids, running around the beach with fishing poles, carrying lunchboxes out to the woods, even hiding under waterfalls." She smiled when Fang gave her a gentle hug around the waist. "It was so different then, Fang... We were both different."

"I'd bet she appreciates the gesture." Fang brought her voice back to what it had been before, purely conversational again. "Really, Light, sisters are important... You've got to stay close."

Lightning nodded. "I try not to look back on it, at least not with regret." She reached over to hold Fang's hand. "It was a good life, but a simple one... We didn't know much of anything about the rest of the world."

Fang looked out over the long white fields, at the way the sunlight dimmed with each passing cloud. "But now you know."

"Yeah." Lightning leaned against Fang as well. "It's just a whole lot to deal with, sometimes."

"You've got all of us." Fang hugged Lightning even closer. "You've got your family, now."

In the light of the morning sun, Lightning reached up to hug Fang back. "...I'm glad."

* * *

Another day of flying, of crossing over the nearly endless amount of northern land, but by the time the afternoon began to wane into evening, Fang finally caught sight of the sea.

Lightning couldn't help but stare at such a massive stone ruin, an old, castled city that stood out on the cliffs, with a long, winding road that led all the way down to the shore. She leaned forward a bit to try and examine it, but when Fang suddenly tilted her wings rather in a rather pointed way, away from the crumbling ruins, Lightning reached down to touch at the scales beside the satchel strap.

She could feel the warmth of Fang's fire, and Lightning focused herself on speaking telepathically. _Why aren't we landing there?_

Fang flapped both of her wings against the strong ocean winds. _I always get a bad feeling around that place... Not a great spot to nap before a long trip._

 _Land outside it, then... But I want to have a look._ Lightning tugged at the nearest side of Fang's neck. _Come on, what happened to my brave, fearless dragon?_

Fang grumbled a bit. _I've never called myself fearless... And I'm not afraid, just not terribly fond of nasty old ruins._

 _It doesn't look nasty._ Lightning nodded in approval when Fang slowly turned back to the side, gliding closer to the coastal city walls. _Just abandoned._

 _And it doesn't occur to you that there might be a_ _ **reason**_ _there's no one home?_ Fang let out a deep sigh, but she just kept soaring on over the rigid stone buildings, the bricks that were washed out of their colors beneath the salty air of the sea. _Fine, fine, you're the boss._

Lightning winced a bit when Fang dove down, when they suddenly landed right atop one of the massive walls, before she slowly leaned to the side, examining the old, hollow city that awaited below. "Why am _I_ the boss?"

Fang slowly sat down on her hind limbs. "Because, sweetheart, size isn't everything, and you're a real firebrand when you want to be." She craned her neck around to look Lightning in the eye. "You're just a natural leader, nothing more to it... And I'm more of the 'cool second in command', type, unless you start getting too hot in the head."

Lightning rolled her eyes, before she pointed at the ground beneath the wall. "Go land down there."

Fang's upper face crinkled in amusement. "And if I say no?"

"Then I'll climb down myself, and you'll have to fly down anyway to get me." Lightning almost smiled when Fang moved forward again. "All of these old ruins are incredible, Fang; I want to see as much as I can while we rest."

Fang snorted a bit of mist out into the air. "It's not like they're _ancient_ , not by my standards... Just a bunch of old rocks and rotten timber."

"We can't all be thousands of years old-" Lightning gripped the satchel strap when Fang suddenly swept down again, before each of her hind limbs and wings landed with a rather sharp and heavy thump. "Fang, a little _warning_ , first?"

"You asked me to land, and I did." Fang began to lay down within the snow, snorting again at the sudden feeling of prickles down her spine, and then even the rarest sort of chill in her bones, the kind that mere temperature could never bring. "You don't feel the slightest bit creeped out, here?"

But Lightning was already staring at something off in the distance, something that peered out at her from behind a dusty, shattered window. "Fang..."

"Yeah?" Fang lifted her head up to follow Lightning's gaze. "What is it?"

Lightning took a deep, silent breath. "Do you see anything in that window, there?"

Fang narrowed her eyes, before she slowly shook her head. "No."

And then, when the figure suddenly shimmered and dispersed, reappearing near the other side of the wall, only to wander off in search of something, without even leaving footprints in the snow, it was then when Lightning knew with absolute certainty.

"Ghost..." Lightning closed her eyes for just a moment, steeling herself for what she was just about to do. "There's a ghost over there, Fang."

Fang sighed, before she flopped her whole head down against the snow. " _Told_ you it was creepy."

"I know how to handle ghosts." Lightning slid herself down over Fang's wing, but what she didn't expect was for that very same wing to suddenly grab at her, moving her backwards like a wide, leathery hand, and then blocking her path again with the sheer width of the other limb. "Fang, it'll be fine-"

"Ghosts are bad news." Fang angled both of her wings to stand as a circular barrier, just to keep Lightning from walking away. "I'm not very superstitions, Light, but lost souls that haven't left for Etro's realm? That's dangerous business."

"They can't really _do_ anything." Lightning sighed when Fang snuffled her hair, nuzzling at it with the end of her nose. "Fang, don't coddle me."

Fang gave her a long, stern look. "Are you absolutely sure they can't do anything..?" She lowered her head down to look Lightning right in the eye, almost unblinking as they stared at each other for a while. "We'll go together, then."

Lightning finally did blink, but when she opened her eyes, there was Fang's human form again, as if she'd never been anything else.

"So, what, do you just send them off with a quick whack on the head?" Fang tapped at Lightning's hair with her index finger. "Or do you get all touchy-feely about unfinished business?"

Lightning tried not to roll her eyes. "The latter, mostly." She turned around to face where she'd seen the ghost in the window, before she slowly began to walk forward, careful not to make much sound. "They're stuck here because they can't let go for some reason or another... You just have to find that reason and resolve it."

Fang followed after her, keeping close enough to ward away any possible threats with a sudden gout of fire, most likely from her hands. "But what if you can't fix the reason?"

"Then you leave." Lightning narrowed her eyes at a slight glimmer, one that stood off in the distance. "It might sound cruel, but you just can't _force_ a soul to move on."

"What does it usually take?" Fang looked around at all of the snow covered buildings, at the shattered windows and broken walls, and she narrowed her eyes at the sound of the low, howling wind. "Just a pep talk?"

Lightning shook her head, before she knelt down beside a small drift of snow. "You just have to find out what's keeping them here... It can be anything from a lost loved one, a personal keepsake, or something that they never got to finish." She stared at the translucent outline of a kneeling figure, likely deep within meditation or prayer, but the soft, wispy outline only hovered an inch or two above the snow. "Hello."

Fang's arms stiffened a bit. "It's right _here?_ "

"Looks like a different person than the other one..." Lightning leaned forward a bit to try and catch the ghost's attention. "Is there anything you need, ma'am?"

The ghost finally opened her eyes, but she simply stared out at the rest of the city, hands clasped in reverent prayer. "They _must_ open the gates... It's all for naught if they don't let us out!"

Lightning turned to look at the great walls of the city, where she'd just seen the fractured remains of the once-proud barricades, the gates that stood taller than even Fang's dragon form. "They're already open."

The ghost kept shaking her head, bowing low against the ground, and she gripped her hands even tighter together. "We'll all be gone, we'll all wash _away_..."

Lightning leaned back again, before she turned to look at Fang. "They aren't always... Rational."

"What did she say?" Fang was still glancing around for any hint of a ghostly image, though she couldn't see anything besides the snow or an occasional bit of rubble. "Did she tell you what she wants?"

"She wants the gates to open so she can get out." Lightning slowly stood back up again. "But the gates..."

Fang nodded. "Just splinters and dust by now." She stared at nothing in particular for a brief while, thinking silently, before she suddenly snapped her fingers. "Ask her what she's waiting for."

Lightning turned back to face the ghost. "...What are you waiting for, ma'am?"

"They'll bring the gates up, we'll hear it from here!" The ghost suddenly rose up to her feet, and she stepped forward, glancing around as if she could still see some sort of rapid calamity, locked within the very same moment that something had taken her life. "They'll ring the bells, they _always_ do..." Her voice sounded as if she was on the verge of crying, but she just kept clasping her hands together. "I need to find my children."

Lightning nodded. "Go find them; I'll see if I can get someone to bring the gates up faster, okay?"

And just like that, a sudden look of sheer gratitude, before the ghost knelt down to pray again.

Fang watched while Lightning turned to walk further into the city streets, and it was only a moment or two before she followed after her. "What's the plan?"

Lightning paused at the sight of yet another wandering ghost, one who stared at the sky like he was waiting for something. "I just need to find wherever they would opened the gates with back then." She looked away, and then back at Fang, at the sheer difficulty she had in keeping her eyes open. "You should rest... You've been flying all day."

"Only if you promise this won't be dangerous." Fang tried to stifle a soft yawn, before she suddenly reappeared in her dragon form again, settling down against the snow. "I mean it, Light, no risky business, not without me there to back you up."

Lightning reached out to pat at Fang's forehead. "I promise... I'll be careful."

"You'd better be." Fang blinked slowly, before her eyes slipped shut all the way. "Just come back and get me if you need anything."

"I will." Lightning knelt down to sit beside Fang's slender face, right near where her snout was slightly sinking into the snow. "Rest up."

Fang mumbled under her breath. "I'd be a lot happier if you stuck around..."

Gently, Lightning scratched at the scales right beneath Fang's eyes, waiting until a low purr echoed out into the snowy pathway. "Just get some sleep." She sat there for a long while, just listening to the pitch of that rumbling sound, a rather contented dragon, one who was almost deep in slumber, but Lightning still waited until Fang's throat finally went silent, fully asleep once more. "...I'll be back."

Fang's tail twitched slightly in her sleep, but she didn't wake, not even when Lightning made her way back down the city streets, exploring the ruins of a different age, long lost to the cruel whims of time.

The small wooden houses were more or less decayed, but the stony buildings, those still stood tall and strong, even if they were more than slightly crumbled beneath the natural elements.

Tiny snowflakes kept falling down across the winding streets, and Lightning pulled up her hood to keep them out from her hair. She passed beside the pale white phantoms that lingered along the pathways, silently gazing into the void, perhaps watching long lost memories. She knew then, that something utterly catastrophic must have happened all at once, something to deny so many different souls from finding their way to the realm of death.

But what was she to do for it? If there really was a mechanism to open the gates, or to ring some sort of bell, it was likely well hidden in the old barracks or guard towers, maybe even deep beneath the caved-in bunkers, so far out of reach, enough that it might take hours of searching for her to find.

Lightning began to grit her teeth against the numbing chill, and she pulled her cloak even tighter around herself. She stared out at the swirling sea of wandering phantoms, at the ghosts within the frigid cold, the lost souls who suddenly parted aside at a brilliant shade of white.

And that was when she froze as well, when her vision focused upon the sight of a massive, bearded beast, of a horselike creature that held a narrow, pale horn atop its forehead, one who left cloven hoofprints in the snow.

"It _wasn't_ a dream." Lightning slowly reached for the hilt of her sword as the beast grew closer and closer, approaching her without even the slightest hint of fear. "You're no ghost... But how did you catch up to us here?"

The beast stood far taller than Lightning herself, yet it merely waited there before her, gazing down at the single living soul who walked among the dead.

"Are you-" Lightning paused, before she took a slow step off to the side. "Are you a spirit?"

While Lightning firmly believed in the existence of the four major gods, even if she didn't revere them with much fervor, the reality of certain spirits had always been an unusual concept for her. There were times when she'd felt like something else was out there in the world, or perhaps a trick of the light simply made it look like another presence was near, but the beast who stood before her, almost regally, untouchable, in a way, she almost started to believe that it must have been one of the earthen spirits of the north, the likes of which were worshiped by the centaur tribes, among others.

The beast merely turned to stare at the city walls, and it was only after a moment of silence that it began to walk forward again.

Lightning waited right where she was, watching the creature retreat, but when it suddenly stopped to look right back at her, as if it might actually be waiting as well, she slowly began to step forward. "You want me to follow you?"

Silence. The beast merely stared at her from within the falling snow.

"Fine... But you'd better not pull any funny business." Lightning let her hand relax against the hilt of her sword, just slightly, before she stepped even further into the frozen roads, following behind those cloven hoofprints. "You can't talk, can you?"

The beast snorted against the wind.

"I've actually seen something like you, once." Lightning reached into her jacket pocket, retrieving one of her charms, though she quickly set it back inside. "But it was smaller, almost the size of a pony."

The beast kept walking silently against the pale, snowy cobblestones.

Lightning stared at the odd creature, at how it moved just like a horse would walk, even if it had the silky beard of a goat and the cloven hooves of one, too. She couldn't help but wish that Odin was there to meet it. Her mind wandered back to different days, to the times when she'd venture out to patrol the forest trails on horseback, riding so swiftly beneath the tall green trees. She thought of how Odin would always lift his head over the door of his stall to greet her in the morning, and how he'd whinny whenever she worked on cleaning the stable floors, or even when she just sat down on the bench to work with something, all beneath the warm, quiet sunlight.

The city streets wound on and on, but the beast just kept walking forward, all up until it paused beside a metal hatch that stood far beneath one of the massive walls.

Lightning stepped forward to examine the rusted locking mechanism, and after a moment, she kicked at it with her foot, fracturing only a small part of the outer surface. "Think you could..?" She stepped away, and the beast suddenly reared up to smash down a single hoof against the metal lock, breaking it apart with a sharp, keening whinny.

The vibrations against the hatch echoed low into the earth, and when Lightning knelt to pry open the contraption with her hands, she realized just how deep the tunnel went, and how the darkness spanned far further than she could ever see by eyesight alone.

"I'll need a torch, or a-" Lightning paused when the beast almost seemed to glare at her, narrowing those soft, dark eyes. "What, you just want me to stumble around down there?"

The creature whickered, before it snorted quietly, pawing at the earth.

"What are you trying to tell me?" Lightning sat down near the edge of the tunnel, and she gazed into the darkness for a while. "I can't see without light."

A low whinny echoed out into the air.

"Or... I _can_ see." Lightning bit back a sigh. "But I don't know if it works like that; I only know how to detach myself." When she looked back up at the creature again, she tried as best as she could to remember what her unusual mentor had said, such odd phrases like: 'do not search for what you _can_ see', as if that wasn't already confusing enough. "Why can't I just go get something to light the way?"

The beast lowered its head to look her straight in the eye.

"Are you here to teach me something?" Lightning stared into that soft, deep gaze, into the sheer black circles that stood against such a pale hide. "Or am I supposed to figure this out on my own?"

The creature knelt down, lowering itself to lay there against the snowy earth, before it slowly closed both of its eyes.

Lightning did so as well, and she felt that same numbing sort of detachment, of her soul moving far beyond herself, deep into a world without either light or darkness, only the earth. To see without vision, to find the world beyond her own, the heart of the planet itself, she simply had to leave her body behind, to let her soul venture out into the unknown.

And then, it was there, the second gaze that peered out into what felt like sheer darkness, yet was truly nothing of the sort; she could feel the presence of something far more ancient than herself, of one who knew the branching pathways within the grand center of it all, inside the heart of the world, a transient soul who took on the form of a pale white beast. Yet in reality, Lightning realized, while it slowly led her further and further into a strange state between detachment and otherwise, the beast itself was merely a borrowed image, an illusion of both the mind and senses, though she couldn't quite bring herself to care.

Not when she was suddenly so close, enough to _see_ herself sitting there, with the horn of a wild beast resting so gently against her shoulder, an unexpected mentor in an even stranger location.

 _Follow._

The spirit swirled all around her; she simply knew it was there, even if she wasn't looking upon the world with her own two eyes.

 _Right..._ Lightning tried to direct herself out towards wherever the second soul drifted, down into the darkness of the tunnel, though she realized that even without eyes, without her sense of physical vision, that she somehow knew where every step crumbled down into a short drop, or where the steep stairs suddenly flattened into a low, narrow tunnel, or even the massive underground pathways beneath the city walls, a hidden tunnel system that spread out like a sprawling maze, or perhaps the veins of a great subterranean beast.

And it was suddenly there, that lone, diverging path, it was there that the spirit led her towards, and it was there that it swiftly vanished, leaving her alone in the world beyond her eyes, left to use the knowledge however she saw fit.

It took longer than usual to return to herself, to feel her soul fit itself back down into her body again, but when she finally opened her eyes, the beast had vanished without a trace. All that remained were those long, cloven hoofprints that led out into the snow, before they suddenly faded, as if the beast had simply disappeared in midair.

"A test, is it..?" Lightning rose up to her feet to stare down into the utter darkness, at the cavernous path she'd explored without even moving a single inch. "And the question is, how well do I trust my memory?"

It was the same kind of drive that she felt whenever a bold new challenge crossed her path, whenever there was something so very close, right within reach, something to puzzle out and conquer, to prove to herself that she was good enough to face it, to come back home alive, no matter how harrowing it might have seemed.

Lightning drew in a very deep breath, steeling herself, before she took a slow, careful step into the dark.


	27. Spirit

Only her footsteps sounded off within the darkness, so rough against the old, weathered stones. Her lone source of light came from the wide hatch that stood behind her, but as she drew further and further into the ground, those long rays of brightness fell back upon the upper stairwell, far out of sight from so very deep beneath the earth.

Lightning blinked against the thick shadows, slowly making her way down the steps. She braced her right hand against one of the walls, where she could feel the dry dust and grime, all of the residue that had collected over so many unknown years. Each tiny noise echoed deep within her ears, each scraping step sent such low tones into the stale, musty air, the crunching sound of grit and sand.

She could sense the width of the tunnel that lay below, and she remembered a certain 'sight' from her visions, the way the stairs suddenly gave way to flat ground, yet she still couldn't see anything but black.

Fear had haunted her mind in many forms over the years, the fear of loss, and of a hollow, broken home, of an island just waiting to be utterly devoured by the sea, the fear of death and pain, of enduring the world as it spanned day by endless day, breath by ragged breath... But she was never afraid of the dark.

It would be only natural, she knew, because the darkness could hold all manner of terrible dangers. It was a primal form of fear, the sort that stemmed all the way back from the times of her ancestors, those primordial humans, the ones who crouched and huddled together in the treetops. They dreaded the fierce creatures of the woods and the swift beasts of the sky, animals who could see so clearly within pitch blackness, cloaked beneath a blanket of night. But Lightning wasn't afraid, not even when her next step didn't quite land in the exact spot she expected, even when she was alone and defenseless in such a massive place, so far beneath the ground, away from everything she knew.

Lightning bottled up even the smallest hint of anxiety, steeling herself, before she slowly made her way further. She thought of a story that her father once told to her, a tale spoken aloud from that worn little tome, the one bound in a dark, yet faded leather. She could still remember sitting right beside him while Serah dozed away upon his lap, far too sleepy for so many bedtime stories, at least at such a young age.

'For Etro is the night,' her father once said, 'she is the gentle breeze and the soft crickets in the grass, the ocean wind that flows on beneath the moonlight, for she is also the moon, claiming her seat back within the sky from Bhunivelze, the sun.' That was the moment when Lightning scrunched up her nose in disbelief and claimed that she'd often seen the moon out even in daytime, and that the story _must_ be mistaken if the siblings were always at odds with each other. But her father merely smiled, turning to the next page. 'Bhunivelze is the light of morning, the heat that rises from the beach at midday, and he is also the brilliant sunset that gives way to the dark of night, to Etro, to his beloved sister, a sister who he just can't _ever_ seem to get along with...'

And again, Lightning narrowed her eyes at her clever father, a father who had quite clearly noticed the petty little squabble between herself and Serah earlier that day, over something far too meaningless for her to even remember in her older years.

Her father just kept reading into the night, telling her of how Etro ruled over the land of the darkness, of dreams, of those cold winter nights and the deep, shadowy forests, and of all the wild creatures in the wood. Lightning didn't quite know what 'winter' was truly like, for she'd never seen much change in the seasons of the island, but there were tales within her own storybooks of those who lived in frigid lands, places where the world changed rather drastically over just a single year.

Her father always kept reading from his book, even when Serah had fallen fast asleep, even when Lightning was quite apt to join her, mumbling softly when her mother stepped into the room to help her up into bed, even then, her father still had words to speak.

She was their great guardian, he said, a guardian to all of his family, and that neither of his two children should ever be frightened of the night, only that they should still be wary and cautious, for 'the goddess helps those who helps themselves.'

Slowly shaking herself from her thoughts, Lightning paused to pull her left glove off as well, before she traced out the wall on the very same side, one of the only constants in such a sightless place. Had she been foolish to accept such a challenge? Were the spirits of the north truly taking interest in her desire to heal the land itself, to release those lost souls from their earthly tethers? She could feel it all around her, that formless sort of decay, the residue from so many senseless deaths, the ragged cries of the drowned, howling out and yet so _silent_ at the very same time. Had it all happened on the same day that the sea rose up to crash down against the earth, or had it occurred long before that? Lightning closed her eyes, pausing to rest for a moment longer. She could still feel the stony walls beneath both of her hands, a single, sprawling line of the labyrinth, but her mind had just jumbled itself up too much for her to keep going any further, at least right away.

Had it really been the pale god of the sea, Fell Lindzei, could he truly be the culprit of such a catastrophic event? Was there some ancient feud between him and Hallowed Pulse, father of the land, like all of the stories said? She could almost hear the distant roar of the sea, or feel the deep rumble of tectonic plates far below, before she slowly closed her eyes, letting herself drift off again.

The world beyond her own feet was just as dark and deep, sightless, yet in a different way, a way that she knew there must be far more than just old empty tunnels and dusty cobwebs. There were _spirits_ in the darkness, souls of beings far older than herself, those curious, cryptic minds who watched the world from afar, arriving and leaving whenever they pleased. And it was in that place, deep within the heart of the land, it was there that she suddenly stumbled across what felt like a massive, mountainous form.

A mighty hammer struck down against the iron surface of an anvil; sparks flew like the spit of a volcanic beast, a being that rumbled like the very ground and stood tall enough to rival the highest mountain peaks.

Lightning felt like just a speck of dust before it, a mere mouse in the presence of a mammoth, but when her soul slowly wandered out towards the edge of the forge, only then did the tremendous being take notice of her.

 _Be it a moth who approaches, fluttering there above the dust?_ The giant paused, and his hammer finally went silent for more than a single moment. _Who skulks in the darkness?_

Lightning desperately wished that her physical form was there, too, not just a single wisp of her soul. _...I am no moth._

 _A beast, then? A lost one?_ The giant returned to his forge, crashing back down and sending out great thunderclaps across the entire span of darkness, deep into the heart of the earth. _...But this matters very little._

Lightning watched the way that the giant started to chip bits of stone away from the bottom of a mountain, making it somewhat flat. _Who are you?_

 _You do not know?_ The giant kept silent for a long while, before he began to try and carve against a long riverbed, one that had since swirled into the side of an earthen chunk. _There are not many in this world who can still listen so well, and not know of whom they listen to..._

Lightning felt a short flicker of frustration cross her mind, but she kept it stifled, not quite willing to anger such a massive being. _Could you just tell me? I'm... A little new at all of this._

 _Could a mouse witness the full width of the mountain range? Could it even understand what it stands upon, that the earth is far more than a few simple stones or a lone blade of grass in the soil?_

Lightning barely even realized that her soul was being held aloft, examined like a particularly interesting pebble.

 _Could it ever hear the voice of the earth, the roots that grow so deep within it? Has it heard the calls of those lost children, of the spirits who still walk the land?_ The giant paused, and then it gently released Lightning's soul, watching how she flickered away to rest against the space that didn't truly exist, a mere manifestation of such unknowable places. _But you are one who belongs to death._

Lightning could feel herself hovering there, and she kept silent for a very long moment. ' _Belongs'?_

 _All souls belong to her, in truth..._ The giant turned back to his work. _It was her blood to spill, to touch the earth with silver, to make true men from mere beasts... Though they may walk upon my back, upon my earth, though they may use the many children for food and shelter, they will all belong to her._

Lightning felt a sense of realization, she felt how it bloomed from a mere seed of thought into a flourishing notion, and she almost wanted to laugh out loud at the absurdity, that she had suddenly stumbled across a _god_ by mere luck, by the teachings of those who she only happened upon by that same sort of chance. Or was it _fate?_ Had she simply been strung along by her own determination to slay a dreaded wyrm upon the mountainside, to be coaxed into such an unlikely friendship until it all finally felt real, until she remembered those many lives that came before her, was that all her journey had been? Were they mere pawns of a far greater force, played like drifting strands of grass in the wind, or the delicate strings of a harp?

It was a long moment before she spoke again, and even then, she was sure to keep her 'voice' low. _You aren't actually a giant, are you? Do the gods really have physical forms?_

Hallowed Pulse let his hammer crash against the edge of a plateau. _We likely appear in a form that your mind can comprehend... And if that is a giant, so be it._

Lightning paused for just a second or two. _You can't see what you look like?_

Pulse almost seemed to laugh, deep and rumbling and dark, yet the sound was almost gentle, like a brisk wind upon the sand. _You are not truly 'seeing', little one; have you simply wandered into this state..? Do you not truly realize what you are 'looking' upon?_

Lightning almost wanted to scoff in frustration. _Yeah, I understand that this isn't 'seeing'... But I can still 'see' physical things with it, and I can get back to myself just fine._

 _Perhaps you should do so._ Pulse turned away, still hammering at his forge. _You are not mine to teach. A daughter of Etro... That is not one to 'steal', as they say._

Lightning wanted to frown. _Is Etro here..? Can I find her, too?_

 _This is the realm of the earth._ Pulse didn't look away from his forge. _'Can' you find her? I dare say you must find that out for yourself... But I do know that she does not reside within the earth._

Lightning took a long moment to think, to stifle away the questions that knocked around in her mind like tiny caged birds, for if she _truly_ was within the presence of a god, like in the old stories, just legends at that point, how could she _not_ want to ask so many things? But the massive being didn't seem to be in any mood to entertain such trivialities, at least not in a way that wasn't rife with cryptic answers.

Hallowed Pulse, father of the earth, old and wizened, yet he was well-known to hold a temper that rivaled even the fiercest waves of the sea. Lightning looked upon that mighty being, the one who seemed just like the land itself, a grand leviathan of mountains, solid rock and mineral, of the many tall trees who took root within such steady ground, and she realized that it was only natural for her to have happened across such a being. For the place she had wandered into, so deep within the earth, it was _his_ domain, wasn't it? Just as the gates of death and the darkness belonged to Etro, or the sea to Lindzei, or even the light of day to Bhunivelze, that earthly place, it all belonged to Pulse.

 _Find your way home now, little one._ Hallowed Pulse kept crafting the land, working away in near silence, all except for the deafening hammer strikes and the rumbling, creaking earth. _This is no domain for the fleeting breath of a mortal... And your body will soon be vulnerable if you do not attend to it._

Lightning turned away. _I'm somewhere dark... Somewhere nobody else has been before, not in years._

Pulse almost seemed to pause. _Are you lost?_

Lightning wanted to shake her head, but her wandering soul had no such features. _Would you mind if I asked you one more thing? Then I promise that I'll leave you be._

Pulse didn't hesitate to answer. _Ask._

Lightning felt as her presence slowly started to fade, readying herself to find her way back towards the physical realm. _The dragons, I know they were created by the gods from wyverns, but then they were just left on their own... Why? Why make them and then leave them like that?_

 _A squandered gift, a test to see if such power could even be controlled by mortal minds._ Pulse almost seemed to laugh again. _Clearly fruitless, a waste of us... Of our peerless generosity. My gift was that of their mighty scales, a hide to rival the strongest of steel, but however they might choose to utilize it... That is beyond me._

Lightning felt her thoughts grow even more flurried, finding so many more questions than answers. _You don't even speak to them anymore._

 _They were given the gift of sight, not of listening._ Pulse kept working away at his forge. _If they cannot reach us of their own will... We have not the power to search out and find the last few, nor any reason to do so._ He slowly turned back to gaze at Lightning's soul. _You speak of them as if they are not still the scourge of lands, foul beasts to be avoided... Aberrations of our remaining power._ Pulse didn't even pause to let Lightning reply. _Do not be surprised, for even_ _ **we**_ _are not above mistakes... If you value your time, your very life, do not seek them out any further. They are not long for this world, not within the grand flow of so many ages._

Lightning felt herself go very cold, suddenly so unwelcome in such an unusual place, and she slowly began to retreat, back into the same pitch darkness, slowly traveling into her own body once more.

It was a long, silent moment before she spoke again, and even then, her voice was barely more than a whisper. "Fang..." She closed her eyes, but it made little difference within the dark. "I'm sorry."

Lightning rose to her feet, and she slowly moved out into the tunnels, along the path that she remembered seeing when she detached herself, yet she just couldn't think about such things without mulling over what she'd just seen. Were the dragons truly mistakes in the eyes of a god? Or was that only Hallowed Pulse's opinion? She could feel the dust of the earth beneath her feet, the stones that paved her way forward. As she held both of her arms out to feel her way through the path, sensing each wall around her, just enough to keep herself from walking into anything, she just couldn't ignore the sudden ache in her heart, empathy for a forgotten being.

When Lightning had been just a child, such a young mind, so impressionable by all of the distant storybook tales of those mighty, savage beasts, the dragons who stole away both lives and treasure as if they were prizes to be hoarded, those who kidnapped humans of great importance in order to pry out an even greater reward, and she herself had vowed to someday become an enemy of such things. She would become that same weapon as those knights in the stories, a force to rival the giants who chose to prey upon the weak, a dragonslayer.

But how was she ever to know that they weren't all so fiercely terrible? How was she to know that she'd someday be saved from the fate of bleeding out against the cold, bitter earth, carried down into the shelter of the darkness and set upon such soft blankets, treated with the strange salve that still made her want to retch, yet it kept the scars away, made her heal far faster than any medicine she'd ever seen before, how was she to know of such things?

Lightning suddenly paused, and she reached out to feel the faint outline of another passageway. The stone pillars kept the roof of the tunnel well-supported, for if they'd been made of wood, the entire structure would likely have rotted away and collapsed many long years before she ever found it. She still felt that same hollow sensation in herself, the beginnings of loneliness and a fierce anxiety just to leave, to find the brightness again and find _Fang_ , to tell her that she wasn't just a mistake, that she was far too beautiful in her eyes, even if her own creators might not see it, and that she so desperately wanted to be in love.

But love, that kind of love took time.

Fang was there to stay, Lightning knew that much. The sensations they'd shared, from their souls and inner thoughts to something much more primal, it solidified the notion in her mind. And the growing need to be safe and secure with a chosen partner, the urge to know every inch of her, to learn everything that she possibly had to teach, to _see_ as she did, so far above the clouds... It truly felt like the first few blossoms of love, but they were so _delicate_ , so very fragile at that point, tiny little flowers that hadn't yet solidified into a grand tree, rising up just as high as Fang's wingspan could reach.

She wasn't ready for it, Lightning knew that for a fact, still navigating her way through such a dark corridor; she knew that she was still relatively young, and that she had so many things yet to experience, so much to learn from the world. But even then, she still found herself wanting for Fang to be there with her, too.

It was simple, then, just to reach up into the pocket of her jacket and feel around for a certain charm, one with those tiny feather patterns carved on each side, the wings that kept their blood safe from any harm. She slowly pressed her thumb against the silver chamber, but for a moment, nothing happened.

Lightning stood there beside a certain path, one that she knew would soon lead her up into the place that the spirit had showed her, yet when the charm remained entirely dormant upon her hand, she slowly began to walk towards it.

Perhaps Fang's blood was just too unusual to be bound with her own, or perhaps Etro couldn't work with it, couldn't grant her the power of a dragon...

Lightning felt her shoulders slump ever so slightly. She tucked the charm back down into her pocket, approaching the thin ray of sunlight that danced upon the dusty floor, one that lit only a small fraction of the narrow tunnel ahead.

Perhaps she just wasn't strong enough for that fire.

* * *

Deep within a slow, dreamless sleep, Fang stirred, before she suddenly purred at the sensation of a familiar being, the heartbeat that so often thrummed beside her own, even if it was quite far away at that moment in time.

Was Lightning there..? Fang still slept on, but she suddenly began to dream, just a normal dream, not a memory; she dreamt of the feeling she'd felt when Lightning finally woke on that first day, the sharp, frigid anger that slowly melted into such gentle love. It was enough to make Fang purr even deeper, fully swept up in that warm feeling of mutual strength, of a stubborn head to knock horns with, that lovely partner with a steel will just as strong as her own.

But _why_ , for what reason was she suddenly calling? Why did she need that tiny speck of blood, the liquid fire that ran deep within Fang's veins? Whatever the reason, if her friend was in need... Even within such a solid state of slumber, Fang merely hummed out another purr, sharing such gradual warmth, the very light of her soul.

Laying there, curled up against the snow, Fang didn't even notice the way that her blood began to flow so much faster than before.

* * *

Lightning knelt, leaning against the cold, stony wall as her fingertips suddenly erupted in light, in _flame_ , yet it didn't even burn her, didn't harm a single inch of her skin. She felt her heart beating almost painfully in her chest, and her mind raced with the sheer possibility, if her own blood had kindled the fire of Fang's offering, and if Etro, if her silver, if it had accepted such things...

She felt her breath grow ragged at such a deep, encompassing warmth, feeling it rush within her own veins, the flame of a dragon, a beast willing to save and spare her life all because of a mere memory, of the lives they once lived before.

Lightning shivered, not from the cold, of course, for her coat of wolf hide was even starting to feel much too insulated in that fiery moment. But she couldn't help the way it made her feel so strange, almost as if she was suddenly away from her own skin, sharing the power of another, a truly equal being.

Rising up to her feet, she closed her eyes again, and she felt out her way towards the one tunnel that led into the higher earth again. She stepped up towards the rusty metal ladder that creaked with every step, hissed with every touch of the fire in her hands. And she kept climbing, yet she never opened her eyes, not for what felt like hours, not until she suddenly felt the cool air of daylight again, not until she could see the soft, brilliant sunset that was sinking back down against the sea.

Lightning stared at the world below, at the city beneath that paper thin tower, a narrow spire that held only a single, sturdy bell.

"Damn." Lightning set her hands down against one the narrow windows, far too small for even a human to slip through, much less a dragon. "Fang, you can't get me out of this one, can you?"

She could see the ghosts in the streets, and all of the empty houses, the earth that had once been awash with such dreadful waves, beneath the briny depths of the sea, drowned out under the fury of a storm.

"Might as well..." Lightning turned to face the metal mechanism near the bell; it was a pulley system, likely still just as strong as the day it had been created. "Sorry to wake you up."

* * *

Both of Fang's eyes flew open with a sudden start, and she almost struggled to catch her breath, rising up on her wings as a mighty bell tolled from each of the distant towers. They rang in sequence, as if the message had to travel out between each spire, filling the entire city with sound.

She couldn't see it, couldn't possibly witness the massive flow of souls that rushed on out through the city streets, racing away in search of the open gates, to the realm of departure, to Etro's domain, but Fang could still feel the faint wisps of relief, the emotions that became just as thick as the air itself, pungent and clear beneath the early evening light.

They were leaving as a group, an entire family, even a flock, a tide of souls drawn forth by the tolling of such tall, grandiose bells, by a single life who'd braved the darkness and climbed out into the sky, perching there without wings.

Fang lifted her head to gaze between each tower, searching with those keen eyes, and it was only when she caught a sudden flash of pink, the one who was clambering back down the spire again, only then did a warm, crooked smile cross her face.

* * *

A small meal of fish kept them awake into the evening, seasoned with a few of the spices that Lightning had purchased back in town.

Fang was resting against the beach in her dragon form, having already caught a rather large seal from further out to shore; such a meal was quite heavy, rich with protein and denser tissue, and it made her feel slow and utterly sleepy. She was quite content to simply listen to Lightning speak, to hear about her experiences beneath the earth.

But what Lightning didn't say, what she didn't dare bring up, it was the possibility of having met an actual deity, for she herself just wasn't quite sure if it had even been real. What if it was just some other spirit, a trickster who'd impersonated those far above? She was so new to the world beyond her eyes, so very green, yet she knew that they might have been just trying to play a trick on her. Though that one pale spirit within the crumbling city, she had a feeling that it truly wanted her to release all of those souls.

"So... You just remembered the way to go?" Fang rested her head down against the sand, right beside a small drift of snow. "Good memory."

Lightning nodded. "It wasn't too difficult; I patrol the woods at night, and all of that time evading people in the streets..? You learn how to memorize a layout within moments."

Fang yawned quietly, before she suddenly purred when Lightning moved to sit beside her head, soothing both of her hands across the silvery scales of her forehead.

"We'll leave tomorrow, right?" Lightning pulled her cloak a bit closer to herself. "All the way down to the tropics."

Fang nodded against the sandy snow. "And listen, there's a reason we didn't just head west... It might've been a bit shorter in distance, but the _time_ it'd take-" She yawned again, quite drowsy from both the entire day of flying and the rich flesh of the seal, all of which was more than enough to ground her for the rest of the night. "There's a huge wind system that runs down south from here, stronger than any other current I've ever felt."

Lightning turned to look out at the sea, at those distant rays of fading sunlight. "How close will it get us to the southern hemisphere?"

Fang laughed, then, soft and gentle, and the sound rumbling in her throat. "All the way, love... It's a _massive_ one, all that hot air has to rise up from the south, and then the cold wind comes in from the north, that's what we'll be riding in on."

Lightning could feel the steady rumbles of such soft, quiet purring, the ticklish vibrations beneath her hands. "You're pretty happy tonight."

"We've gone a long way." Fang closed her eyes for just a moment, before she opened them to gaze back at Lightning's face. "We'll be out of the cold, soon... The Pale Sea, warm and tropical, islands with fresh fruit and more animals than you could ever catch."

Lightning spoke just loud enough for Fang to hear. "You like fruit, do you?"

"Yeah..." Fang lifted one of her wings to rest it right beside Lightning, almost like a loose hug, if only her wingspan wasn't so enormous. "It's nice to just shake it down from the trees, sometimes."

"We used to eat a lot of fruit when I was little." Lightning slowly began to lean against Fang's neck, resting upright so that she could still look out over the ocean. "Mom actually knew how to boil sugarcane and make candy out of it... But she'd almost always mix it with fruit; cocoa was a lot harder to get than sugar."

"So, this island of yours..." Fang slowly turned to look at Lightning again, craning her head around. "Are things still the same out there?"

Lightning tried not to frown. "I don't know."

Fang almost frowned as well. "Back when the sea..?"

"It might've all washed away." Lightning reached down to trace abstract figures against the sand. "Or sunk beneath the water... I don't know."

Fang kept very quiet for a long moment, but when she spoke again, it was far softer than before. "Could you find it on a map?"

Lightning's fingertips tightened against the sand, before she slowly lifted her hands, letting them rest atop her knees. "I don't need that kind of closure, Fang."

Fang nodded. "Alright."

"Seriously." Lightning tried to speak softly as well, tried to make it sound as if what she was saying was a whole truth. "I've made my peace with that day, made a new home for myself and Serah... It's no use chasing ghosts."

Fang smiled at the clear memory of ringing bells. "But you can put them to rest, can't you?"

Lightning smiled back, slightly more than a single twitch of her lips. "Mine are resting, Fang... I made sure of that long ago."

Fang lifted her snout up to nudge at the crown of Lightning's head, just a simple dragon kiss, a gesture that was more than a bit difficult when she only had scales along her mouth, though she managed it all the same.

Lightning reached up to touch Fang's forehead again, gently smoothing her palm over those scales. When Fang slowly rolled over to rest on her back, bringing Lightning right along with her, only she was held beneath those wings, so close to the sound of her mighty heartbeat, and those strong, steady lungs, all snuggled up, it was all either of them could do just to stay awake.

"...You make a good pillow." Lightning could still see the ocean from below the curve of Fang's wing, and she watched as the sunlight slowly faded out across the entire horizon. "And an even better blanket."

"Glad to oblige." Fang yawned again, resting flat on her back against the sand. "Let's get some sleep... Long trip ahead of us, you know."

Lightning nodded against the scaled curve Fang's chest, before she slowly closed her eyes. "Sleep well, Fang."

Fang's tail twitched back and forth on the sandy snow. "You too."

It was only once the soft sounds of sleep carried out over the beach, beneath the mighty walls of the cliffside city, far below the silent bells that so recently offered respite to numerous souls, soothing away the pain of the land they once walked upon... Only when the night was dark, when the moon was full and shining, only then did a pale spirit gaze down from atop the highest walls.

A formless beast, yet it appeared solid for the time being, standing there within the body that the human below trusted almost more than anything else; an equine, gentle and calm, not prone to panicking or bolting at the slightest sound. Yet it was far too proud to take on the form of any mere horse, no, a beast of legend had served nicely, enough to guide the strange human into healing the very ground beneath the city, releasing those souls in a way that the spirits never could. While such beings could choose to walk in nearly any form they wished, most of the physical world was still far beyond their grasp, other than merely bashing or breaking things. Even if it had found its up way to the bell tower, any attempt to activate the sounds would likely only end in frustration.

But where could the pair of them be going, the spirit wondered, where was the dragon leading her? Human souls were bound to flesh, and to spirits, flesh was easier to read than mere words upon paper, but a dragon's soul, it would only burn those who dared to delve deeper than a short glace, and even then, there was hardly anything to be seen by those who did not live by the flame.

The spirit gazed out over the ocean, off into the dark horizon, waiting for the moon to fully rise, to appear from beside the shore, to light the world in such a subtle glow.

It was not often that humans ventured into the northern lands, nor were they ever so receptive to the spirits, not like the one who traveled with a dragon companion. But what difference could there possibly be, what drove her to listen so closely to the earth, to sense the natural powers that most would merely overlook?

The spirit almost seemed to sigh, wondering what sort of gift might be suitable to one such as that, but it had no offerings, no rewards for a good deed, no way that it could conjure up anything more than mere illusions, tricks of the mind and body, even of the senses.

And that was when it realized, from those whispered words of another earthen being, another soul who wandered the heart of the world; the human was simply trying to learn their ways, to discover the lost grounds of the gods, to pierce the endless silence and finally have her questions answered. The spirit looked out over the sky, before it slowly began to disappear, fading out into the darkness.

Perhaps there were others within the earthly realms, others that the pair might happen across in their journeys, others who could help them far more than an old spirit of the north, so pale and weary from all of those silent years.

Beneath the low light of the moon, Fang slumbered on, gently hugging Lightning against her chest.

* * *

The rain kept on outside, strong and quiet, pattering down against the roof.

"Well, we haven't really gotten to numbers or letters yet." Fang was holding a book in her hands while she leaned back against the sofa. "Just speech..." She looked over at where Vanille was leafing through the pages of a textbook, and then also at where Lightning was taking a brief rest from trying to learn so many new words. "Sticking to the basics for now, you know?"

"Sounds about right..." Vanille kept quiet for a long moment, before she set the book down against the low table, right between the armchairs and the sofa. "She's gotta be _really_ smart, Fang, to learn all of this so quickly."

Lightning's ears twitched at the sound of both voices, but she didn't say anything herself. She was far too intent on remembering exactly what had happened before all of the pain began, before she was sent into stasis, jettisoned out into space as a very last resort.

"Yeah, and she's no slacker, either." Fang leaned forward, closing the book on her lap. "Knocked on the door this morning with a dead rabbit in her hand, asked to get right back to the books..."

"Fang!" Vanille suddenly covered either side of her cheeks with her hands. " A dead _bunny_?"

Fang only grinned, glancing over at Lightning. "Yeah, a real hunter... Just like me and dad." She reached up for the necklace by her throat, for the teeth of a vicious, wild beast, slain years ago when it dared to attack a certain pen of goats. "Told you, she can shapeshift."

Lightning suddenly rose to her feet, and she slowly walked towards the front windows.

"Light?" Fang watched the way that Lightning listened to the rain, silent and still, all except for the twitching feathers at her ears. "Something wrong?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes when she heard the word 'wrong'. "...No."

"Something bad?" Fang stood up as well. "Are you good?"

Lightning nodded, reaching up for one of the bandages on her arms, which she gently traced over, trying to remember the beings who had inflicted such things.

"Are you _good?_ " Fang stepped up beside her, leaning in against the windowsill. "...Light?"

Lightning nodded. "Good."

"Alright." Fang stared at the strange look on Lightning's face, at all of the sheer exertion in her eyes, almost as if she was trying incredibly hard to think of something. "Does it hurt?" She pointed at the bandages. "Light, are you in pain?"

Lightning shook her head at the word 'pain'.

Fang frowned slightly, leaning away. "What's wrong, then?"

But she would only learn once they had trekked out into the fields again, all three of them, side by side, while Bahamut flew on ahead, soaring beneath the gentle rain. Fang could hear how Vanille chattered away, how she tried to teach Lightning anything and everything she could think of, even if she had no idea what most of the words meant. Yet Lightning was still staring ahead, gazing pointedly at the horizon that would soon lead them to the smoldering remains of a crystal, barely able to give off smoke beneath the rain.

Vanille followed after Fang and Lightning, up towards the crater's edge, but when she finally caught sight of exactly what lay within, her eyes went wider than they'd ever been before. "Fang..."

"I know." Fang knelt down against the blackened earth, resting beside Vanille. "Had to chip the damn thing open just to get her out."

Lightning clambered down over the muddy slope, and her bare feet sank deep into the upturned earth, but she didn't let it stop her, not until she could reach out and touch the crystal itself, using the less jagged parts of the stone edges to pull herself on top of it.

"Light, what are you looking for?" Fang stood up again, and she quickly made her way down the hill as well. "It's all just crystal in there-" She paused at the sight of that sudden, bright flicker, at the sharp jolt of electricity, how it branched out within the facets of the translucent stone, drawn down inside to some unseen place within it. "Damn, Light..."

Lightning moved to perch herself near to where Fang had once broken into the surface, and when she reached inside, illuminating the chamber with the light on her hands, only then did a certain compartment become visible.

"Fang, what _is_ that?" Vanille slid down the hill as well, careful not to get her clothes stained in mud. "There's something in there..."

Lightning yanked out a certain object with a soft grunt, enough that she nearly toppled over the side of the crystal itself, yet she kept herself grounded, grabbing for a ragged bit of stone just to hold herself upright.

"Don't cut yourself on that..." Fang stared at the boxlike object in Lightning's hands. "What've you got, there?"

Lightning held the little item so tightly that her knuckles turned white, before she suddenly spoke something foreign, a long string of rapid words that neither of her companions could understand.

"Light, please." Fang stepped over to the closest side of the crystal, holding out her hand. "Come down here and try to explain it?"

Lightning just kept staring at the tiny object, before she slowly began to open it.

"Light-"

A low, mechanical tone rang out over the rain, followed by static and a sharp whine of feedback, enough that Lightning hissed and flattened her ears down, grabbing for a certain lever at the side of the device.

"Lightning." Fang held her hand up higher. "Come talk with us, okay?"

Lightning turned to look at Fang, still clutching the mechanical object, but after a long moment of soft, crackling static, she moved over to take Fang's hand.

"There you go." Fang helped Lightning make her way back down across the giant crystal, out into the center of the crater again, where the device almost seemed to sound louder than before. "Now, what's that thing about?"

Lightning glanced at Fang, and then at where Vanille was keeping her distance, though Vanille couldn't hide the sudden curiosity in her eyes, the intrigue of a strange new object, one that made such unusual sounds and had tiny lights inside.

Fang took a slow step forward. "What is it, Light?"

Lightning's ears perked up slightly at the sound of higher feedback, of a signal caught by the antenna of the device. "Fang." She glanced up at the plains with a rather distant gaze, before she looked back at both Fang and Vanille, waiting until she could remember a word that she'd been taught, a word that she knew could describe her conundrum. "...Family."

Vanille began to approach, slow and cautious. "I don't think I get it... Are you talking about _us?_ " She pointed at both herself and Fang, and when Lightning nodded, Vanille paused, thinking it over. "Yes, we're like family."

Lightning held the device up a bit higher, and she squinted to examine the tiny screen near the top half, where nothing at all seemed to change, even when she tapped at the sides. "Family." She slowly closed her eyes, trying the best that she possibly could to remember the way Fang had taught her to speak in different terms. "Family's... Lost."

"Oh..." Vanille's breath caught slightly, and she couldn't seem to help the frown that crossed her face. "Where are they, Light? Where did you last see them?" Her voice went very high, and she swiftly turned to look at Fang. "Fang, it's her _family_ , we need to-"

"Vanille." Fang kept her tone low and soft, before she slowly reached out to touch Lightning's shoulder. "Hey."

Lightning brought the device back down, staring at the empty screen.

"We'll do whatever we can to help, okay?" Fang spoke just loud enough to be heard above the pattering rain, and she gently squeezed Lightning's shoulder. "How about we get back inside, get dry again? Don't want you to get sick out here."

Lightning's ears twitched once at the sound of sharper static, before she reached over to turn off the device.

"That's it." Fang patted the side of Lightning's arm. "Bring that thing with you, okay? Might come in handy if they do show up."

It was a long walk back up the edge of the crater, and an even longer trek back into the fields, through the valley that led them back towards town.

Lightning held the little device under her arm, sheltering it from the steady rain, but it was only once they'd approached the outskirts of the city, only then did she speak up again. "Thank you."

Fang turned around, pausing in place. "What for?"

Lightning reached back to point towards where the crater resided.

"It's fine, Light." Fang stepped forward again, approaching Lightning herself, just enough to pat her shoulder in encouragement. "Listen, it's getting a little late... You want to stay at my place?" She pointed at the little house near the forest, and then up at the forest itself. "Or hang out in the woods again?"

Lightning turned to face the distant trees. "Books tomorrow?"

Fang glanced over at where Vanille was standing. "Yeah... Maybe Vanille can help us, too."

Lightning nodded, once, but with a quick, subtle flash of light, so many talons grabbed at the metal device, not hands, before a pair of mighty wings brought her fully airborne, soaring off towards the forest.

Vanille craned her neck back to watch the sight of a massive flying falcon, and she smiled with a bright peal of laughter, waving up at the sky. "Oh... She's a special one, isn't she?"

Fang watched the outline of those long white wings, how they flapped down against the air, carrying her higher and higher, so far away into the sky. "Sure is."

Lightning soared, gripping at the tracking beacon; even when the perspective of the dream shifted away from Fang's point of view, out into the eyes of a flying figure; Fang was still seeing the world move on, even it was enough to almost make her gain consciousness again.

While she had often been able to understand certain things within a dream, things that her past lives had never been able to know, the dream she was experiencing at that very moment, it always seemed to center around herself and her own native language, and that alone. Yet when Lightning soon landed beneath the treetops, hurrying on towards the darkness of a small cave, it almost surprised Fang when she could suddenly interpret the next few words with ease.

"Damn it..." Lightning ducked down beneath the mouth of the cave, gripping the little device even tighter than before. "Serah, where _are_ you?"

Within the sheer darkness of the cavern, Lightning had no reason to hide her emotions away, yet even in such solitude she kept them under very close guard, even when she finally curled up against a pile of moss and leaves, shelter that she'd likely collected the previous day.

" _Please_." Lightning switched the little device back on again, lifting it close to her eyes. "Where is everyone?" She tried not to let her voice shake. "You can't be too far... We were _tethered_ out there, damn it! Where are you?!"

All she could hear was the silence and the low rain, even the quiet static of the tracking beacon, technology that the world she'd landed upon, that it had never yet seen before.

Lightning closed her eyes again. She fought back the sudden swell of pain, the loneliness, the loss, before she slowly began to grit her teeth together. "They can't all be... Not _everyone_ , they couldn't all-" She swallowed back the cracks in her voice, all of the dryness in her throat. "I made it, didn't I?"

The forest had grown quite dark by the time she reached up for the tiny pin, one that was resting beneath the collar of her shirt. It was the metal emblem of a winged shield, engraved with a few bold letters of authority, likely an official organization of some kind. Yet even as she traced her fingertips against it, Lightning didn't care to say anything else. The dream went rather silent again, all except for the gentle wind, the light rain, and even the soft sound of constant static.

* * *

Fang woke to the scent of something smoky, something rich with some sort of blended spice. When she slowly rolled over on her side, changing back into her human form, she blinked at the sudden sight of Lightning, who was tending to a small campfire upon the beach.

"Morning..." Lightning's voice was always much lower in the mornings, just a bit tired and husky. "After this, we're out of almost everything."

Fang looked at where Lightning was cooking a few potatoes against the griddle, sliced up into tiny strips and coated in a few different kinds of spices.

"You were talking in your sleep." Lightning held back a yawn. "Something about feathers."

Fang sighed, before she slowly propped herself upright upon the sand. "Weird dreams... New dreams."

Lightning nodded without saying a word.

"Stuff like aliens, massive crystals falling from the sky..." Fang yawned quietly, and she reached up to comb the sand out her hair with both of her hands. "Shapeshifters."

"How is _that_ weird?" Lightning poked at one of the potato slices with a fork. "You turn into a dragon and back again almost every day."

"No, not exactly." Fang tried to rub out all the sleep from her eyes, yawning again while she did so. "I've got two bodies, you see? I'm pretty sure they're both linked in more ways than one, but they don't dematerialize or anything... They don't _change_ into each other, they're just tied together."

"And you can swap between them..." Lightning stirred the potato strips, making sure that they cooked evenly above the heat. "Interesting."

Fang nodded. "Yep." She slowly moved to sit a bit closer to the campfire, rather conveniently pressed up against Lightning's side. "Smells nice."

"Same stuff as the popcorn." Lightning held up a tiny bottle of bright red spice. "You want to know what this is called?"

Fang grumbled a bit, leaning into Lightning's shoulder. "I wanted to know back when you first used it."

"Dragon pepper." Lightning sniffed at the smoky air. "It's a little like paprika, but with more of a kick."

Fang sniffed as well, though she had a feeling that even in her own human form, Lightning's nose was somewhat superior. It made sense, as dragons didn't hunt by scent, but by sight, which made her eyes all the better for seeing extremely long distances away.

"Southern hemisphere, huh?" Lightning looked out at the sea, before she slowly reached over to hold the furthest side of Fang's waist in a small, gentle hug. "Lots of different peppers grow in that climate."

Fang's tongue flickered out to briefly lick at her bottom lip, and she hummed in agreement.

"I'm not always keen on spicy food." Lightning reached out to poke at the potatoes again, nudging at them with the end of a spatula. "But once in a while..."

Fang closed her eyes with a slow purr, and it only grew when Lightning kissed at the side of her forehead, gentle and soft, a mere 'good morning' kiss, yet with just a hint of something more, something that might've made both of them wish that they had more time to spend in one place.

And they went just a bit further, a few traded slow kisses and hums, some grumbling little murmurs about the topic of pausing for breakfast, that the food would burn if it stayed there on the fire any longer, or get cold without the heat, to which Fang nipped at Lightning's bottom lip so gently that she nearly relented, nearly let her partner get away with whatever she might've wanted in that single moment, if not for how expensive high quality dragon peppers could be.

And Fang sighed, digging a fork down into the plate of food that Lightning handed her. She wished that they'd already gotten their whole little family safe and home again, and that they were both someplace far different than just a long stretch of sand, that they were tucked away and cozy, somewhere very warm... Like whenever Lightning would daydream about reading books or writing her studies while resting upon her bed, beneath the soft, gentle light of the sun.

It was still early in the morning by the time they'd packed up and doused the fire with seawater, before they started to ready themselves for a much longer journey. They began the daily routine, watching the sky while the other brushed their teeth, or stood guard over the area for each other during bathroom breaks, and by the time it was all said and done with, only a small bit of sunlight was peeking out over the beach, hidden by the heights of the cliffside.

But when Fang finally leapt above the waves, into the sky, rising far over the long beach and the towering walls of the city, there was just so much that they could both see beneath the brilliant sunrise, though they knew it was the last they'd see the north for quite some time.

Fang turned towards the southern winds, flapping her wings against the frigid morning air, and with a low roar of awakening, she flew herself out over the ocean waves.

Lightning gripped at the satchel strap. She hid her thoughts away beneath her gloves, silent and private within herself, deep within a mind that raced even faster than the rushing wind. That day before, had she truly found a god within the depths of the earthen realm? And was Fang..?

Fang's wings flapped against the air with vigor, revitalized by a rather hearty meal and a good night's sleep, quite eager to find her way across the ocean again, down into the southern lands.

Lightning looked out over the massive sea, and she absentmindedly stroked at the back of Fang's neck, trying to soothe away a pain that wasn't entirely there, a secret she might never reveal, if only to spare her yet another heartache from abandonment. But was it _right?_ Could she truly keep something like that to herself without guilt, without it eventually wedging itself in between them?

It was a long while before Lightning closed her eyes. Only time would tell, she knew that much, for she had no way of knowing if the voice had truly been a god or simply an odd spirit in the dark, an illusion within the ancient stones.

Fang flew on towards the horizon, and far behind her, the cliffside city faded off into the distance.

* * *

By their third day of travel, Fang decided it was high time that she would help Lightning realize just how fun it was to do more than just basic upright flying. Though it would be best to warn her, Fang knew that much, for Lightning wasn't one to simply let go of a grudge so easily, especially on the rare occasion that she was caught off guard.

 _Hey, Light..._ Fang could feel the steady current of air as it carried her out above the sea, speeding her wings along without even the need to flap. _Wanna try something fun?_

Lightning stirred slightly from where she'd been dozing off against Fang's neck. _What sort of 'something'?_

 _It's a physics trick._ Fang smiled against the wind. _Just trust me, okay?_

Lightning narrowed her eyes, though she simply gripped the satchel strap a bit tighter, praying that Fang knew exactly what she was doing. _...Fine._

And to her credit, Lightning didn't cry out, she didn't make a single sound when Fang suddenly tucked one of her wings in against herself, whirling off to the side in a tight, circular flip, yet when the sea below suddenly looked just like the sky above, a single breath left Lightning's lungs in a sharp, ragged gasp.

Fang laughed into the frigid air, eyes wide and utterly exhilarated; she could feel the blood jump in her veins when she caught sight of Lightning staring back at her, just as wild and free up there in the wide open sky, balanced upon her back for that split second of weightlessness.

And then they weren't upside down anymore, as if nothing had even happened, traveling on throughout the brisk ocean air, and Fang flapped both of her wings to even herself out, flying fully upright again.

Lightning felt her heart beating so much faster than before, and she almost swore she could hear it singing against her eardrums, though perhaps it was just the wind.

* * *

The days almost seemed to blur in with each other, spinning onward between day and night and back again, from island to island to a small chain of islets, where they took a moment to rest and search for food.

Lightning stared at the tall copse of trees at the center of the tiny island, and after a moment of silent observation, she knelt down to search through all of the fallen branches, where she soon found a rather sturdy, well-balanced stick.

Fang was dozing off in the sun for the time being, gathering her energy up again for the long flight south. Yet when she opened her eyes, only to see Lightning sharpening the stick with her pocketknife, curiosity took far higher priority over sleep. "Gonna catch us a big one, are you?"

Lightning shrugged. "If I can even find anything..." She kept carving the end of the branch, cutting it down into a rather thin point, one which was slightly indented further on, just to hopefully keep her prey in one place. "Worth a try."

Fang smiled to herself. After a while, she watched the way that Lightning carried the pointy stick out towards the rocky shore, and then how she suddenly took up a solid, steady stance, balancing herself upon the seaside stones. She knew that Lightning was probably both a practiced angler and spearfisher, and since she'd grown upon on a tropical island, it would have likely become more than just a hobby. Fang wondered, watching as Lightning slowly moved into position, she wondered if a certain younger version of her companion might've ever swam out with such a similar spear in hand, mimicking the way a peaceful creature moved all throughout the waves, so very silent and graceful, only to lash out and strike at a nearby fish when it was least expecting it.

A predator's crouch, a spear in her grip, it made Fang's heart swell with pride just to see Lightning in that sort of element first hand. There was just something so very natural about how her eyes scanned the movement of the water, how she kept so very still and patient, like a jaguar in the leaves, or a serpent lurking beneath the tall, waving grass, curled up and poised to attack within less than a mere moment's notice.

Fang felt it before Lightning even moved, the instinctual sense that her prey had been seen, had wandered well-within striking range, drifting closer and closer to those last few seconds of life. And then, in an instant, the creature was suddenly wriggling upon the end of the stick before Fang could even blink, ended so swiftly beneath the sharp blade of Lightning's pocketknife, before it fell quite limp against the slippery rocks.

Fang almost uttered a 'good job', or some other form of gentle praise, but the look on Lightning's face when she knelt down to speak those traditional words, aiding the soul of the fish on towards Etro's gates, into the restful silence of death, it made them both fall silent again.

That was the moment when Lightning realized, while she slowly pulled off the motionless fish from the end of the spear, that if she had to venture down into the heart of the earth to encounter the god of land... That fateful day out on the fiery beach, when she finally slew her quarry after all those years of hateful preparation, of clinging to the jagged, acrid notion of revenge, when she finally _did_ it, and then felt so hollow inside, only then did Etro appear.

But was it merely a hallucination, or had she really been so near to death herself? Even just a _moment_ of wishing for the world to be utterly still, to be nothing again, was it sufficient to bring her close enough for contact? Did she truly have to _die_ , in a sense, to find her chosen goddess?

Fang watched the sudden flurry of emotions on Lightning's face, even with the way she simply carried the fish back up to shore, it was enough to make Fang start to worry, only slightly, if her companion was feeling well. "...Light?"

Lightning sat down to start cleaning up the fish with a different knife, gutting out it over the sand. "Yeah?"

"You alright?" Fang lowered her head down to nudge at Lightning's shoulder. "Tummy ache, or something?"

Lightning almost smiled. "My stomach's fine."

"That's good..." Fang rested the end of her chin against the top of Lightning's head. "You'd tell me if you weren't feeling well, right?"

"Yes, Fang." Lightning flicked some of the fish guts away with the end of her knife. "I don't get sick very often."

"Yeah, all that running around in the woods..." Fang smiled, feeling the strong ocean winds against her slender snout. "You must have immunity to a whole lot of things."

"Would you believe me if I said I actually built up a tolerance to lycanthropy?" Lightning started to cut off the head of the fish, edging the end of her knife beneath the gills. "There was an outbreak a few years ago, I think I told you back in Gran Pulse... Anyway, after the whole ordeal, I took back some fresh samples for examination." Her mouth twitched into a frown. "I just didn't realize the virus could transmit by proximity, not so easily, but it was still in the first few stages... Luckily."

"Lucky indeed." Fang tried not to snort at the thought of such things, of those shambling creatures, twisted between man and beast, desperate to kill and reap the fresh bloodshed of their quarry, whether it was from their own fellow creatures or mankind itself. "So... You fought it off, didn't you?"

Lightning nodded. "I was actually in contact with a physician who studies them... He helped me out, brought over as many different vaccines and treatments as his cart could carry." She smiled wryly at nothing in particular. "All in the name of science, I suppose."

Fang sniffed at the scent of raw fish. "So it's curable?"

"In certain stages." Lightning started to cut off the tail and the fins of the fish, before she angled the blade down to start scaling the body itself. "I was fine after the pain stopped... It didn't really have the chance to progress to anything worse."

Fang closed her eyes for just a moment. "What if I told you-" She suddenly reappeared in her human form, slowly relaxing against the sand. "That lycanthropy was pretty different in certain worlds?"

Lightning just kept scaling the fish. "'Different'..."

Fang nodded. "Not so much painful or fatal, just hard to manage." She stretched out her arms, before she reached over to tap Lightning's shoulder. "Not to mention the _hunters_..."

Lightning narrowed her eyes, still cleaning up their dinner for the evening. "...And was I still a hunter?"

Fang smiled, all teeth, yet it was still gentle, even when she slowly leaned over to rest her chin against Lightning's shoulder. "You were a hunter, all right." She reached up, stroking her fingertips against the fur lining of Lightning's hood. "Maybe not for such incredible prey, though."

Lightning tried to stifle a quiet shiver. "What sort of prey?"

"Can't be picky when you're on the run." Fang took in a deep breath, still leaning against Lightning's back. "Mostly deer, rabbits, the usual."

Lightning would have reached up to run her hand against Fang's silky mane of hair if her hands hadn't been covered in fish guts and saltwater, so she settled on leaning over to kiss it instead, just for a brief moment. "I'm going to get a fire started."

Fang leaned back, smiling with just a hint of smugness in her gaze. "Bit early for dinner, isn't it?"

Lightning shrugged. "I thought we were resting here tonight." She set the cleaned fish down on a bit of cloth from her backpack, before she walked back over to the small patch of trees, collecting as many pieces of wood as she could find. "Long flight tomorrow, isn't it?"

Fang nodded. "Long flight _every_ day... I'll definitely need the rest in Luxerion."

Lightning picked up a rather big branch, and she suddenly noticed that there was a thin bead of sweat trickling across her own forehead. She paused, before she knelt down to wipe it away with her wrist, and that was when she finally realized that from moving around so much, she had started to truly heat up beneath the thick wolf hides. "Warm tonight, isn't it?"

"We're almost near the equator by now." Fang thought back to all of those nights of sleeping out on the sea, of the frigid northern winds, and she smiled rather softly at just how gentle the climate had grown. "A few more days and it'll be way too hot for jackets like that."

Lightning slowly started to unclasp the front of her coat, before she shrugged it off over her shoulders. "It almost feels like autumn."

Fang glanced at the loose undershirt beneath Lightning's coat. "Are you sure that won't be too cold?"

"I'm used to it by now." Lightning folded her jacket to sling it over her shoulder, before she reached down to pick up the pile of firewood again. "Tropics, huh?"

Fang smiled again, gazing out at the sea. "Yup... Sunlight and sand, palm trees and hurricanes."

"One of those things isn't quite like the others." Lightning soon knelt down again on the sand to arrange the sticks in a triangular pattern. "I'd rather not run into any hurricanes."

Fang scoffed under her breath. "You haven't _lived_ until you fly around in a hurricane."

Lightning rolled her eyes at the thought of that. "Says the nigh-immortal magic lizard creature..."

Fang leaned forward ever so slowly, narrowing her eyes. "Lizards don't _fly_."

Lightning didn't move when Fang kept approaching her, even when she was only just a breath away, lingering close. "They don't really breathe fire, either."

Fang gave her a slight nod. "Looks like you could use some."

Lightning's mouth twitched into just a small smirk, before she slowly reached down into the pocket of her folded jacket. "Do I?"

Fang leaned in to brush their noses together. "With an empty campfire like that-" She suddenly paused, feeling that odd gathering sensation again, as if her blood was going so very _warm_ , so vibrant within her veins. "Light?"

Lightning ran her fingertips over the silvery little charm, before she held up her other hand, watching the tiny flames spread out across her own skin. "Funny thing about blood pacts..."

Fang went very still, and her eyes flickered down to look at the trinket between Lightning's fingertips. "Finally got around to trying that, did you?"

Lightning gently nudged her nose against Fang's cheek. "I was somewhere dark, started thinking about you." She smiled when Fang pressed a tiny, fluttery kiss against the edge of her jaw, warm and soft. "Needed a little reassurance."

"Lightning, needing to be _reassured?_ " Fang spoke in mock surprise, yet it wasn't quite condescending, more in slight awe than anything else. "My fearless hunter isn't afraid of the dark, is she?"

Lightning let her eyelids slip shut. "She isn't."

"What was the matter, then?" Fang kissed at Lightning's jawline again. "Just lonely?"

Lightning slowly opened her eyes, gazing down at where her hand was resting against the pile of firewood, at the small crackle of flame beneath her fingertips. "Yeah." Fang's fire, that's what it was, bound to both her soul and body, the blood within her veins, restless and finally free.

Fang leaned in to nuzzle at her cheek. "You don't _have_ to be lonely... Just bring me along with you next time, if you like."

Lightning closed her eyes again, trying as hard as she possibly could to keep her next few thoughts to herself, to keep all of the pain away, to shield Fang's heart from knowing.

Yet Fang knew that something was clearly hidden, though she didn't pry, for she had no idea that the secret was even about herself. She simply wrapped her arms around Lightning's waist, and then the curve of her back, feeling those long, steely muscles that her thick jacket usually concealed, before she brought that silent mouth against her own.

Lightning opened her eyes, and she swore that her heart melted at that first squeeze at her waist, so gentle and strong, before her breath suddenly hitched when Fang pulled her forward to sit upon her lap, rising just a bit taller in such a position.

Fang stared up into those sharp blue eyes, and while she swore that there was still a bit of sadness there, just a flicker of it, she swore to try and chase it all away with an ever-deepening kiss.

Lightning slowly let herself relax into the warm embrace, listening to the low crackle of fire on the sand, and she knew that their dinner would just have to wait.

* * *

The world was wrapped in darkness by the time Fang pulled one of the blanket over herself and Lightning, who was already snuggled up against her collarbone. She felt the soft strands of pink hair tickle both her neck and chin, but Fang merely smiled into the dark, stroking her hands down across Lightning's back. She then moved up to her shoulders, where she rubbed tiny circles into those lean, solid muscles, easing away a rigid sort of stiffness, just enough so she might finally relax.

And Lightning did settle down, eventually, both warm and safe within those powerful arms, listening to the sound of Fang's gentle breaths.

"Sleep well, okay?" Fang whispered each word against Lightning's hair. "We'll be there in a few more days, I'm sure of it."

Lightning nodded without a sound, and while she slowly drifted off to sleep, she felt herself focusing upon Fang's scent, on the earthy tones of both her clothing and skin, and then a smell that she could only describe as _Fang_ , as the natural, welcoming hue of her entire body.

Fang yawned, and she tugged the blanket even closer against them both.

Lightning felt her breath go very slow, before she suddenly slipped away into the dark, into a dream brought on only by the sheer influence of suggestion.

* * *

It was almost smaller than a closet, she was _sure_ of it, that tiny apartment that smelled faintly of cat hair and odd chemicals, but when she caught sight of Serah, a different Serah, slightly younger than the one she knew, there was still that same smile that made everything seem just fine again.

"Light?" Serah leaned over to catch her gaze. "Are you dozing off, there..?"

Lightning almost laughed, but she held it back, only allowing herself to smile softly. "More than you might think."

"Hey, we were supposed to get this _finished_ today _._ " Serah tried to fake a pout, before she reached over to poke at Lightning's shoulder. " _Hello?_ You're taller, so you get the small brush."

Lightning felt her nose twitch at the sudden scent of paint, and she let her vision drift back into focus, to look around at the dream, where she realized that they were suddenly in the midst of refurbishing a rather tiny room.

"Lightning?" Serah almost began to sound a bit worried. "Seriously, are you okay?"

"Yeah." Lightning's subconscious took hold of the role as if on instinct, almost so much that she didn't even realize her past life was speaking, that she was getting back into the rhythm of reaching for different painting equipment, no matter how much the scent might sting her nose. "Right, right..."

"You've been getting enough sleep, right?" Serah went back to spreading paint beside one of the windows, where the rain was speckling against the glass in delicate raindrops. "Neighbors aren't keeping you up?"

Lightning wanted to snarl at the memory of such sharp, blaring music. "There's this wonderful little invention called 'earplugs'..."

Serah giggled. "Hey, at least they turn it off before ten." She looked over at Lightning again, watching the way she painted at the part of the wall that stood nearest to the ceiling. "Oh, I forgot to mention, the couple on our other side, they came over to introduce themselves while you were at work, yesterday."

Lightning almost frowned at the mention of her job.

"Did you notice the cookies on the counter?" Serah smiled softly, before she turned back to her own part of the room, careful not to spill more than a drop or two of paint upon the tarp beneath her. "They brought those over, isn't that nice?"

Lightning shrugged. "They probably just wanted to make sure you weren't a drug dealer."

Serah scoffed at the thought of that. "Oh yeah, little old me, slinging _drugs_ around?" She dipped her paintbrush back down into the can, before she began to spread it all across the wall, just as evenly as she could manage. "I mean... I've never tried it, but I've heard that certain-"

"Serah." Lightning glanced back over her shoulder. "There will not be anything illegal in this apartment... Is that clear?"

Serah looked over as well. "Other than existing, _sure_."

Lightning fought the urge to snap at such a notion, so she turned away again, back to painting the wall. "Technically, we aren't illegal..." She brought her voice down to a low whisper. "Just legal to kill."

Serah sighed, but she just kept painting her side of the room. "Could we not talk about this right now?"

"Sure." Lightning fell silent again.

"Could we talk about _something_ , though?" Serah reached for another dab of paint. "How's work?"

Lightning glanced over at the window, gazing at all of the thin streaks of rain upon the glass. "It's fine. How's school?"

Serah almost scowled. "Light, when I ask you about work-"

"I carried crates around the harbor for about five hours, ate lunch, and then carried even more crates." Lightning tried not to make her words bite, speaking just as gently as she could. "Serah, how's school?"

Serah frowned a little. "Well, classes are fine so far... There's a professor there, she's really nice; during study hall, I told her that I was new in town, and she actually offered to write up a map of the best places downtown, restaurants and stuff."

Lightning paused. "...Why weren't you studying during study hall?"

Serah shook her head. "I finished early, and almost everyone in there was talking about the weekend, anyway."

Lightning went back to coating the walls in paint, though she couldn't help but wish that her little sister could be out enjoying her free time in different ways, making new friends, or even out exploring the new city, anything but accompanying her grumpy older sibling with housework. It wasn't that she wanted to be so prickly, no, it was just that the aches in her limbs from the workweek and the strain of moving new furniture, they were almost too much for the time being. A new life, a new apartment in one of the biggest cities of Cocoon, a whole world of opportunity for both of them, provided they could keep one certain little secret safe.

Yet that all came to a sudden halt when a low, gentle knock sounded at the front door.

Lightning felt the soft hairs on the back of her neck prickle up, but when Serah moved to stop painting, she signaled for her to continue. "I'll get it, Serah."

And there it was, even before she'd exited the short hall into the front entryway, from beneath the gap in the front door, that scent she hoped to never catch again, yet not for lack of fondness or familiarity. She lingered for only a moment, because the one at her door, she could surely smell her scent as well, and had likely already heard even the softest of footsteps upon the carpeted floor.

Lightning glanced down at the chain lock on the door, but she didn't move it away, not even when she turned the handle to yank the entire door open with a low, rumbling growl. "How did you find us?"

A sudden voice, that almost musical accent, and then the scent of someone she could never forget, deep and earthy and absolutely nothing like the city they stood within. "What, no hugs for an old friend? ...Not much of a welcome, is it?"

"What do you want, Fang?" Lightning narrowed her eyes at the fresh wound on Fang's cheek. "I swear, if you led _anyone_ out here-"

"What, you think I'm an idiot?" Fang suddenly paused, lowering her voice, a bit gentler than before. "I'd never... Never bring them to you, Light."

Lightning glanced away at the sound of that. "Then why are you here?"

"Don't get me wrong, I didn't get _this_ from just anyone..." Fang reached up to rub at the cut on her cheek. "But they're not on our tail right now, okay? Nobody's gonna find you because of us."

Lightning's arm went stiff for less than a second. "'Us'."

Fang nodded. "Vanille's keeping watch, downstairs... Light, we're in pretty bad shape; we could _really_ use a friendly face right now, okay? I promise I'll make it up to you."

Lightning grit her teeth together. "We don't have much room in here."

"We don't need much... Just a roof over our heads." Fang slowly reached for the edge of the doorframe, yet she didn't move inside, merely traced her fingertips over the outline of the wood. "I can pay you for this, if you need it." She didn't miss the way that Lightning's eyes went just a bit brighter at that. "How are you doing, Light?"

Lightning felt her canine teeth instinctively go sharper, felt her gaze hone in on the terrace that Fang stood upon, searching for any possible threats, but there was nothing there that she could see, nothing quite out of the ordinary. "Decent, for once."

"That's good." Fang lowered her voice to a whisper. "No problems..?"

Lightning shook her head. "I'm fine, Serah's fine."

"All fine, huh?" Fang smiled softly. "Glad to hear that."

Lightning stared at Fang for a long moment, gazing out with blue eyes that almost began to look golden in a certain light, before she slowly unbolted the lock. "Get Vanille in here... Is she hurt?"

"Nothing she can't heal off." Fang's smile widened when Lightning finally opened the door. "She'll be up in a minute, said she wanted to make sure there wasn't anyone watching."

Lightning stepped back into the front hallway, a space that suddenly felt much too small with another person there, a person with such a strong, familiar scent, someone who smelled like mossy trees and dirt, and _blood_ , different blood, not her own, and then, also the sweet smell of something she'd likely just eaten that very same day, perhaps a bit of cheap ice cream.

Fang noticed the subtle twitch of Lightning's nostrils. "I got them way worse than they got me."

Lightning glanced at the cut on Fang's cheek. "I see."

Fang leaned to the side, slightly, watching the way that Lightning closed the door just enough to keep the summer insects from fluttering inside, perhaps for refuge from the rain. "...I missed you, Light."

Lightning looked down at the carpet beneath her feet.

"I mean it, ever since the whole thing back near Euride..." Fang fought the urge to move a bit closer. "I know I shouldn't cling to things, shouldn't let myself hope for this, but-"

"Fang." Lightning suddenly glanced up to meet her gaze, steady and unyielding. "We're safer in small groups."

"I know, I know..." Fang grit her teeth for just a brief moment, and her eyes almost seemed pleading, as if she was trying to keep herself from asking far too much, from blurting out everything that was on her mind. "I just missed you."

Lightning glanced to the side when a soft pair of footsteps approached from further inside the house. "I missed you, too."

It was only a moment before Serah froze at the end of the hall. "Fang?!"

Fang smiled, but then she grinned even wider when she was suddenly tackled in a fierce hug. "Hey, little Farron..."

"Light, you didn't tell me _Fang_ was here!" Serah hugged Fang close, before she released her grip to stand back on tiptoes, examining the scratch on the curve of her cheek. "Oh, Fang-"

"...I didn't know she'd be stopping by." Lightning slowly leaned back against the wall, yet she still watched the doorway out of the corner of her gaze. "How did you find us, anyway? Is there anything I should know about?"

"No, no cracks in your cover..." Fang spoke in a low whisper. "We were just down at the harbor, looking around; I _never_ forget a scent, Light, and even _you_ can't throw my nose off your trail."

Lightning's shoulders almost seemed to relax, and she slowly leaned over to look out from the doorway. "We shouldn't talk about this here."

Fang nodded, and she tipped her head to the side. "Vanille's taking her sweet time..."

Lightning glanced at the railing of the balcony. "You'd better check on her."

From anyone else, Fang might have just quipped back a wry retort or even asked for a bit of patience, but the steel in Lightning's eyes told her to just go and fetch her friend so she could close the damn door already.

Lightning watched the way that Fang stuck her hands in her pockets and walked out, glancing around the terrace stairs for any hint of Vanille.

"Light..." Serah leaned over to look out the doorway. "She was attacked, wasn't she?"

Lightning could still see the cut on Fang's cheek. "Seems that way."

Fang called out over the balcony. "Vanille, come on!"

A distant voice called back. "One second!"

"We don't _have_ a second, Light's gonna-" Fang caught a rather icy glare out of the corner of her eye. "We're gonna get left out on the doorstep if you don't get a move on!"

"Okay, okay!" It was only a moment later that the whirlwind known as Vanille rushed up the stairwell, only to almost trip upon the very last stair, yet she caught herself just in time, stumbling out into the balcony. "There was a really big squirrel."

Fang reached out to gently poke at Vanille's forehead. "A squirrel..."

Vanille almost seemed to pout. "A very _mean_ looking squirrel."

Fang lowered her voice just a bit. "We'd better get inside before Lightning locks the door on us, wouldn't you say?"

Vanille suddenly turned around with a bright smile, and before Lightning could react, she was wrapped in a rather crushing hug, the kind that only those who haven't seen each other in several years could muster up the strength for.

"Oh, Light!" Vanille hugged Lightning even tighter. "It's so good to see you again!"

Lightning tried to breathe through the tremendous grip of Vanille's arms, but she simply hugged her back, guiding them both away from the door. "I know, kiddo."

Vanille leaned away after a moment, slightly pouting again. "I'm not a kid anymore!"

Lightning shook her head. "That's the curse of little sisters, even if we aren't blood related... You're always little in our eyes."

Fang smiled at that, gently closing the door with the heel of her shoe. "Good to see us all here... Back together again."

Lightning exhaled when Vanille finally stopped trying to bruise her lungs. "It's been a long time."

" _Years_ , Light." Serah stepped forward to hug Vanille as well, humming and smiling all the while. "Haven't seen _either_ of you in years..."

Lightning took a slow step to the side, towards the doorway that led into the main sitting room. "We can take a quick break from painting."

Fang sniffed at the air. "So _that's_ what that is..."

Lightning nodded, leading the way down into a rather cozy little room with a small sofa and two chairs, one of which she took for herself, if only to avoid more physical contact than she could handle within a single afternoon. "We're somewhat new in town, to be honest."

"Yeah..." Serah flopped down against the couch, and she grinned when Vanille did the same. "Wait, are you guys living around here, too?"

Fang sat down on the opposite chair. "No, just passing through." She tried not to glance over at Lightning. "We've been... To be honest, the goal was to find the two of you again, but we ran into some trouble last week, had to shake a few punks off our trail."

Lightning narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. "What sort of 'punks'?"

"Punks with _dogs_..." Fang bit back a low snarl, trying to relax against her seat. "Not easy to get them off of your scent, not unless you're ready to swim."

Lightning slowly folded her arms against her lap. "And you're sure they aren't following you now?"

Fang reached up to tap the cut on her cheek. "Dead sure."

Lightning stared at Fang for a long while, even when Serah and Vanille began to catch up with their own lives, from Serah's new college courses to all the things that Vanille had collected on the road, little trinkets and unusual baubles that she took out from the purse that was slung against her shoulder.

Fang stared back at Lightning, and while her body seemed the very picture of calm, one leg resting over the other, while her foot idled in small, even circles, there was a very deep mystery in her eyes, the sort of longing for some unknowable thing, at least until enough courage could be mustered within someone to ask.

But Lightning kept very quiet, for she knew almost exactly what Fang was itching to ask for, to learn if they were still in the same spot they'd left off in after their desperate departure from a city at war with their kind, when they'd had to leave everything behind and flee into the night. She knew that Fang wanted to know if she was still allowed to take hold of her hands, to smile and press long kisses against her forehead, to hold her very close while they hid out another day, another sleepless night while they stood guard over their loved ones, their little sisters, those who wouldn't have been long for the world without them.

For they were two sides of the very same coin, orphans burdened with the care of the one they would absolutely die for, their younger kin, forced to grow up and take on the lofty place of a parent, a commonality that only brought them closer with each and every passing day.

Lightning finally rose to her feet, glancing at the hallway again. "Fang, help me make some sandwiches." She didn't wait for a response, and she turned to look at both Serah and Vanille. "We have turkey or peanut butter."

"Oh, I'm not too picky." Vanille smiled at her, still showing Serah all of her unusual souvenirs. "But, uh... Do you have any bananas?"

Lightning nodded, before she turned her gaze towards Serah.

"Turkey's fine." Serah smiled softly as well. "But you might just have to fight Fang for it..."

Fang laughed to herself, rising up from the chair to stretch out her arms. "I'll make sure there's enough for you."

Lightning walked off without another word, silent as the rain on the windowpanes, just a pair of footsteps in the hall.

"Light." Fang followed after her, careful not to make too much noise. "Are you-"

But Lightning simply began to walk inside the kitchen, before she reached out to yank all of the curtains together, and then slowly, she leaned herself against the countertop, breathing deep.

"Oh, Light-" Fang nodded in understanding. "Sorry about this..." She didn't even flinch when she saw those sharpened teeth, how they simply glistened there in the low light, nor did she wince when Lightning's eyes finally shifted to look at her again, a rich, deep hue, like golden honey.

Fang knew it was too difficult just to keep all of those emotions bottled up and contained, to keep herself from channeling them out into the form of a far deadlier being; excitement could trigger a change, as could any sort of stress or inner turmoil, anything that she could barely control, even with such an ironclad will.

" _Breathe_ , Light." Fang reached out for the hand with such blunt claws, claws she knew could grow so much sharper than they looked. "I'm right here, okay? There isn't any danger."

A lupine voice, rough and barely audible. "...I know."

Fang blinked, and there she was, the fellow lycanthrope she'd been searching for, only she was trying just as hard as she could to fight back against the beast, to turn herself human again within the shelter of her own home.

"Fang." Lightning felt her hand tighten against Fang's fingers, holding them, anchoring herself there, leaning forward to rest her forehead against Fang's soft mane of hair, just beside her shoulder. "You're-"

"I'm sorry." Fang reached up to try and soothe the pain away, the awful ache of a contorted body, of skin that was trying to become such thick, white fluff, though its bearer was still attempting to force it all away with each passing moment. "Listen, I would've called to let you know about this beforehand, but I wasn't sure how to get your number..."

Lightning's jaw distended, both narrow and smooth, with so many sharp teeth that grew out into longer, sharper points. "Are you... _Seriously_ asking me for that?"

Fang almost laughed, still stroking at the back of Lightning's neck. "Not intentionally, Light... But I'd be happy to get it from you."

Lightning suddenly snarled, a low sound, almost gentle, a gesture with no real bite. "Make me a sandwich, and I'll consider it."

And with that, Fang left Lightning right where she was, even while she was still half-changed.

"What sort of sandwich?" Fang made her way over to a package of bread on the far countertop. "You said you have turkey?"

Lightning shrugged, leaning against the counter. "Doesn't matter."

Fang knew very well that among the numerous things that could bring on a transformation, there were also a few sensations that could initiate the opposite change. A lack of stress, for example, or the feeling of true safety, something that included the act of eating calmly, an almost chemical reaction that signaled for the body to rest, for the wolf to finally sleep again.

Lightning let out a low sigh. She could feel her claws scraping gently against the wooden counter, and she felt the white fluff beneath her clothes, the long teeth in her mouth, sharp canines ready to rend and tear apart any threat that might appear. And while Fang did indeed represent a threat, it wasn't one of her own will, merely a reminder of the life they once used to live, of running from place to place on whatever scraps of food they could scavenge, of living between the safety of abandoned buildings and the barrel of a loaded gun.

Fang rummaged through the kitchen for some sliced turkey, a bit of cheese, and then a jar of mayonnaise, which she swiftly began to make a sandwich out of, along with the sliced bread. "Doing okay?"

Lightning nodded through the pain. "Yeah." She waited there, trying to change herself back with her own will, but it was only when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, and then caught sight of the plate on the counter beneath her, only then did she finally start to calm down. "Thanks, Fang."

"No problem..." Fang didn't watch anything but Lightning's eyes, those bright rings of gold, she just watched as they slowly faded into a colorless sort of tone, and then eventually, throughout the moments that slipped by like hours, back into their original shade of blue. "Has this been happening often?"

Lightning shook her head, slowly chewing on a bite of her sandwich. "No, not often... Not for months, usually."

Fang almost smiled, and she might've made a joke about the full moon if Lightning hadn't just experienced such a debilitating pain. "Light, we're here for a reason, you know... Not that I wouldn't just stop by to say hello."

Lightning exhaled, before she set the sandwich back down, feeling her teeth fully recede, and how her jaw clicked back into place again. "And what reason is that?"

Fang glanced at the windowsill. "Gran Pulse."

Lightning went very still. "What about it?"

"What about it..." Fang slowly leaned to the side, before she looked down at her feet, silently tapping one of them against the kitchen tiles. "We _made_ it out there, that's what this is about."

Lightning didn't say anything for a long while, not until Fang looked back at her. "You made it there."

"Yeah." Fang reached up to push away a bit of her own dark hair, tossing it over her shoulder. "Wide open territory... Nobody there to hunt for us, not if they have don't have any clue where we are."

Lightning didn't miss the sudden waft of scent from Fang's neck, an almost deliberate attempt to coax her into remembering such things, into feeling what she'd once felt all those years ago, that same scent, the same _Fang_ , the same sort of kindling love in her heart, one that only grew stronger with each and every threat they managed to shake.

"Come with us." Fang spoke it just as quietly as if she were asking for a small favor, to borrow something simple, or to ask Lightning to take just a single step away from home. "We can be a _family_ again; no more running, no more going hungry... No more bloodshed."

Lightning almost wanted to step backwards, wanted to bare her teeth, but she just stood there, staring back at Fang. "No more _bloodshed?_ What, you just want to live off of twigs and leaves out there? Come on, Fang-"

Fang suddenly bore her own teeth in response, just slightly, enough to hook one of them over the edge of her lip. "Gazelles don't count... Wild hares, elk and deer, they don't count worth a _damn_ , and you know it." She turned to face Lightning head-on. "They'll always find us out here, Light... There's always a gun in the crowd, someone who knows what you _are._ "

Lightning slowly looked away. "We've been safe in this city for years, only the apartment is new."

Fang watched Lightning's expression for a long moment, before she let her own teeth grow blunt again, stepping forward. "It _is_ a nice apartment... A little small, not the greatest neighborhood, but-" She shook her head once. "How long did it take you to save up for this?"

Lightning's eyes went very distant. "Like I said... Years."

Fang took a step forward again. "You must've worked hard."

Lightning didn't say anything. She just stared at the thin, dark jacket above the shirt on Fang's torso, some sort of abstract design that was quite hidden by the thick layer of denim.

"You're trying to make something here, aren't you?" Fang's nose almost twitched at the scent of paint. "A safe place for Serah, a home for the both of you... I just hope you won't ever have to feel the pain of losing it."

Lightning felt Fang reach for both of her hands. "Fang-"

"Listen, we'll hang out around the area if you like." Fang closed her eyes, holding Lightning's wrists in such a gentle grip, just enough to keep her still. "Maybe, even... Maybe we'll find somewhere close to stay until things get rough for all of us." She opened her eyes to see that defiant look again, only it was far softer than before. "Things _always_ get rough, Light, it's all just a matter of time."

"Serah's in school now." Lightning shook her head. "She's studying there, she's going to graduate in a few years... We can't just cut our losses and leave before we even _lose_."

"I know." Fang stroked her fingertips over the top of Lightning's wrists, before she slowly let both of them go again. "You know, she's just like Vanille to me, almost a little sister... It's real good to see her so happy."

Lightning glanced at the half-eaten sandwich on the counter. "She might be even happier if we actually bring over some lunch."

Fang smiled, before she turned back to face the open package of bread. "Let's not keep them waiting, then..."

Lightning almost felt a prickle run down her spine at how natural it was, how Fang simply fit there, melding into such a new setting with ease, with only a few simple questions of _'where do you stash the peanut butter?'_ , or where certain utensils were stored. She was truly an adapting force, a solid presence, almost like she'd never left all those years ago, desperate to evade those who pursued them.

Fang kept spreading peanut butter over a slice of bread, outwardly oblivious to the way Lightning looked at her, but within her own mind, her thoughts weren't quite so casual or calm.

Lightning soon stepped away to start making a different sandwich. "Do you want peanut butter or turkey?"

Fang smiled softly. "Turkey's fine."

Lightning reached for the jar of mayonnaise. "We sound like..."

Fang's smile widened. "Yeah."

"It's almost _too_ normal." Lightning began to spread out a small bit of mayonnaise across the bread, before she reached for a slice of turkey. "Just another day, right? Nothing's changed... Not really."

"You seem calmer." Fang started to slice up a banana. "Relaxed, almost."

Lightning nodded. "I check the perimeters almost every day, make sure I don't smell anything dangerous."

"Hard to tell, sometimes." Fang placed each slice of banana atop the layer of peanut butter. "You never know who or what might be out there... You've got Serah for backup, but what if she gets stressed out at school? You can't catch everything, Light."

"She isn't stressed." Lightning stared at the package of bread, trying not to glare at Fang for such blatant pessimism. "I've been keeping tabs on everything."

"Everything..." Fang's mouth twitched into a sad sort of smile, before she glanced off into the distance. "Nobody can see everything."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "I can try."

"Still the same Light, aren't you?" Fang's smile had just a little more mirth than before. "Wouldn't be _you_ without that spirit... Like you can do anything."

Lightning picked up the sandwich plate, before she took a slow step to the side, just barely brushing her shoulder against the back of Fang's jacket. "I seem to remember someone else who had the very same thing."

Fang stared at the open jar of peanut butter. "Things in life... They can _really_ drag you down."

Lightning leaned in to whisper against Fang's ear. "So? Shake them off."

Fang smiled again, but her gaze remained distant, all up until she finally finished the sandwich, carrying it back into the living room. And there they were, an almost mirror image of the time that the four of them had traveled together, sharing food and stories like they were all one and the same, words to keep the mind healthy and a meal to keep the stomach full, to hold their strength up in more meager times.

Lightning sat down with her own half-eaten sandwich, hoping that Serah wouldn't notice it, but by the look of her curious eyes and a slightly twitching nose, she'd already taken note of what had happened within the kitchen. But Lightning could hardly be blamed, what with unexpected visitors bearing such odd wounds, like the long scratch that Vanille kept trying to hide beneath the sleeve of her shirt, or the scent of blood on the back of Fang's neck, or even that cut on her cheek.

There was little to hide from the nose of a lycan, and even less from an old friend, one who knew just how many threats could be lurking out there in the darkness.

* * *

Lightning woke to the sound of the ocean waves, and then the gentle rhythm of Fang's breath. She almost tried to inhale, just to catch that same scent from her dream, those deep, earthy tones, but her human nose was so much less receptive, and she didn't quite feel like searching through her jacket pockets for her scent charm.

Fang mumbled something in her sleep, before her arms tightened slightly around Lightning's waist, resting near the small of her back.

"Hey." Lightning moved to whisper her words against the edge of Fang's chin. "It's morning."

Fang stirred, slowly mustering up the consciousness to open her eyes, before she let out a long, silent yawn. "Hmm."

"We should get moving again." Lightning tried to roll away from Fang's arms, but she was given a rather sleepy kiss on the forehead before that grip finally went slack, letting her sit up against the blankets. "I think you've been influencing my dreams."

Fang tried to focus her bleary eyes gaze on Lightning's face. "...In what way?"

"What you were talking about earlier, about when we were-" Lightning paused, before she slowly leaned back a bit, gazing out over the sea. "Lycanthropes."

"And you dreamt about it?" Fang tried to sit up as well. "Light, it... It makes sense, really."

Lightning glanced down at where her jacket was resting against the sand. "We were always running, weren't we? Someone... They wanted to kill us, all of us."

Fang leaned in to touch their foreheads together. "Wasn't the kindest world we've been in."

Lightning brushed her fingertips over Fang's wrist. "It feels like it _always_ happens." She took a long, deep breath, smelling the salt of the sea, the cool ocean winds, even the subtle scent of Fang's soft, silky hair. "We're almost always the outcasts, the hunted-"

"Revolutionaries always get called crazy." Fang smiled that brave sort of smile, almost as if she didn't care if they were always at the end of a rope, the edge of a bottomless cliff, for she hand grown such strong wings to carry them home. "And in a day or two, we're gonna find out exactly why you and Serah were targeted back then."

Lightning nodded. "I hope we will."

"You ever get that feeling in your gut, Light?" Fang reached out to hold both of Lightning's hands. "That something's waiting out there, just sitting there for you to find it?" She nudged her nose against Lightning's cheek. "We'll get to the bottom of this."

Lightning closed her eyes, wishing that Fang's words didn't sound so incredibly true.

* * *

A few days within the strong winds saw them past the equator, and as they flew further and further into the south, Lightning found herself pulling away all of her heavier clothing except for her shirt and trousers, a much thinner pair that she often wore beneath her more insulated pants. Yet she kept her cloak on, detached from her heavier jacket, and even if she didn't have the security of a hood, she kept a certain white sheet of fabric on hand, just in case.

And as the days slipped by, they flew on past tiny islands with trees that began to look more and more vibrant, more delicate and tropical, until the sunlight grew so warm that they could see flowering plants upon the ground, even from so high in the air.

And it was on the eleventh day of flying south from the northern lands, aided by that mighty current of wind, it was only then that they caught sight of a massive island that awaited in the distant seas.

Fang slowed herself slightly, still being carried along by the winds, but she began to tip her wings to the side, circling off to the east. _Light, you see it?_

Lightning nodded from atop Fang's back. _Yeah... That's Nova Chrysalia?_

Fang smiled into the air, flapping her wings with much greater vigor than before. _It certainly is... You ready?_

Lightning gripped the satchel strap a bit tighter. _Ready to land?_

 _I always head down to the forest before going into town._ Fang stared at the outline of a towering mountain, a wide, misty peak that sheltered the lush island off to one side of the landmass, as well as the twin cities that stood far apart on either sides of the land, west and east. _No use landing right outside of the city walls; someone might just spot us and panic._

Lightning nodded to herself. _Then we'll head into Luxerion after that?_

 _You got it._ Fang tipped down in the air, diving a bit lower towards the waves, and she flicked her tail against the warm, rising air. _Hang on, Light... This might be a little rough._

Lightning could feel the steep turbulence that came from such warm currents, how they almost seemed to work against Fang's descent, yet still also aiding her into moving so fast towards the edge of the distant island.

It was after a several minutes of dodging the thick thermals as best she could, using a few of them to carry her up towards the sandy shore, it was then that Fang flared out her wings just to slow herself down, nearing the tropical forest that rose far taller than her entire wingspan. With a low grunt and the crashing of many small shrubs and branches, Fang found herself slamming her talons down against the loamy soil, skidding to a sharp halt within the many vibrant leaves and vines.

When the world finally felt still again, Lightning blinked from atop Fang's back, before she reached up to adjust the buckle of her cloak. "Not your most graceful landing."

Fang grunted. "Give me a break... I haven't been out in this kind of terrain for years." She slowly stood up, bracing her wings out against the thick branches that sheltered the flowering ground. "Hard to land with this much _stuff_ in the way."

Lightning stepped down over Fang's wing, perching herself atop one of the vine-covered branches. "Where do we go from here?"

Fang began to change back into her human form, and after a moment or two, she stood there upon the ground, gazing up at Lightning. "Luxerion is to the east."

Lightning looked up through the thick branches at the midday sun, which was almost at the very height of the sky. "If we were flying south..."

Fang pointed to the left. "There's a pretty well protected path that runs all the way from Yusnaan to Luxerion, we can take it there." She reached up to offer Lightning her hand, smiling when she accepted the gesture, before she helped her down towards the ground. "And then our first step is getting you some different clothes..."

Lightning glanced down at her thin shirt and short trousers, and she pulled her cloak just a bit closer around herself. "That would be nice."

With a nod, Fang started off into the thick jungle, almost as if she knew exactly which route would take them to their destination, and after a short while of walking, she spoke up again. "You know, both cities are pretty well known for their high-fashion sense, lots of little boutiques and shops, fancy hats..."

Lightning tried to bite back a tiny smile. "Do I seem like a hat person?"

Fang smiled as well. "No, but you seem like somebody who'd look pretty damn amazing in the stuff they have here." She glanced back over her shoulder. "You'd look pretty amazing in anything, though."

Lightning tried not to roll her eyes. "Nothing too fancy..."

"Not unless it's practical." Fang nodded to herself, looking back at the forest ahead. "Something easy to move around in, durable, and most importantly, nothing too warm for this kind of climate."

Within the thick heat of the forest, they could hear the steady thrumming of thousands of insects, and the distant bird calls of those who lived so high in the trees, even the occasional shrieks of other forest dwelling creatures.

Lightning just kept following after Fang, carrying her backpack upon her shoulders. She was rather grateful for the fact that Fang volunteered to carry all of her heavier clothes in that big satchel, which left her own pack rather light. They'd been traveling from island to island, feeling the weather grow warmer with every passing day, to the point where Lightning was sure that certain aspects of Fang's more amorous behaviors, that they were only increasing due to the fact that her daily clothes weren't so insulated anymore, nor somewhat padded and shapeless.

And as for Fang, Lightning didn't have much left to the imagination, not when she woke up to see a certain shirtless figure tending their campfire, a sight that she would have scolded Fang for if she wasn't so immune to the flames. She'd been wearing a strip cloth over herself, though, just enough to preserve her modesty, but yet again, there wasn't much mystery left after certain nights of going without clothing at all.

Lightning felt her face heat up slightly at the mere thought of it, even though walking through the middle of a rainforest was neither the time or the place to think about such things. But perhaps if the nearby city, the fabled Luxerion, if they could find another nice inn to stay at... Lightning snapped back from her thoughts when she caught sight of a wide dirt road off in the distance, a long, nearly empty stretch of land that was still quite covered in vines, though most of the tree roots looked as if they'd eventually learned to grow away from the path in lieu of being hacked apart by human tools.

"Here it is." Fang stepped above a rather large patch of ferns, glancing around at the road. "Long walk, though."

Lightning stepped over as well. "Wish I had Odin here."

Fang smiled a bit. "You'd let him give me a ride too, right?"

Lightning walked on into the path, trying her best not to meet Fang's mischievous gaze. "I'm not sure if we'd both fit on the saddle."

"You'd just make me run alongside him, wouldn't you?" Fang quickly followed after Lightning so that they were walking side by side. "Hey, is it hard to learn how to ride a horse? I remember doing it in other lives."

"It's just like any other skill." Lightning could feel the fabric of Fang's shirt brushing against her arm, though she didn't try to walk any further away. "There are easy parts, and parts that are incredibly difficult, but if you have the right horse..." She trailed off at the thought of how Odin must be wondering where she was, for horses were truly herd animals, and even a lone missing member of such a close group would surely be missed. "Serah takes good care of him while I'm gone."

Fang tipped her head slightly to examine Lightning's face, how her eyes went a bit distant at the thought of her home. "I'll bet she does."

Lightning fell silent for a while, just enjoying how it felt to walk in a group again, even if it was just the two of them. They were headed towards a solid destination, and Fang's presence seemed to linger at her side, steady, constant and loyal. Were they already a real family, Lightning wondered, was Fang truly that close after such a short time? Even with all of the echoes, the visions of other lives, they always seemed to have known each other for longer than a few weeks, a sturdy relationship built upon years of trust and hardship, pulling each other away from the threats of danger or fatigue. It was the constant support, the partnership that Lightning craved, just to know that Fang truly had her back through thick and thin, someone to comfort and be comforted by.

Fang watched the trail ahead, walking across the twists and turns of the jungle path, all up until the forest began to even itself down into lower trees, where she caught sight of something strange at the side of the road.

Lightning paused to stare at the nearly upturned wagon, and then at the tiny old woman who was trying to yank it back out from the ditch with only the aid of an extremely stubborn donkey.

"Hey, you alright?" Fang called out, making her way over towards the tilted cart. "Looks pretty stuck in there."

The old woman blinked at Fang from behind a very thick pair of spectacles. "Oh yes, but I'd take _this_ over the city streets anyway!" She let out a withering sigh, before she stepped over towards the side of the cart. "Even if it _is_ a right mess."

Fang leaned over to examine the damage. "I'd bet a good push would get it out of there." She glanced back at Lightning, a quick, silent exchange, before they both moved down into the ditch.

"What nice girls..." The old woman smiled and tugged at the reins of the donkey, urging it to help them get the wagon back up to the road. "I do hope you're not headed down this way to Luxerion, though... Are you coming here from Yusnaan? I thought they would've gotten the news already."

Lightning grunted as she pushed against the back of the cart. "No, what news?"

"Oh, it's just terrible!" The old woman fought with the donkey to get it to walk forward again, until it finally stepped back up towards the road, pulling the heavy wagon along with it. "Blood in the _streets_ , girls! You definitely don't want to go wandering in there, not until the Order sets this all right again!"

Lightning soon stepped back a few paces, breathing a bit heavily from the exertion. "Blood in the streets."

"Yes, yes, terrible things, not the sort of place for my poor little heart." The old woman stepped back up to sit upon the seat of the wagon. "Just stay _away_ from there until it all calms down again, girls!"

Fang leaned back, watching the cart as it slowly began to rumble away down the road. "Blood in the streets..."

After a brief moment or two, Lightning reached up, slowly lifting her necklace out from beneath her cloak. "We could always just keep moving, Fang."

Fang sighed almost silently, and she nearly started to grit her teeth. "I don't think either of us are easily spooked... Not ones to back down from a challenge."

Lightning glanced away. "Even if it could get one of us killed?" There was no fear in her voice, or even anxiety, only a quiet, steady caution. "We could take a look in there and see just how bad it is..." Lightning waited until the wagon was fully out of sight. "She could be overreacting, you know how some people can be."

Fang nodded. "Good idea... Let's take a look." She started to climb back up towards the road, reaching back to help Lightning up as well. "Shouldn't be much longer, now."

Lightning glanced down at where her pendant was resting right beneath her cloak and shirt, a symbol of her faith, of her status as a messenger, a follower of Etro's way. Would she truly be welcome in a city of the gods? Of pure, divine light, the mark of Bhunivelze? She knew that the answers were simply hidden within the near future, and that she shouldn't fret over anything beyond her reach, but an odd, almost foreboding sensation prickled right through her spine as they kept walking on down the road.

Fang began to speak of the last time she'd been in the city, of the grand spires and cathedrals, not to mention the amazing selection of markets down by the harbor. She also told of the hours upon hours of shopping for things with Vanille, whether it was clothes or simple trinkets, books or anything else that they had need of, it seemed as if there was nothing she couldn't be persuaded into purchasing for her adopted sibling. Lightning felt herself start to smile at the thought of that, of a world where Fang had grown wealthy enough to spoil Vanille with such things, even if their incredible lifespans would see most of those objects lost to the trials of time. Perhaps that was why the little plush deer looked so close to falling apart? It might have even been older than Lightning herself, a fact that she realized with just a bit of hesitation, to be out-aged by a collection of fabric, threads and cotton fluff...

But Fang grew very silent when the forest suddenly gave way to a wide river, and so many fields of thick, flowering grass, and it was a long, quiet while before she spoke again. "Well... Welcome to Luxerion."

Lightning looked over at the source of the river, a massive, snowy mountainside that loomed so tall above the island, one which fed down into the flowing water, running beneath a cobblestone bridge that stood among all of the sweet scented flowers. And then, off in the distance, she finally looked upon the sprawling city of stone, a place with more spires and towering buildings than she had ever seen before, even in dreams. A city of great walls and creaking canals, of cathedrals that reached up into the heights of the sky.

"Luxerion." Fang drew in a very deep breath. "City of the gods... City of light and shadow."


	28. Luxury

Lightning knew it would be foolish to openly stare at the density of the crowds, at the sheer size of the bustling city streets, yet she couldn't help but glance around at anything and everything she could possibly see, at least out of the corner of her gaze.

Fang just made her way along through the masses, navigating between so many stately stone buildings, then beneath the tall metal archways that must have been forged by master craftsmen, and for no practical purpose, either. Those arches wouldn't be able to protect the people below from the rain, nor did they provide much shelter from the sunlight; it was simply for vanity's sake, purely decorative, a open display of wealth.

Lightning swore that it felt like a slow whirlpool, all of the people going back and forth about their daily life in the streets, moving on from one place to another without much sense of urgency or purpose. She tried not to stare at the way a group of young adults were loitering around on the sidewalk, standing outside what looked like a window display of incredibly well-crafted footwear; the colorful selection ranged from boots to shoes, to little slim little slippers with shiny buckles and gemstones on the edges.

"Light?" Fang had to speak up over the constant din of the crowds, standing just a short distance away. "Light, you okay?"

Lightning drew herself back from her thoughts. "This place is right out of a storybook."

Fang smiled a little, a rather knowing look. "Nowhere else in the world quite like it..." She glanced around at all of the fancy little shops, and at the tall, extravagant signposts and streetlamps, even the decorative brickwork patterns beneath her feet. "We should get a move on, though... Before it gets really crowded."

Lightning almost narrowed her eyes in disbelief. "You're joking."

"No, it's right around lunchtime, so most people are doing just that." Fang kept walking forward, guiding Lightning along with a quick wave of her hand. "Unless things have changed since I last visited... Let's try and find somewhere more practical."

Lightning breathed out a quiet sigh, and she hurried along to keep up with Fang. "I almost feel-" She looked around at all the vibrant clothing of the people walking the streets, the silken scarves, the wide-brimmed hats with all manner of tall feather plumes and actual live flowers, likely the native fare picked from the colorful fields outside of the city. "I almost feel... Naked, like this." And that was when Lightning realized, the general air that hung like mist within the sky, how it truly felt like the dream she'd once had, a veritable rainbow cloaked so far beneath a deep, gray cloud. It was a tropical city, a dancing streak of color that had somehow been stuck right within the middle of such a sharp, bitter chill, even if the general temperature made her skin feel more than humid.

It was as if everything was dipped beneath that same gray, even the faces that seemed caught between smiling and a neutral gaze, the brand new bracelets that jingled with each step someone took, even a child walking after her mother, only with a rather blank look in both of their eyes. Was there truly nothing that they could see in such a magnificent place? A place with so much grand decor, with more sights to experience than the entirety of so many other populated islands, of whole cities, even; why did they almost look bored?

Lightning felt her own heartbeat quicken, and she kept herself a bit closer to Fang. It was that primal sense of uncanny surroundings, one that jumped right to alert even when there was truly nothing to fear, at least not in a physical sense. It was the feeling that told her to be _very_ cautious of empty eyes and voices that had no luster, of people who looked so incredibly dour and disinterested of their own world, somehow complacent, as if there was no fire in their hearts, not anymore. But why didn't Fang seem to see it? Lightning stared at the eyes of her friend, at the comforting warmth within them, the spark of strength to fight and protect them both, yet she still didn't seem to notice the fatigue of the people who walked along the very same path that they did.

"Fang." Lightning released a silent sigh once they had approached a tall wooden bridge, one that spanned the length of a massive canal, where several young couples mingled and laughed together, yet they still had those very same eyes. "There's just something strange about this place."

"Yeah?" Fang stepped up to the front path of the bridge, beside the long, colorful ribbons that were wrapped all around the railings on either side of the crowd, the people wearing enough fabric to shelter an entire village from a winter chill. "It'll get better in a minute."

Lightning paused for just a brief moment. Did that mean that Fang truly saw it as well? She tried not to stare at those hollow, listless eyes, and before long, she turned her gaze towards one of the mighty cathedrals instead, one that towered above all the rest.

"See that one?" Fang pointed at the very same building that Lightning had noticed, before she stepped back down over the other end of the bridge. "The 'Hall of Devotion'... Also home to one of the biggest historical libraries in the world."

Lightning kept following after Fang, and she nodded. "And that's where we're going?"

Fang shook her head. "Not today... Did you see those ribbons on the bridge? Those mean it's a weekend, prayer days, so they're not open to the public now." She kept walking along the cobblestone avenue, beneath the grand archway that heralded a much wider street, almost a wide plaza, one with colorful flowering trees and lush gardens, sectioned away with low metal fences. "So... I say we should get you some clothes, get us both some lunch, and then find a place to stay while we wait to study up on this."

Lightning almost stopped when she caught sight of tall banners within the crowds, a trail of people who looked like priests in ceremonial wear, yet the golden emblem that dangled from each of their necks... While she was rather loathe to ever take off her own pendant, those winged emblems that stood in the shape of diamonds, of _gold_ diamonds, she had seen the very same thing far too many times to count.

Fang watched the way that Lightning moved behind a decorative pillar, just enough cover to safely remove the silver chain from beside her throat.

Lightning held it so tightly within her palm, the little charm that held so much hidden power, the strikes of electric shock that she and her father had once readily faced, a pair of hunters out in the depths of the deep, dark wilderness. She almost wanted to speak to him aloud, to apologize for not keeping such a personal gift where it truly belonged, but she felt quite sure that he would understand.

"Hey." Fang's tone was gentle, and she smiled softly when Lightning walked back again, out into the open, only without the silver chain around her neck. "Just for a while, yeah?"

Lightning slowly let her backpack slide down from one of her shoulders, and she stashed the charm away. "Just for a while."

Fang tapped at the pointy bits of Lightning's hair. "That's the spirit... We'll be out of here again before you know it."

But somewhere deep down, Lightning had a feeling that those words weren't anywhere close to the truth.

* * *

It was past afternoon by the time they'd made their way though the various shopping districts and down into the more practical side of town, a region that had much less reason to awe any newcomers with sheer affluence. No, it was the humble home of many blacksmiths and armories, of the craftsmen and tinkers, those who made much more durable garb instead of ballgowns or slippers, and the change in attitude was almost startling.

The smiles were that of someone who had just worked half a day and still had the rest to keep toiling on, yet the people there were creating what they truly loved, things that brought warmth into the world. Lightning took a moment to gaze at an open forge, watching the grizzled old smith who was showing off the proper way to craft a sword. He hammered the metal down in front of so many chattering children, all in awe of the sparks that flew just safely enough away.

There were many people still walking the streets, but they were mostly busy browsing through the nearby wares, the assorted tools and goods out on display by hired vendors. The crowds lingered longer, and they walked away with almost more than they could carry, while their eyes weren't anything near the same as what Lightning had witnessed before.

Fang suddenly spoke in a low whisper. "Not so creepy out here, is it?"

Lightning almost grit her teeth at the memory of such things. "Not at all... But neither of these seem like 'blood in the streets', either."

"It's pretty weird at first, I know..." Fang kept walking down the streets, past the various vendors who tried to get her attention, showing off their various wares. "There's just something strange about that part of the city."

Lightning followed after Fang, and she tried to keep her attention on wherever they were supposed to be going, but the little shops and stalls just kept catching her gaze. There were bits of metal armor, weapons, even gardening tools, or more decorative things like baubles that made noise in the wind, a well as flat metal plaques for the purpose of engraving a sign upon. There were thin wooden rods for hanging clothes upon, stained glass trinkets and big metal cages for keeping birds, and then even vases for holding flowers, some of which already had several tropical occupants inside.

But Fang didn't pause until they approached a long, wide stairwell, one that led up into a much higher part of the city itself. "We're headed up here..." She looked back over her shoulder, gazing at the craftsman's district, and she found her mind wandering back to the other streets that they'd walked through before; vanity versus practicality, perhaps. Fang smiled to herself, and she walked up towards the place that stood right between both the concepts, a cozy blend of aesthetics and function, rather like a certain person herself.

Fang glanced back again, gazing at the way Lightning's hair moved in the wind, fluttery and soft. The pink hue was indeed rather feminine, and her features did little to suggest anything other than that. Fang smiled to herself again, for the next district would definitely fit Lightning, a wandering hunter of the wilds, a true fighter at heart, yet her strong sense of femininity did nothing to steal away her ferocity. Fang knew that she had once fallen in love with the memory of such a graceful woman, one from another life, the one who only bolstered her own will, her sheer confidence, even her soul, and what she'd found out there on the mountainside... Lightning exceeded nearly all of those expectations.

It was only when they finally walked up beside the top of the staircase, only then did Fang pause again, waiting there with a slight flicker of something truly unsteady in her eyes.

"Fang?" Lightning stopped as well, and she tried to follow Fang's gaze. "...What is _that?_ "

Fang took a moment just to stare at outline of something massive, something that was completely covered in a rather gigantic cloth tarp, guarded by more soldiers than she'd seen in at least a hundred years. "It's the monument to Etro... There's a statue like that for each of the gods here."

Lightning peered at the seamless line of soldiers that stood within the center of the plaza, holding guard beneath the covered statue.

"Damn it..." Fang whispered another curse under her breath, and she slowly began to grit her teeth together. "Looks like you were right."

"I wish I wasn't." Lightning took a slow, yet steady step forward, ignoring the sense that if she hadn't taken off her pendant beforehand, that her approach might mean far more to those guards than the actions of a simple tourist. "Let's get this over with."

* * *

The midday sun flitted across the distant windowsill, illuminating the deep red hues on each strand of Fang's darker hair. Yet she only watched in silence from her seat upon a cushy armchair, while a small, clever smirk played over her lips.

Lightning was there as well, standing within the back room of the most practical boutique that they could manage to find. She was wearing yet another possible outfit, slowly turning herself around in front of a mirror.

"Well, it's definitely cute..." Fang's gaze swept over the fabric of the thin vest, up to the buckles near the popped collar, something that her eyes were rather drawn to. "But not quite your color, is it?"

Lightning nodded. "I do like the fit of it, though..." She turned one more time, examining the way the trousers had pockets at either side, more useful than for mere decorative purposes. "It's comfortable."

After a moment, Fang glanced at a few of the other patrons of the shop, and she narrowed her eyes at a group of teenagers, those who almost seemed to be snickering very quietly about something. When one of them looked over at the rather disheveled nature of Lightning's hair, a fact that she couldn't quite help from only having access to bathing in saltwater for the past week or so, and when one of the young women tried to stifle a look of distaste, Fang narrowed her eyes even further. She let her fingertips tighten against the arms of the chair, silently debating with herself over whether or not she should even acknowledge the group.

Lightning reached up to adjust the neckline of the shirt beneath the thin vest, before she frowned. "I don't like the cut of this part."

Fang kept her gaze on the whispering teenagers. "Want me to go look for another?"

"One with a nicer neckline, maybe..." Lightning tugged at the fabric again, but then she turned back to walk towards the dressing room door. "Could you bring over a few of those longer pants we saw near the front?"

"Yeah." Fang nodded. "Be right back." She stepped forward once Lightning had closed the door, and Fang moved on just as silkily as her draconic form would often walk, just a whisper against the carpet of the shop. And with that, she passed by the murmuring group with the iciest glare she could manage. "Find something better to do with your time, or I'll find it for you."

Perhaps it was just her protective instincts kicking in again, but Fang stepped away without another word to the young teens, searching for the clothes that Lightning asked for. She knew she shouldn't let it make her blood boil so very hot, that she shouldn't risk possibly breaking her own cover by making that inner fire hiss and crackle, yet there was just something _about_ it that made her want to snap at whatever she could reach.

Hadn't Lightning suffered enough already? Who really _cared_ if her hair was a tiny bit disheveled? She just wasn't the kind of person to bring along more than a simple bar of soap for her journeys, or a small comb for daily care. It wasn't like Fang's own head of hair, a more wild sort of mane that didn't look much different whether she brushed it or not.

A stack of folded trousers awaited her near the front of the store, next to where the desk attendant was chatting up a different group of young adults. Fang looked them over out of the corner of her eye, a simple threat assessment, though none of the group seemed remotely dangerous. If Fang was to be completely honest with herself, she'd only started taking Lightning's brand of 'calm paranoia' seriously once she caught sight of the covered statue. The stories of those who'd turned upon Etro's following always struck her as unusual, yet for Lightning, she was more than willing to take an entire detour just to dispel those fears, yet now that it was so close... Now that it felt truly _real_ , Fang would rather herself be found out by the people around them than have anyone get close to Lightning with ill intent.

She wondered if that was why she found herself turning towards a certain part of the store, a much more expensive section with all manner of beautifully embroidered clothes, even things that bordered on light armor. Was she truly feeling the need to compensate with a gift of higher quality, just to prove that she was serious about the whole ordeal?

Fang silently scolded the way she suddenly felt just like a lovesick puppy, searching for something that Lightning likely wouldn't approve of at first, something far too expensive. Yet when she reached down for the wallet in her pocket, tracing over the outline of her own scales, her own armor, it felt rather easy to justify how much money the protection would cost.

She silently thanked herself for all those long years of saving up, of playing the stocks with a lifespan that would surely be seen as cheating, though she had very little pity left for anyone outside her family. While she wouldn't often voice it out loud, the rest of the world could rot away for all she cared; it could shatter and burn and then crumble down into dust, just as long as she could keep her loved ones safe, her family _,_ and Lightning, she had definitely fallen into that category.

The windy streets outside kept bustling on with the roving crowds, and Fang took a moment just to look at a traveling cart filled with birdcages. How numerous those bright colors were, all of the plumage and tropical hues; Fang found herself thinking back to a certain falcon who just couldn't be caged, wouldn't be tamed at such a time, and she felt her heart swell with such fondness for the memory.

It was only then that her gaze suddenly caught on something, a certain mannequin near the back corner of the store, right out of reach of the window light. It stood among the thick clothing that was meant for more practical protection, looser than metal or full leather wear, yet still enough to protect the bearer from harm.

The garb was simple at first glance, just a long outfit with coattails and a solid hood, one without fur lining, yet it looked more than enough to protect the identity of the wearer. Fang's gaze traveled down to a pair of dark leather gloves, then the strong bracers that stood on either sides of the long sleeves, though the fabric seemed quite thin enough to wear in hot weather. The main body of the embroidered outfit was a low, deep gray, lighter than the gloves, but the shoulders were a slick black, likely made of leather as well, and the inner fabric of the dark hood was a very silvery white, sleek and shiny and soft. While there was no price-marker to be seen, such a thing was rather traditional for a masterpiece, more of a display of the tailor's skill than for actual sale.

Fang smirked to herself, and she traced her fingertips over the edge of her wallet again. Would Lightning approve? Probably not, at least not until she tried it on to see if it fit well enough. But by the time Fang made her way up to the front counter, speaking in a tone of voice that said she absolutely meant business, that she was _utterly_ serious about her inquiry, it was only a matter of time before Lightning found herself standing back there in the fitting room again.

"Fang, didn't we agree on something _simple?_ " Lightning didn't even try to hold back a frown, for she was utterly alone in the tiny room, yet she could still hear Fang pacing beyond the door. "I feel like a _solider_ in these..."

Fang kept walking back and forth, trying to stifle the excitement. "Does it fit?"

In the view of the tall mirror, Lightning stared at the curved end of the hood, before she tugged it down a bit further over her head. "It's definitely inconspicuous..."

Fang sighed. "Is that sarcasm?"

"Yes and no." Lightning looked back at the warrior's garb, at the cloth and leather made for both easy movement and durability, all of the things they'd spoken about before, but she had a feeling that the sheer craftsmanship of the thing was worth far more than her own entire livelihood could make in a number of months. "It looks expensive, Fang, and that doesn't exactly help me blend in."

Fang looked out over the rest of the store, just to make sure that nobody else was within earshot. "Better to be wealthy than a heretic..."

Lightning rolled her eyes at nothing in particular. "We won't know _that_ until we get into the libraries." She looked down at herself again, and she felt her cheeks suddenly heat up at the embroidery that showed off her waistline and hips, a feathery little pattern that ran all the way up either side of the torso. "I meant what I said, it feels like something fit for a warrior."

Fang suddenly stopped pacing. "Can I see it?"

Lightning felt her whole body tense up, feeling rather out of her element in such a beautiful, meticulous garb, something to catch the eye and stay hidden at the same time, almost a paradox of design. "How expensive is it?"

"Light." Fang almost spoke as if she was trying to coax Lightning into being peaceful again, back out upon the snowy mountainside with almost an entire world of hate between them. "Please, let me do this... I _want_ to do this."

Lightning took a deep breath, both silent and soft, before she slowly sat back down upon the bench, and then pushed at the door to her left side. She didn't even glance at Fang, didn't look anywhere but the sturdy new boots on her feet, at the layered treads that looked as though they could scale a mountain just as easily as the city streets. It was only once she felt that gentle touch against her chin, felt it turn her to let her eyes catch upon Fang's gaze, and then the sudden kiss upon her forehead, just as warm as an all-consuming fire...

"Do you like it?" Fang spoke in a low whisper. "I knew you were a goddess."

Lightning let a small scowl crease her face, but Fang quickly soothed it away with a slow stroke of her thumb, warm and steady at all the same time.

"Really, Light..." Fang knelt down to look at Lightning from below eye level, examining the dark gray clothes, the almost capelike flaps of fabric upon her back, even the sharp collar that blended into both the hood and shoulders, like a bird of prey gazing down at her. "Do _you_ like it? I know I do."

Lightning slowly reached into her backpack, retrieving a certain strip of cloth, just as pale as a layer of fresh snowfall. She clipped the ends down against either side of the inner hood, and there it was, Fang realized, those sharp blue eyes that stood there above the white mask, a silver figure perched upon the bench, a predator within a skin that fit her rather perfectly.

"Lightning." Fang stood up again, and she offered out her hand. "Let me do this."

Lightning's gaze flickered up to stare right into Fang's eyes, the green of a deep, dark forest, the color of home. "...I'd feel better if you got something too, otherwise it's going to feel like you're spoiling me."

Fang glanced down at the clothes that she'd worn for several years, just simple things, stitched up in places that had grown much too thin or tattered. "You want _me_ to get something..." She sighed silently, before she nodded, moving away. "Help me out, then... Vanille always says I have terrible fashion sense."

Lightning would soon start to agree with such a statement, at least in the way that Fang couldn't match up a cohesive outfit if her life depended on it. But she definitely had an eye for quality and individual design, that much was true, and before long, they were both standing there in front of the mirror again, gazing down at the chosen mix of attire.

A black top with a deep green layer of fabric above it, one that tapered down into a dark blue at either side, then a thin belt that always seemed to sway with the movement of her hips. Fang turned around, before she leaned down a bit to examine the way her abdomen was slightly exposed, though not quite to the point of revealing her navel, not unless she adjusted it to. The sides of her upper waist were definitely visible, however, even if the rest of the outfit was rather modest, yet still quite formfitting at the top.

"I like it." Lightning was sitting on the bench again. "Not so sure about the skin, though, if we run into trouble..."

Fang's upper lip twitched into a smile. "Don't worry about that." She turned back to face Lightning again, stretching out her arms to reveal the way the fabric on her shoulders made the rest of the upper garb bend like silk; it was indeed an expensive cut of cloth, though not too pricey for Fang's wallet. "Warm weather like this... I guess I really could use the change in style."

Lightning let her gaze travel along the long lines of silken fabric, at the subtle white embroidery upon each edge, like sea foam gathering at the end of an ocean wave. The bottom half almost looked like a gown, but it didn't hang low enough to get in the way if Fang had to move quickly, not would it snag upon doorways or other such obstacles.

"You ready for lunch?" Fang knelt down to pick up her older clothes, including the certain pocket that had her wallet inside. "We'll be getting there after the crowds, so it'll be quiet."

Lightning stood up as well, and she wondered just how long it would take for her to get used to such sleek clothing. It was truly fit for a master of the bladed arts, for a solider, perhaps, or a fleet footed warrior, even for those who stalked deep within the wilds in search of their chosen prey. She slowly detached her sword from her old belt, along with the bow from above her old shirt, before she clipped the sheathe down to her hip and slung the bowstring over her chest, letting the rest of it become hidden beneath the fabric of the cape flaps.

"Now, if the city hasn't changed too much in the last hundred years..." Fang kept her voice low, slowly walking out into the main pathway of the shop. "I remember a _damn_ good restaurant right down the road from here, and you can even take your plate with you to eat outside."

Lightning stepped away from the fitting room; she moved in the garb of a sleek hunter, a true predator, one who shadowed her companion with only a handful of words. "Sounds nice... And we'll get to see just how this compares to my other jacket, out in the heat."

Fang smiled softly, before she reached down into her pocket again. "I have a feeling you'll be impressed."

* * *

Lightning would have sworn that such long clothing shouldn't have been so utterly comfortable beneath the sun, but when Fang revealed that she'd noticed tiny pockets of cooling magic beneath the inner fabric, it all became so much clearer. It was the same sort of magic packets that Lightning herself once purchased for the tiny cellar beneath the kitchen at home, making short-lived food stay fresh for much longer than it usually would.

She could feel the tingling sensation near her upper neck and beneath her arms, even near the small of her back, like a low, chill wind that didn't quite make her shiver, yet it kept her body temperature at a very comfortable degree. Indeed, she almost looked fit for winter in such a thing, though she'd already tugged away the hood from her head to erase any suspicion from the crowds; she had nothing to hide if there was no immediate danger.

While she was sitting there on the edge of a bench, watching all of the people as they walked and mingled throughout the plaza, Lightning focused her gaze upon the armored guards that stood watch beneath the covered statue. Was that the only display that had been concealed? Were the other gods under such close scrutiny? Lightning knew that Etro wasn't always revered by the general public, as a goddess of death sounded almost sinister without further context, but going so far as to hide her likeness from the people, it seemed almost unthinkable for a 'city of the gods'.

She waited there, gazing at all of the colorful sights in the crowds, at more people than she had ever seen in person before. And yet she felt somehow tempered to such things, perhaps from the yearly fairgrounds back near her own home, or the dream of a city with buildings that made Luxerion look quite pale, at least in sheer height; it was more than enough exposure to make her feel almost calm and collected, even within the thick of things.

Fang still hadn't yet returned from buying their lunch, and Lightning might have wondered about her remaining funds if she hadn't seen them for herself, back in the little boutique. Fang was truly without worry in that regard, and if the story about a certain hoard of gold coins was more than mere fiction...

Yet Lightning felt her thought process grind to an utter halt when she caught something formless, something that almost seemed to shudder within the crowd; it was all instinct, then, and it took right over when she heard someone shout, when she saw the guards lift their shields and tense up as well, though they didn't move any further than that.

'Blood in the streets', the old woman had said, perhaps there was disquiet in the civilian population due to the concealment of such a deity. Lightning grit her teeth, but she kept perfectly still, waiting to see if any further action was necessary.

The crowds almost seemed to shift, like flowing tides that just couldn't stay in one place for any longer, and before more than a single moment had passed, a sharper cry echoed out over the plaza.

Lightning narrowed her eyes, mere seconds away from drawing out her sword if anything threatening was to appear, anything but blind panic within the masses, but she almost jolted up from her seat when the guards suddenly broke formation, advancing upon the crowd itself, before a long, whistling blade suddenly flew from off somewhere off in the distance, landing with a low, echoed clang against the surface of the billowing fabric.

A rugged sword stood there, one with a long, red ribbon tied to the hilt; it fluttered silently in the afternoon breeze, even when crowds grew so very silent, like never before, even when the soldiers slowly returned to their posts, keeping their shields held aloft. But there was no blood to be seen, not that day, not within the streets or otherwise. It seemed as if it was merely a warning, cast out into the very heart of the concealment itself.

By the time Fang finally returned, the crowds had grown just as casual as before, and she only noticed the spectacle of the jagged sword once she'd sat down upon the bench with two identical plates of food. "Damn..."

Lightning nodded. "This isn't normal, I take it?"

"Not normal at all..." Fang began to dig into a plate of tropical fruit and a small sandwich, one with freshly baked bread, by the scent of it. "Somebody's _pissed_."

Lightning glanced at where her backpack was resting on the bench beside her, where she'd hidden her charm within one of those small inner pockets. "Someone on Etro's side, you think?"

Fang shrugged. "It hit the statue, didn't it? Unless that was just collateral..." She took a moment to chew on a piece of soft, sweet fruit. "Whatever the reason, someone sure isn't happy about it."

From the plate that Fang had handed her, Lightning picked up the sandwich from beside the small pile of sliced fruit. "We should get our research out of the way just as soon as the library opens again, and then keep moving... I don't want to stick around if a riot does break out." She kept her voice low, just quiet enough for Fang to hear. "And we should find somewhere safe to stay the night."

"Yeah, we've got all day to do that." Fang munched on bit of crunchier fruit, likely some kind of pineapple. "I just haven't been out to shop like this in so long, Light..." She soon picked up her own sandwich as well. "That was actually fun, wouldn't you say?"

Lightning glanced down at her own clothes. "Serah likes shopping for things like this." She took a small bite of her sandwich, which was some form of spiced meat with a sweetened sauce, all chopped up atop a wide leaf of lettuce, with a bit of fresh tomato in between. "She's the one who brings me out there, tries to get me to enjoy it."

"And do you..?" Fang crossed one of her legs over the other, leaning back against the bench. "Enjoy it, I mean."

Lightning leaned back as well, and she tried to make herself fully relax, even with the tension that still lingered from such a sudden shift in the plaza crowds. "...It makes her happy."

Fang glanced up at the covered statue. "And you like seeing her happy."

Lightning nodded. "It makes me feel like everything else was worth it." She took a deep breath, trying to soothe away all the scattered little nerves, the sense that she had to be alert, had to watch out for any possible disturbances within the crowd. "Almost like everything I've done... It really _means_ something when she gets to be that happy."

Fang kept eating her own lunch for a while, watching the sun as it traveled out across the sky, how the rays of light danced down across the black and white tiles of the plaza, even the decorative heights of the buildings. It moved atop the dark spires and tall clock towers, or the metal latticework that was likely hotter than an oven beneath the open heat. Fang knew that Luxerion's general aesthetic was a blend of such colors, black and white, silver and gold, and then the constant gray brickwork that made up the bulk of the city structure. Stairwells were rather popular, and so were the many balconies and grand terraces, a city of whimsical, curling metal, like so many black vines that grew out along the edges of each building. Marble was rarer, yet still utilized in many places, often in the mosaic tiles of black and white, another symbol of the duality of the gods. For even Bhunivelze himself was often attributed in darker motifs, a sharp, blinding figure within a robe of black, while Etro was often depicted as a ghostly white, usually a motherly figure, or a sister watching over her followers in silence.

Fang almost smiled at the memory of a mural she had once seen, one where Bhunivelze's presence was darker than charcoal, yet he wore a crown that was just as bright as the sun, while a pale, winged Etro lingered right beside him, bearing a deep ring of black above her forehead, as if the artist had simply painted a solid void into the mural wall, a crown of boundless night.

Lightning looked up at the sky for a while, pausing to chew on a bit of fruit. "There's something else about this place."

"This part in particular?" Fang took a big bite of the sandwich crust, almost finished with her lunch. "Or the whole city?"

"This district." Lightning glanced back down at all of the little boutiques and fancy storefronts, at the windows that had such delicate wares waiting inside, jewelry and perfume bottles of every color, or even yet another shoe store, as if dozens weren't already enough. "It seems like a nice part of town, but..." She tried to find the right words to describe what she meant, yet they just kept slipping away, far out of her grasp. "I don't know, there's just something strange about it."

Fang looked out over the bustling plaza, at the streetlamps that weren't yet glowing, for it was only afternoon. She found her gaze traveling back to the covered statue, to the sword that still resided against the fabric. "There are some... Not so great neighborhoods across the canal from here, but I always liked this district better than the ones back to the west."

Lightning kept eating her fruit. "Bad neighborhoods?"

Fang nodded. "'The Warrens', they call them, like rabbit holes." She tried not to give the very thought of it a bitter smile. "Rabbits, huh..? More like a den of weasels." Fang took a long, deep breath. "I'm not trying to generalize, Light, but I always get a real bad feeling down there, even if some of the folks aren't too sketchy; a lot of of them are just trying to keep the peace, make a living for themselves... But there's always a rotten apple in the bunch."

Lightning glanced up at the long, jagged sword. "You think someone from there might've thrown it?"

"Whoever it was, they've got incredible aim." Fang almost wanted to whistle at the sight of it. "But I'd rather not stick my nose into anything to do with places like that, not unless I have to."

"So much for a full tour of Luxerion..." Lightning smiled a little, just a hint of mirth at the edge of her lips. "You'll have to make up for it while we wait for the library."

Fang grinned as well, a warm, clever smirk. "Finish your lunch and we'll do just that."

Lightning felt her own smile widen slightly, and she almost wished that she had her hood down to hide it. "We still need to find something to bribe Serah with."

"Or you'll be in hot water..." Fang nodded. "We'll find something nice, maybe tomorrow, in the other districts."

"I'd send her a letter if we weren't... You know." Lightning thought back to the number of people who knew of the exact location of her village, likely just enough to count upon her fingertips. "There's no way I'd send more than a simple message overseas, either, too easy to get intercepted."

Fang let her mind wander off for a moment, finishing up her fruit. "Hey, that talking tree you were telling me about..."

"The chestnut?" Lightning almost sighed. "Let me guess-"

Fang leaned forward a bit. "If they can talk to each other from that great a distance..."

"I doubt the pine tree knows the chestnut, or any other tree we could find." Lightning glanced down at her feet. "And even if he does, the _chestnut_..." She almost wanted to roll her eyes. "Whenever I try and get Serah to walk out there and talk with him, he always plays dumb and then has a grand old time laughing to himself about it later."

Fang tried to stifle a short laugh as well. " _Really?_ "

Lightning nodded. "I'm not even kidding, he thinks it's _so_ hilarious whenever Serah thinks I'm an absolute nutcase."

Slowly, Fang bit down on her bottom lip. "...Nutcase."

"Tree puns." Lightning pinched at the bridge of her nose with her fingertips. "I _hate_ tree puns."

"Nah, it was a good one." Fang leaned back again, and she slung her arm around Lightning's shoulders, resting against the back of the bench. "So there's really no way to get the message out, is there?"

Lightning took a brief moment to think. "Not unless I had it sent directly to one of my contacts, maybe the mayor in Bresha..." She suddenly leaned forward, staring out into the distance. "My contacts, they could-"

"But are you sure it'll even arrive before we get back there?" Fang set her empty plate down against the bench. "How long do you usually stay out on a hunt?"

Lightning took another moment to think. "She might've just assumed that I was staying out there for an extended observation period... Since I sent Odin back, she'll know that I reached the mountain at least."

Fang nodded to herself. "Is it normal for hunts like that?"

"It actually is, but she's probably wondering why I didn't take a trip back down to send word about it." Lightning thought back to the time when she'd stayed in the southern villages for about a month longer than she'd expected, sending back letters and updates on her progress to Sunleth, and by extension, to Serah and Hope, who always seemed so excited about even the simplest forms of research. "But with the winter weather, and how hard it is to get back down a mountain, much less climb it..."

"So, we've got a few options." Fang stretched out her arms, slowly sitting upright upon the bench. "One, Serah knows that observing a dragon is something that doesn't come around very often, and she's only a little worried; two, she's _furious_ and ready to whip out her bow just as soon as you get back home."

Lightning tried not to wince at the thought of that. "And three?"

"Three, she thinks some nasty old dragon got the better of you up on that damn mountain." Fang tried not to smirk. "But we know that story isn't entirely true."

Lightning glanced at the sword by her belt, and then at the bowstring on her chest. "I almost won."

Fang hummed quietly, before she rose back up to her feet, carrying her empty plate along with her. "We'll call it a draw."

Lightning picked up her last piece of fruit, and she chewed on it while she stood up as well, holding her own plate in both hands. "A draw..."

"Unless you _really_ want a rematch." Fang carried her dish back up towards the little restaurant, where there was an outdoor bin to return plates and silverware without having to go inside again. "I do seem to remember a certain challenge to spar..."

"I've healed up enough." Lightning glanced at the new sleeves on her arms, at where a gryphon's talon had once scratched against her skin, more than enough to cut and make it bleed. "My head feels fine, too."

"I can't even see bruises anymore..." Fang's voice was suddenly quieter, with almost a twinge of steady guilt. "I'm not always one to play it safe, Light, but-"

"...We'll take it easy." Lightning set her plate down in the bin. "We should use this time to rest up; if we still have all that way to fly, and then fight, we're going to need our energy."

Fang set her plate down as well. "Sounds about right."

Lightning glanced at the deep green fabric near Fang's shoulder, almost like a sash that ran all the way down to her belt. "Where should we go now?"

Fang smiled, and she stepped back towards the plaza, walking along the black and white tiles, before she gestured for Lightning to follow. "You'll see."

* * *

The shop door opened with a slight creak and the sound of jingling bells. Lightning peered at all of the aisles with odd bottles and small metal cases, and when she sniffed at the air, the scent was almost overpoweringly sweet, like rich sugar or honey, along with many flowery aromas.

Fang stepped into the store with a gentle hum, glancing around at all of the various little objects on the shelves, before she gestured for Lightning to follow after her.

It was more traditional for a shopkeeper to greet customers as soon as they walked inside, but for every store that they'd found within Luxerion, it seemed as if the customs were quite different than the usual ways. While the merchants themselves weren't aloof or unapproachable, a solid sort of silence filled most of the little boutiques, standing in sharp contrast to the noise of the crowds outside.

Lightning followed after Fang, and she wondered what she could possibly be searching there for, especially in a shop full of what seemed like mostly body products and personal cosmetics. Fang knelt down after a moment, and she began to examine a few vials of clear liquid, one of which she picked up to sniff at.

"What are you doing?" Lightning glanced around to make sure that the other patrons of the shop weren't within distance of hearing them. "Perfume, really?"

Fang nodded, and she hummed yet again. "Try this... Take a sniff."

Lightning leaned back slightly when Fang held out the bottle, one with a scented sample tag, but she slowly reached out to take it. "What kind is it?"

"Almond, I think." Fang picked up another bottle and sniffed at the tag near the cap. "Do you like perfume, Light?"

Lightning took a quick whiff of the almond scent, before she handed the bottle back to Fang. "I don't dislike it... I just wouldn't wear it."

Fang set both bottles back down on the shelf. "And why's that?"

"I doubt I could smell anything else if it was on me." Lightning shrugged. "Unless you get used to it... I don't know." She turned to look at the front windows of the store. "My mother used to wear some, she'd smell like oranges half the time, and then something a little like cinnamon."

Fang nodded, reaching for a different bottle. "If you want to look around, I'll be just a minute here."

Lightning glanced at the windows again. "Would you mind if I went to pick up a few things? Back on that other street, I saw what looked like a general store..."

Fang looked up at Lightning, trying her best to smile. "Sure, if you'd rather just meet me back here when you're done?"

Lightning smiled softly as well. "Sounds good."

Fang turned back to look at the little bottles, and she kept trying her best not to frown at the sudden absence of companionship. When the door jingled again, she slumped back, sitting down beside the rows upon rows of perfume, silently debating with herself over whether it was better to let Lightning have her space, or to be honest with her own disappointment. Weren't they supposed to be shopping for things _together?_ Fang nearly frowned again, for while it seemed that Lightning did indeed enjoy the scent of incense, the same might not be said for more personal aromas.

Yet that sudden stubborn streak began to run high, bright and burning, for Fang had often caught the way Lightning would lean in against her whenever they were feeling intimate, and it seemed like she _must_ enjoy her natural scent, for why else would she always snuggle so close? No, even if Lightning didn't seem very keen on hanging around in the store itself, Fang swore to herself that she would find something absolutely perfect.

The minutes passed in silence, bottle after bottle, row after row, until her nose almost started to feel numb from it all, enough that she had to step over towards one of the open windows, just for a breath of fresh air. Fang leaned against the windowsill, gazing out at the crowds and the distant plaza, where the covered statue was still guarded without pause.

"Do you need any help, ma'am?" One of the shopkeepers walked up with a small box in her arms, before she set it down near one of the shelves with scented candles. "Or are you looking for something in particular..?"

Fang tried not to sigh. "Well... It's just a little hard to find the exact thing, you know?" She turned around to look at the shopkeeper. "The _right_ thing... I'm pretty sure I'll know what it is once I smell it, but I haven't found it yet."

The shopkeeper gave Fang a warm, knowing smile. "If you could try to describe what you're looking for..?"

Fang stepped away from the windowsill. "It's for me... And for someone else, too-" She glanced at the entrance of the shop. "To go _on_ me, you know?"

"Ah." The shopkeeper lowered her voice ever so slightly, as if they were sharing a secret. "A _special_ someone else? If you could just tell me what they like, I could try to point you in the right direction."

Fang nodded, but she caught herself before she could utter the word 'she'; while it wasn't quite looked down upon for women to be more than friends, at least in most places, there was always the chance that someone might find it rather strange, or even worse, be perplexed or downright hostile at the notion.

"Well, it's for someone a little more... Outdoorsy, than most." Fang followed the shopkeeper back down towards the perfume aisles. "Can't have anything with orange or cinnamon, though, that'd be a little weird."

It felt almost strange to be conversing with a stranger again, Fang realized, for she often skirted human civilization in favor of living out on her own, or with Vanille, during the time when they'd kept each other safe in more ways than from mere physical danger. How unusual, Fang thought, to be playing the part of a true human again, only it was for far more than a simple transaction. She was speaking about Lightning in a very indirect sense, how they were still well-within the stage of new commitment, right past the tipping point of mutual affection and attraction, off to the point where she was beginning to feel rather responsible and obligated to do such things, just to better herself for the both of them.

Fang had a feeling that the shopkeeper had heard the same tale many times, of a pair who were just starting out, testing the waters of what each other liked and disliked, only it was often rather difficult to rope in a certain someone to gauge their feelings on certain things.

"Practical, yes, but nothing too simple... Definitely not plain." The shopkeeper was kneeling down to rummage through one of the shelves, searching for something within the rows upon rows of perfume bottles. "And not too overpowering; I know a lot of people who want just that, but your 'special someone' doesn't sound like the type to indulge to that point, not excessively."

Fang smiled at the memory of how Lightning had fretted over the price of clothing on that very same day. "Yeah... Something that isn't extravagant, but still enough to make a real difference."

"Here, try this one. Tell me what you smell." The shopkeeper held up a tiny blue bottle, though she covered the writing on the glass with her thumb. "Just tell me the first thing that comes to mind."

Fang closed her eyes, before she leaned over to inhale scent of the test tag. She breathed in a subtle, almost faint aroma, both soft and sweet, almost like fresh rain. Fang took a moment just to think it over, despite what the shopkeeper had said, and when she caught the last few notes of what smelled like soft flowers floating within the wind, that was when she realized what it was lacking.

"Not enough presence... It's just like ambient noise, you know?" Fang opened her eyes again. "It smells pretty, yeah, but I need..." She paused, searching for the right words. "It's just too much of a pushover."

"Oh, you need _power_." The shopkeeper nodded sagely, before she started off towards a different section of the shop. "Something gentle, but not passive... Strong, yet not overbearing."

Fang genuinely wondered for a moment if the boutique was employing psychics, something that she knew only existed in a telepathic sense. But such things were incredibly rare in humans, and the shop that she stood within wasn't even on the map in terms of high society.

"Just like the heat of a hearth fire after coming home from a long day at work..." The shopkeeper paused beside a certain aisle with several narrow vials of perfume. "Something with force, for sure, but not necessarily something that hits the nose and blocks out everything else." She picked up a certain bottle with a rich amber liquid inside, before she held it out for Fang to try. "I'm going to tell you something that many people never quite understand about perfume..."

Fang closed her eyes again, and she breathed in the scent.

"The golden rule is to use _just_ enough to first catch their attention..." The shopkeeper's tone was almost that of a laugh, joyful and honest, like a very old friend. "But to use just _little_ enough to leave them leaning back in for another whiff."

It was a thicker scent, but like the shopkeeper had said, not overbearing, nor commanding, though it was immediately _arresting_ , as if her attention was simply drawn in by a warm, easy smile or the dark curve of a smirk. The scent was a blend of what smelled like strong ginseng, that of the tree that grew at the very center of the image, and then the familiar rain that trickled down along the leaves and grass, the warm sensation of a summer storm. That was all the inner scent, Fang knew, and the aromas that lay beyond her first impression were both bright, rich and creamy, like pale flowers within the grass, yet the scent was was far more tenacious than a mere blossom. She swore it was almost like a set of claws that scratched so gently at her skin, sweet, wild and heady all at the exact same time.

Fang's next few words scarcely left her throat. "What's the flower scent?"

"A certain variety of tuberose." The shopkeeper kept standing there patiently, still holding up the tag for Fang to sample. "It's a flower that grows in clusters... Very strong and fragrant."

Fang let herself lean back again, still feeling the aftereffects of the scent, like tart little berries that left her tongue with an almost sweetened aftertaste, yet she just couldn't help but sense the impression of a sleek, wild creature resting beneath gentle raindrops and soft, dampened leaves.

The shopkeeper kept quiet for a moment or two. "Is this one more to your liking?"

Fang slowly opened her eyes, and she smiled.

* * *

The general store was almost just as crowded as the city streets, but the customers were luckily quite efficient about picking out what they needed and leaving without pause, something that Lightning felt was a rather refreshing change of pace.

She reached for up a tin of plain toothpaste and added it to the basket of daily supplies, one that she was carrying around the store. She'd also chosen a new toothbrush and a box of medicinal tablets, something she had never tried before, in lieu of her own herbal powder. Lightning glanced around at all of the unusual things, the tiny bottles of juice and even light wine, the boxes of tobacco that stood behind the front counter, and then even the case of magically cooled confections that were being clamored over by a small group of children.

Things were truly different in such a massive city, Lightning knew that much, though ever since she'd learned of such a place even existing, and then traveling to it in person... She paused, watching the way that an elderly couple walked out of the store with a full basket of goods, hand in hand, talking quietly to each other. It felt as if the deep mystery of the city was still as strong as ever, yet the old fairy tale had been utterly shattered; there were _people_ who lived there, just like her, living, breathing people, no more unusual than any other person she'd met before.

They were almost surprisingly normal, Lightning realized, so very in tune with the abundant wealth of their city. It was almost as if there had never been any other way of living for them, no hardship or famine, nothing to steal away their homes nor those who lived within them. She slowly turned back towards the aisle of goods, and she slowly picked up a small box of candles. Was _she_ the unusual one? A previous vagabond, a mere loner with only her family to protect, isolated and unknowing of so much of the world that waited beyond her own valley.

Perhaps she was. Lightning closed her eyes for a long moment, before she placed the box down into her shopping basket. Perhaps she truly was the odd one out, the friend of talking trees, a dragon, of spirits, and then even the goddess of death.

She could hear someone talking, even while she stared at the basket in her hands, someone who thought she couldn't hear them; it was someone who wondered out loud to one of their companions about her unusual set of clothes, more fit for evading combat than a casual day out at the plaza stores. Yet Lightning ignored it, turning a blind eye to whoever gave her more than a second glance.

A wide variety of cracker boxes awaited her in the next aisle, and she began to examine all of the different flavors. Such biscuits would stay fresh for months, wouldn't spoil in the heat, not like fruit or vegetables or milk, or even several of the other things she'd bought during the wine festival. She picked up a box or two, gently placing them down in the basket, right beside a new bar of soap and a fresh roll of sanitary tissue.

She reached down into her pocket for her wallet, walking back over towards the front counter. She still had a bit of money, though the items in her basket would likely cut it in half, leaving only the means for emergency funds. Lightning glanced up at the short line of other customers, and she quickly queued in behind them, listening to all of the different voices that ranged from calm to positively conspiratorial.

"I'm telling you, they're not going to put up with something like this... You heard what happened outside the priory, didn't you?"

"Just one wounded isn't cause for alarm; they'll weed them out before too long."

"Nobody weeds _them_ out... They're practically the city itself by now, you know?"

"You're overreacting."

"You won't think that when the next headline reads more than a single injury... I'm telling you, I've _seen_ it, seen _them_ , and they're out for blood."

Lightning kept her gaze very low, but she almost swore under her breath when the group of speakers reached their turn in line, bringing the conversation down to an utter halt. They paid for their goods and left the general store, leaving Lightning as the sole occupant of the line.

The man at the counter nodded at her. "Good afternoon."

Lightning stepped up with the basket, and she placed it down on the counter, reaching for her wallet. "Afternoon... I'm a little new in town; I assume there's tax on these?"

"No tax on essentials." The man shook his head. "Nothing over two thousand gil gets taxed."

Lightning quirked a single eyebrow at that, but she simply waited for the man to count out the price of her purchase. "...Did you happen to catch the conversation, just a moment ago?"

"Terrible thing." The man shook his head again. "All I've heard was that there was a rather brief scuffle outside the priory, left one of the Order with a broken bone or two... Maybe a busted nose." He picked up the last few items from the basket. "Would you like these in a bag?"

Lightning shook her head, before she took her backpack down from her shoulders. "A scuffle at the priory... Religiously motivated, you think?"

"I've got no earthly idea, and it's far better off that way." The man nodded at the items on the counter. "Three hundred and seventy six."

Lightning rummaged for the right amount from her wallet. "Still safe to walk the streets, then?"

"Of course." The man smiled when she handed him the gil. "Just don't go into any dark alleys, stay close to the guards, and you'll be right as rain." He stole a quick glance at the sword on her belt. "Unless you're itching for some action, of course, but I can tell you this much... Stay away from the Warren."

Lightning picked up the supplies to tucked them away in her backpack, before she clasped it shut and slung it back over her shoulders, leaving the counter without another word. She pushed the door open with her shoulder, before she glanced around at the street that led back down towards the plaza. The crowds were still quite dense, even in the late afternoon, and she couldn't help but wonder if the person who had thrown that jagged sword was still out there, somewhere.

The walk back to the more recreational types of stores didn't take very long, but Lightning still lingered slightly, hoping that Fang was finished with whatever she could possibly want from that fancy little boutique. It wasn't that Lightning didn't appreciate such things, only that one too many girl-talks with Serah had made her quite weary on the entire topic. The hassle of making oneself more presentable than simply waking up and trekking out to clean the stables, for example, there was just simply no time for more than a quick face washing and brushing of one's hair before getting back to work for another day.

Serah did favor certain forms of makeup and hair products, even if they were somewhat hard to purchase when their only real contact with the outside world was with the nearby villages. But most of the local general stores did carry things for hair, the cheeks and face, smooth pigments for the mouth and tins of powder for general scent, even bottles of liquid perfume if such things sold well-enough at the time.

But whenever the topic of conversation found its way to how Serah thought Lightning should experiment more with her looks, just to see if there might be something she'd like, their interactions almost always devolved into a debate over just how practical it was to focus on trivialities when they had a paddock gate to fix or a water pipe that'd just sprung a leak, or even a roof that needed rethatching.

Lightning worked with her hands almost every day, and she'd always find herself sweaty and rather worn out by the time a longer job was finished, and the thought of even having to clean her face with more than a simple rinsing, it would often halt any ideas of attempting any of those extra things. Even if she'd sometimes admit to trying out a bit of lip coloration, either from a certain type of rubbing powder, or in rarer cases, a solid stick, that was just about the only thing she could truly stand with day to day usage.

And in that moment, Fang was likely still looking around for such things, and the mere thought of it made Lightning want to just wait outside, to not even chance the possibility of being coaxed into trying anything in there, no matter how innocent the gesture might be.

But when she made her way down the sidewalk that led between the rows of cosmetic shops, she suddenly caught sight of Fang herself, for she was leaning back against a lamp post, watching all of the various wagons that rumbled down the city streets.

Lightning almost wanted to smile. She quickened her pace just a bit, moving on through the crowds to walk next to Fang again.

"Hey." Fang smiled when she caught sight of Lightning. "Got everything you needed?"

Lightning nodded. "You have your own toothbrush, now."

Fang's smile widened slightly. "Hope you bought enough toothpaste for both of us..."

Lightning almost narrowed her eyes at the memory of so much foam dripping down Fang's chin, though she couldn't quite scold her for not knowing. A woman who lived as a dragon for most of her life, she wouldn't have any way to tell just how much of something like that was truly needed. But she _was_ human, Lightning felt sure of that much, for her body was no illusion, neither of them were, so she only needed to learn more about daily human things, not just how to purchase something or walk among the crowds unnoticed.

"You okay, Light..?" Fang leaned away from the lamp post. "Just thinking?"

Lightning nodded to herself. "We should find somewhere to stay the night."

Fang took a moment just to look around at the streets and the nearby plaza, mentally envisioning a map of the city and all of the places where she and Vanille once stayed at, from certain rented housing to actual inns. Whenever Vanille had gone on a bit of a researching spree, it was often cheaper in the long run to simply find a place to rent, but if they were only there to find a few answers, and then move on...

Lightning glanced at the sidewalk beneath her boots. "We could try to find another inn."

"Sounds about right" Fang turned to face the street that would take them northwest. "There's a nice one not too far from here, just as long as it's still actually _there_..."

Lightning knew that it must be unusual to see the rise and fall of so many businesses within one lifetime, not to mention the flux of entire nations and populations, the constant tide of humanity that she herself could only read about in history books. Fang could very well have become a walking encyclopedia on the history of the world, if only she didn't have a tendency to live out in the woods for several thousands of years at a time.

They made their way through the crowds, hidden within the guise of simple tourists. Lightning kept her hood down, and she followed closely after Fang, who didn't seem the slightest bit unnerved when the city streets grew more and more massive, longer and wider and filled with so many more people than before, most of which looked dressed up enough for high class events.

"Prayer days." Fang murmured it just loud enough for Lightning to hear. "People get all fancy for these, more than usual..."

Lightning glanced at a woman who wore a rather distinct gown, golden yellow and tied with long strips of white fur at both the waist and neckline, likely the hide of a mink or an ermine.

"Non-mandatory, though, just a chance to dance around..." Fang bit back her next few words, and she only spoke them once they had reached a narrow pathway that led up to what looked like an inn. "Dance around in 'devotion', or in reverence to the gods."

Lightning followed Fang through the gated path, glancing around at all of the tropical flowers that grew on either side of the lawn. "And you wonder why I don't go to church?"

"I do wonder, only because of the way Etro operates." Fang stepped up to the entryway, where more than a few people were loitering around on the terraces above the gardens. "We'll get to the bottom of this, Light."

Lightning just kept following after Fang, up into the grand front hallway, where she slowly approached the front desk, stepping out across the polished marble floors. "I hope we do."

"We will... And I've got my ways." Fang reached over to squeeze Lightning's shoulder. "Let me handle this one, okay?"

Lightning's nose suddenly twitched at the scent on Fang's wrist, which hovered right there in her peripheral vision for a moment, before Fang suddenly moved away, walking up towards the front desk. But what was that strange smell on her skin? Had she actually put some perfume on herself?

Fang just stepped up to start the process of booking a single room, chatting up the inn attendant in a rather casual way. It was enough to make Lightning step up beside her, though she kept her gaze anywhere but upon her companion.

It _was_ perfume, she felt sure of it; Lightning tried not to let her nostrils twitch as she took a deeper breath, lingering right beside where Fang was leaning slightly against the counter of the desk. Why did it feel like she could barely catch it,, Lightning wondered, why was the scent so incredibly elusive?

Fang seemed quite oblivious to the presence at her side, yet in her mind, she had to fight back a smirk at the way Lightning almost brushed up against her, a keen nose on the trail of something quite new, and hopefully intriguing.

Lightning narrowed her eyes slightly, and she stifled the urge to bite at her bottom lip. How frustrating it was, Fang _must_ have planned it, she knew that much, just to gauge Lightning's own reaction to wearing such scents, purchasing some for herself to wear, and then lure her in.

"Full bathroom included?" Fang smiled softly at the thought of floral shampoo, something she'd also bought at the very same boutique, a bottle of which was resting right inside her shoulder bag. "Excellent."

Lightning tried not to shiver at the tone in Fang's voice, and she waited in silence, listening to the sounds of a ticking clock at the very center of the lobby. She felt her heart quicken when Fang leaned back slightly, just enough to brush against her own clothes.

The lobby itself was rather empty and soundless, all except for a couple of people who were sitting in the armchairs, reading what looked like stacks of printed paper or chatting among themselves, and a few were even playing cards. But Lightning had a feeling that none of them were even looking their way, so she felt safe enough to let herself lean back against Fang's touch.

Fang's smile widened, but she let it drop slightly when the receptionist returned with their room key.

The minutes ticked on, and Lightning almost felt herself start to scowl at the fact that she couldn't just lean over and figure out what that scent could really be. For what began feel like more than just a moment or two, she let herself plan out exactly what sort of retaliation was appropriate.

Before long, they only had a rather short walk away from the desk, yet the two of them still said nothing even while climbing a long flight of stairs, past the paintings of old hotel owners, some of which Fang actually recognized. They were likely all lost to the passage of time, but Fang's mind soon drifted back to other things, to the way Lightning was staying absolutely silent.

Fang took a very deep breath. Was Lightning annoyed at the new scent? Her eyebrows were closer to each other than usual, a clear sign of disquiet, but did that mean she truly wasn't pleased? Fang kept walking up the stairs, gripping the room key in her palm until it started to leave a mark, but she ignored the small twinge of pain.

It was only once they approached the door of their room, one that stood right beside the light of a window, only then did Fang suddenly feel herself get shoved forward as the door creaked open, before her hand was swiftly grabbed in gentle, yet steely grip.

"What _is_ that?" Lightning pushed the door shut with her boot, slowly forcing Fang to back up against the wall, before she leaned in, inhaling against the wrist within her grasp. "What did you put on?"

Fang smirked just a bit, and she peered the way Lightning's nose kept twitching ever so slightly, trying to find the source of the elusive scent. "Maybe that should be a secret..."

Lightning fought the urge to merely pinch Fang's wrist, and she leaned in instead, searching for a stronger hint.

Fang exhaled, before she let out a hum when Lightning breathed against the bottom curve of her throat, a certain pulse point where the perfume would only intensify from the heat of her blood. Lightning felt herself lean in further, felt Fang's arms wrap around her waist, beneath her backpack, before one of them snaked up and around to touch her shoulder.

"You like it?" Fang spoke in a low murmur, and she leaned back a bit to catch Lightning's gaze. "Took a while to find one that felt right."

"It smells like _you_." Lightning felt a slight bit of hesitation; such intimacy usually only occurred when they were both quite settled in or sleepy, hardly ever within the height of daylight itself. "Not like your normal scent, but... You."

"I won't wear it if you don't like it." Fang nipped at the edge of Lightning's jaw, listening to the almost silent sound of surprise, and then the way Lightning began to hum just as silently, just a slight vibration in her chest. "I want us to be... In tune with this, you know? It should feel special."

Lightning kissed at Fang's jawline as well, before she slowly leaned away. "Maybe tonight will be special."

Fang felt her mouth slip into a smile, and then the sudden warmth against her lips, just a bit of affection, reassurance that she had indeed chosen something that Lightning liked, it was more than enough to kiss her next few breaths away.

"...I need a bath." Lightning leaned their foreheads together. "I just haven't had the time to get my hair untangled in days."

"It looks fine." Fang's smile almost faltered at the force in her own words, an unintended push of protection, a protest that didn't seem to have any visible source. "It's... It's just _fine_ , Light."

Lightning narrowed her eyes at whatever could possibly be hidden there, at why Fang felt the need to defend her lack of thorough hygiene.

"They should have warm water here." Fang stepped away to approach the main room, where only a single bed stood, though it was much wider than the one they'd slept in before. "Haven't had a freshwater bath in ages..."

Lightning pulled her backpack down from her shoulders, and she set it down on a chair beside the bed. "I bought some new soap."

Fang sat down against the edge of the bed, tugging her boots off from both of her feet. "What sort of soap?"

"Plain soap." Lightning picked up the tiny chunk of soap from her pack, a bar that was wrapped in a sheet of wax paper and a thin bit of twine. "Nothing fancy."

Fang let her own bag flop down against the sheets of the bed, where she started to rummage inside it. "Alright, Light, here's what we're going to do..."

* * *

It felt like more than an hour had passed by within the tub, submerged in a bath of warm, bubbly water, swirling with far more scents that she had any idea how to process.

And Fang was there, near the very edge of the bath, gently scrubbing at those soft pink locks, working out the tangles with each of her nimble fingertips. The shampoo on her hands had since foamed out into a delightful lather, thick and solid and creamy.

Beforehand, Lightning almost tried to protest the whole idea, perhaps out of concern that Fang was trying to coddle her again, but those damn puppy dog eyes just caught her right off guard. She'd just bitten back a soft sigh, then lowered herself beneath the water, resting her head against the end of the bathtub, enough to allow Fang to have that moment of tenderness.

Perhaps she was just making up for lost time, or trying to find a way to be more than simply useful. Perhaps Fang had those sudden moments of loneliness as well, and such things could be channeled away with caring for one of the people who stood closest to her heart.

"You aren't asleep, are you?" Fang's words barely left her mouth, just as silent as the little bubbles between her fingertips. "I wouldn't mind."

Lightning shook her head. "You'd better finish this up so I can do the same for you."

Fang's smile returned, wide and warm beneath the afternoon sun. "My hair is untameable."

"Nothing's untameable." Lightning opened her eyes for a moment, hazy and soft from all of the sensations wrapped up around her, from the warm water and floral scents, almost intoxicating in their own right. "I tamed a dragon, I can tame a mane of hair."

Fang leaned in to whisper against Lightning's ear. "But what if the dragon tamed herself..?" She smiled at the subtle shift in Lightning's breathing, how it quickened at those sudden sounds. "What if she's still just as wild, but she plays nice because she likes you?"

"Then I'd say the dragon is too full of herself..." Lightning stretched out one of her legs to rest it against the nearest edge of the tub. "That she might _think_ she's wild, but she cares too much about her friends to live like that."

Fang's fingertips began to slow against Lightning's hair, moving to gently rub along her scalp. "What if her friends are wild, too?"

Lightning closed her eyes again. "Then they can all be wild together." She almost shivered at the sudden kiss at the back of her neck. "You're going to get soap in your mouth."

Fang shrugged. "It's worth it."

"Sure..." Lightning released a quiet sigh, drifting back into silence again. She could feel the fingertips moving beneath her hair, how they made sure to touch every inch, every bit of skin that they could possibly clean. "What sort of shampoo is that?"

Fang smiled again. "Smells almost like lemon, doesn't it?" She glanced at the bottle that stood on the floor beside her. "Just something that someone helped me pick..."

Lightning murmured her next few words, breathing in the various scents."You really went all-out, didn't you?"

"I won't have the chance to do stuff like this once we leave here." Fang took in a deep breath of the scents as well. "Not until we make it back home... To your home."

Lightning sat up slightly, and she glanced back over her shoulder, still quite covered in bubbles. "It can be yours, too."

Fang leaned forward to cup a bit of water into her hands. "Only if you let me do this more often."

"...I'll think about it." Lightning closed her eyes, but she still moved to help Fang rinse the soap away, leaving her hair all shiny and slick, a much darker shade of pink than whenever it was dry. "Do you know much about human traditions, Fang?"

Fang reached out to flick away a bit of bubbly shampoo from Lightning's shoulder. "What sort of traditions?"

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut tighter. "Maybe we should talk about this later."

Fang leaned back a little. "Why's that?"

"Because I was about to use Snow as an example... He's already asked for my blessing with Serah." Lightning took a deep breath. "I don't want to think about him right now, but you're really going to need to make friends with Serah once we get back."

Fang fought down a smirk. "...And why's _that_ , Light?"

Lightning tried not to smirk as well. "Because she's going to find out sooner or later, and she'll hound you down once she realizes that she was right."

Fang reached up to stroke her fingertips against Lightning's jaw. "That you prefer women?"

Lightning shook her head. "That I don't prefer anyone... You just waltzed right in and broke _every_ rule, Fang, and I'm not even sure how you did it."

Fang took a moment to think that over. "It could be that you don't prefer people who you don't know very well... Maybe I was the first to come along and do that."

Lightning shrugged. "You're the first of something, but I don't know what." She moved over in the bath, making room for Fang to step in as well. "...It's not that I ever used to have trouble with friends."

Fang nodded, before she stepped over the edge of the tub.

"And I do like feeling this way." Lightning leaned back at the other end of the stony bathtub, relaxing within the soapy water. "But I didn't need it before, not like this." She took a moment to stare at all of the patterns on the ceiling, a similar sort of checkerboard print as the tiles of the plaza, only it was much harder to see where each color stood against the other. "I think it's only because you're like me... You _know_ what I'm feeling, and you know what helps to make things better."

Fang eased herself down into the warm water as well, and she soon placed the bottle of shampoo down on the edge of the tub. "I'd bet telepathy helps."

Lightning moved forward again. "Don't discredit yourself." She waited for Fang to relax, before she began the very same treatment upon that long, dark mane of hair, watching the way that the shampoo made the sleek red outlines glisten all the more brightly. "Even without that, you're a very loyal friend... You don't back down when it really means something."

Fang almost purred at the feeling of Lightning's fingertips within her hair, soothing and lathering the soap up into a fine layer of bubbles.

Lightning lowered her voice to a whisper. "When I was... About nine, I think, just learning swordplay, some of my friends were having a sleepover one night, the one I told you about."

Fang closed her eyes, relaxing into the gentle massage.

Lightning tried not to sigh at the memory. "I don't even remember her name... We didn't know each other very well, all the better to take up a dare." She scrubbed at those dark locks of hair, and she almost smiled at the way Fang leaned right into her touch. "It was just... It was like nothing, just skin on skin, not like the way you make me feel whenever we kiss."

"Nine, that's pretty young, I'm not surprised you didn't feel much... I think right now, you just need it to be someone you really know." Fang hummed quietly, still with her eyes shut. "Someone you care for... Sounds about right?"

"I think the problem is that I don't care about a lot of people." Lightning tried not to frown. "I'm not trying to be cold, or arrogant-"

"No, nobody can care for everyone." Fang reached back to pat at Lightning's knee. "When you lose someone, Light... It's really hard to start caring about anyone else."

Lightning nodded. "In case you lose them, too..."

"Exactly, don't tie up the strings in the first place and they won't get snapped away." Fang opened her eyes again, gazing at the marble sink and the small cabinet on the wall, but she soon focused her attention upon the windowsill, where the afternoon light still played so gently beneath the clouds. "I won't lose you."

Lightning reached down to squeeze one of Fang's hands, holding it beneath the layer of foam and water.

"I won't lose any of my family, not again." Fang closed her eyes once more, before she slowly relaxed against the warmth of Lightning's chest. "It's happened too many times... But I'm _powerful_ , now."

And Lightning felt it, then, the force of a slumbering dragon, the steady guardian of their inner hearts, primal and wild, yet loving all the same.

"I'll burn it." Fang could feel Lightning's heartbeat thrumming against her spine. "If anything tries to take this from us, I'll burn it."

Lightning slowly moved to keep washing the locks of Fang's hair. "...I believe you."

"Vanille's tried make me a pacifist, at least on my own terms." Fang suddenly smiled, a dragon smile, a show of teeth and that deep, underlying pride, the desire to reveal just how absolutely deadly she could be. "I don't hurt anyone... I try not to, but they can _burn_ if they get between me and my family."

While Fang's wings could carry them both, they could shelter and hug, they could even hold, it was her fire that chased away any threats, and it was her teeth and claws that could rend their foes to shreds, could keep her loved ones safe from such harm. Lightning wondered about that for a moment, and she wondered why she felt so utterly safe with such a powerful being in her arms, though she was careful to keep that thought to herself. Was it because she knew Fang was afraid to lose her? Or perhaps Lightning just trusted the human side, the fact that Fang was not a true loner, that she was willing to die for her family's sake.

Such a gentle gesture, washing out her long, wild hair into smooth waves and curls, making the tangles unravel and flow like water again. Lightning ran her fingertips down over those dark locks, and she could smell the strong scent of the soap, the aroma of the wild perfume, more like the chosen signature of a dragon than anything else. Something that could be just as soft as flower petals, yet strong enough to shield them both from whatever threats they might find out there in the world, within the deep gray city of blooded streets, a place of both utter divine light and a lurking, boundless dark.

* * *

Bottles and plates clinked against the wooden tables, and a single candle flickered near the windowsill, illuminating the evening air and the slow, cozy atmosphere of the little restaurant.

Fang's hair was clipped back slightly, Lightning's own handiwork once they'd finished bathing, and there was a certain sheen to the red outline since it had been treated with such a silky shampoo.

Lightning sat there as well, feeling fresh and so very clean again, not in the way that saltwater would always leave her with more of a tacky feeling against her skin, like the salt itself was clinging to her.

"Little places like this..." Fang lowered her voice just a bit, gazing at the light of the candle. "Holes in the wall, if you can find the right ones, there's no other place in the world that can compare."

Lightning smiled softly. "This doesn't look like a hole in the wall."

"For Luxerion it might be." Fang lowered her voice even further, just a whisper. "Bunch of snobs, most of them... Hard to get a decent conversation out of anyone in those fancy districts."

Lightning stared at the wooden table for a while, drawing invisible designs beneath her fingertips. "How long do prayer days usually last? Just the weekend?"

Fang nodded. "We'll have a day tomorrow to look around, maybe we can check if any of the other statues are getting the same treatment..." She took a moment just to smell the various scents of nearby food platters, but it seemed as if their own table would just have to wait. "Crazy stuff, Light."

"I know." Lightning slowly leaned back in her chair. "It was like the crowd just went tense all at once, like a school of fish clumping together... Like they were panicked."

Fang tried not to frown. "You know why fish panic."

Lightning almost wished that her pendant wasn't back up there in their hotel room, safely stowed away inside her backpack; if only she had it there with her to touch it, to feel the familiar chill of silver between her fingertips. "I couldn't see anyone suspicious in the crowd."

Fang nodded, before she leaned forward, resting her forearms against the table. "But you know better than anyone else..." She lowered her voice to a softer whisper, and her gaze flicked up to look right into Lightning's eyes. "Just how easy it is for a wolf to walk around in sheep's clothing."

Lightning would have been lying if she'd said her blood hadn't started to run cold, or if she didn't feel the slightest bit of curiosity at the truth within Fang's words. "Fang... Do you know of people in Luxerion who worship Etro?"

A small, almost saddened smile, before Fang let her gaze drop back down to the candlelit table. "Like I said, most elusive of the bunch." She stretched out her legs beneath the table, careful not to bump them against Lightning. "Like wolves, you know; you hardly ever see them if they don't want you to."

Lightning folded her arms against the tabletop, and she slowly closed her eyes. "Blood in the streets..."

Fang smiled again, softer than before. "Don't mess with the wolves."

* * *

They walked over the path outside of the dimly lit restaurant, wandering back through the evening air, swept along by the scents of so many cobblestones and distant flowers.

Luxerion was truly haunting at night; the washed out grays grew almost black without the light of the sun, and the pathways became even more distinct, with only the streetlamps to reveal them. Chessboard patterns, the symbolic motif of the entire city, they seemed to be everywhere in sight.

Lightning leaned in against Fang's shoulder, holding her hand beneath the fabric of her cloak, so that nobody else could see it, none but those who looked at them from the front. And yet Lightning held no fear in her heart, not of Fang's presence, nor even of the sheer silence in the streets.

There were still a few scattered crowds, mingling beneath the glow of the streetlights, like so many downy moths taking shelter beneath a small speck of flame.

Fang smiled at the chill breeze of the air, a welcome relief from the heat of the day. Though her skin prickled slightly at the sound of a stray cat, one who yowled as it darted beneath the edge of a unattended carriage, before it quietly meowed into the darkness.

"We should get some rest." Lightning slowly rubbed her thumb against Fang's knuckles. "It'll be nice to sleep in an actual bed again."

Fang felt a bit of deep warmth in her chest, kindled by the soft touch of Lightning's fingertip, slowly circling around the knuckle of her index finger. "Better than blankets on the ground?"

Lightning smiled slightly, but then she reached up, tugging her hood down to hide it. "I think you know the answer to that."

* * *

It was a slow pace, beneath the light of the moon and the distant streetlamps, just a gentle touch of one mouth against the other, before the door clicked shut behind them with a dull echo.

"We can sleep if you want." Fang felt Lightning's breath quicken against her lips. "I won't-" She was silenced by that sudden warmth, of a hooded figure leaning up to kiss her, stealing the breath from her lungs.

Lightning's eyes slid shut, and she didn't even open them when Fang gently tugged her hood away. "I don't want to sleep yet."

Fang traced over the outline of such thick fabric, down to the leather belt on Lightning's waist, where her sword still lingered beside her hip. "Right, but you'd tell me if you weren't up for it, wouldn't you?"

Lightning opened her eyes for just a moment. "I won't mess around with this... If I say I want you, I _want_ _you_."

Fang smiled softly, before she leaned in for another slow swipe of her tongue, just bordering at the edge of Lightning's lip. "I just don't want you to ever feel obligated."

Lightning leaned in as well, but she broke away for just a second or two, breathing deep. "Do I seem like the person who'd do this under obligation?"

Fang murmured something quiet into their next kiss, deeper than the first few, a mesh of tongue and warm breath, of testing and tasting, pushing back any boundaries that might have still been hanging on by a thread. "Point taken..."

Lightning pushed, nudging Fang further and further into the darkened room, relying on the mere moonlight to see where she was going.

"You mind if I try something new?" Fang whispered into the space between kisses, a breathless sort of pause. "I think you'll like it."

Lightning reached up to tug at the sashlike fabric at Fang's chest. "Yes... Now stop talking."

Fang blinked when the back of her own thighs brushed against the edge of the bed. "No talking?"

"You can't kiss me when you're talking." Lightning pulled the clasp open at the side of Fang's waist cloth, right above her belt. "Not even you're that good-" She almost gasped at the sudden heat, how Fang kissed her soundlessly, deep and rather dominant.

 _I am that good._ Fang squeezed Lightning's hand, running a single fingertip across her wrist. _Dragons are pretty prickly about their prowess, if you didn't know..._

Lightning leaned in further so that Fang could set the pace, murmuring something unintelligible whenever they broke for just a moment of air, before that clever tongue touched her own again.

"You look amazing in that..." Fang sat herself down against the edge of the bed, before she slowly trailed her fingertips up and over the curve of Lightning's waistline, beyond the leather chestpiece, hidden by the soft gray fabric above. "But you'd look even better with it on the floor."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "It goes on the chair, or on the table... It was a gift from someone very close to me."

Fang smiled, before she leaned in again, leaving a single kiss against the end of Lightning's nose. "And who was this 'someone'? Should I be worried?" She reached down to unbuckle the top of the gray outfit, helping that soft skin to stand free again, an almost ghostly white beneath the glow of the moonlight. "Is it someone handsome?"

Lightning bit her own bottom lip when Fang slid her hands across the small of her back. "I think you already know the answer to that..."

"Well, then I'll whip them to hell and back if they ever hurt you." Fang nuzzled at the curve of Lightning's chin with her own nose. "You just have to tell me."

"You won't hurt me, Fang." Lightning shivered when Fang helped her out from her top, leaving only the thin wrap of cloth around her chest. "You won't-"

"Can't fault a girl for being protective." Fang slid her hands down against Lightning's waist, right above the edge of her belt. "Dragons are always protective, you know."

Lightning reached for the clip upon the fabric around her chest, but she paused when Fang moved in to unclasp it for her. "Protective... Am I a gold coin, then? Just a part of her treasure?"

Fang growled, soft and low in her throat. "No."

Lightning shivered again when the fabric fell free, and she leaned over against the bed, planting her hands on either side of where Fang sat. "What am I, then?"

Fang nipped the fluttering pulse in Lightning's throat, before she leaned back, bringing her down with her. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were a dragon, too."

Lightning almost smiled, and she leaned in to kiss at the top of Fang's forehead. "I'm not a dragon."

Fang felt the way that Lightning slowly settled atop her waist, halfway upon the sheets with both of their legs dangling off the side of the bed, yet she just couldn't muster up the effort to care. "What are you, then?"

Lightning breathed out a low scoff, leaning in for another kiss. "I already asked you that."

Fang hummed in response, before she welcomed Lightning's mouth with a steady hand at the back of her head, threading her fingertips down into the locks of that soft pink hair. "Well..." When they finally broke, still breathing heavily, Fang took just a moment to think. "You're still wearing pants."

Lightning closed her eyes when Fang's hands dipped beneath her waistband, circling the curves of her hips.

"As far as I know, jaguars don't wear pants, so we can rule that out." Fang reached back up to unbuckle Lightning's belt. "But you're certainly just as agile as one."

Lightning almost shivered as the cool air brushed against her skin, before she moved herself over towards the middle of the bed, tugging off the rest of her trousers while she did so. "These will _not_ touch the floor."

Fang sighed, but she merely she set down the pants that Lightning handed her against the seat of the chair, the one that stood right next to the bed. "Yes ma'am."

Lightning pulled off both of her boots and the socks that lay beneath them, which she set down beside her own end the bed. "I'm not a wolf, either."

Fang smiled, before she crawled across the sheets like silk, silent and intent, yet still gentle in a very certain way. "That's debatable."

Lightning felt her breath hitch when the sudden warmth of Fang's hands cupped the bottom curve of her breasts, bare and soft, so pale beneath the light of the moon.

"Not a coin, not a wildcat, not a wolf..." Fang smiled at the way Lightning squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to squirm beneath the experimental touch, the gentle squeeze, even the soft breaths against one of her nipples. "I'd almost say you were human."

Lightning bit back a whimper when Fang kissed the swell of her breast.

"But, you could be my little bird again if you like." Fang reached up to smooth one of her hands through Lightning's hair. "I remember painting something like this, this pose... You were always so good at keeping still."

Lightning almost wanted to retort that her current rate of breath was anything but still, that the mouth teasing some of her most sensitive skin was anything but relaxing, though she'd never wish to halt it, all the same. For her blood was rushing, and her heart was fluttering like the nickname Fang had once chosen, like a tiny starling in her chest.

"But you're no songbird..." Fang leaned in, leaving her previous place a bit more than cold and wanting, before she whispered each of her words against Lightning's cheek. "Silent, that's what you are... You only sing when you see fit." She slowly nipped at Lightning's bottom lip, and then at the base of her neck. "You're too honest to sing when you don't mean it."

Lightning reached up to tangle her hands into Fang's soft muss of hair. "Why'd you stop?"

"Because we still have a question to answer." Fang moved her hands back down to Lightning's chest, silencing any protests that would've arrived if she hadn't. "You're only mine if you want to be... It just wouldn't be real otherwise."

Lightning felt herself start to pant and arch her spine when Fang returned to her chest, finally paying attention to her breasts again. Perhaps she didn't need an answer, not right then, not when there was so much need in those soft little whimpers, not when she'd tamed the jaguar down into a kitten, brought a hunter to her softest state, still just as strong, but open to every long stroke of her tongue.

" _Fang_." Lightning bit down on her own lip again, shifting her hips against the silken bed sheets, but Fang just kept licking her in slow, easy circles, taking more and more into the warmth of her mouth. "Fang..."

Fang just hummed against Lightning's breast, before she slowly reached to down squeeze the curve of her backside. Lightning squirmed without really meaning to, still gasping and panting so softly, and she moved her legs around Fang's waist without even realizing it, drawing them even closer together. Fang licked a smooth stripe between Lightning's breasts, tasting the heartbeat beneath her skin, a thudding pace, far louder than the roar of thunder in her ears. Lightning felt the rumble in her own blood, felt the way that Fang suddenly straddled her waist to take off the last few bits of her own clothing, clearing every bit of space that stood in between them.

There was no cage she could build, no desire to lock Lightning in, no will to stifle that burning flame, the spirit in her heart, and Fang almost cursed the rest of the world for the very nature of doing so. But perhaps Lightning didn't see it, or had learned to ignore it, choosing to live within her own terms, something that Fang knew better than most anyone else. Lightning reached up, leaning forward to kiss Fang again, drawing her away from those bitter thoughts. She knew not to dwell on such things, knew to let them slide off of her skin like rainwater, harmless and only just as weighted as the strength of the storm.

Fang kissed her back, she hummed into Lightning's mouth, against that warm tongue and those soft lips, tasting the breath from her throat and the quiet sounds when she tested another touch. It was no small wonder that Lightning was so muscular, so soft and steely at the very same moment in time, and when Fang slowly leaned back down again, urging her to stay still, to rest against the plushy pillows, those muscles made themselves known in the way Lightning's arms reached up again, just to keep Fang still as well.

"What are you doing?" Lightning cupped Fang's face in her hands, stroking across the curve of her cheekbones. "Don't leave."

"I'm not leaving." Fang soothed one of her hands over Lightning's taut belly. "Trust me, okay? This'll feel good."

Lightning slowly relaxed, sinking down against the pillows. "...Something different?"

"Very." Fang leaned in to kiss Lightning's cheek. "Just relax."

Lightning tried, she honestly tried, but her fingertips just kept shaking and twitching to the point where she gripped the sheets beneath her, trying to ignore the way Fang's warm breath drifted against her lower stomach.

"It's alright to be a little nervous." Fang leaned her cheek in to rest beside Lightning's navel, gazing at the silver stud of her piercing. "I'll be real gentle."

Lightning fought to keep herself still when Fang rubbed her fingertips around the tiny bit of jewelry, as if she was admiring the way it looked beneath the moonlight.

Fang purred against Lightning's skin, moving lower. "Relax."

Lightning swallowed on an empty breath, feeling every short moment pass by like an utter eternity, before she felt herself curl up and gasp at the first touch of a warm, soft mouth against her inner thigh.

Fang kissed along the smooth skin, the strong, tensing muscles, before she smoothed her hand over Lightning's other leg to try and help her calm down, for she surely realized what was about to happen. Lightning squeezed her eyes shut, shivering at the warm, fluttery breath on her skin.

"Do you want this?" Fang's mouth lingered at the spot she'd kissed. "I need to know, Light."

Lightning forced herself to breathe slower, though it was still so ragged and tense, and she slowly nodded her head. "Yes."

Fang leaned in to inhale her scent, to witness the pink curls that seemed much darker in the moonlight. "Just breathe."

And Lightning did just that. She brought in a sudden breath, trembling with every iron muscle, right down to her toes, which slowly curled at the way Fang began to kiss her outer folds.

"Lightning." Fang reached up to hold Lightning's hand, gently tugging it away from the sheets. "Relax, love."

Lightning fought the urge to shiver again, but it became uncontrollable with the way Fang kissed her so deeply, so soft and warm, almost like a normal kiss, but so much more nerve-shattering. "How.. How am I supposed to relax?" She tried to keep herself from trembling or crying out, so incredibly sensitive all at once. "You... Can't do _that_ and tell me to _relax_."

Fang lifted her head to sit up slowly, even when Lightning almost seemed to protest, despite the little shivers that ran down her spine.

"Don't stop." Lightning took in a deep breath, steeling herself, before she rose up to press her forehead against Fang's shoulder. "I'm sorry." She almost shivered again when she was swept into Fang's arms, held tight against her whole body, and then nuzzled at her own neck.

"Don't." Fang smoothed her hands down Lightning's spine. "Don't be sorry... We all get nervous."

Lightning could feel the slightly unsteady pace of Fang's heartbeat, but it was nowhere near as frantic as her own. "Why aren't you nervous?"

"Because I remember." Fang spoke each word into the pulse of Lightning's neck. "I remember you like this, only when you weren't nervous... When you were just as brave as I've ever seen you." She reached up to stroke beside her ears. "Weakness doesn't make you any less of a person, Light, it just makes you human."

Lightning leaned in to rest her chin against Fang's shoulder. She could smell the faintest hint of perfume, washed away by the water and soap, but it was still just enough to tinge Fang's scent. "I'm already a pretty weird human."

"And I wouldn't want it to be any different." Fang held her tightly, before she leaned back a bit, letting Lightning sit against her lap. "...Then we wouldn't both be weird humans."

Lightning bit her bottom lip again, and she slowly eased back to look Fang in the eye. "You know how I handle fear."

Fang nodded, leaning forward to press their mouths together, and she breathed out her next few words. "I do."

It was simpler, then, just to let Fang press her back down into the sheets, not quite a dominant gesture, but strong all the same. Lightning leaned in for those breathy little kisses, even when Fang set a single fingertip against her open mouth, halting her for only a moment.

"Let me try again?" Fang let herself lean back, and she waited for Lightning to speak.

Another moment passed, just as silent as the gentle moonlight, before Lightning nodded, reaching to squeeze both of Fang's hands. "I trust you."

Fang leaned down to kiss Lightning's navel again. "Same here."

Lightning closed her eyes, and she shivered all at once, feeling the way Fang kissed down her stomach towards the short curls between her thighs, and then, when that tongue found such sensitive skin again, only then did she whimper and breathe out with tiny, shaking gasps.

Fang flicked her tongue against the skin above Lightning's clit, finding it, taking it gently beside her mouth, and she could feel the steady, thrumming pulse from where she was still holding Lightning's wrists.

Lightning cried once, low and breathy and ragged, but she didn't move away, slowly churning her hips into Fang's gentle touch, not anywhere else, not anyplace away from that wonderful heat, against the softness of her tongue.

Fang licked at the warmth further down, and she hummed low in her throat. She let go of one of Lightning's hands, letting it grasp at the sheets, before she took her own fingertips to rest against one of those shivering thighs.

Lightning turned her head around to press against the pillow, desperate to do something just to quell the coiling heat in her lower belly, a tightening sensation that only wound more and more rigidly with each press and roll of that warm tongue, each stroke at the gathering liquid between her curls.

Fang hummed again. She remembered the way Lightning had once gripped down at her hair in another life, breathing hoarsely while she did just the same sort of thing, drawing on the sensitive bit of skin for all she was worth, but it was seemed too early to do something like that. No, Lightning needed a gentle touch, needed something to build up the trust and make it solid, to let her tumble from such heights into Fang's waiting arms, something to prove those words down into a fact.

Lightning panted against the soft fabric of the pillow, and she squirmed slightly when Fang moved to breathe in her scent, though she swiftly pressed back down, taking that same spot of nerves back against her tongue. Was she just going to keep touching her until it became too much to handle? Lightning's eyes drifted out of focus, and she slowly reached down to touch at Fang's mane of hair with her free hand, still twining their fingertips with her other.

Fang purred at the stroking touch, just enough gentle encouragement to keep holding her at the very edge of darkness, at the point between physical pleasure and the great void beyond consciousness, the stars that would bloom beneath her eyelids, blinding away her from everything else, even the thoughts within her mind.

It might have been the way Fang suddenly squeezed at Lightning's hand, or licked that one last time that would push her over the edge, for either way, Lightning cried so softly that the sound barely left her throat, tensing, releasing, finally bucking against Fang's mouth with a ragged whimper, but even then, she only came on a quiet cry, tightly hugging herself to the bed sheets.

"Shh..." Fang took a moment to lap her tongue beneath those warm, wet curls. "You're okay."

Lightning still panted such sharp little breaths, and she trembled in her sudden high, like she was floating away again, like the first time Fang had touched her and brought her into such a humble state, soft and vulnerable within their chosen resting place. Lightning's eyes slipped shut, dazed and blinded by sheer white, and she barely even felt Fang move up to plant a steady kiss against her shoulder.

Maybe it was that very state of being helpless, exhausted by the way her muscles tensed and seemingly exploded into nothing, maybe it was the way Fang leaned in so gently to kiss each of her eyelids, a tender gesture, full of warmth and love, or maybe it was simply the chemicals in her mind running wild. She'd lost herself for that brief moment, letting go of absolutely everything, and when she finally opened her eyes, still so bleary, to glance at Fang's face, there was that same look of gentleness in her gaze.

"You look a little dreamy..." Fang settled herself down on the same pillow, and she let herself listen to those uneven little breaths for a while, envisioning the sound of Lightning's heartbeat. "Felt good, didn't it?"

Lightning tried to nod, yet she could only blink, and then twitch the muscles in her neck, before she slowly leaned in to brush their foreheads together.

Fang knew it was only a matter of time before the exhaustion wore off, giving way to reciprocation and many more kisses than she could count, but in that moment, she held no desire to rush such things along. Lightning was there, and she looked so utterly at peace, so sleepy and sweaty, soft pink hair fanned out against the pillow. Her chest rose and fall, and her breasts were still a bit rosy from the lingering attention, not to mention that one spot that Fang had nipped along her neck.

They would dance again, would press themselves closer and closer to the edge of oblivion and back again, would play along the primal lines that ran far deeper than either of them could see, the base desire of having a partner to indulge in, if only for that a brief little while.

A soulmate, Fang realized, was one that she could always find herself flying back to, someone who made her feel as if she was finally at home, at peace within herself and the world far beyond her own skin. Soulmates were bound by that same invisible force, drifting back and forth like the traveling stars, like the waves of a bottomless sea, two hearts settling beside each other and held together like a pair of fluttering birds. The two of them were given the choice to take their own pathways, to wander that cold earth in solitude, a far safer path for the heart, but not for the spirit within. A family often began with the two who encountered each other and found much more than companionship, found someone steady to lean on, someone who'd felt once that very same pain of loss.

Fang reached up to push a lock of pink hair behind Lightning's ear. There she was, the one who would readily take the pain for her family, would accept one who didn't quite fit the standard definition of human, though if she was to be honest, Fang knew neither of them really matched with the rest.

Perhaps she wasn't a wolf, yet the world would often see her as one. They would look upon a predatory force, the one who must live on her own to escape being seen in that way.

Fang closed her eyes, and she let her thoughts wander away until Lightning was ready to move on again, to let her lose herself as well, caught within the gentle, tugging snare of darkness.

* * *

It was a dream that found her late in the night, a vision brought on by both exhaustion and a blank state of mind, one who was ready to see what had once occurred in a life beyond her own.

The air was heavy and thick beneath the summer sunlight, and Fang sat there on her doorstep, watching the way Bahamut flew up above.

"Hey, kiddo."

Fang glanced up at the sudden voice, and she actually smiled at the visitor, quickly standing up to give him a tight hug. "Hey, you."

Her uncle was a man of words, unlike her father's current state, but they were both men of the spear and arrow, a warrior trained in the art of battle. "Heard about the day before..." Her uncle patted the back of Fang's head, before he stepped back a bit, glancing at the doorway. "I've gotta give you my apologies for that; I didn't think the silly girl would start nosing around in things she shouldn't mess with."

Fang slowly shook her head. "I'm not the one to apologize to, really... Light just doesn't need prodding." She looked her uncle over, at how his facial features were so close to the image of her father, almost a twin. "How are things at the tower?"

Her uncle shrugged. "Quiet, like always." He looked back at the doorway again. "Is your dad home?"

Fang shook her head. "He's out by the paddocks; there were a few more horses who got loose."

Her uncle let out a weary sigh. "Then I'd better lend him a hand... I'm off shift today, finally got a new recruit for the place."

Fang knew that her uncle's position at the tower of seers was mostly traditional, a martial guardian for those who communed with the spirits and the forces beyond, and if there was ever any disturbance in such a place of silent meditation, he was one of the men to deal with it.

"See you later then, kiddo..." Her uncle smiled, and he turned off towards the path that led out to the fields. "Give my apologies to the lady in question herself, if you can."

Fang tried not to frown. "She hasn't turned up today."

Her uncle paused. "She ran off, your father said..."

"She came back." Fang turned to peer at the distant woods. "But then she flew out there again... She said she wanted to keep looking at the books today, but she hasn't shown up yet."

A long moment of silence passed between them, before her uncle looked out at the forest. "Might be a good idea to check up on her, then... Just to make sure she's alright."

Fang watched her uncle as he walked off towards the farmlands, and she herself looked back at the woods, wondering where exactly Lightning could be. She reached for the doorknob of her house, and it was only a matter of time before she had her satchel and spear, along with a full canteen of water just in case Lightning had gotten thirsty, along with a fresh roll of bandaging material.

Fang started off just as quickly as she could, shadowed by Bahamut up above. But it almost felt like the minutes dragged on into hours by the time she finally approached that wide stretch of thistles and brush, bridging the gap up towards the trees.

Bahamut swerved to the side at a signal from below, and before long, he flapped back down to land atop Fang's wrist, listening for whatever she had to tell him.

Fang knew that certain species of eagles were far more intelligent than others, and that Bahamut was quite smart enough to understand simple phrases, including what _not_ to search for. "Friend." Fang pointed at the towering woods. "Search."

Bahamut waited for Fang to lift her arm and send him off, before he swiftly disappeared into the darkness of the tall forest boughs, deep within the shade of the woods.

While the dream carried on in Fang's own eyes, with the way she traveled over the fallen trees and sharp branches, further and further into the verdant greens and mossy browns of ancient bark, her own perspective slowly started to split. There was the sudden sound of a slow heartbeat, of ragged breath, and then the sudden realization that a being who had never grown tolerant to bacteria in the air, nor resistant to basic diseases, that they would be left utterly vulnerable to such things.

Fang's visage in the dream tried not to let panic take hold, but her dreaming mind, far away in another world, she felt that fear of loss, of a friend stolen by something she could scarcely fight, something she couldn't just fend away.

It was from beside a cave that Bahamut signaled a hunting cry, but it was not a search for any prey, merely for the falcon who lay sprawled there upon a low pile of moss and leaves, breathing out a steady foam of saliva and blood.


	29. Austerity

More often than not, avian creatures kept their sicknesses hidden away until they could conceal it for no longer. Fang was aware of that much, yet it still made every muscle in her limbs freeze up at such a strong scent of blood.

Bahamut called out again, perched beside the cave, but he flapped away when Fang ducked down beneath the stone overhang, scrabbling in over the rocks and leaves and moss until she could hear the constant sound of that dull, echoing static. It was a massive falcon who she finally caught sight of, one who wheezed against the ground, Lightning's other form, limp and shivering so very slowly that Fang barely even noticed it.

A muffled curse left her lips, before Fang knelt down to swiftly gather up the pale being of feathers and dribbling blood, though she nearly lunched away when those razor sharp talons suddenly grasped out into the air.

" _Easy!_ " Fang grappled with Lightning for what felt like many breathless moments, trying as best as she could to keep hold of those desperate wings and savagely hooked claws, and it was only once Lightning slipped away to grab the strange buzzing device, sheltering it beneath herself, only then did they both start to grow very still again. "Easy, Light..."

Lightning curled her neck down against the motionless screen of the metal contraption, even when her beak kept oozing with such reddened foam, dribbling down to fall against the earth.

"Light..." Fang crept forward as slowly as she could, and she began to use a trick that she'd learned from back when she was very young, a way to make her voice sound just as soft as the forest breeze. "You're sick, Light."

Lightning still didn't move, and her eyelids began to droop shut.

"Listen, now..." Fang reached out to touch one of those big white wings, longer than her own arms. "I can get you back to see a healer, Light, they can _help_ you... You want to find your family, right?"

Lightning still didn't speak, yet after only a moment of silence, Fang knew what she had to do. Though Lightning didn't protest, for Fang had already grabbed the odd device at the same time as she hauled those massive wings against her chest, carrying a bird of prey that was just as large as herself, yet less than half the weight.

Muted footsteps soon sounded off against the earth, but Fang swore her own heartbeat was drumming twice as quickly. Perhaps such things would do neither of them any good, perhaps the exposure to another world was far more damning than the fate of being forever locked within crystal, but Fang knew she had to keep forcing herself to run.

A black eagle flew above, a shadow within the forest. Fang bit back a sound of grief when Lightning's head slumped down against her shoulder, when those wings grew even more limp and weightless, sagging to either side. Yet she ran on, even when her bare arms snagged against the sharp brambles and tangled branches, even when the woods grew so thick that she could barely see beyond the next dark veil of leaves. Fang just kept running, kept holding Lightning against her chest and shoulder, and she kept gripping at the odd little device that still whined with such constant noise, yet there was no rhythm beyond the static.

It might have taken hours, or it might have been mere minutes, but when Fang finally broke away from the forest, gracefully running down the grassy hills and the tall brushland, back towards the outskirts of town, she knew it would only be moments before she could push her way on throughout the village streets, past the midday crowds, off into the lone building of the local healers.

The dream swirled on with the sound of a swiftly creaking door, then a blank stare, and the blue eyes that slowly clouded over beneath such a pale mist, hovering within the gateways of death. Fang likely would have argued and insisted upon keeping as close as she could, but the lead physician simply pointed at a nearby chair with a rather firm look on his face, waiting until she finally relented, just enough to let his team work in peace.

It might have truly taken hours that time, Fang thought, watching the way the doctor and his assistants examined what seemed to be a massive falcon, one who could scarcely even breathe without the aid of an odd, tubelike device that could force gusts of fresh air into her lungs.

The day stretched on into the afternoon and the early evening, though examinations and constant hourly testing, before the physician finally spoke again. "Lung infection." The words barely reached Fang's ears. "Bacterial lacerations, but I've never seen anything quite like this... It likely won't be long."

"No." Fang rose back up to her feet, and she crossed the room before her own mind could even process what was happening, before she clamped both of her hands down against the table. "She's _not_ gonna die."

One of the physician's assistants glanced away. "Is this the one, who..?"

"I don't know what you've heard." Fang narrowed her eyes at the way Lightning could barely even draw another breath by herself. "All I know is that she isn't from this planet... But she's someone strong enough to fight this."

Perhaps it had been that first gasp of air that Lightning had taken back when she awoke, or perhaps the atmosphere itself was far too different from what she knew, from what her body could process, perhaps it left her lungs vulnerable enough to simply fester in silence, unaware of what would soon come to be.

Yet the hours still dragged on, and Fang fought tooth and nail, snarling and snapping just like the beasts she was widely known to slay, even when her father finally caught news of what had happened and was called in to calm her own, even then, she just wouldn't relent.

It was very dark by the time Fang slumped down against the chair, listening to the labored little breaths that left Lightning's mouth, for there was no falcon there, only a humanoid figure, one who lay limp upon the blanketed table. Was it subconscious, then, the way she'd changed back within her fitful sleep, or clutched for the device that still let out such constant sound?

Fang leaned in, resting her forehead against the edge of the table, listening to the wind on the windowpanes and those distant crickets, those who chirped long into the night.

And then, a low voice spoke above them, raspy and hoarse. "Serah..." Lightning suddenly reached for the device with both of her hands, and she only stopped thrashing when Fang helped her find it, before she whispered a rather odd string of words against the fabric of the pillowcase.

Fang blinked into the candlelit darkness. "I don't understand."

Lightning didn't say anything else, and another thin dribble of blood trickled down across her lip.

"'Serah'... Is that a person?" Fang set her head back against the side of the table again, listening to how ragged her own voice had become. "I really wish you could just tell me."

Lightning suddenly coughed, and a small mist of scarlet vapor clouded against her mouth, before she slowly curled up again, laying down upon her side.

Fang fought the urge to grit her teeth at the sheer scent of it, the scent of sickness and death, despite how many vials of antibiotic liquid she'd talked the physicians into injecting. Lightning kept very silent for a while, for even though the pressurized tube was no longer helping her breathe, every little gasp sent shocks of pain into her lungs, and every twitch made her muscles tighten and spasm.

"...Please don't die." Fang whispered each of her words into the stagnant air, feeling the weight of the blanket on her shoulders, a woven thing that one of the assistants had draped over her back when she'd refused to leave Lightning's side. "There's got to be a reason you landed here." She slowly closed her eyes. "I don't usually believe in that stuff... Stuff like fate."

Lightning's own eyes twitched beneath her eyelids.

"I can't keep losing people..." Fang reached up to tangle her hands into her own hair. " _Please_ don't die."

Lightning suddenly spoke, yet her voice was still low and hoarse. "...Die?"

Fang nodded against the side of the table. "Don't _leave_." She felt something touch the hands in her hair, but she didn't move an inch. "Don't leave me."

Lightning slowly petted the top of Fang's head.

"I won't get angry if you really have to." Fang squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, cursing the way that they grew so blurry and warm. "If you have to... I won't forget."

It might have occurred to keep herself from exposing such tender things, from simply breaking down a little further, to keep herself from having to swipe at her eyes with the edge of her wrist, but Fang only shivered once, before she slowly began to hum.

The room was empty and motionless, and beyond it, there was only Fang's father, who was resting in one of the common room chairs, unwilling to leave his daughter at such a time, even if he could find no words to say. Perhaps that was reason the sound carried out so far, a low, gentle hum, a song of someone who stood quite alone, a wanderer's song, a song that nearly blocked out the constant thrum of static.

* * *

Fang suddenly woke to a few scattered rays of morning sunlight, and she realized that her vision was almost blurred, so bleary with unshed liquid.

Lightning slumbered on, half-covered beneath the soft, woven sheets. She was resting on her side, warm and soft, all nuzzled up against one of Fang's arms.

"...Hell." Fang bit down on another silent curse; she knew that she herself couldn't have existed without the eventual death of her other lives, but that knowledge didn't much soothe the sting away, nor did it make her stop feeling as if she should check for blood on Lightning's mouth, or for the sound of such damnable liquid, sloshing within the wounds inside her lungs. "Light."

Lightning stirred slightly, but she didn't wake.

Fang let herself go very limp against the sheets, lost within the sudden turmoil of her mind, behind her hazy, dizzy eyes. She knew that it was only a memory, and that there were far worse fates than possibly dying from an infection, but with the way Lightning was still sleeping so soundly beside her, so _trusting_ , it made Fang grit her teeth and reach over with her free hand, brushing her fingertips across Lightning's nearest shoulder.

A tiny sound felt so much louder in the early morning, as did the sensation of touch, and when Lightning finally opened her eyes, they didn't quite begin to focus for a moment, not until she caught sight of Fang.

"Morning..." Fang murmured her words as softly as she could. "Did you sleep well?"

Lightning yawned, before she let her eyes drift shut again. "Yeah."

"I had a-" Fang paused. "A _really_ bad dream, Light."

Lightning reached up towards her own shoulder to hold Fang's hand, bringing them both down to rest against the blankets beneath. "What kind of dream?"

Fang closed her eyes as well. "You were sick."

Lightning kept quiet for a long moment. "Really sick?"

Fang nodded. "Yeah, and I felt... Afraid."

"Don't be." Lightning's voice brushed softy against Fang's cheek. "Whatever happened back then, we can't change it."

"That's the thing, it's not like any other dream..." Fang began to squeeze Lightning's hand, just as gently as she could, slowly massaging the smooth skin with each of her fingertips. "I don't feel in control, not at all... It feels like I'm really living another life out there."

Lightning didn't say anything for a very long while, and when she spoke, it was almost too quiet for Fang to hear. "Did I die?"

Fang slowly opened her eyes again. "It stopped before I could see anything else."

Lightning was just resting there with her cheek pressed up against the pillow, but her eyes were honed in and clear, watching the expression on Fang's face. "You could go back."

Fang tried not to sigh. "I could..." She looked at Lightning, remembering the way her skin had been so pale back upon that mountainside, how she'd been bleeding out, feverish and delusional from the fear of losing her life, from losing the chance to go back and find her family again, a rather primal response to the loss of one's stability and choice. "I could." But Fang had given it all back, given Lightning a new choice with each and every step of the way, from simple movement and decisions to wherever they were going to fly in later times; she wasn't to be caged, for Fang would rather lock herself away than back Lightning into a corner again, to force her hand without necessity.

Lightning ran a few of her fingertips against Fang's palm. "You can face it."

Fang slowly closed her eyes again, listening to the steady sound of Lightning's breath, and she could feel the way their fingers intertwined, gently lulling her back to sleep.

"It's going to be okay." Lightning's voice soon faded off into darkness. "You're brave, Fang... Braver than almost anyone I've ever known."

* * *

Yet Fang found that bravery was nearly the last thing on her mind, especially when she woke to the sound of an argument right beyond the clinic doors, and then the muffled sound of her father's voice.

Lightning was still resting there, and it looked as though one of the healers had put down a bit of cloth beside her mouth to soak up the blood, for it was already quite red by the time Fang caught sight of it.

"Light..?" Fang bit back a yawn, before she slowly raised her head away from the edge of the blanketed table. "What's all the noise about?"

Lightning didn't stir, but her chest was still moving just as much as it could; those feeble lungs hadn't given up all of their fight, though her skin tone looked far too colorless to be healthy.

Fang carefully rose up to her feet, and she made her way over to the front room of the clinic, where the door creaked open at her touch.

"Fang." Her father almost looked as if he had just stopped pacing around. "We might have to change our course."

Fang paused, before she glanced at where the curtains were all drawn up against each of the outdoor windows. "Why? What do you mean?"

Her father took in a deep breath, before he suddenly moved to sit down upon one of the lobby benches. "As I told you before, some folks are very well-meaning, but they can be... Superstitious."

Fang held her ground, keeping herself right between the front room and the door that led to where Lightning was sleeping. "What's happening out there?"

Her father just kept gazing off into the distance, but he had his hunting spear and daggers sheathed to his back and his belt, and there was a certain look in his eyes, a look that Fang had only ever seen once in her life.

Fang took a very deep breath, before her fingertips began to tighten against her palms.

"You remember the safe house that your mother and I showed you, back when you were a child?" Her father's gaze didn't waver from the opposite window. "It might not even come to this... But I want you to go there if anything does happen."

"Light needs help." Fang shook her head. "I can't just leave her here."

Her father closed his eyes. "Bring whatever you can carry."

It was a long moment before Fang finally stepped forward, listening to those muffled sounds outside of the clinic doors, doors that were likely locked. When she slowly peered out through a small gap in the curtains, she caught the sight of the lead physician, who seemed to be trying his best to stay calm and coax the small crowd around him do the same.

"This is a non-contagious, isolated infection; if you could all just please-"

One of the villagers forced his way through the crowd. "How in the _hell_ do you know it isn't contagious?!"

The physician stood up straight, standing with great poise even in such a turbulent moment. "I collected a small, and again, _isolated_ sample of blood and lung tissue from our patient, and the results of my examination were conclusive with an infection type that I've only ever seen in infants, or those without a strong enough immune system to combat it... And if the rumors are indeed true, every sign points to the fact that our 'visitor' would simply not have the tolerance needed to fight such simple bacteria; the fact that all of you are standing here today means that your bodies are extremely resistant to such things."

Fang kept very silent and still, but she suddenly breathed out a sigh of relief when the crowd began to settle, just a bit less agitated than before, yet still quite curious if the virus was indeed under control, and also unlikely to spread.

"They'll listen to reason, most of them..." Her father was still gazing at the other window, at the morning sunlight that was just beginning to spread over the whole horizon. "Just remember that panic is as contagious as anything else."

Fang said nothing, but she soon gave her father a small nod, before she slowly made her way back into the smaller room. The door creaked again once she opened it, and there was Lightning again, still the same, still struggling to breathe more than a few short, ragged gasps.

The chair scraped slightly against the floor, and Fang sat down, before she leaned in to rest her hands over one of the blankets. "We might have to go soon, Light."

Lightning still didn't open her eyes, breathing hoarsely.

It could have been hours that Fang sat there, for the sunlight grew brighter and brighter with each time she glanced off to the side, but she only truly turned again when the door suddenly moved, swinging open with a creak.

"Fang!"

A sudden embrace, yet it was far more than welcome, if only a bit unexpected; Fang hugged Vanille back, sitting there in silence for a while, for she needed it, needed such strong reassurance that there was someone else in the world who understood.

"Fang-" Vanille looked over at Lightning, before she slowly moved away from the hug. "She's..?"

"We don't know yet." Fang leaned back in the chair, and she let her eyes fall shut for just a moment. "An infection, something bacterial... Probably breathed it all in the moment I broke her out of the damn thing."

Vanille moved to pull up a chair as well. "You couldn't have known that..." She sat down, trying not to fidget or wake Lightning with her voice. "And she's lucky it was you who found her, not anyone else... They could've hurt her."

Fang tried not to sigh.

"I'm serious, Fang." Vanille glanced down at her feet, before she looked back up at the table. "You know how long it took me to get in here? They aren't letting _anyone_ in; I had to get your dad's attention just to convince them I wasn't going to try anything!"

Fang looked back at Vanille. "Sorry... I just got all swept up in this."

Vanille shook her head. "It's not your fault."

"Then why do I feel so _guilty?_ " Fang reached up to stroke a hand through her own tangle of hair, and she leaned forward again, resting against the table. "Why does it feel like this is all my own damn fault..?"

Vanille took a very long moment to answer. "Because she was lost, and we helped her... We gave her bandages and food, but it still didn't stop this from happening." She spoke very softly, and she soon reached over to hold one of Fang's shoulders. "...Because you set her free."

Fang bowed her head even lower, pressing it against the edge of the blankets.

"It's okay, Fang." Vanille forced herself to smile, and she reached over to hold Lightning's shoulder as well. "We'll all be okay... She's a tough one, isn't she?"

Lightning just kept breathing, quietly wheezing against the blooded cloth.

"What's the doctor been giving her?" Vanille leaned over to look at the tiny bandage on Lightning's inner elbow, likely where something had been injected into one of her veins. "Antibiotics?"

Fang nodded against the edge of the table.

"Then we just have to wait." Vanille patted Lightning's shoulder. "She looks _really_ human, Fang, I think she'll respond to it."

"...I hope so." Fang's voice was rather muffled by the blankets. "Stay here with us, Vanille?"

Vanille tried her best to smile, and she leaned over to hug Fang again, offering as much comfort as her mere presence could provide.

"I can't stab an infection." Fang's voice was so weary and low, almost as if she hadn't slept at all during the previous night. "I can't cut it, I can't chase it off..."

"Lightning's strong." Vanille hugged Fang even tighter than before. "You can see it whenever she moves, can't you? All that power... If this were _her_ world, I bet she'd be flying in circles around us."

Fang almost smiled. "I want to help her." She reached over to point at the device that Lightning was still clutching with both hands. "This thing, it really feels like she's trying to find someone with it... If I can't get her back home, then I want to help her find whoever it is."

Vanille nodded, but she didn't say anything for a while, not until Lightning finally began to stir. "Hey..."

Fang sat upright, bracing her own forearms against the blanketed table. "Light."

Lightning's eyes were still quite clouded, glazed and foggy from the sheer exertion she was forced to use, combating the infection within her lungs.

Vanille forced herself to smile. "Hey, sleepyhead." She squeezed at Lightning's shoulder again, just as gently as she could. "You're gonna be okay, alright?"

Lightning's gaze suddenly drifted out towards Vanille's face, and she tensed slightly, before she slowly began to whisper. "Serah..."

Fang felt every nerve in her body go frigid.

Lightning spoke again, only it was something in her own language, soft and still somewhat hoarse, but the look in her eyes, it was sheer recognition.

Fang leaned back in her chair. "What is this?"

Vanille tried to keep smiling, but after a moment or two, she slowly let her expression even out again, though she didn't move away from Lightning's side. "She's talking to me like I can understand it... Who's 'Serah'?"

Fang shrugged as she reached up to pinch the bridge of her own nose, trying to keep calm. "I don't know."

"It's going to be okay, Light, just get some rest." Vanille pointed at her face, and then at Lightning's eyes. "Try to sleep... You'll heal better when you sleep, you know?"

Lightning's eyelids began to droop slightly, but she still looked out at the blurry image of a young woman, a girl who seemed so much like the face she'd once seen so many years ago, the sleeping figure within a solid crystal chamber.

Vanille turned back to glance at Fang. "I can take some time off of work... I'll stay as long as you need me."

Fang smiled, then, a warm, genuine smile. "What would I ever do without you?"

Vanille smiled as well, still holding Lightning's shoulder. "You'd be just fine."

Fang shook her head. "Nah, I'd be pretty damn upset if you ever left." She reached over to gently poke at Vanille's forehead. "That's my job, isn't it? Keep everyone safe, hunt for things... Take care of people."

Vanille looked back at Lightning. "We'll take care of her, too."

Fang nodded. "Can't just leave someone who needs you." She slowly relaxed in the chair, listening to those soft, ragged breaths, and then the sounds of the village outside, of rumbling ox carriages and people talking within the streets, even the little insects that chirped on beneath the daylight. "Her lungs will heal, won't they?"

Vanille leaned back in her own chair, gazing at the ceiling above. "I hope so."

Fang knew that she'd fallen asleep shortly after the silence took hold, but when she woke again, it was only to accept the food that Vanille offered her, and also to help coax Lightning into drinking some water.

"Come on, now." Fang sloshed the canteen back and forth. " _Water_ , Light... You thirsty?"

Lightning's whole mouth was rather chapped and dry, and her eyes were still out of focus and hazy, though her ears did twitch at the sound of Fang's voice.

"Hey, Light?" Vanille stepped up towards the table, smiling another smile. "You should drink, okay?"

Lightning's gaze suddenly honed in on the source of that voice, and when she locked eyes with Vanille, who began to point at the canteen, it was only a matter of time before she drank.

Fang lowered her voice to a whisper. "This is _weird_ , Vanille..."

"If it gets her to drink and eat, it doesn't matter." Vanille patted at one of Lightning's hands. "...Have you ever had to take care of a person who's forgotten things, Fang?"

Fang went very still at the mention of someone who she hadn't thought of, not in years, if only to keep herself from fretting over Vanille's situation.

"They're right there in their own little world, and nothing you say to them is going to change it." Vanille smiled at Lightning again. "She'll figure it out on her own time."

An orphan, Fang knew that much, even if Vanille never liked to say much about it, only that her mother once taught her all about crafting and weaving and fixing things, something to keep her busy and to help her earn money for herself.

"So, if she wants to think that I'm 'Serah' for a while, then I'll be who she needs." Vanille smiled again when Lightning finished drinking a bit of water, before she helped her to set down the canteen. "That's it, Light... Let's have some lunch, then?"

Fang watched in silence while Vanille chattered on, handing over bits of mild food for Lightning to eat, which she refused to have directly fed to her, far too stubborn for such things. No, Lightning took it into her own hands and ate as best she could, though she often had to pause and cough a bit, or wipe away the blood and lung residue from her mouth.

"And you can't keep eating rabbits out in the woods, okay?" Vanille faked a tiny scowl, before she handed over a tiny bit of sliced fruit. "You've got to take it _easy_ with this stuff... Eat food that won't have so much bacteria in it."

Lightning mumbled something in her native language.

Fang smiled a little, before she reached over for a bite of her own lunch. "No backchat, missy."

"Yeah, no sass!" Vanille soon handed Lightning another piece of bread. "At least she's feeling well enough to sound like that."

Fang nodded. "If she can just fight off this damn infection-" She paused, staring at the way Lightning's mouth still dribbled with such bright red blood. "Light, you've gotta _live_ for us, okay?" Fang leaned forward to touch Lightning's shoulder. "You're something special, something we'd like to protect... Don't die on us, you hear me?"

Lightning's eyes were still a bit glazed and blurry, but she tried her best to meet Fang's gaze, and that was more than enough for the moment.

The afternoon stretched on in phases of both silence and speech, of teaching Lightning other words, whatever phrases they could manage to convey without images or books. It was a long while before the window panes grew bright with the setting sun, and Fang soon found herself within darkness again, covered by a blanket that Vanille had tucked over her shoulders.

She dreamt of the days when she was just a child, when she learned to slay wild beasts in the forest, monstrous things with massive claws and teeth. She dreamt of the warmth upon her skin when she ran beneath the sun, only with a constant shadow near her back, from Bahamut flying above. And she dreamt of the day when the seers once called her into the tower to tell her of that strange sign within the stars, of a dragon who surely watched over her, even in such a powerful silence.

A vision from the spirits, they told her, of how rare it was for a child to be born at that brief moment in time, for the dragon spirit was ever fickle and elusive. Even though Fang tried not roll her eyes at such things, or to doze off when the seers went on and _on_ about her supposed chance at destiny, there was some small part of her that almost felt almost prideful at knowing the dragon had chosen her. But she knew dragons were only beasts of fantasy, and that there were much better things to do with her time than wait around for fate to decide who or what she should be.

Things like hunting, learning to travel the land, or even the act taking care of a woman who fell from a fiery crystal meteor, a woman who could become a falcon on a mere whim, the woman who bled against the bedded table for days without pause, growing fainter and paler with each long, passing hour.

Fang only ever left the clinic to gather up some books or other daily supplies, but aside from that, she never left Lightning's side. Perhaps it was because she felt so responsible for finding and waking her up, for letting that foul bacteria seep into her lungs with the first breath of the air from a new world, or perhaps it was simply for the companionship.

Lightning didn't look upon Fang with pity, same as Vanille. Neither of them acted like she should be coddled, treated like broken glass just because of a single fracture in her family, and it almost made Fang feel just like she'd felt all those years ago.

But there was the steady decline, ragged coughing fits in the middle of the night, and then one that just wouldn't stop, not for upon hours hours. When Lightning finally began to seize up and just give in, to let her eyes go blank and fade away, Fang couldn't help but lurch out and grab at both of her wrists.

"You've got a _family_ out there, don't you?!" Fang didn't care if it echoed against the walls, if her voice rose up and grew such sharp teeth of its own, even if Lightning glared back at her with such a pained gaze, still scarcely able to breathe on her own. "Light, you _can't_ give up."

Lightning's fingertips started to curl, but she didn't try to make Fang's hands ease up from her wrists.

"Maybe I'm the one who's going nuts..." Fang silently began to thank whatever twist of fate had made Vanille go home for the night to get some more restful sleep, if only for the fact that it kept her from witnessing such an outburst. "I _shouldn't_ care, should I? I should be _strong_ and just forget all about this, quit paying for the damn antibiotics, go home..."

Lightning's lungs tried to make her cough again, yet she only had the energy to wheeze.

"...But I can't, can I?" Fang almost laughed out loud. "Too damn bad! You're stuck with us until you're well enough to fly away to wherever else you want to go... But I _won't_ let you die because of me!"

A thin trickle of blood dripped down over Lightning's lower lip, but it was swiftly wiped away by a thin scrap of cloth.

"Silly bird, whatever you are..." Fang bit down on her own bottom lip, almost enough to make it bleed the same, before she placed the cloth down against the table. "Fell to us, didn't you? Crashed right there on the ground, got stuck with a bunch of weird people, no family in sight... It's no wonder you'd rather hang out in the woods."

Lightning's eyelids fell shut again, though she tried her best to speak. "Fang..."

"Yeah." Fang kept standing there, gazing at the bits of clotted blood that still stained the pale sheets of cloth. "What do you need, Light?"

Lightning's fingertips twitched, before her ears began to do the same. "Thank you."

Fang didn't say anything for a very long moment. "Why?"

Lightning tried to open her eyes, and she tried to muster enough strength to sit up, even when she barely had the energy to breathe. "...Safe."

Fang slowly slumped back down into her chair. "You're not safe... You're sick."

Lightning shook her head against the reddened pillow, trying to remember a few of the words that Fang had taught her, and she soon spoke them in a whisper. "Don't worry."

"What, you know something I don't?" Fang leaned forward to look Lightning in the eye, which was more difficult than it seemed when she could barely keep them open. "You don't think you're sick?"

Lightning's blooded lip slowly curled into a smile.

Perhaps it was the sudden scent in the air, or the odd flicker beneath her eyelids, a light that grew to such great brightness, and then doubled in only just an instant. Fang simply brought herself out of her seat, away from those gathering beams of electricity, from the _fire_ that spread out from the source and across the entire surface of Lightning's skin, right beneath her clothes, a blaze that somehow didn't burn them, nor the bedded table beneath her.

It was a smoldering sort of display, resoundingly bright, yet somehow gradual, one that made Fang want to instinctively reach for her spear and defend herself against such a brilliant sight, against the sparking hot mess of fire and flesh, the feathered form who'd suddenly burned herself from the inside out, but the blinding white light died back down within only an instant of time.

And there she was, so pale again, breathing far deeper than she'd been able to muster before. Though her limbs were thin and trembling, burned of almost all of their inner energy, of muscle and every other tissue, truly a phoenix's last resort. "...Blazefire."

Yet the infection, it was gone.

* * *

Beneath the morning sun, Lightning watched the way that her companion tossed and turned within the depths of a dream. "Fang..." She couldn't help how it made her want to reach out and hold Fang still, just to offer whatever comfort she could give.

But then Fang's eyes opened, blinded and utterly wild for just a split second, before she slowly honed in upon the softness of Lightning's face.

"Another bad dream?" Lightning reached out to cup Fang's cheek with her palm, stroking her fingertips across the dark locks of hair beside her ear. "Maybe you should stay awake for now."

Fang suddenly let out a hoarse sigh of relief. "You aren't on fire."

Lightning's eyebrows furrowed slightly, yet she just kept petting Fang's cheek. "I'm not on fire... This other life isn't sounding so great."

Fang slowly shook her head against the pillow. "No, it was good fire... _Your_ fire."

It was a long while before either of them saw fit to speak again, and Lightning simply closed her eyes when Fang nuzzled in to hum against her neck, almost resting on top of her. Their soft breaths didn't quite echo against the sheets, but they were still clear and clean, smooth and easy, and it made Fang sigh again, slowly hugging her arms against Lightning's blanketed waist.

"I had fire?" Lightning spoke in just a whisper. "Like the charm we made?"

Fang shook her head against Lightning's collarbone. "It came from these electric sparks you could make, from somewhere inside."

Lightning blinked, gazing out at the morning light. "I knew magic, then."

"Guess so..." Fang closed her eyes for a while. "Burned right through you, but you made it out intact."

Lightning closed her eyes as well, and she started to doze again, slowly relaxing against the sheets. Fang savored the feeling of such strong lungs, of organs that wouldn't collapse on her, wouldn't let Lightning suffer such pain. It was so simple to hover there between the lines of sleep and a waking state, even when Lightning drifted off again, breathing so softly that Fang could scarcely hear it, though she could still feel that powerful heartbeat beneath her ear.

"You're okay." Fang slowly propped herself up over where Lightning slept, and she gently leaned in to press a kiss against her cheek. "You won't get sick on my watch... Or I'll get you whatever medicine you need."

Lightning just kept sleeping, even when Fang moved over towards the edge of the bed, reaching down into the pale leather backpack for one of their books on magic.

Fang knew that it was still quite early in the morning, a bit too dark to wander the city streets in search of breakfast, yet she could put her time to good use by trying to decipher the magic instructions again. But the words were so unfamiliar, with terms like 'detaching oneself in order to find the inner self', something that made Fang's eyes roll on instinct.

She lifted her hand up to let a tiny flicker of flame snap out from between her fingertips, just a gentle light, soft and tame, before she snapped them again to snuff it out. Was it really so hard to make that fire appear as something else? A different type of magic, perhaps?

Fang sighed, before she turned back to an earlier page that spoke of deep meditation, something she'd been rather loathe to try out in the open, but with Lightning resting so peacefully beside her, and with the rest of the inn room feeling so quiet and safe...

It was more than difficult to think of nothing at all, more than anything else she'd ever tried, Fang was sure of that. Whenever she managed to clear her thoughts for just a moment, to wipe the slate clean, it was as if another inkling of an idea would always crawl right back in and muddy the board, distracting her from the act of keeping calm.

Fang fought the urge to simply set the book itself on fire, for what would Lightning think if she'd torched Hope's future birthday gift? The pages soon lay silent again, and the little book stared back at her almost innocently, so Fang just let out a soft sigh, before she picked it back up again. Perhaps Hope would fare better with such things, if he was just as calm and patient as Lightning's memories seemed to portray him. An orphan, Fang remembered, just like the rest of them. He'd often been left to fend for himself until he stumbled right into Lightning's care, where he was protected and taught how to live on his own, even if there was never any true intention on kicking him back out into the world.

"Poor kid..." Fang's voice barely left her lips. "But you've got Light, don't you? You'll be just fine." She thought back to a memory where Hope had once trailed after both of them like a lost little kitten, shivering and fighting back tears, deep within a world where they'd all been lost in a flurry of sharp snowfall and blinding frost. It had gotten to the point one day, a point where Fang simply swept Hope up into a jacket they'd both found, even if it was several sizes too large for him, but the look in his eyes when he'd turned to glance at her again...

Fang bit back a smile. The eyes of a child, she remembered them very well, eyes that had seen far too much of the world in such little time, even when they were peering at her from within such a heavy coat, like a puppy she'd simply covered up with a pile of soft cloth. She remembered the way Lightning would teach Hope how to scavenge through the old ruins for supplies, whether it was a tin of freezing vegetables or dried meat, or even a bit of metal to sharpen down into a knife, they'd never let anything useful go to waste. Yet Fang had been rather wise in the way of hunting, and she'd often bring back lucky kills while they traveled across the barren lands, searching for whoever they'd lost.

It was only then that Fang noticed another plume of fire on her hand, yet it was somehow different than before; it was livelier, but a bit more dim, as if it wasn't really fire at all. She glanced back down at the instructions in the book, and she focused on the power within her fingertips.

The act of weaving magic was rather similar to the art of threads and fabric, but instead of friction to keep the strings strung tight, it was only utter concentration that kept them all together. Fang winced when a part of her focus slipped, almost unraveling the entire spell, but she kept honing herself in upon changing the flame. The magic soon waned, fluttering and soft, before Fang slowly held her fingertips up near her mouth, and when she blew on them, a low echo of sound bounced all around the room.

"Hm?" Lightning began to stir at the noise, still resting beneath the blankets. "Fang..?"

"It's just me." Fang settled herself back down on the bed, and she held her hand out to where Lightning could see it, showing her the unusual sort of magic. "I was just thinking about things... It started to change."

Lightning's eyes slowly started to open, finding the pale blue shimmer of light, and she adjusted her head against the pillow so that she could see it clearly.

"You remember what Aubergine said, back in that cave?" Fang flexed her fingertips together, and another low sound echoed from right there in between them. "Fire is my soul... And I can change my fire." She leaned back, resting her head against the pillow. "I can try to hide it, just in case this place has wards, too."

"I doubt it does." Lightning yawned quietly, before she slowly rose up from the warm sheets, tugging one of the blankets to cover herself. "They're a little rare, and you almost only ever see them installed _outside_ of village limits... They'd be even more expensive and pointless to maintain in a city like this, no matter how wealthy they are."

Fang shrugged. "You never know." She glanced at the curve of Lightning's neck, and at the way her shoulders were bare, slightly hidden beneath the blanket. "What's made you so shy today?"

Lightning couldn't help the way a slight flush crept over her face. "That was-"

"Kinda nice, huh?" Fang smiled, before she stretched out her arms, unabashed in her current state of undress. "And round two... That was pretty damn impressive, sweetheart."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut and turned away, and she reached over to toss the blanket over Fang's face.

Fang just chuckled, before she sat up as well, shaking out the magic from her fingertips. "Too early for compliments?"

Lightning nodded. "Too early for anything but breakfast... I'm always cranky until I get breakfast." She reached up to straighten out her hair, even when Fang leaned in to nuzzle at her cheek, clearly in search of attention. "It's the only way I ever manage to get anything done in the morning."

Fang just nipped along Lightning's jawline, and she smiled when her affections were finally returned, when Lightning slowly leaned over to press a brief 'good morning' kiss against her forehead, and then a softer, longer one upon her collarbone.

"A girl could really get used to this." Fang kissed at the top of Lightning's head, before she wrapped her hands around her waist, hugging her close, where they rested quite flush against each other. "But you want some breakfast, huh?"

Lightning nodded, and she started to hug Fang as well.

"I think we can handle that..." Fang nuzzled her nose into Lightning's hair, so soft and slightly scented from such a long bath upon the previous day. "What sounds good to you?"

Lightning shrugged. "I'm not picky."

"Well, there's this one place Vanille loves." Fang smiled at the memory. "They make crepes right next to the counter window, with fresh fruit and chocolate."

Lightning slowly leaned away. "This place had better still exist..."

Fang smiled, before she reached up to play with the spikier parts of Lightning's hair. "I doubt a place like that would ever go out of business... There's just one little thing."

Lightning quirked an eyebrow at the sudden shift in Fang's tone. "What sort of 'thing'?"

"Like dinner last night, the best places to eat are holes in the walls..." Fang glanced at the pale light on the windowsill. "And nobody does that better than the Warrens."

* * *

If the rest of Luxerion was made up of deep grays and dark browns, built over with black and white, then the Warrens were simply the low, earthen clay that the rest of the city rested upon, shaped up into humble square buildings and cloth archways that sheltered the streets from sunlight.

Lightning stared up at one such tarp of fabric, and she narrowed her eyes at the sight of a rather huge rodent scurrying across it.

"Now don't get the wrong impression..." Fang was walking down the street with a slight smirk on her face. "The rats are friendlier than almost anyone else."

Lightning's nose wrinkled in distaste. "We're going out to breakfast in a place with huge rats?"

Fang nodded. "People don't go back to restaurants that make them sick... They keep things pretty damn clean in there."

Lightning shrugged. "I imagine they get into the rest of the city, anyway."

"That they do, and if you keep a sharp eye out, you might even catch a glimpse of the street cats." Fang kicked at a stray pebble on the road, traveling on beside the early morning crowds that inhabited the Warren roads. "Nasty buggers, but they keep the rats on their toes."

Lightning followed closely after Fang, not in any mood to get herself lost within some dark alley, especially with such formidable company. From the weapons at their belts and the lean, hardy figures of the crowds, the people of the Warren were likely the strongest of the bunch, fit to survive in a much harsher lifestyle, inhabiting such a run-down part of the city. But there were still children playing in the streets, people walking to work, and even a mural or two with rather tasteful images, an homage to the deities of the city.

"It should be right around here..." Fang glanced down a certain road, before she shook her head, and then kept walking. "I really hope they haven't closed."

Lightning didn't speak for a long while, for the hairs on the back of her neck were prickling right up. She knew very well of the sensation of being observed, of watchful eyes in the darkness, no matter how harmless they might have been, and it made her very glad that she'd already tugged her hood over her head. Anonymity was as tough a shield as any, a veil to keep those eyes staying right back where they were.

"Ah." Fang paused to point out a certain street, one with more people than the others, where a wide open row of windows displayed the flat stoves right beside it, while another small window, that one was used to accept payment and deliver the food. "Best crepes in the whole damn city."

It took several minutes just to wait in line, and Lightning couldn't shake off the feeling that someone in the crowd was watching them too closely, yet there was nothing to be done for it. She only hoped that the sheathed sword on her hip would deter any pickpockets, though she'd left most of her belongings behind in their room at the inn for that very reason. All she carried on her was her wallet, which was resting in a pocket by her chest, along with a few of her charms, just in case of an emergency.

Fang smiled softly at the scent of fruit and chocolate, and then even the more savory flavors, the strong aroma of chopped meat and peppers. "I would've been pretty damn sad if this place closed..."

Lightning started to wonder just how many generations of owners the shop had passed through, but she didn't have much time to wait before it was their turn in line. Fang ordered the sweeter option, something that they'd both already decided on, and it was only a matter of waiting for the batter to cook upon the hot griddle, before it was folded up and filled with fruit, beneath a quick drizzle of chocolate, and then placed right down into a paper carrying bag.

They wandered past the alleyways, past the streets with more houses than they could count, eating their breakfast on the move, all while discussing what their next course of action should be.

"There's tons of other libraries, so we could always have a look there." Fang chased a bit of strawberry with her teeth so that it wouldn't fall out of the crepe. "But the Order has the best collection, at least according to Vanille... I'm just not sure if they have anything substantial about l'Cie."

"Who do you think would have that sort of thing?" Lightning paused to glance at a rather pretty little fountain, one that had a winged statue at the center. "A scientific library, maybe?"

"Maybe." Fang paused as well, before she plucked out a small coin from one of her pockets. "Or someplace that doesn't close itself up to the public on prayer days... Someplace a little less religious."

Lightning stared at the way that the clear water shimmered in the morning light, at how her reflection was somewhat blurry in the rippling pool. "I don't have a preference either way."

Fang nodded to herself, before she spun the little coin around between her fingertips. "Heads or tails?"

A split second decision, for the first thing that came to mind was the way Lightning remembered what Fang's dragon tail looked like whenever it swept against the ground. "Tails."

Fang flicked her thumb to send the coin flying up into the air, and it spun high above the spray of the fountain, before it finally toppled into the water with a quiet splash.

Lightning knelt down to see which side it landed upon. "Heads."

Fang released a quiet sigh. "Let's get this over with."

"Which one was that?" Lightning stood back up again. "I'm not even sure what other libraries are out here."

"Don't worry about it." Fang led the way back towards a certain street, one that would lead them out from an entrance to the collective Warrens. "The fal'Cie were made by the gods... No reason not to check out those records."

Lightning followed on in silence, finishing the last of her breakfast. For the first time since she'd entered the lowlands of the city, a world of dusty walls and lonely streets, she felt as though no one there was watching.

* * *

It was a very quiet place, a hall of bright sunlight and many lofty aisles of books, not to mention the silence of the sitting area, which was rather empty at such an early hour of the day.

Lightning was resting on one of the low sofas with a book that claimed to document several types magical phenomena, and she soon narrowed her eyes at a certain passage, one that spoke of an ancient ruin near the southern coast of Gran Pulse.

 _We set up camp once the weather died down, but I'd be rather ashamed to say it that wasn't as efficient as I would have liked. The men were just too tired from the rain, restless from the howling waves, and it was going to take an even longer time to convince them to join me deeper underground._

 _My first few ventures into the place brought only an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach, one that came from the sight of those strange, towering walls. I had my hound with me, a steady bloke named Bear, but I could tell that he felt quite the same by the snarls in the back of his throat, not to mention the way his hackles were always raised. The walls themselves were just plain metal, yet the sheer height of the things, it was utterly out of this world. Perhaps they'd been brought into existence by the deities themselves, a cradle for whatever they housed within._

 _Or... Perhaps a cage._

Lightning glanced up when Fang returned with an armful of books, which she placed on the table beside the sofa.

"Anything good in there?" Fang picked up one of the books for herself, and she gently sat down against the low couch. "There's a few in here that could really be promising."

"I think the person who wrote this one was camping out right near something like the vestiges..." Lightning looked back at the page. "I'll let you know once I've finished it."

Fang nodded. "They've got to have something about l'Cie in this place... Something to break the damn curse if we need a backup plan."

Lightning turned her gaze back down towards the point where she had left off.

 _It was on the end of the second week that I finally put together a scouting party with the bravest men of the lot, men who didn't fear baseless rumors of unearthly monsters and other such nonsense. Monsters, in the truest sense of the definition, are simply beasts who have developed past unnatural proportions by way of strength or powers, which classifies them above the mere title of 'animal'._

 _We set off into what looked like the main chambers, past a long hallway that almost seemed to delve down far beneath the sea level itself, so much so that we could start to hear the distant gurgling pressures from the water, and soon, the keening of what I can only assume was whales. But there was another sound, a truly icy, terrible sound, the sort of noise that makes one lurch back to base instincts and want only to flee away, but we were well-equipped to put up a fight._

 _It killed a man with the surname of Clarke. He had been reluctant to reveal his first name, so that is all we could chisel on his grave marker._

 _I'd never seen such a sight before, the snapping of bone and such long streaks of scarlet blood, the way he bellowed and screamed before it all went silent, and how the mottled beast rose up again, dripping red, with such soulless eyes, blank and hollow and utterly merciless, before a single strike upon the back rendered it down into dust._

 _One of my most trusted men, Sanford, he'd slain the creature, and he later spoke of the odd, glowing mark on the very height of its spine, a reddened welt that looked like something had burrowed down in there, something small and white and vibrant, but we could recover no trace of it within the pile of debris._

 _In the following days, we kept on despite the casualty, forming a line of spears and bladed menace that any creature would think twice about charging upon, but we found no more beasts during the next week. There were small pests, of course, rats and crabs that sometimes scuttled out into the way and scared the living daylights out of a few of the men, but other than that, our journey into the main chamber was unimpeded._

 _How foolish it was. I sit here, now, wisened to the greater powers of this world, of the true face of those who came long before us, those beings some call 'deities', but I do not personally believe any deity would create such a thing._

 _It was the sound that truly harrowed me, the sound of a strangled, dying beast, yet it could not die, could not escape from the prison we had all fallen within, down into the depths of an unfinished weapon, a beast of both steel and jagged razors, a twisted face of a thousand mouths and eyes, unblinking eyes, bleeding and falling down to the metal floor in great cascades of liquid poison._

 _My hound, faithful Bear, he stayed by my side as my men were picked off one by one, and it was only once I'd managed to scrape my way back out from the sheer drop of the chamber that I heard him howling, before the beast bellowed back a thousand times louder than any mere animal ever could._

 _I wept in the halls, I will not deny that, it would discredit the lives that were lost to such a reasonless fate, to the mere whims of luck, if such a thing truly exists._

 _I still remember the way Sanford screamed, how his arm was torn clean off by a massive, bladelike flail, an image that's etched itself into the back of my eyelids whenever I try to sleep. He was crushed mere moments later, trodden upon by disfigured claws and a limb that looked more like a hunk of molten rock than any mere foot, before the flames made his voice die down._

 _I'd heard tales of dragons, the mighty beasts that still roam our world, kings of the sky, but when I looked out into those endless eyes, eyes without reason, without any sense or soul, the eyes of a being without remorse, I knew it was far more than any mere monster._

Lightning barely even realized that she'd been gripping the edges of the book so tightly, and she slowly released it from her fingertips, watching the way that her skin grew steadily less pale than before. She glanced around at the empty room, before she started move over down the sofa.

Fang was lounging on the other side of the couch with a small booklet in her hands, and she kept very silent for a while, at least until Lightning crept up to fit herself right between Fang and the pages. "Light? Not that I don't appreciate it..."

Lightning set the novel that she'd been reading in front of Fang's booklet, and it was open to the documented case of what was almost definitely a fal'Cie.

Fang began to read in silence for a while, sitting with Lightning right beside her, almost on top of her lap. "Wow."

Lightning closed her eyes. "Yeah."

Fang let out a rather silent sigh. "...That's a fal'Cie."

Lightning kept very quiet for a long time, content just to think over what she'd read, savoring the comfort of Fang's warmth, and then the slow, gentle hug that wrapped itself around her waist.

"They're not so tough once you blast them with fire." Fang looked around to make sure that they were still alone in the library halls. "The one we fought, it started melting and freezing up at the same exact time, like a broken hunk of metal."

"That thing they found, the thing that turned to dust-" Lightning paused, before she turned to look Fang in the eye. "Was that someone who failed their focus?"

Fang nodded. "Probably a Cie'th, yeah... You see why I had to drag Vanille out of there and get her focus finished?" She stretched one of her legs out with a gentle sigh, resting her heel against the low table. "No way was I gonna let her turn into something like _that_ ; better to become a crystal than a shambling monster."

"But it doesn't sound like this fal'Cie gave any of them a focus." Lightning took the book back from Fang. "It just started killing them... No reason, no benefit."

"They aren't logical, Light." Fang reached for another old tome from the table. "No use trying to figure out what they're thinking."

Lightning fell back into silence for a long while, before she picked up a different booklet from the pile, a short document on early scriptures of the gods.

 _There was almost nothing in the early times, not even time itself, nothing but the Goddess Mwynn._

" _I will make a grand place of this," thought Mwynn, "and then I will make those to care for it."_

 _And from the Goddess was born the earth, and in doing so, Hallowed Pulse came to be. But the earth was stagnant without such things as light and water, and there was nothing there to live upon the ground, so Mwynn began to create the brilliant sun and the oceans blue, Lord Bhunivelze and the pale serpent, Fell Lindzei._

 _And small creatures grew within the sea, but as they became too numerous to count, they began to crawl out upon the remaining land, off to the fields of mighty Pulse. And Lindzei, in his great jealousy and rage, struck down one of the creatures where it stood, while its soul flickered out into nothingness._

 _Mwynn saw this, of course, and she grew great a furor towards Lindzei, for he had taken the life without regret. So she began to devise a grand plan, to make a true right out of such wrongs._

 _And so, the moon came to be, born of Mwynn's great wisdom, a daughter named Etro, the Goddess of those lives who would all eventually meet their end, a shepherd of such things. And the moon, it pulled at Lindzei's oceans, balancing the world into both fertile land and the vibrant sea._

 _But Mwynn knew, ever since the first death, she knew that her own children were far too young for such power, so they would have to learn their place within the cosmos._

" _You may bend my world to your will, but may it not be said that I have warned you," Mwynn spoke, "For there will come a day when your influence wanes, when you must earn your birthright over all that I have created."_

 _And with that, the Goddess of fate was gone, never to be seen again, even to this very day._

Lightning took a moment to ponder over the way 'god' and 'goddess' were always capitalized in the little booklet, a practice that was only ever used by the highest of religious orders.

"Nothing." Fang set down yet another book. "It's like nobody's even _tried_ solving a damn focus; do they all just go to Cie'th..?"

Lightning set the booklet back down against the table. "I think our first guess might've been the right one; the Order, at least the way you describe them, they sound like the type to have everything relevant to the gods... And that probably includes the fal'Cie."

"I just really hope we're right about this." Fang leaned back on the sofa, slinging her arm around Lightning's shoulders. "We've still got the whole Etro thing to research, anyway, but I haven't seen anything about that in here."

Lightning glanced at the stack of books. "Me neither."

"Then we've got two choices." Fang rose back up to her feet, glancing around at the library. "We could try to find another place that's open today, or take the rest of the time off until tomorrow."

Lightning shrugged. "I'm fine either way."

Fang leaned over to pick up the pile of books. "Well... This was our best bet for today, honestly." She started walking off towards the aisles where she'd taken the books from, and she gestured for Lightning to follow. "We've been traveling more than a few weeks now, so I'd say we could rest up until tomorrow."

Lightning kept very close to Fang's side. "I don't want to stay in this city for any longer than we have to." She glanced around at the silent room, yet there was nothing there to see but bookshelves and the occasional librarian, who always seemed to be minding their own business. "It's not that I'm not having... You know, fun, out here, but there's just something about places like this that makes my skin crawl."

Fang placed one of the books back down into its proper shelf. "I know what you mean." She paused for a moment to try and smile at Lightning. "...You do get used to it, though."

Lightning glanced away, before she followed after Fang again, putting the books away wherever they belonged.

It was a slow process, Fang knew that much, trying to find such specific information in an age where most people who had written it down were already long dead, but she resolved to keep searching, to keep looking for an answer, for Vanille was still waiting out there, even after all those years.

A dragon could look upon the flow of time and know exactly how long had passed, but with the blessing of immortality, a single day was merely a drop in the ocean, while an entire week, it was only a fleck of dust.

* * *

A quick lunch saw them walking back down through the streets that led towards the inn, but Lightning paused beside another small general store, where she soon bought an envelope and a plain bit of paper, as well as a pen, explaining to Fang that she was indeed going to write a letter to Serah. And with that, the roads soon saw them back within the solitude of their cozy room, where Lightning sat down on the bed with a stray book beneath the blank page of paper, and then with the pen, she started to write.

 _Serah,_

 _I know this message could very well arrive to you after I've already found my way home, but should the worst happen, I wanted to write this out for you._

 _Snow hereby has my blessing to take your hand in union, provided that he swears to always try to do the very best by you, and that he is aware that I'll likely come back as a ghost and haunt the everloving daylights out of him if he ever does anything over the line._

 _I wish I could tell you exactly what happened back on that mountainside, but there's just too much of a chance that this letter could be intercepted. I'm sorry, but it has to be a story for once I return home again. Just know that I'm quite safe for the time being, and that I do plan to come home as soon as I can, but there's someone out there who truly needs my help._

 _I want you to tell Hope that if I don't return, that I believe he has true potential as a young hunter, and that Odin is to be taken care of by the both of you, unless you can settle ownership without dispute. The same can be said for all of my belongings as well._

 _I don't mean for this to sound like a final message, but what I'm facing here is truly very dangerous, and it would be a disservice to you if I said differently. I'm only attempting this because it's the right thing to do, and because I've made a very dear friend in my time away from home, one who can protect me and help me get back to you alive._

 _I love you Serah, and I hope you know that I've only ever wanted the best for you. I know mom and dad would be proud of where we are, and that they'd be very proud of everything you've done._

 _Please take care of yourself and Hope, and the horses, and all the rest of our home, at least until I find my way there again. I'll likely be back before the snow melts, and if not, before the middle of spring. (If so, happy birthday Serah, and if I miss the exact date, I'll be bringing back a present or two to make up for it.)_

 _-Light_

Lightning set the pen down on the table beside the bed, and she slowly closed her eyes. She could hear the water from where Fang had drawn a bath, and the soft sound of it was indeed quite tempting, just alluring enough for her to set the paper down, letting the ink dry, and then find her way out into the warm little bathroom.

"Hey, you." Fang was facing the opposite way, but she could still hear the soft footsteps padding against the tile. "Gonna join me?"

Lightning sat down on the floor beside the tub. "Maybe in a minute."

Fang glanced over at Lightning, before she slowly moved to rest against the closest side of the bath. "You sound a little down."

Lightning stared at her feet. "Is it that obvious?"

Fang nodded, leaning against the very edge of the tub. "What's wrong, Light?"

Lightning shrugged. "I wrote the letter to Serah... I just hope we get back there before it arrives." She closed her eyes when she felt Fang's hand touching the top of her head, stroking and soothing down through her hair. "I guess I'm just feeling a little homesick."

Fang knew it was simple, then, to help Lightning out from her clothes and into the warm water, to hold her so close and safe, just to try and remind her of other times, of a place that wasn't so enormous, of a little village in the woods, near the forested hills. Lightning soon thought of riding Odin up along that very same path, beneath the low morning light, past the tiny dewdrops on the grass, and she thought of how her own breath would turn to mist within the wind and be carried off into the air. She'd look back down over the village she'd made, the home she'd built without caring much for the gods or spirits, for dragons or the fal'Cie. Would it ever feel the same once she returned?

 _Light, it'll be fine._ Fang's inner voice swirled right into Lightning's thoughts. _I know it's intimidating, but we'll make it out and get you back home safe... I've got a real steady feeling about it._

Lightning leaned back against Fang's body, feeling the way she was washing at her shoulders, careful to massage them gently.

"I mean it, we'll keep each other safe." Fang rubbed tiny circles into Lightning's muscular limbs. "You had my back when I tripped that ward, didn't you? And I didn't let you fall in the woods."

Lightning closed her eyes again. "I know."

"Just try not to worry." Fang reached for a bit of shampoo from the nearby bottle. "Hey, we'll go do something before dinner, okay? Just to get our minds off of it for a while."

Lightning nodded against Fang's shoulder, slowly dozing off into a slight nap.

"Don't you fall asleep on me..." Fang lathered a bit of the shampoo between her hands. "I've still got to get your hair."

* * *

It wasn't very long before they returned from the bathroom, and Lightning made her way over towards the edge of the bed, where she sat down to see how much the ink on her letter had dried.

Fang sat down as well, and she leaned back to rest against the silky sheets. "There should be a post office somewhere... It might take them some time to figure out where to get it to, same thing with finding a boat to take it there."

Lightning started to fold the letter up, before she placed it down inside the envelope. "I've been putting this off for too long." She soon leaned back as well, placing the envelope on the chair where her backpack also stood. "It just would have been too much to explain back there, and going out to face a fal'Cie..."

"Serah wouldn't approve?" Fang smiled softly. "Little sis just wants to keep you safe, even if it means keeping you home."

Lightning turned over to rest on her side, facing Fang. "She wasn't very happy after I went off to set things right on my own... But she doesn't hold grudges, not for long."

"Set things right..." Fang nodded against the pillow. "It's almost the same, isn't it?"

Lightning reached out to hold Fang's shoulder. "Retribution. It got back exactly what it gave us... But this doesn't sound like revenge, Fang, it's a solution... A mercy killing."

"Yeah." Fang leaned in to gently nudge their foreheads together, but her mind was utterly lost in thought. "Mercy."

Lightning remembered a rather twisted dream, the vision of a metal beast locked in utter agony, while she herself had been lost within a city of tall, gray walls, standing in a garden that seemed far too colorful to be true. She'd been waiting there, feeling the wind against her skin, and there, from deep within the undergrowth, her eyes met with the dark, piercing gaze of a beast.

* * *

Luxerion came alive again in the noon, and after a quick lunch, the day stretched on into far later hours, just a while before evening settled in. Lightning made her way through the various streets with Fang right beside her, searching for something to bring back home with them.

"Now, I would've said we should find her something nice for her bow..." Fang glanced away from a certain storefront, and she hurried to keep up with Lightning. "But that might just give her the wrong idea about not shooting us."

"We'll find something." Lightning kept browsing around at the various shop windows, traveling into a part of the city that she hadn't yet been into before. "And even if we don't, I still have that little glass statue."

Fang nodded. "She'll probably just be glad to have her sister back."

It was a long while before Lightning spoke again. "Back when we were little, Serah made me a bracelet for my seventh birthday." She kept walking forward, glancing back and forth. "I wish I still had it, but it's really the thought that counts."

Fang took a moment to examine the exact street that they were on, before she leaned over to speak in a low whisper. "We're getting close to the harbor... Want to see if the statue of Lindzei got covered up, too?"

Lightning nodded, and she slowed down to let Fang lead the way. They walked through the cobblestone streets, beneath archways that curled into almost nonsensical designs, some of which almost looked like the pattern of ocean waves, and it wasn't long before they could hear the real thing off in the distance.

"Interesting..." Fang walked forward to lean against the railing that led down towards the harbor, a sheer drop beside the wooden docks and various transport sheds. "Doesn't look like anyone's tampered with it."

Lightning stepped over as well, looking down at the the massive copper statue, one that had become a pale green from sheer exposure to the elements.

"Fell Lindzei, patron of the sea, of those who swim and travel within it..." Fang sounded as if she was speaking the words from memory. "Sailors pray for favor and protection, for shelter from his wrath." She closed her eyes for just a moment. "You know, Light... Most of the gods are pretty fickle about who they favor."

Lightning nodded, gazing down at the statue of what looked like a genderless figure, a serpentine body that coiled and sheltered a small ship out at sea, while the wide wings of a massive seabird almost seemed to have perched themselves right on the back of the figure's neck. It might have looked almost angelic, were it not for the face of a toothy eel right at Lindzei's throat, curled up and resting there like a living, coiled scarf.

"So, they're either going after Etro alone, or Lindzei isn't getting any special treatment." Fang slowly shook her head. "This just doesn't make _sense_ ; there was never any ill will towards Etro, at least back when I last visited."

Lightning drew in a very deep breath. "It's almost... Illogical."

Fang grit her teeth, before she slowly leaned away from the railing. "We'll figure it out tomorrow... I don't care if we have to sneak our way into the damn place; I just want to know why the hell a 'city of gods' is treating one of their own like this."

"Keep your voice down..." Lightning walked away as well, following after Fang. "We'll get there once we get there, don't get so riled up."

Fang tried to calm herself; she took in a very deep breath, trying not to let it out in fire. There were people moving all around her, humans who seemed so very oblivious to such things.

"Fang." Lightning reached out to hold Fang's hand, barely visible within the crowd, just a pair of faces in the endless sea. "I've got your back, okay?"

Fang stared out into a thousand eyes, those strange, hollow gazes, before she gently squeezed at Lightning's hand. "Okay."

* * *

A trip to the local post office saw the letter off to its destination, just as soon as a ship to Gran Pulse was clear to depart with cargo. Lightning had been ready to just seal up the letter and be done with it, but Fang suddenly handed her something that felt tiny and smooth, a spare dragon scale, one that she likely kept around just for the novelty of such a thing. And then, the little black scale was tucked away beside the message, a silent signal that Lightning had indeed encountered a wyrm and lived to tell the tale, if only not written in ink.

They wandered the streets until the early evening began to unfurl itself over the city, where they paused for a brief dinner, sitting outside beneath the sunset.

"And it's alright if you can't find the perfect thing." Fang sipped at a small glass of something bright and fizzy, a rather sweet-scented drink. "What do you usually get her for gifts?"

"Last year I wove a new saddle blanket for Mog, her horse." Lightning poked at a slice of fruit, one that was placed near the edge of her own drink. "The year before that, it was fencing for a garden of her own, but that was more to distract her from the fact that I'd bought her Mog, himself."

"Practical things, then... A horse, a blanket, a garden." Fang smiled softly into the evening breeze, relaxing against her chair. "Maybe she'd like something practical."

Lightning stared at the metal table, at the wire mesh that formed the top surface itself. "I'll figure something out."

It was a brief while before a waitress brought over the food they'd ordered, and Fang set to cutting her food up at once, while Lightning lingered on for a moment, gazing at the plate of roast chicken and a small salad at the side.

"Light?" Fang paused as well, before she lowered her voice. "Something wrong with it?"

Lightning shook her head. "Just thinking." She remembered the way Serah would often make chicken stew on the rare occasion that Lightning felt ill, either that or tiny dumplings, something quite easy to eat. "Serah's always been a better cook than I am." She reached for her fork and a knife, carefully cutting up the meat.

Fang smiled. "She has to be phenomenal, then... To do better than what you can dish out."

Lightning slowly smiled as well. "Glad you think so."

It was a cozy sort of silence, having dinner out beneath the early stars, while the streetlights slowly began to shine, growing in brightness with each oil lamp that was lit. The city grew much more quiet and calm in the darkness, long past the hours of bustling crowds and peddlers selling their wares; it was a sense of recollection, of the time before sleep, a silent fall before the cold.

"How's yours?" Fang offered Lightning a tiny piece of her own dinner. "I'm gonna miss places like this when we hit the road again."

Lightning tasted the offered bite, a dish of what looked like some sort of salmon, or perhaps a local river fish. "We'll just have to go fishing for our own, someday."

Fang smiled again, before she went back to eating her dinner.

* * *

The silence stretched on into the later darkness, and the walk back home was just as quiet, but Lightning couldn't help but feel that very same prickle down her spine.

Yet there was nobody there, none but the people who wandered the streets, no blades or savage teeth in the night, nothing that Lightning could see... And nothing she could hear, all except for the sudden scuffle of what sounded like footsteps on a rooftop above.

Lightning froze, even when Fang walked on ahead of her.

"Light?" Fang slowly began to tense up as well, copying the subtle, defensive stance that Lightning had taken. "Talk to me, what is it?"

"Did you hear that?" Lightning's voice was just as quiet as she could make it. "Something just moved on the roof."

Fang's gaze flicked skyward, but she didn't tip her head back. "Left or right?"

"My left." Lightning slowly reached to grip down at the hilt of her blade. "Do you see anything?"

Fang peered at the wide, sweeping roof, thatched with short black shingles in a way that curved up towards the height of the structure, which meant she could see the entire area that bordered the street they were on. "...Probably just rats, Light."

Lightning didn't move her hand away from her sword, even when they were well away from where she'd heard such a noise, not until they were finally back there in their own room at the inn, behind a firmly locked door.

"Really spooked you, didn't it?" Fang sat down on the bed, and she gestured for Lightning to join her. "I don't blame you... The streets aren't so safe at night."

Lightning slowly settled herself down near the edge of the sheets, before she reached for something from her backpack.

Fang watched in silence as Lightning lifted the silver pendant, placing it right back where it belonged, hidden beneath the collar and neckline of her new clothes.

"It's one of my last resorts." Lightning let her hands drop back down towards the bed, while her necklace remained secure upon her throat. "A sword is trustworthy, but it can be disarmed... _Electricity_ , that's something that can't get taken away so easily."

Fang soon settled herself down on the bed, gazing up at the silver chain, and at the fire in Lightning's eyes, full and dauntless and utterly spirited. It was enough to make Fang smile softly, and she reached over to hold her hand.

Lightning glanced at the way Fang looked at her, before she squeezed her hand back as well.

* * *

Fang dreamt of the way the air had smelled so strongly of smoke and burnt flesh, of the infection which had simply smoldered away into ash, and of the pale, harrowed form that was resting there upon the blankets, sleeping away the exhaustion.

The physicians scarcely believed her story, but the scents and the signs swayed their judgment, as well as the way Lightning's lungs weren't bleeding anymore. Yet the lead doctor still ordered caution, not to mention several more doses of antibiotics, as well as many vaccinations as they could give her, and the dream spun on for so many long days of such things.

Lightning didn't flinch at the sight of a primitive syringe, nor at the hands that had to examine her muscle density, for it seemed as if she recognized that such a place was for healing, and that the physicians were simply doing it for her own good. It was on one such day, however, that she suddenly let out a quiet hiss at the sharp prick of a needle, burying her face down against one of her own hands.

"Sorry, Light..." Fang still sat in the same chair, day after day, and she leaned forward to offer a reassuring gaze. "It's just so this doesn't happen again."

Lightning grit her teeth together, but she didn't say anything, not until the doctor had left the room. "I'm tired."

Fang almost smiled at the way her lessons were already beginning to take hold, to use such modifiers instead of simply the word 'tired', which Lightning was once rather apt to do. "I know."

Lightning reached for the device at her side, which had since fallen silent, and she frowned at the lack of a lighted screen. "It's tired, too."

"Tired?" Fang leaned in to look at the odd little machine. "How can it be tired?"

Lightning turned the device over to tap at a certain compartment on the back. "It's tired."

Fang leaned away again. "How to we make it 'not tired'?"

Lightning pointed at one of the windowpanes.

"What do you mean? Does it need to be outside?" Fang sat upright in her chair. "What does it need from outside?"

"Sun." Lightning pulled off the metal backing that kept a certain part of the device sheltered, a glassy little compartment that almost looked like some sort of insect wing, only it was just a square sheet of material. "Sunlight... Goes inside."

Fang's eyes widened slightly. "It eats sunlight?"

Lightning shrugged. "'Eats'... It goes inside."

"Okay..." Fang held out her hand, and when Lightning handed her the device, she stood up and walked over to set it down against the windowsill. "Does this look good?"

Lightning nodded. "It's good."

Fang stepped back again, sitting down on her chair. "What about you, are you hungry?"

Lightning kept her gaze on the little machine. "No."

"You're skinnier than a damn rail, Light..." Fang sighed, and she didn't quite care if her words were too obscure at that point. "It's still hard to wrap my head around exactly what you did, back there."

For the phrase Lightning had spoken, _blazefire_ , yet another match to Fang's own native language, the meaning seemed to be quite the same. A woman who'd burned beneath the flames, yet walked away nearly unscathed, if only for whatever bodily energy it had taken from herself to suddenly immolate...

"I'm good." Lightning leaned back against the blankets again. "Outside?"

"No, we can't leave yet." Fang shook her head back and forth. "You might get sick if we don't finish up your medicine doses."

Lightning looked down at herself. "Medicine."

"Yeah." Fang pointed at the spot where the injections were often placed. "It'll keep you safe."

Lightning sighed, and she closed her eyes for a moment. "Safe."

"Yup." Fang narrowed her eyes at the way those feathers kept twitching. "So don't even think of flying out of here until we're done."

Lightning opened her eyes to look at the device again. "A long time?"

"No, not long." Fang slowly leaned back in her chair. "And if you're planning on going off on your own again... Hey, are your wings the same as your arms, now?"

Lightning's brow furrowed in confusion.

Fang pointed at her own arms, and then at Lightning's torso. "Arms, wings... Change back to a bird, would you?"

Lightning kept very still for a moment, before she suddenly appeared as a falcon again, only she could barely lift her head up from the blankets, and her wings were indeed less mobile, quite taxed by the bodily fuel that it took to burn the infection away.

"Damn." Fang drew in a long, deep breath, and she held it tight. "You aren't flying until we get you healthy again, that's for sure."

Those sharp blue eyes almost seemed mournful for a moment, and Lightning's ears twitched slowly against either side of her head.

"But we'll get you back up there, okay?" Fang leaned forward again. "You'll be able to fly... I'll make it happen."

Lightning didn't respond, and she didn't even move, not until one of her pointy ears flicked upright, listening to something in the distance.

Fang turned to look at the doorway, and it was only a few moments before she heard the front doors creak open, before the sound of muted conversation and greetings echoed out from the lobby. She strained to hear whatever was being said, but the door to their room creaked open after just a brief moment in time.

"Fang..." It was her father, who'd been taking a few hours off from his daily schedule to stand watch outside the clinic room. "The two of you have a visitor."

Fang knew from just his tone that refusal would be a rather bad idea, so she nodded, watching as a tall man suddenly stepped in with a very young companion at his side, a woman with steely blue hair. Such an unusual shade was often interpreted as a sign from the spirits themselves, but Fang didn't even have to guess who the woman was, for her name was known throughout the entire town.

The tall man, who also had unusual hair, he stepped forward, and Fang stood up to face him. They shared the gaze of a fellow fighter, a protector of their tribal village, just a single glance to establish mutual respect, before the young woman began to walk forward as well.

"Thank you for agreeing to see us..." She spoke in a soft, almost monotone voice, but the light in her eyes seemed more than genuine. "My name is Yeul."

Fang nodded, even though she already knew. "Fang. Nice to meet you..." She turned to face the bedded table. "This is Lightning."

Lightning, still a massive falcon, merely started to stare at the tall man and Yeul, but neither of them moved, and neither spoke, not for a very long while.

Fang slowly sat back down on her chair, and the pair of visitors followed suit, though the tall man walked over towards the far side of the room, sitting at the bench closest to the door.

"Lightning." Yeul spoke the word as if it was truly a present force, a storm beyond the clinic walls. "Can you understand what we say?"

Fang cleared her throat, before she answered in Lightning's place. "We've been teaching her simple words, basic conversation."

Yeul nodded. "Could she understand that I see beyond the spirits? That I've seen her fall to our earth, and what may come to pass because of it?"

Fang kept very quiet for a long moment, before her gaze flickered down towards Lightning's eyes. "Probably not... Not yet."

"There is a place beyond our stars." Yeul closed her eyes as if in prayer. "A place even that I can scarcely see... This one traveled in the dark, a frozen flame, a wanderer for many long years, before she found herself here." Yeul slowly opened her eyes again. "I do not believe that this is a coincidence... Neither is the fact that _you_ were the one to find her."

Fang grit her teeth at the mention of her supposed star sign.

Yeul's gaze slid over towards the man who sat there in utter silence. "Just as Caius is my guardian, I believe that you were chosen to watch over her... To help her search."

Fang tried not to stare at Yeul. "To search."

"Yes." Yeul reached out to place her hand upon the blankets, and then, the smallest hint of a smile crossed her face when Lightning's eyes moved to look at her. "...There are others."

It was at that very moment, perhaps intentionally timed with foresight by the seeress herself, that the little device at the window began to hum, and then slowly ping with a clearer sound, an action that nearly had Lightning scrambling away from the table, if only Fang hadn't caught her as gently as she could, keeping her from toppling over in such a weary state.

"Hey, _hey_..." Fang tried to keep Lightning from falling from the table, even when those talons gripped down at whatever they could reach, luckily just empty air. "I'll get it, okay?"

Lightning slowly slumped back, breathing rather heavily, but she finally went still when Fang carried the pinging device back from atop the windowsill, revealing a single flashing dot upon the screen.

* * *

Fang woke to a mess of tangled limbs and a soft, warm breath at her cheek, and she felt herself start to smile, gazing out at the morning sunlight. Lightning had nuzzled herself up right beside Fang's face, pressed flush against her with strong, hugging arms, quiet breaths and soft skin, and a body that smelled of fresh soap.

"Morning." Fang yawned and nuzzled back, not quite enough to wake Lightning up, though it did make her mumble in her sleep. "Ah, but we've got places to be..."

Lightning still slumbered on, but when Fang kissed along the top of her forehead, she slowly began to wake. "Hmm..?"

"Hey." Fang slowly propped herself up on one elbow to gaze down at Lightning. "Good morning."

Lightning blinked, blearily opening her eyes. "Morning."

"I think we slept in a bit..." Fang smiled, and she hummed when Lightning leaned up to kiss her chin. "The library's waiting."

Lightning leaned back down to rest against the pillow. "Tell me about this place?"

"Well." Fang reached up to tuck a lock of stray hair behind Lightning's ear. "The 'Hall of Devotion', it's mostly a church and several meeting halls, but we used to just skip past those to look at the libraries."

Lightning's brow furrowed slightly. "'Libraries', plural?"

Fang nodded. "Different eras of information, certain things on specific gods... They've got different halls for different categories, but it's all in one big building."

Lightning glanced away, over at the door that led towards the hallway of the inn. "And the Order..."

Fang tried not to frown. "Their headquarters." She found that her gaze was drawn towards the silver pendant at Lightning's throat, bare and uncovered by her clothing, resting so gently against her nightshirt. "We're just a couple of tourists, okay? They won't have any reason to mess with us."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. "I hope you're right."

* * *

Beneath the rising sun, the Hall of Devotion stood right beside the inner city walls, sheltered between a wide fruit orchard and rather lush garden of more floral designs. It was the scent that first caught Lightning's attention, for even with her hood drawn down, she could still smell the sweetened air, and then the lofty scent that all old buildings seemed to have.

It was yet another ocean of people, but all she could see were the distinct uniforms and ceremonial garbs that they wore, the black and white patterns, gold diamonds, and there Lightning was, the lone plume of silver who made her way onward, unnoticed by the crowds. They could not see her hidden pendant, they could not tell that she was a messenger of death, one who followed after a woman who hid herself as well, a dragon who merely sought after the library.

The main hall itself left almost nothing to the imagination; broad, suntouched beams kept the high roof standing tall, while murals and intricate paintings splayed themselves out along the ceilings, and then, a grand skylight bathed the entire room in warmth. There were those of the city who'd ventured there to pray, but they sat silently upon the pews, for there was no preaching to be heard, not on that day. The altar was empty, but there it was, the main feature of the room, beneath the many-winged figure who stood there within such golden light, carved in marble flesh and a brilliantly white robe.

Lightning paused at the sight of an almighty Bhunivelze, at the statue that depicted him so clearly, without a shadow of a doubt.

"Light." Fang spoke just under her breath, so she wouldn't disturb the silence of the hall. "Follow me."

And she followed, deep down into the lower stairs and hallways that led to many different rooms, to places where priests and clerics alike were praying or speaking among each other, past those who were singing so quietly within closed off rooms, just a whisper of sound from beyond the solid doorways.

"The libraries are just another floor down." Fang passed by a pair of armored guards, but they seemed to take no notice of her, or even of Lightning herself. "Nice place, isn't it?"

Lightning waited until they had walked out of earshot. "...Yeah."

"I know, Light..." Fang leaned in to brush their shoulders together. "We'll get some research done, and if we don't find anything today, we'll take another look tomorrow."

Lightning tried to keep herself steady, and she tried not to admit that there was just _something_ about the narrow halls that made her feel like she could scarcely breathe, but she just kept following after Fang, down a short flight of stairs that led towards the entrance of a library.

"See, here we are." Fang stepped down into the main walkway, and she glanced at a sign that indicated the different sections of books. "We'll look for your stuff first, okay?"

Lightning started to grit her teeth. " _'My'_ stuff..."

"Don't get all flustered, now..." Fang slowly reached for Lightning's wrist to guide her further inside, beneath the towering aisles of books and weighty tomes, of great scrolls and preserved documents of all kinds. "Yes, the Etro stuff."

Lightning took a very deep breath. "Don't say it out loud..."

"There's nobody in this aisle." Fang looked around at all of the different books. "Just relax, Light."

Lightning tried to do so, and after a brief moment of waiting for Fang to pick something, she decided to start looking for something to read as well.

There were books on religious practices, on unused ceremonies and old holidays, even books on stories about the gods, almost akin to fairy tales and fables. Lightning glanced at one of those in particular, before she slowly took it down from the shelf and opened it up to one of the middle pages.

 _Mwynn's Crown_

 _The Goddess Mwynn might have left our world without a sound, but before she did so, she gave it one last gift: a crown of gold and silver swirls, a beacon of power, and of great interest to her many children._

 _Said Bhunivelze to his fellow Gods, "With the sun, they live, with the light they dance, so the crown belongs to me."_

 _Said Hallowed Pulse, "It is my earth they live upon, my soil tilled to grow their food, my back that bears the mountainside, so the crown belongs to me."_

 _Fell Lindzei coiled and rose from the darkest depths, a pale serpent upon the sand, and he said to his brothers with a lingering hiss; "It was my oceans that they were once born within, and my rain that soothes their thirst; it is my right to such a prize, for without my rivers, there would soon be no life to speak of... So the crown belongs to me."_

 _The three Gods quarreled for many nights and days, all except for the very youngest of them all, fair Etro, who merely watched the affair from afar._

 _She looked down upon the souls below, those who stood faithful to the Gods, and she spoke a single phrase, "In the end, they all find me."_

 _"It is my fire that keeps them warm," Lord Bhunivelze called, "my sun that keeps the earth alive, and without it, none would exist!"_

 _"It is my earth they walk upon, my valleys and my roads;" Hallowed Pulse began to roar, "without me, such fire would hold no purpose, with nothing to bask in the warmth!"_

 _"Is is my water that fills and fuels their veins," Fell Lindzei readied his fangs, "Without me, there would be only fire and dust."_

 _And young Etro, perched upon a moonlit branch, she watched the sudden shed of blood. "A waste," she whispered, "to bleed for nothing... An empty prize."_

 _It was then that Mwynn appeared, already readying herself to leave, yet when she saw her quarreling children, she silenced them with only a murmur, "And what do you assume the crown is for?" She stood tall before each and every God, "To wear? To decide who is the best?"_

 _It was clever Bhunivelze, one of the eldest, who spoke first, "To aid our plight in shaping this world, to do the best for the souls we have since borne."_

 _And Mwynn smiled, before she split the crown in two._

 _For her silent wisdom, Etro was given the crown of white, a crown of pure gold to think of her brother by. Bhunivelze was given the crown of black, of flowing silver, to remember his bond with Etro, the sisterly death to his role of life, his contrast in every way._

 _"May these bind you in unending kinship," and with that, Mwynn left to ready herself again, preparing for her departure, and she left her children in silence._

 _It was only long after their mother had left that a beam of sun danced out upon the moon, proposing a trade of sorts, "Fair sister, do you not think it is most strange to bear our opposite role? For you are the shadows and the chill of night, while I am the endless sun."_

 _Etro, who wore the pale crown above her head, thought such things over for a while, before she nodded at her kin, "I see no fault in it... But if you wish to trade, I shall."_

 _And Bhunivelze smiled, such a blinding white, and he gave to his kin the ring of black, "Take care, dear sister."_

 _And with that, Etro was alone, devoid of the light that had once left her glowing, and even though she held the crown, the ring that mirrored such peerless shadow, she almost began to weep._

 _And Bhunivelze, with no darkness in his eyes, he burned so much brighter than he ever had shone before, forgetting any form of shadow at all, a solid, unending white._

 _It was only when both Lindzei and Pulse, who had since gathered up their jealous rage into a plan, only when they rose up to steal away both crowns, only then did the moon shine once again, and the searing sunlight began to wane._

 _An everlasting dance ensued between the twin planetary brothers, both jealous of holding both pieces, before both crowns were eternally lost from the hands of the Gods, never to be seen again._

There was a note at the bottom of the page.

 _Some speculate that such a tale might have ended in a final intervention from Mwynn, who cast the 'crowns' down into the mortal realm from wherever she had since departed to, or by Etro herself, who wished to bring back balance to her kin._

Lightning slowly looked up from the pages. "Have you ever heard this story, Fang?"

Fang glanced away from the tome she was reading. "Which one?"

Lightning brought over the book of short stories to where Fang was standing. "It's about something that Mwynn made."

"Now _there's_ a name you don't hear often." Fang leaned over to skim through the story, and she nodded after a moment. "Yeah, I've heard it. She's the goddess of fate, you know..."

Lightning slowly closed the book. "What about it?"

Fang smiled softly. "Well, our own fates have been rather particular about things, haven't they? Who's to say there isn't some part of Mwynn who stayed behind to look out for all of us?"

"I'd rather have control over my fate." Lightning soon placed the book back down on the shelf. "Mwynn sounds almost... Manipulative."

"The gods always are." Fang set the weighty tome back as well. "Nothing much you can do, not unless you're _very_ clever."

Lightning tried to ignore the lingering feeling that something was crawling down her spine, and she walked a short distance away to look around for another book. "So, what exactly are we trying to find?"

Fang lowered her voice to a soft whisper. "You haven't forgotten, have you?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Yeah, like they're going to keep that kind of information right out in the open... Accessible to the public."

Fang suddenly paused, before a rather sly smile crossed her face. "That's _true."_

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the glint of mischief in Fang's tone. "Fang..."

* * *

It took them just over half an hour to slip past a certain patrol of guardsman, down several flights of stairs, sneaking inside a certain hall of storage rooms, one that led down even further beneath the earth.

Fang took point while Lightning watched their backs, glancing around every so often just to make sure that they were still alone. Lightning had her hood down and her mask clipped inside it, and Fang had her shawl back up on her shoulders, part of which she'd wrapped against her lower face.

"Look at this..." Fang knelt down by an open doorway, one that smelled like soot and ash. "What the hell do they need an incinerator for?"

Lightning lingered beside the wall, still watching for any hint of movement. "We shouldn't stay here for long."

Fang rose up again, and she darted out past the doorway, down into the halls again, with Lightning right at her back.

"Let's just find whatever you want to find and get _out_ of here..." Lightning grit her teeth, running as quickly and as quietly as she could. "I don't need closure, Fang, this is on _you_."

Fang kept racing on down the halls, and she glanced inside each doorway that they passed, until they reached one that had a rather solid lock beneath the door handle. "There." She slowed herself to a halt, kneeling down to examine it. "Nobody ever locks anything unless there's something worth hiding."

Lightning tried not to fidget from where she'd started to stand guard. "Yeah, but we don't have a key, and unless you know how to pick locks-" She could suddenly feel such bright warmth on her upper cheekbones, and the glow along Fang's fingertips made her fall very silent.

"Cutting the knot, Light... You ever heard of that phrase?" Fang smirked at the way the metal began to twist and drip beneath her touch, until she could simply reach inside the mechanism and melt the lock. "Chopping the hedge maze, whatever you want to call it."

Lightning almost smiled. "Flying over the walls?"

Fang grinned, before she shoved open the door just as quietly as she could, but she soon found that there wasn't a single soul inside, only rows upon rows of large, wooden crates.

"Damn." Lightning stepped inside as well, though she kept one eye upon the hall behind the doorway. "Fang, this could take hours..."

But Fang had already started to peer inside one of the crates, rummaging through all of the sawdust, but it soon led her hands down to something quite shiny. "Woah."

Lightning kept watching the door. "What is it?"

Fang didn't even try to lift up one of the massive bars. "Gold."

Lightning quirked an eyebrow at that. "Exactly the sort of thing they'd keep safe in a place like this."

Fang stood up again and began to look through another box, sifting away more sawdust and crinkled up paper. "There's got to be _something_... We could always just walk up there and ask someone what the hell's going on, but I'd rather that be a last resort."

Lightning tried to keep herself from fidgeting again. "I can hear people walking upstairs."

"I know, Light, just have a little patience." Fang lifted an odd little idol from the next crate, a figure that looked almost like a coiled serpent. "Nothing in this one."

Lightning glanced off to the side when Fang walked towards another shelf, but when a sudden noise echoed out from the floor above, it sent them both stark still and rigid.

"Sheesh..." Fang slowly moved back down to rummage through the crates. "Someone took a nasty fall, probably."

But then, another, louder crash echoed out into the basements, and Fang hastened her search, digging down through box after box of strange objects and documents, none of which seemed remotely related to Etro.

Lightning lowered her voice to a whispering hiss. "Fang, let's _go!_ "

Fang let out a quiet sound of frustration, but she soon rose back up to her feet, gripping at the small dagger on her belt. "Right."

Lightning stepped out into the hall, and she almost winced at the gathering noise, the din of so many thunderous footsteps, the distant sounds of clamor and shouting. "What the hell's happening up there..?"

Fang took a very deep breath. "Open to the public... Most of the guardsmen are probably out on patrol."

Lightning's eyes went just a bit wider, and she reached up to make sure the white fabric was still hiding away most of her face. "So, the way out..."

Fang started off into the tunnels. "There's got to be another exit."

In a silent run, Lightning followed swiftly after Fang, even with her heart hammering in her chest, and she began to grit her teeth when a dull cry echoed out from far above.

"Look, this one goes off alone-" Fang turned the corner just as sharply as she could, but she nearly froze at a much clearer sound, the sound of clashing steel and a sudden thump in the hallway beside them. "Light!"

Lightning whirled around to see another open door, to witness the growing pool of blood upon the floor, and the sharp figure in a white outfit, hooded and hidden by a seemingly eyeless mask.

It began within mere seconds, a drawn sword and the adrenaline singing in her ears, of crashing force and sudden, staggered footsteps, before more and more of the figures in white and pale gray appeared, of watchful eyes as the first jagged blade suddenly locked steel with Overture, a sudden duel against Lightning herself.

She could hear Fang off in the distance, and she could almost feel the sound of a dagger unsheathed, but when Lightning stared back into the mask with no holes for eyes, only the outline of an avian face, a silently screeching owl, she suddenly braced off the next attack with a sharp shout of her own.

The jagged sword only danced and twisted against Overture, steel against steel, silver on silver, yet when Lightning caught her assailant off guard with a sudden thrust of her blade, only to be forced away by yet another whistling strike, she was sent reeling against the wall, where her hood almost fell back, and the chain on her neck, it went flying up by the sheer impact.

A voice suddenly spoke, rough and somewhat muffled beneath the mask. " _What..?_ "

Lightning's eyes widened at the voice, bracing for yet another attack, but the masked man seemed to be staring at the pendant by her neck, the silver eye, before the ensuing scuffle with Fang was cut short with a ragged shout.

Fang rushed to Lightning's side, bleeding and wielding her dagger out before her, ready to strike at any who might approach, yet even when she barked out a sudden sharp challenge, none of them did.

Perhaps it was just instinct, simply a fight or flight response that led both groups to swiftly flee, to suddenly part away as if nothing had ever even occurred, yet Lightning couldn't help but look back at the group of pale figures, even while Fang dragged her away by the wrist.

"Damn it..." Fang cursed again under her breath, racing down the pathway that led to a tall ladder, and eventually a locked hatch, far above. "We've gotta climb."

Lightning struggled to catch her breath, still gripping down at the hilt of her sword. "Were these-" She paused to lean against the wall for just a moment, dreading the sharp cut that she'd received upon the very curve of one of her knuckles, almost deep enough to send cause for alarm. "Were these your _wolves_ , Fang?"

Fang gently grabbed at Lightning's shoulder to lead her over towards the ladder. "Guess so."

"Funny..." Lightning reached up to wipe off the sweat from her brow, before she flicked it away with the blood on her hand. "They looked more like owls to me."

* * *

It was early evening by the time that Fang started to rub a bit of salve into the wound on Lightning's hand, no matter how much she protested it. Lightning sat near the edge of the tub, for she herself had already cleaned out the cut with water, and she had since started to hold her breath when Fang approached with that awful, _awful_ scent, the ointment that could heal so quickly.

Fang fought the urge to press a kiss down beside the wound, and she made sure that the salve reached every inch of open flesh. "You'll wear your gloves from now on, right?"

Lightning stared at Fang's face for a long moment, and she almost wanted to laugh at the sheer absurdity. "From 'now on'? We're _done_ here, Fang... With this city." She didn't even wait for Fang to respond. "We're going to go out there and kill the damn fal'Cie, get Vanille back, but I stopped going into places like this for a reason... We could've been _killed_."

Fang narrowed her eyes at the wound. "But we weren't."

"What are you _really_ looking for, Fang?" Lightning tried not to snap at her. "Proof? Yeah, people don't give a damn about Etro anymore, and they want people like me and Serah dead, but why does it matter?" She slowly tugged her hand out from Fang's grasp, placing it atop her own knee. "We're not like you, Fang, we can't just fly away... We can't cut the knot before it chokes us; we just have to stay hidden."

Fang glanced down at the roll of bandage material, at where it was placed upon the edge of the tub. "There's just something deeper going on, something we can't see..." She let her own hands tighten into fists, bleeding slightly, yet it was nothing she couldn't heal off. "Dragons can feel things like this, Light, we can _sense_ it."

Lightning slowly reached down to take a bit of the pungent salve upon her fingertips, before she brought up a handful of water from the bath faucet, washing out the cut on Fang's upper cheek. "And you just can't let it go?"

Fang tried to shake her head, but Lightning held it quite steady, still cleaning the blood away.

Lightning sighed, before she started to rub the ointment down into Fang's wound. "They stopped when they saw my pendant... Did you notice how it fell out?"

Fang's eyes widened slightly. "I wasn't even watching for that."

Lightning nodded, more to herself than to Fang. "And did you get a good look at their masks?"

"That was the weird part..." Fang winced when Lightning began to wash out the cuts on her hands. "No holes for seeing out from? Creepy."

Lightning slowly shook her head. "Did you see what they looked like?"

Fang shrugged. "Big eyes and beaks? Owls, you said..."

Lightning's lower lip twitched, almost a wry little smile.

"You think they were Etro's people?" Fang almost laughed at the sheer shock. "Holy _hell_ , they must've been just as pissed as I was about the statue..."

Lightning began to spread more of the ointment into Fang's wounds. "The first one who ran down was the one I was fighting, and when he knocked me against the wall... My necklace got jostled out."

Fang reached up to trace over the object in question. "Lucky, huh?"

"Maybe more than just luck." Lightning soon set Fang's other hand down, done with the treatment of salve. "So many of them... I counted seven."

Fang nodded. "At least that, maybe more." She took a moment just to stare at where Lightning had since tugged down her own mask, just a strip of white fabric at her throat. "Then we have to find them again."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "They had no problems trying to fight me before..."

"Because they thought you were a guard, probably." Fang nodded at where Lightning still had her sword on her belt. "A strong woman like you with a blade on her hip, that's what I'd think if I ran into you in a dark basement."

Lightning shook her head. "You really want to risk it?"

"Light, we're here for answers." Fang leaned up to brush her fingertips against Lightning's cheek, trying to soothe away the nerves. "I didn't let one misunderstanding get between _us_ , did I? If these really are Etro's people... Then I think they're worth giving the benefit of the doubt."

Lightning met Fang's gaze, a gentle look, and she slowly started to nod.

* * *

It was only once they were relaxing into the later evening, letting those sharp wounds begin to heal, only then did a quiet knock sound at the doorway.

Lightning picked up her sword from her belt, and she unsheathed it with only a whisper of sound. "...Watch my back."

Fang moved in with her small dagger, standing right out of sight from the hall beside their door, and once she was in position, she nodded.

Lightning advanced with Overture at the ready, slowly walking on towards the doorway, before she reached for the knob, gripping at the handle of her blade.

It was almost strange to see such a plain-looking man outside her door, one with a rather cowed expression on his face, as if he would rather be anywhere else but there. "...Boss said to apologize, so here I am."

Lightning kept her sword held out before her, ready to deflect any hidden attack that might appear, but the man merely stood there, seemingly alone. "And who's the boss?"

The man fought back a look of amusement. "Not from around town, are you?"

Lightning tried not to grit her teeth, but she felt her nose twitch at a certain scent, almost herbal in a way. "How did you find me?"

The man glanced down at the leather gauntlet on his wrist. "Oh, we've got our ways of tracking certain individuals... Gave me a real good scare once I realized what you were."

Lightning kept silent for a very long moment, before she slightly lowered her sword. "What's your name?"

"I owe you that much... Tipur, at your service." He backed away slightly, towards the railing of the stairwell. "So... Yes, apologies, sorry for the scrapes, and also my compliments for that swordplay; you're a real master, aren't you?"

Lightning almost blinked in confusion. "A master?"

Tipur nodded. "Swordsman, fencer, whatever you'd rather it be." He glanced away, shifting slightly from side to side. "A little young for a master, though... Guess you're the same as the boss."

Lightning ignored the way that Fang signaled for her to ask him something different, likely something about the situation with Etro. "You never told me who 'the boss' is."

Tipur smirked, waving with a single hand, one that looked to be recently bandaged. "Oh, didn't I? He said I owed you an apology, not an explanation... The best of luck to you, sister." And with that, he was gone, hidden away by the stairwell, where Lightning could hear soft footsteps retreating down towards the lowest floor of the inn.

Fang covered her face with her free hand. "What the hell was _that?_ "

Lightning leaned away from the doorway, and she slowly pushed it shut, locking the door from inside. "If you really want us to play this, then we're playing it _my_ way... People like that don't stick around unless you impress them."

Fang tried not to sigh. "You know that we're probably never going to see him again."

Lightning's mouth twitched, just a hint of teeth, for she'd caught that subtle scent of incense, such a familiar smell, yet it was different tone from the traditional hunting herbs; it was a scent she only knew due to a past lesson from her own mother, the sort of dried flower that was only meant for warm greetings, comfort for a fellow hunter. "Oh, we will..."


	30. Equilibrium

Lightning dreamt about the strong scent of rain, of an open window within the silence of the living room, and of the way that it almost felt like she was hovering there, resting beneath a strong, gentle river. The water was fierce, but she couldn't hear any thunder, or even the noise of the city streets, only the low breaths of the one who was sprawled out upon the floor.

Fang had been given a number of blankets, of course, even offered the couch to sleep on, but she insisted that Lightning rest on it instead, much in the same way that they'd both told Vanille and Serah to take the bedrooms. It did take some time to coax Serah into not giving up her bed for Fang, but she soon relented, if only for the memory of how Lightning would always stand guard back in the early days, with Fang resting right beside her.

And there they were, deep in the dark, dozing away in the living room, only Lightning just couldn't find the will to close her eyes and fall asleep.

Fang stirred slightly from beneath the blankets, and she murmured something in her sleep, before she made a different sort of sound, rumbling and low.

Lightning rose up to sit upon the couch, with her ears perked and her eyes wide open. It was yet another reason why they couldn't truly integrate, why they couldn't ever allow anyone but their own kind to sleep close by, for when Lightning peered down at the pile of blankets on the ground, it wasn't a human figure she looked upon.

The streetlights shone on through the blurry windows, shadows upon the speckled glass, and all of it made the massive creature seem so much more gentle as it slept there, even though her underclothes were practically ruined, ripped apart by the sudden change in form.

"Fang..." Lightning didn't move, but she did let her eyes wander up towards those pointed ears, over the soft, twitching nostrils, a lycanthrope in shallow slumber. "Fang, wake up."

Fang mumbled again, before she rolled over to rest on her back, revealing that her form was not that of any natural wolf; while lycanthropes could indeed take on a much smaller form, a form that could pass as a wild dog, or even indeed, a wolf, their base state was that of a _massive_ humanoid figure, a body with long limbs, blunt claws, and overall, covered in thick fur.

Lightning looked upon the sight of such a being, of the fluffy dark hair, fur that held that same sheen of red whenever the light hit it just right. "...Fang."

Fang's long ears twitched at the sound, and slowly, her eyes began to slide open, not in green, but a golden hue.

Lightning looked deep into that gaze, into the eyes of a lycan, before she stepped off from the sofa, kneeling down beside that tangled pile of blankets. "I told you not to wear anything."

Fang rumbled again, nearly a laugh, and her voice revealed itself to be utterly lupine, low and smooth. "Hey, I can't come back after all these years just to go naked, out in the open... What if the kids needed to get up for a glass of water?"

Lightning tried not to roll her eyes. "We've all seen each other when the change happens... And they aren't kids anymore."

Fang's ears went slightly lower, and she began to close her eyes. "Guess they aren't."

Lightning watched the rise and fall of those strong lungs, a chest without human curves or dimorphism, flat and broad, utterly muscular. "How have you been, Fang? Really."

Fang turned over to lay on her side, and from beneath the blankets, her tail swept back and forth. "Not too bad... We just have to keep ourselves on the move, most of the time."

Lightning took a moment to look out at the windowsill, at all of the raindrops dripping down against the apartment balcony. "I did miss the two of you."

Fang's tail twitched even faster than before.

Lightning reached out to stroke her hand across Fang's face, past the narrow muzzle and those soft, bristly whiskers, down the point between her golden eyes, to her forehead. "If you made it into Gran Pulse... Why come back for us? Why risk that much safety?"

Fang turned her head to nudge at Lightning's wrist. "It just wasn't the same without the four of us..." She kept quiet for a while, just breathing in Lightning's scent. "You remember how Vanille used to cry at night, back when she was little? She started doing it again, missed the two of you that badly."

Lightning glanced over at the hallway that led to the front door, and she was suddenly rather grateful that Vanille hadn't been there when she'd questioned Fang so bluntly, without much warmth. "There just wasn't any other way, back then... They would've spotted us as a larger group, we would've-"

"I know, Light." Fang reached up to touch one of Lightning's shoulders with a massive hand, clawed and muscular, yet still elegant as well. "We looked for the two of you once it all cooled down, but after a few months..."

Lightning kept very still, even when Fang sat up, dwarfing her human body in size, but there wasn't a single flicker of fear in her mind, not even when she was slowly embraced.

"You had to keep Serah safe." Fang rumbled quietly when Lightning started to relax in her arms. "Nobody blames you, Light."

Lightning sat there, feeling so very small against the true form of a lycanthrope, a beast strong enough to tear mere humans apart, to be hunted down almost relentlessly, and if she hadn't had her own strength as well, it might not have felt so comfortable. But Fang, she was someone who Lightning knew every inch of, every curl and lock of her mane, every silky line of fur that ran down her chin, every little bit of her toothy smile, even the strength of her limbs. They were long arms, and even longer legs, powerful too, bearing short, blunt claws, though they could be just as deadly as those sharp teeth in her mouth. Lightning couldn't see those, though, for she was resting beneath Fang's chin, up against her upper chest, for Fang was enormous even by lycan standards.

"We should get some more sleep..." Fang's voice rose above the sound of pattering rain, but it was still soft, just for Lightning to hear. "It's probably midnight by now."

But Lightning didn't move away from Fang's arms, and she didn't budge an inch. "I couldn't sleep."

Fang slowly lowered her head, peering at Lightning from the corner of a golden eye. "Couldn't... Or didn't want to?"

Lightning took a deep breath of the damp air, the scent of the cold rain, before she slowly met Fang's gaze. "Just like old times, isn't it?"

Fang didn't speak a word, she merely sat there while Lightning moved away, and both of them remained upon the floor, waiting until it was finally time, just a pair of smaller wolves, beasts moving towards the rain.

Lightning slipped out through the open window and ran, bolting off into the darkness, far away from the lights of the streets. She opened her mouth to feel the mist against her tongue and her teeth, listening to the low snap of damp branches and leaves, her fellow runner in the night.

The city was home to small patches of forested land, parks and reserves for the local wildlife, and that was where they went, almost as if nothing had changed from those days of traveling from place to place, hunting and roaming around, of fighting off whatever threats they came across. Lightning was just a bolt of white in forest, thin and sleek and so utterly focused, while Fang ran along like silk, darker, larger, though nearly just as agile.

In that moment, their world was of scent, not sight, and yet when they finally looked upon each other, seeing perfectly in the darkness, with wet grass beneath their feet, beneath claws and paw pads, watching with golden eyes, it felt as if nothing else existed.

Lightning didn't move for a very long while, for it was the first time she'd been out in the open in weeks, so deep within the guise of a wolf, not a fully fledged lycan, which wasn't quite as dangerous to be seen. But when she finally did step forward, prompting Fang to do the same, it was only a matter of time before a quick scuffled ensued, though it was merely friendly in nature.

Fang bore her sharp teeth, almost a smile, allowing Lightning to grab at her neck and bite down a bit, as young puppies would do. Unlike wolves, lycanthropes were known to take more of a human approach to play; they didn't grow out of such things, at least not permanently. There were soft growls and quiet snapping sounds in the rain, and Fang bit at Lightning's ears as lightly as she could, even when she received a nuzzling blow to the face, not nearly enough to cause any pain.

They spoke in signals, in teeth and watchful eyes, of learning about each other again, quite different than the adolescent beings they'd been before. They were grown adults with the strength that always came with the passage of time. Yet Fang almost yelped when Lightning bit at her muzzle a little too hard, but the flinching reflex made her release just as quickly, almost apologetic in nature.

Lightning's voice made itself known, lower and much more rugged than the sounds of human speech. "Sorry."

"Ah, it's nothing." Fang's nose began to twitch, and she moved in to bump their foreheads together. "You've gotten a lot tougher, haven't you?"

Lightning felt her tail wag ever so slightly. "I wasn't tough before?"

"You were..." Fang shook her head, an admittedly unwolflike gesture, but there was likely nothing dangerous that could see them there in the darkness. "Just stronger now, that's all."

Lightning sat down on her hind legs, and she sniffed at the air, glancing around to make sure that they were still alone.

"I really missed this." Fang's ears kept twitching whenever a raindrop hit them, and her fur became so much darker within the weight of the fallen water. "Just... Playing in the rain, you know? Something pointless and fun."

Lightning kept watching the area, as if the sudden adrenaline had left both her body and mind, back to business again. "Yeah."

Fang would have frowned if she'd been in her human form. "We're fine here, Light."

Lightning only stopped watching when she felt Fang's forehead pressing against the side of her neck. "Can't be too careful."

Fang let out a low sigh, and she slowly closed her eyes. "What if we didn't _have_ to be? If we could just be like this all the time-"

"Fang." Lightning stood up again, lowering her ears. "Not now, okay?"

Fang looked away, and she slowly wagged her tail.

"Just a big puppy, aren't you?" Lightning moved to nudge her nose against Fang's forehead. "Nothing's really changed."

Fang nosed Lightning back, sniffing and breathing in that familiar scent, still the same Lightning, even after the years had slipped on by. "...This 'big puppy' just wants her family back together."

Lightning exhaled without a sound. She could feel the patter of rain on her back, against her fur, before she slowly began to move forward. "You want us to go away with you."

Fang followed after her, trotting beneath the rain. "You make it sound like a _bad_ thing... Why stick around here when you could just do whatever the hell you want out in the woods?" She hurried to keep up with Lightning, even going so far as to jump ahead and nip at her ears, just to slow her down a bit. "Do you know how steep the hills are, out there? It takes people _days_ just to cross them, but for us, it takes less than an hour to scale the top."

Lightning suddenly shook herself out from the rain, but it gathered back upon her fur just as quickly. "Serah already calls me a recluse... You won't get her to agree with this."

Fang's tail lowered slightly, not wagging quite as much. "Thought that might be the case... That's why I told you, first."

Lightning narrowed her eyes, walking on beneath the dense undergrowth, through the trees and over the flat little pathways that were more intended for human hikes. "You want me to go behind her back?"

Fang shook her head again. "No, but if there's any chance that we could both convince her..."

Lightning paused at the scent of a nearby street, at the thick swell of tar, of oil, even specks of gasoline, scents that always used to make her nose sting. "You're assuming I even want to live out there."

Fang paused as well, before she lowered herself down to peer out from the leaves, at the sight of a road that led off towards the denser parts of the city. "You want to stay in a place like this for the rest of your life?"

Lightning's ears swiveled to face the passing cars, and even though she was well-hidden within the verdant trees, she still tensed slightly whenever a vehicle went whistling past. "At least until Serah's done with school... Then we'll go wherever she needs to go once she graduates."

Fang started to lay down against the forest floor, sniffing softly at the scent of the road. "You're going to live like a human."

"We _are_ human..." Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Lycanthropes are human... At least originally."

Fang would have shrugged if her shoulders weren't so low against her body. "I don't know about that; my parents lived out in the woods, so why shouldn't I?"

Lightning lowered her ears at the sound of such things.

"And what about you, Light?" Fang tipped her head to the side. "I remember what Serah said back then... Neither of you were bitten, so you had to have gotten it from your mum and dad."

Lightning kept silent for a long while, just watching the cars that moved so swiftly past the forest. "I was born in a city like this." She blinked away the rain. "So was Serah... But dad was gone before she turned three."

Fang slowly sat up to nudge Lightning's cheek.

"Mom went out to find him, but she came back alone." Lightning closed her eyes when Fang nuzzled against her neck. "I'd never seen her act like that before... She just covered her face in her hands, and told us to pack up everything we could carry."

It wasn't too hard to imagine, Fang knew, especially from the stress of raising children and maintaining a household, of a father who had been spotted somewhere in a city, run down or slain in the streets, and of a mother fleeing with her children to somewhere very far away, if only to keep them from witnessing the gory details on the evening news. But Fang didn't even ask about Lightning's mother, not when she was already moving up to cross the road, changing her physical form yet again. They could pass as large dogs in a pinch, or at least wolfdogs, and Lightning knew a certain trick to make her eyes look blue, for wolves often had blue eyes as puppies, but never as adults.

They traveled across the road in smaller forms, keeping far away from anyone who might be out for a midnight stroll, and they soon made their way further into the city, through dark alleyways and empty streets.

"Where are we going?" Fang had been following after Lightning in silence for a while, but she started to speak just as soon as the nearby scents were low enough to talk safely. "What are we doing out here?

Lightning kept herself low to the ground while she crept along the alleyway. "I'm going to show you what you've been missing..."

* * *

Lightning woke with a start, but when she suddenly inhaled, there were no scents of the unusual city, no lycanthropes, only the human at her side, the one who slumbering into the midnight hours. She looked down to see the thin cut on Fang's cheek, a rather shallow mark that still bled occasionally, not quite to the point of scabbing.

"Wolves..." Lightning reached up to try and massage a dull headache away. "We really were wolves."

Fang didn't wake to Lightning's words, but she did seem to notice the sudden lack of warmth, just enough to make her mumble in her sleep.

Lightning reached down into her backpack, feeling her way there through the dark. She took hold of something within, a small bit of silver with a certain mark on the edge, one that indicated the power of scent. Fang mumbled again, but she grew silent when Lightning settled back down, holding the charm between her fingertips.

"There are a few things I haven't told you about us." Lightning didn't care if Fang was still asleep. "About Etro's messengers... We usually don't talk to each other, not at first." She slowly ran her fingertips over the edge of the charm, before she rose up again, rummaging for her clothes. "We talk in scent."

A certain mix of floral incense could mean that one wished to be left alone, Lightning explained, or that there was a unique kind of herb meant for religious usage, for welcoming fellow followers in for worship, and that there was also a specific little plant, an incense meant for more personal greetings. When mixed in with a plant called nasturtium, for example, a delicate scented flower with rather peppery leaves, that sort of incense was a warrior's challenge, yet it was a polite one, not meant for blood sport or ill intent.

"It's a message." Lightning pulled on her gloves. "A hidden message... So people who aren't versed in it can't sense it."

Fang suddenly let her eyes drift open. "You're seriously running out in the middle of the night to answer this?"

Lightning reached over to tap at Fang's forehead. "I knew you could hear me."

Fang let out a long yawn, but she caught Lightning's wrist before it could retreat. "Dragons are very unique dreamers..."

"Like the way you called for me, back then?" Lightning didn't tug her hand away, even when Fang kissed at the spot beside her wound, against the soft leather surface of her glove. "Telepathy."

"It was the only time I'd ever gotten a response." Fang smiled into the darkness. "You started dreaming back to me."

Lightning reached out to stroke her thumb across Fang's jawline. "And you didn't sense that I was out to kill you?"

Fang shook her head. "It's different when you're far away... The connection isn't anything like when we're right next to each other, or touching."

Lightning brushed her fingertip right beneath the wound on Fang's cheek. "I suppose it isn't." She leaned in to gently kiss Fang's forehead. "You don't seem like you're going to stop me."

"Because you're free, Light..." Fang moved to kiss Lightning back, just a soft, gentle touch, a parting gesture. "Just as long as you promise to get the hell out of there if anything looks bad... I understand this, really; they wouldn't want to meet with anyone who isn't a messenger."

Lightning leaned in a bit, before she kissed Fang's cheek once more. "I'm hoping they'll warm up to the idea... These people are _real_ , Fang; they seem to know the whole etiquette."

"Just stay safe." Fang let herself lean against the pillow while Lightning moved away, walking further and further towards the door. "I mean it, if I catch even a hint of panic while I'm sleeping..."

"Just don't burn the city down." Lightning slipped a few of her other charms into her shirt pocket, before she clipped her mask back down against the inner surface of her hood. "I'll be back soon."

Fang grunted, before she rolled over on her side, mumbling against the pillow. "We could be _cuddling_ right now..."

Lightning's mouth twitched into a tiny smile. "Be good, Fang."

Fang closed her eyes at the same moment the door creaked open. "Yeah, sure."

Lightning soon let the door click shut behind her, and she made her way down the silent stairwell, off into the lobby of the inn, before she walked right through the front doors, feeling the brisk gusts of the midnight wind.

The city was still aglow beneath the firelit lamps, yet Lightning made her way into the shadows that they cast, moving silently, all up until she reached into her pocket for a certain charm.

As she squeezed it, there were suddenly more scents than she had ever smelled before, hitting and filling her senses, a massive tangle of pathways and patches where people would linger each day. But above it all, she caught that same whiff of incense, a trail that led off to the southeast. She followed it, traveling in silence, beneath the lights of the lamps and even the distant moonlight, even when she caught the soft sound of footsteps following along in her path.

Lightning paused, before she gently gripped down on the hilt of her sword. It was only a moment later that a slim, robed figure stepped out beside her, bearing that same sort of eyeless mask, yet the image itself was almost alien. A bay owl, somewhat similar to the face of a barn owl, yet the heart shape was more of a long, downward curve, like ears that had grown on the front face instead of each side.

Lightning cleared her throat. "May I ask for your name?"

The figure, of which Lightning assumed was a woman, by the way those robes curved at the waist, simply shook her head, before her voice confirmed that assumption. "I was not told to interfere, but I need to know... What is it you seek here?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes, still breathing through the pale fabric of her own mask. "You won't tell me your name, but you want to know my intentions?"

The figure looked away, before she stepped forward again. "In due time, half-mask..."

Lightning almost wanted to grit her teeth at the word itself, though it almost sounded as if the woman wasn't quite scorning such a thing, more of naming it in slight amusement. Only a few moments passed before Lightning was alone again, standing there within the darkness of the streets.

The power of her scent charm had since worn off, so Lightning had to press it again, guiding her way down into the more industrial districts of the city. There were flat rooftops and wide open spaces for storage purposes, and it took less than half an hour for her to happen across a long, blue ribbon in the scent trail. She knelt down, scanning the entire area out of the corner of her gaze, before she lifted it up to see the pin at the very end of the cloth.

It was silver. A mark of Etro, a lesser known emblem, one that almost looked like a very slim feather, or a knife. Lightning took one look at the soft blue color, and then the pale outline of a flying beast, before she turned her gaze skyward.

And there he was, though she could only assume the gender of a masked figure; his chosen design was that of a great horned owl, an open mouthed beast, one who almost seemed to be caught in the middle of a raucous laugh. Beside him sat the individual who Lightning knew to be Tipur, for he was the one who'd admitted to first engaging her in combat, and she had seen his mask quite clearly. A screeching beak, yet it was so very silent, with painted eyes that almost seemed to stare right down through her.

Lightning kept very still, and she only blinked when the figure with the laughing mask leapt down, landing with a dull thump against the dusty old storage yard.

And they spoke without sound, slowly moving, circling each other. Lightning stared at that strange, eyeless mask, and at the weapons sheathed upon the figure's back, blades that almost looked more decorative than anything else.

The buildings above the yard gave enough shelter for them to remain utterly unseen, all except for Tipur, who stayed right where he was, resting far above.

Lightning kept her voice low, almost silent. "I'm assuming you're 'the boss'?"

The voice of a young man answered her from beneath the mask. "In name only; the Children of Etro don't have a true leader, none but Etro herself."

Tipur, for it was indeed him, called out from above. "Don't be so modest!"

The leader, 'in name only', almost seemed to ignore his companion. "What brings you here, sister?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes at such an obvious ploy, a test to weed out those who would impersonate a messenger; she simply kept circling around her opponent, for if it was the scent of challenge, of a trial by combat, they were not there to converse beforehand.

"Interesting..." The leader kept circling around her as well. "This should be good." No sooner did the words leave his mask that he drew out his twin weapons, a shorter sword and a massive sort of bladed contraption, clearly more designed for deflecting and catching nearby strikes than to actually attack with, and it was within seconds that it met with the steel of Overture.

Lightning knew to strike first, to show that she was no passive force, and she lashed out with her sword again, clashing against the smaller blade. Another strike, and again, yet the leader seemed to anticipate each one, blocking them back without taking his own first shot at Lightning, learning the way that she moved and struck, until he finally whipped back with his own smaller blade, missing the edge of her hood by mere inches. A playful gesture, Lightning realized, akin to an older sibling taking a mock strike at their younger kin, and she struck back against that very next blow, deflecting it off to the side.

Lightning leaned in to avoid a bashing strike with the larger weapon, rolling off to the side to dodge the smaller sword; she knew to keep as close as she could without being struck, for her opponent's blows were severely limited by a lack of space or momentum. It kept on in each clash of steel, each shallow breath and whistle of streamlined fabric, all while Tipur watched from above, witnessing the simple hits evolve into longer chains of collision, several strikes of such furious, screeching metal, and beneath his mask, he smiled.

"Half-mask is _good_ , boss!" Tipur's voice was rough and rugged, yet they could both hear the mirth in his tone. "Just like I told you."

Lightning paused when her opponent suddenly stepped away, just to let them both try to catch their breath for a moment, which had grown ragged and somewhat hoarse. Yet there was only a moment of time to rest before Lightning's opponent held up his arm, touching at certain bit of silver upon his wristband, almost as if he was waiting to press it.

A long, lingering moment slipped by in silence.

The leader tapped his wrist again.

Lightning glanced up in confusion, still trying to catch her breath. "What?"

"...Charms." Her opponent tipped his masked head to the side, a rather owlish gesture indeed. "You _do_ have charms, right?"

Lightning slowly reached down inside her pocket, prompting a few clicks of disapproval from Tipur. She shot him a rather icy glare, for how else was she supposed to carry charms around? She knew that if it was a real fight, she would have already had to activate it beforehand, but if such a group held customs for using charms against each other, then she was more than ready to try one of her own. And the blood of a hydra, that was more than a bit rare, so perhaps she'd get a chance to impress such a person in charge... If only in name.

It began as soon as she felt the warmth in her veins, as soon as she'd slipped the charm back into her pocket and raised up her sword again, even when her opponent ran forth with what looked like moonlight upon his blades, a shimmering sort of thing, like the dust of a glowing moth. Overture sang out into the darkness, faster than it had ever been swung before, aided onward by the reflexive twitches of a coiling serpent, so much that not even a single blow came close to Lightning herself.

A duel of masters, of ancient power and serpentine speed, a dance of beasts, yet it was an almost playful display, for the laughing owl did indeed begin to chuckle in awe, before he struck down fiercely with both blades, finally inflicting the slightest blow on the sleek fabric that Lightning wore.

The pain faded with the next surge of adrenaline, and Lightning leapt away, circling back with Overture at the ready. Her boots felt almost weightless against the dusty yard, and her arms simply wove each strike into the next. She made a swift attempt at her opponent's shoulder, only to be struck away with that damnable blocking weapon, which was then ignored to deflect the smaller sword from lashing back at her neck. Lightning smiled despite the ragged exertion, and a snarling grin curled beneath the fabric of her mask, and she knew that her eyes were telling the very same story, flashing each time her sword connected with yet another strike.

Yet it was only when she finally managed to twist her blade and disarm that larger contraption, almost more of a shield than any true sword, only then did her opponent suddenly switch to engaging her head-on, strike after strike of his smaller, swifter blade, quick, harsh, merciless and yet familiar all the same. A true melee, the roaring fire of a midnight summer, the crescendo that rose up like a coiled beast, fangs and venom and muscles all ready to strike.

But how was it all still so weightless, Lightning wondered, how could they be trading blows like raging creatures, yet still feel akin to playful wolves? The bites and strikes just didn't matter, for only the purpose behind them held any meaning, to test and feel, to learn the strength of another, to see how they truly fought.

And fight they did, long into the late hours of the night, pausing only for breath and the occasional use of a charm, which did little to deter either of them from battling on.

Lightning swung her sword with each breath she took, striking and crashing against the steel of that rival blade, again and again, and then, when she was finally at the very height of ferocity, stepping in and running so swiftly to keep up with each swipe of their dance, only then did their blades sear against each other with such a deafening screech, almost as if the steel had a mind of its own. She barely even realized what had happened, that they were locked in a sudden, motionless parry, winded and utterly still.

And it was only then that her opponent laughed again, low and breathless, yet genuine all the same. "Call it a draw?"

Lightning stared deep into the outline of the owl mask, and she nodded. "A draw."

"Etro's _sake_ , he wasn't kidding..." Her opponent moved away to shake out his arms and shoulders, before he knelt down to retrieve his fallen weapon from the ground, sheathing it beside his sword. "Now we'll really see."

Lightning sheathed her own blade as well, and she almost thought that she was seeing things when her fellow hunter suddenly ran up towards a nearby wall, scaling it without a second thought, before he turned around to stare at her.

Even beneath such a motionless mask, it was a look that said 'follow, if you can', for the wall itself was made of bricks, and therefore had places to grab on and climb. Yet Lightning hesitated for only a moment, still a bit winded from the savage dance. She could see that her previous opponent was alone, for Tipur must have gone off somewhere else during their duel, and after a moment of silence, the masked figure slowly crouched down, waiting for Lightning to do something.

She almost wished that she had her gloves with the small hooks on the fingertips, just for their aid in making her way up that wall, but she had a feeling such things would be seen as an unfair advantage. Yes, it was a test like any other, to judge if she was nimble enough to keep hold of the bricks and climb, and with each agile step she took against the sheer vertical face, the figure leaned further and further away.

The masked leader almost seemed to be timing how long it took, but when Lightning soon made her way up to the rooftop, her companion merely rose to his feet and ran off down the tiles, before he leapt off onto the balcony of a lower building, and then climbed his way back towards the roof.

Lightning took a very deep breath. "More like a squirrel than an owl..." She exhaled, before she mimicked the swift run, then the powerful leap, only she propelled herself right off to the height of the next rooftop, landing on the flat of her boots.

If a masked figure could look impressed, his expression was just as clear as the moonlight. He even reached down to help Lightning stand upright again.

And they ran on, one figure after the other, roof to roof, across the glimmering midnight city, and Lightning swore that it must be the same way that birds could look down upon such places; she felt higher than she'd ever been able to reach on her own, as if on her own wings, racing and running alongside a brother, long lost kin, following him further and further over the city of light and shadow, until she suddenly recognized the outskirts of the Warren itself.

But her companion merely sat down, resting on the edge of a flat rooftop, and he gazed out over the slums that bordered the tall city walls, the space that led out towards the glimmering ocean waves. "What brings you to Luxerion?"

After a moment, Lightning sat down as well, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the roof. "Answers."

"And have you found them?" Her companion slowly tugged his mask away, revealing a rather youthful face, though he was an adult, just like her. "It's not always easy to get clear answers out of a place like this... No matter what kind."

Lightning stared out over the lights of the city, at the long canal that spanned the space between their rooftop and the Warren, and then at the dark ocean that stood further beyond. "Have I earned your name?"

"Noel." He set his mask down on his lap. "Yours?"

"Lightning." She kept her eyes upon the city below. "And no, I haven't found any answers yet."

"Makes me wonder what the questions could be." Noel stared at the silent slums of the Warren as well, yet they almost looked no different from any of the other buildings beneath the dark, a bit less luminescent, perhaps, but that was the price of rooftops made of clay and thatch instead of more decorative metals. "Do you have any questions for me?"

Lightning nodded. "What were your people doing in the Hall of Devotion?"

"I could ask you the very same thing." Noel tried not to frown, and he let his arms rest against his knees. "They've been pushing us for years, now... Small things at first, a shipment goes missing, a recruit gets a few of his teeth kicked in, nothing we can really prove, but it just got worse and _worse_."

Lightning reached up to take her pendant out from beneath the collar of her shirt, before she tugged her own cloth mask away. "I've had my share of transgressions from the Order."

"Then we have nothing to hide." Noel held up one of his arms to reveal the myriad of charms upon his wristband, inlaid within the dark leather, which was carved with many eyes that peered out from beside each silvery surface. "They hate us for _these_... Only problem is, I have no idea why."

Lightning gave him a wry smirk. "The 'boss' of hunters has no idea why they're all being hunted."

"Hey, I wasn't always the 'boss'." Noel smirked back at her. "'Shadow Hunter', that's the official name of it, but to be honest... I'm still pretty new at the whole thing."

"You don't fight like you're new." Lightning could still feel the rough aches and pains from such treatment, but she was sure that Noel was feeling quite the same. "You fight a lot better than most people I've encountered, I'll tell you that much."

"Thanks." Noel kept his voice low. "You're pretty damn good, yourself... But to answer your question, my people were down there because the Order finally crossed the line." He narrowed his eyes at the horizon. "I _am_ the boss of some things; we don't kill unless we have to, or initiate a fight... But they've forced my hand this time."

Lightning glanced back over her shoulder. "The statue of Etro's been covered up... Was the stunt that happened other day from your people?"

Noel nodded. "Can't say I don't play fair... It was a _warning_ , Lightning, that we aren't going to put up with that kind of thing, not for much longer."

Lightning looked back at the ocean. "That wasn't what forced your hand?"

Noel took a moment or two to respond. "No, it wasn't... And why were you down there? They told me you had a friend with you."

"A friend, yes." Lightning let her legs drift slowly beside the rooftop. "We were down there for answers, like I said; she wanted to know why Bhunivelze's people were targeting me, even if I didn't really care."

"You should care." Noel listened to the sound of distant crickets, and he slowly let his legs dangle over the roof as well. "There's something bad coming... I don't know exactly what it is, but I can feel it."

"My friend and I are going to leave the city once we find the answer to something else, or if we take too long trying to find it." Lightning reached up to tug her hood away, feeling the cold wind in her hair. "But it's nice to see hunters in a place like this."

Noel smiled. "Is your friend one of us?"

Lightning glanced away, before she shook her head. "No, but she's just as trustworthy."

"Good enough for me." Noel stretched out his arms, still trying to relax from the bout of dueling. "Mind if I ask what else you're looking for?"

Lightning watched the sky, gazing up at first tiny streaks of color on the eastern horizon, just the slightest hint of sunlight. "A friend of ours was branded a l'Cie, and she finished her focus a long time ago; we're trying to find a way to get her back out of crystal."

Noel frowned, lowering his arms back down to rest against his lap. "A l'Cie..."

Lightning stared out at the ocean for a long while, staying silent and still, and she only spoke when the sky grew red, and then pale again, softly glowing beside the rising run. "It's going to be a long time before I can rest again."

"I hear you..." Noel slowly stood up again, balancing against the edge of the roof. "See where that one cloud is? The long one, right over the walls." He pointed at it. "If you go to that part of the Warrens, I can try to help you however I can."

Lightning started to rise up as well. "I might just take you up on that."

"It was a brilliant spar." Noel held out his hand before she fully stood, offering her an upwards handshake, which was soon clasped beside the scarlet sunrise. "Best of luck, sister."

Lightning ended the gesture with a tiny smile. "Same to you."

And Noel was gone, disappearing somewhere towards the Warrens, while Lightning turned around to venture back to the inn, still traveling from rooftop to rooftop. Perhaps it was just the feeling of being so high up above the streets, with the wind in her face, rushing through her hair, just like the times when she would ride upon Fang's back; there was just something about the velocity that made her feel so free. Her pendant was hidden beneath her clothing again, but her face was open to the air, far above the eyes of the city, so she had no reason to slow down. Lightning ran, both nimble and fast, a lone beast who had stumbled across her own kind, had proven herself to them, who now returned to her own resting place, to the one who could make her heart beat even swifter.

It was rather simple to climb back down over one of the buildings, one with so many balconies and metal rails, and she merely let gravity do the rest, before she hurried on to get back inside the inn and up the stairs again, before she knocked on the door to have Fang unlock it for her.

A moment slipped by in silence.

"Fang?" Lightning slowly pressed her ear beside the door. "It's me, Fang."

It was only a brief moment later that a phenomenally sleepy Fang unlocked the door. When Lightning pushed it open, she could see the relief in those soft, yet drowsy eyes, before she was tugged inside the room by her wrist.

"Okay, so what happened out there?" Fang pushed the door shut with her foot. "Come on, spill the beans... We'd better lay down before I pass out."

Lightning followed after Fang, walking in a blur of movement and quiet sounds, and it was all she could do not to chuckle when Fang suddenly flopped down in the bed, dragging her right along in the motion so that they were both all tangled up there.

"Tell me what happened." Fang reached out to hold both sides of Lightning's face, cuddling up as close as she could. "You've got that triumphant look in your eyes..."

Lightning bit back a smile when Fang squeezed both of her cheeks, just gently, clearly quite grateful to see her safe again. "Picked a fight with the 'Shadow Hunter'."

Fang's eyes widened slightly. "That's just a local legend, Light."

Lightning paused, before she sat up a bit, resting above where Fang was laying flat on her back. "What do you mean?"

"Well, that is to say... I _think_ it's a legend?" Fang tried to find the right words. "There were always stories around the Warrens; sometimes I'd hang out there when Vanille was busy with things, and they always told the fables about the Shadow Hunter... But that was hundreds of years ago, maybe thousands."

Lightning leaned back down again. "This Shadow Hunter said he was new at the job."

Fang's eyes brightened slightly. "That'd explain it... To keep the legend going."

Lightning nodded. "And he said that he has no idea why the Order is targeting Etro... So we don't have to look for that answer, not if they don't have any clue about it."

"'They'." Fang moved even further onto the bed, coaxing Lightning along with her. "Who are 'they', exactly?"

Lightning shrugged. "A group of hunters, I know that much." She closed her eyes when Fang stroked each thumb across her cheekbones. "And they obviously know how to fight."

"So you got in a scuffle?" Fang leaned in to check Lightning's clothes for wounds, but she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Doesn't look like you got the sore end of it."

Lightning shook her head. "It was a duel, Fang... You try not to injure anyone in those." She slowly opened her eyes, and she almost smiled when Fang kissed her cheek. "At least in honorable combat... But in a real fight, rules don't exist."

Fang hummed under her breath. "And you made friends with this 'Shadow Hunter'?"

Lightning nodded. "I think so... He said we could find him again if we needed help."

"What sort of help?" Fang leaned back to rest against the pillows, slowly closing her eyes. "Is he trying to get to the bottom of this whole thing, too?"

"I think he is." Lightning moved over to rest on the bed as well, facing Fang, and she began to take off her heavier garments, down to her underclothes again. "He said that the Order was forcing his hand to retaliate, so if we help him out... We might just find our answer."

Fang rolled over on her side, and she leaned up to kiss Lightning's cheek again. "Sleep, first." She reached in to pull Lightning close, hugging and settling down once more. "How are you not exhausted from being out so late?"

Lightning bit back a yawn. "I am, it's just the adrenaline."

Fang ran her hands over Lightning's back, a slow massage, just to soothe and chase away the excitement of such a discovery, helping her begin to relax. Lightning almost wanted to hum at the nearby warmth, the feeling of Fang right beside her, that gentle way that she rubbed and squeezed, making each muscle unwind and go quite slack again. Fang murmured something under her breath, but by the time Lightning noticed it, she was already well on her way into sleep.

* * *

She dreamt of wandering through those foggy alleyways, watching out for any hint that they weren't alone, and whether it was a stray scent or a low noise off in the distance, she waited and listened before moving on again. A lycanthrope on the prowl, a hunter within the streets, yet she was only just as large as a big dog, and a rather feral-looking dog, at that.

Fang kept very close to her side, sniffing at the air, and it was only once she caught the scent of something sweet that she realized what Lightning was searching for.

Most of Cocoon had laws against donating leftover food to local charities or even homeless shelters, for if the donation were to make someone sick, or even worse, the legal ramifications would simply be too much to contend with. But that didn't stop most of the local bakeries and certain restaurants from 'forgetting' to toss out unsold food at the end of the day, where it was 'forgotten' in a nearby place, likely one that was known to have a high vagrant population, just waiting for someone to come along and take it.

And because it was so late in the night, and the pastries and bread already looked rather picked over, with only a few containers left, Lightning didn't even feel a shred of guilt when she snatched up a box in her teeth, swiftly carrying it away to a darker alley.

Fang did the same, grabbing a package of cupcakes that had errors in the frosting pattern, yet they would taste just as good as any other. She trotted on after Lightning, and they both soon settled down within a patch of crabgrass, the kind that grew out from cracks in the pavement, sheltered beneath a wide stretch of scaffolding.

"We lived off of food like this before I got the apartment." Lightning leaned in to tear the packaging apart with her teeth, digging down into the soft little pastries as if she hadn't eaten in days. "Unless we could catch things in the parks... Stuff like this was dinner."

Fang picked up one of the cupcakes and swallowed it whole, before she licked off the frosting from her muzzle. "Generous of them, isn't it?"

Lightning tore back a bit more of the packaging, holding it steady beneath her paws. "Better than throwing it in the garbage." She leaned in to grab another pastry, and she started to chew it down into pieces with those long, sharp teeth. "I found work wherever I could... Under the table, you know? I didn't have to give out my name that way, even a fake one, nothing they could track me with."

Fang's ears perked up at the sound of a distant train whistle. "You wouldn't need to work if you left with us."

Lightning bit down against another pastry. "They don't have food like this in Gran Pulse, and no grocery stores... Serah and I just can't hunt for squirrels every day without exhausting ourselves."

"Squirrels, Light?" Fang moved over to nudge at Lightning's neck with her nose. "A single elk could feed us all for _days_... Vanille and I can take down a weak one in less than a half hour."

Lightning kept very still for a while, even when Fang offered her a cupcake. "It's dangerous to cross the border... We'd be out in the open."

"Vanille and I made it, twice even." Fang moved to set the cupcake down on top of the pastries. "And you could, too."

Lightning didn't respond for a long moment, just resting there in the rain, content to sit in silence with an old friend. It seemed to fit just as well as when they were younger, speaking without words, sharing a meal within the shelter of such unused places, and when Lightning slowly started to eat again, she felt quite thankful that Fang hadn't kept pushing the topic of departure.

Indeed, Lightning might have described what Fang was doing as 'wolfing' down her food, seemingly grateful for every last scrap of energy that it would provide her. If they needed to dash away on a moment's notice, both the sugar and calories would be put to good use when they ran.

And before long, they did run, even if there was nothing chasing them. They ran on beneath the rain, following the instinctual urge to move together in a pack formation, one following the other, moving through the streets and roads and little junctions until they reached the dark patch of woods again, the one that led back to the apartment complex where Lightning lived.

"You think they noticed we left?" Fang soon peered out at the quiet little parking lot, sniffing to see if there was any scent that could indicate a nearby presence. "It's gonna be daylight, soon..."

Lightning slowly stepped back out from the undergrowth, making her way up towards the stairwell. "We were just taking a break." She looked over her shoulder when Fang followed after her, and they both hurried up to leap back through the unscreened window and into the living room, even though they were both rather drenched by the rain. "They're almost definitely still asleep."

Fang suddenly shook herself back and forth, ignoring the look from Lightning when she sent water droplets flying all around.

"This was... Reckless." Lightning soon shook herself out as well, before she slowly began to change forms, changing skin out of fluff, with much smaller ears, a receding set of teeth, and her jawline started to smooth itself out again, making a human from a wolf. "But it was fun."

"I think you needed a little downtime." Fang peered at Lightning as she had before, with no clothing between them, for the act of shapeshifting was rather hindered by such immobile fabrics. "You might want to put your shirt back on, though."

Lightning didn't even blush, she simply stood up to close the window and lock it down, before she waked over towards the couch to retrieve her nightshirt and flannel pants, tugging them on while Fang moved up beside her.

"I just want you to know..." Fang's voice was low and soft, and she still spoke in that lupine way, slowly changing back into her own human body. "Whatever you decide to do, I've got your back, Light."

Lightning sat down beside the couch, resting against the floor, watching the way that Fang knelt there without clothing, shadowed by the light of the rainy window.

"Just like old times." Fang slowly leaned back against the bed of blankets, and she smiled, just a faint ghost in the darkness, yet it was still just as warm as her words. "We should stick together now... You hear me?"

Lightning just sat there for a while, thinking over the entire scope of such possibilities, of how Serah always spoke of school, of learning and teaching and growing in the ways of the mind. How could she possibly do that out in the middle of nowhere, in a place with only a few scattered settlements?

"Don't think too hard about it, at least not this late..." Fang yawned and settled herself down, fully human again, yet Lightning could almost imagine a long, fluffy tail wagging there against the blankets. "I know, they don't have cupcakes in Gran Pulse."

Lightning tried not to smirk. "Sounds like a deal breaker to me."

Fang just grunted quietly, closing her eyes. "So, what... If I bring you some cupcakes, then I can hang around here without getting chased off?"

Lightning leaned forward, and she gently tapped at Fang's shoulder. "I'm not going to chase you off."

Those words brought forth a rather toothy smile, yet Fang still didn't open her eyes. "But the cupcakes would help, right?" She fell silent when Lightning suddenly kissed her forehead. "...I've really been missing stuff like that."

Lightning lowered her voice. "Cupcakes or kisses?"

"Would I be in trouble if I said both?" Fang smirked when she felt Lightning swat the side of her head, just a gentle touch. "We had a really good thing going, you know."

Lightning took a moment just to listen to a soft sound in one of the other rooms, likely one of their younger companions. "We did."

"So..." Fang slowly opened her eyes. "You seeing anyone?"

Lightning just sighed, before she let herself lean down against the blankets, abandoning the couch in favor of being closer to Fang. "No, hardly any other lycans in the area."

"Does it have to be one of us?" Fang smiled at the warmth at her side, and she carefully wrapped her arm around to let Lightning rest her head against it. "Like you said, it's not like we aren't human."

"I don't want anyone else, Fang." Lightning slowly reached out to hold Fang's hand. "If you hadn't shown up today... There's no one else."

"Can't say I'm not relieved." Fang soon tugged one of the blankets over herself, just in case one of their fellow apartment dwellers decided to take that moment to wake up and enter the living room. "It's been too long, Light... I really missed you."

Lightning settled in beneath the blanket, close and warm and utterly safe, even within a world that seemed so intent on having her slain, even with the bills she had yet to pay for, all of the walls that still needed painting, even the fact that her job was setting down so much strain upon her shoulders, physical and mental alike, in that moment, laying next to an old friend, it felt like she could finally start to breathe. "Welcome back, Fang."

* * *

They were both quick to start the next day with just a small breakfast of crackers, before Lightning led the way off into the city streets, careful to keep out of sight from anyone who bore the mark of Bhunivelze.

"So... It was a trial by combat?" Fang kept her voice low. "Strange way of making friends."

Lightning shrugged. "That's how we met, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah." Fang glanced at a nearby patrol of soldiers, but they seemed to take no notice of either herself or Lightning. "But this was different, wasn't it? You talk by fighting... You have to earn names, you said."

Lightning nodded. "Most of the time, yeah... Names are important."

They walked on in silence for a while, traveling further and further towards the Warren. There was something in the wind that day, the scent of the ocean, perhaps, or maybe the sense of something new. It wasn't long before Lightning found her way down into the dusty streets, and she ventured on towards the point that Noel had indicated, which was actually a rather bustling, raucous sort of district, if she was to perfectly honest with herself.

There were street stalls, vendors of exotic goods, some of which Lightning thought were likely counterfeit items or other such illegal things, yet she knew better than to voice that observation. Black market deals didn't usually take place in an actual market, but some of the more hollow items for sale, they could easily have such things stored away inside, and with what looked like no guardsmen to oversee the area, transactions were smooth and simple.

Lightning kept watch of the road ahead, careful not to brush against anyone who might be a pickpocket. It was only after a few minutes of walking that she finally caught wind of what she was searching for; a scent itself, strong, yet subtle, one that she followed down through a nearby alleyway until she came upon a iron-wrought gaze, guarded by none other than a certain individual in white robes.

The young girl was just sitting there, twirling a dagger between her fingertips, but when she looked up at Lightning's mask, her eyes widened slightly. "Oh... Didn't think you'd be over so soon."

Lightning glanced back at Fang. "Are we here at a bad time?"

"No, just a little unexpected." The young girl suddenly smiled, before she sheathed her dagger against her belt. "Be right back."

Fang shared a glance with Lightning, though neither of them spoke until the girl was out of earshot.

"Friendly, aren't they?" Fang reached up to smooth out her hair. "With the greeting we got yesterday, I almost expected to get roughed up again..."

"Don't count that out." Lightning looked down at her own sword. "I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, like you asked, but there could always be conditions we don't know about."

Fang nodded, and she tried not to yawn against the early morning air. "Smells like the sea here, doesn't it?"

"We're right next to the ocean walls." Lightning tried to glance inside the pathway, the place that stood beyond the iron gates, but she could only see the edge of a rather flourishing garden, and not much else but that. "This explains why they have such nice incense..."

Fang sniffed at the air again. "Flowers, huh?"

"Yeah." Lightning leaned back when a second robed figure began to return with the young girl, who she recognized as Tipur, only he didn't have his mask on.

Fang soon leaned back as well, slowly flexing her fingertips, which still had a few bandages from the previous day's worth of scuffling.

Tipur began to approach the front gate. "Eager to see us again, are you..?"

Lightning watched the way that Tipur smirked at her, and she slowly began to smirk back. "Eager to find some answers."

"Alright kiddo." Tipur nodded at the young girl. "Let them in, introduce yourself, and I'll let the boss know." He waved at them all as he strode back off towards the gardens, leisurely walking away.

"Hi." The young girl reached up to unlock the gate. "I'm Sibyl."

"Sibyl, huh?" Fang smiled as she followed after Lightning, moving out into the front walkway of the courtyard. "I'm Fang."

Lightning took a moment to glance around at the gardens, and at the small, winged statue that stood guard within the center of the courtyard. "Lightning."

"Lightning and Fang." Sibyl strolled on along the brickwork path, idly glancing around at the people who were resting beneath the shade, where nearly all of them wore the same white and gray robes. "Almost everyone's been talking about the 'half-mask'... We don't see a lot of sisters or brothers around, not from far away."

Lightning followed after Sibyl, and they walked up beside the main building of the wide, yet walled in area, yet she could see several ladders and wooden stairwells that led up along the mighty stone barricades, which stood quite high within the ocean air. "Is there something behind that kind of nickname?"

Sibyl smirked to herself. "Well... Let's just say most people think you're really brave for letting them see your eyes." She kept walking down the front path, past the low clay buildings, over towards an open area that held several small dugouts, likely used as fighting arenas, and off in the distance, there was a stable with a small paddock beside it, and beyond that, a rather narrow tower looked out across the sea. "Most people don't even see me when I listen in; I'm just a kid to them, not even a hunter, yet."

Fang whistled at the sight of a nearby duel. "How's the hunting out here?"

"Well, I wouldn't know, but..." Sibyl paused to sit down on a small bench near the outdoor arena, which was mostly a roped-in area with a low, sloped floor, and then a shallow stairway that led back up towards the ground level. "There's been talk today about a manticore sighting near Poltae."

"Poltae?" Fang sat down as well. "Where's that?"

"I've never been there." Sibyl grinned when the duelers suddenly clashed swords. "But it's out in the Wildlands, somewhere."

Lightning watched the melee from where she was standing, examining the way each fighter seemed to practice a different art of combat; one would employ quick, savage strikes without much flourish, while the other deflected each blow with both utter grace and power. She kept observing them, those sudden slashes and keening sounds of steel against steel, but it wasn't very long before a quiet set of footsteps approached from behind.

"Didn't expect to see you here so soon." Noel stood there without his mask, but wore the same mighty robes as the previous night. "Is this your friend?"

Fang stood up from the bench, and she nodded. "Nice place you've got here."

"Thanks." Noel offered a brief handshake to Fang, which she accepted immediately. "It's not really 'my' place, though... Everyone who stands beneath Etro's arms is welcome here."

Lightning almost thought to take her pendant out from beneath the collar of her shirt, but she quickly thought better of the gesture. "I wanted to ask if you've got any plans for finding those answers."

Noel took a moment to watch the duel below, and he took in a very deep breath, before he spoke a bit softer than before. "We've got some things in the works... Big things, things that will take every capable hand we have just to pull off... And if you'd be willing to lend us some help, I'd be willing to share everything I can find out about the Order with you."

Lightning nodded to herself, pausing to watch the duel as well. "No hard feelings with anyone about the... Incident?"

Noel shook his head. "Tipur was leading that group, and it fell to him to judge friend from foe... He's a true hunter, just a bit overzealous. He apologized, like I asked?"

Lightning nodded again. "I wouldn't have gone looking for you if he hadn't."

"Then we should have no bad blood between us." Noel watched the way that Sybil roamed over towards the other side of the arena, and he almost smiled at the childlike wonder in her eyes. "What happened yesterday, that's not the sort of face we like to show off to the world... But it's necessary when something gets stolen."

"Stolen?" Fang glanced at how Noel was still watching the swordsmen duel. "Something literal, or are we talking.. More abstract?"

Noel kept quiet for a very long moment, and he only spoke again once the final blow fell, a victor chosen from the pair by sheer strength. "Funny, I can hardly tell the difference anymore..." He turned away, facing the mighty wall that stood before the sea. "There's been an erratic monster sighting near our sister village; I need to ride there before noon, but after that, I can fill the two of you in on what we've been planning."

Lightning spoke up. "The girl mentioned a place called 'Poltae'."

"That's the one." Noel started off down one of the brick pathways, and he gestured for both of them to follow. "Looking for some action? I'd be more than happy to see how a fellow hunter operates in the field."

Fang glanced down at the dagger on her belt. She knew such a venture would likely earn even more mutual trust for the both of them, and even if it was yet another detour, perhaps the hunters of Etro might have some experience with l'Cie. "Is that an invitation for Light, or for both of us?"

Noel shrugged. "Depends on if you can hold your own in a fight."

"Yeah." Fang began to follow after Noel and Lightning, walking on down the dusty brick path, past the empty paddock, but several moments passed before she spoke again. "Just as long as you don't mind fire magic."

Noel paused near the door of the stables. "A mage, then? That's pretty rare."

Fang smirked a bit. "Not your average mage, but yeah... I can hold my own."

"The more the merrier, then." Noel stepped back when none other than Tipur came walking out from the stable with a draft horse in his care, a big fuzzy beast that seemed more suited to pulling massive weights than moving with speed. "Hey, Tipur, how many do we have?"

"Counting in the two of us, boss, four, unless we've got company, here..." Tipur moved to tie the horse's lead against a nearby post. "Then we'd have six."

Noel nodded. "Perfect number for a manticore, especially an erratic one." He led the way into the stables. "The two of you know how to ride, right?"

Fang glanced around at all of the narrow faces peering out from within their stalls, horses who seemed more fearsome than any she'd ever seen before. "Lightning does..."

"We'll ride together, Fang." Lightning moved further into the stable, admiring the quality of the entire structure, clearly crafted with great care. "Unless you'd rather run behind us?"

Noel bit back a laugh from where he was readying a saddle.

Fang narrowed her eyes at Lightning. "Yeah, but then I'd outrun you." She stepped forward as gracefully as she could muster, and she ignored the sharp snort that she received from one of the horses. "I'd outrun anything in this place..."

Lightning knew those words could very well be true, but she kept up the conversation only in jest, strolling around to look at all of the different beasts, from destriers to thoroughbreds, even a few stocky draft horses, yet there was only one who caught her eye. "Who's this one? I doubt much could outrun him."

Noel lifted up one of the saddles. "That's Sargatanas... Or Sarga, for short." He stepped over towards a stall that had one of the larger horses inside, a chestnut mare, and he made his way inside to ready the steed for travel. "But I wouldn't take Sarga unless you're _really_ sure you can handle him."

Lightning stepped up beside the stall, ignoring the low snorts and breathy sounds that Sarga began to puff at her; he was a tall stallion, dark as the blackest of night skies, and just as sleek as any arrowhead. "Easy, now..." She held her ground, even when a certain hind hoof kicked heavily against the side of the stall, and even when Sarga's nostrils flared at her scent, at an unfamiliar presence. "Rowdy one, isn't he?"

"He's named after a demon for a reason, Lightning..." Noel soon led out his own horse by the halter, before he handed it off to one of the young stablehands. "Really, I'd go for someone less intense."

But Lightning just began to narrow her eyes in the face of yet another challenge, at a horse who truly thought she could be scared off by just a few simple kicks and whinnies. No, she was far more stubborn than any mule, or any horse, for that matter, and after a long moment of silence, with just the smallest smile she could muster, she leaned off to the side. "Call me Light."

* * *

There was a stone tunnel that led out through the city walls, guarded by even more figures in pale robes, but their traveling procession was allowed to cross the gate without even a word, and Noel soon led the way forward upon his steed, trotting on down through the sand.

Fang tried not to frown at the way she was roughly jostled back and forth with each and every step the horse took, for she was riding right behind Lightning on the saddle. " _You_ had to pick the rowdy one, didn't you?"

Lightning just tugged at the reins, leading Sarga on down across the beachfront, in close pursuit of Noel's mare. "I always do, don't I?"

Tipur let out a loud laugh from where he was riding beside them, along with a small number of other hunters, a young pair, likely no older than their late teens.

"Problem is, Light, _I'm_ not a horse..." Fang winced again when Sarga chose that very moment to do a quick little leap, bouncing on over a tall drift in the sand. "Is it too late for me to walk?"

Lightning briefly glared over her shoulder at Fang. "Yes."

Fang sighed, and she started to hug around Lightning's stomach just to keep a tighter hold. "How long until we get there?"

Noel looked out over the distant ocean spray, off towards the lush forest that waited beyond the sandy fields. "About half an hour."

Fang tried not to grimace, before she buried her face down against Lightning's hair.

But Lightning just kept riding the feisty horse as he trotted on down across beach, testing the way that he responded to each flick of the reins and subtle press of her boots, and while it seemed that he was truly a restless creature, he knew to obey a direct command.

And when they finally approached a dirt path that led into the woods, Lightning watched the way Noel urged his horse into a run, before she did the exact same with Sarga. Fang just mumbled against Lightning's neck, clearly unaccustomed to being on the opposite end of such a rough ride, but Lightning still didn't react to such sounds. She had a trail to follow, her strength to prove, and it was the first time she'd been able to ride on horseback in what felt like many weeks.

It had been far, _far_ too long.

They galloped into the shadowed pathway, beneath the tall trees and vines that coiled like so many hidden serpents, and Lightning tried to bite back a smile at the way Sarga grew much more accustomed to obeying detailed commands, where to jump over a fallen branch, for example, or to keep just close enough to Noel and the other riders. Such a spirited beast, a horse of speed and agility, exactly why she'd chosen him in the first place; while he wasn't quite as fast as Odin, nor as friendly, Lightning knew that they'd have little trouble facing down a manticore if the terrain could accommodate horseback combat.

They rode for about twenty minutes before Noel called out, reining his horse back down to a trot again. "Nearly there."

Fang moved her face away from Lightning's neck. "Thank the gods."

Lightning slowed Sarga down to a trot as well. "I thought you didn't care much for the gods?"

Fang mumbled something again, before she tightened her arms around Lightning's waist. "Not when it feels like I'm about to lose my breakfast..."

Tipur rode up beside them. "Saddle sore, are you?"

Fang sighed, and she leaned back, balancing herself beside Lightning. "Maybe."

Lightning smiled to herself. "First time riding..."

Fang slowly stretched out her arms, careful not to scratch them against the low branches of the forest. "It's not that bad, honestly... Just unusual." She paused when she caught sight of a more open area, of wide fields and scattered farmland, and off in the distance, tall, rocky crags, the territory that bordered the wide mountain range. "This is Poltae, is it?"

Noel urged his horse into a faster pace, just a brisk little canter. "Soon, we're almost there."

Lightning followed suit with Sarga. "You think the people here will know where it was sighted?"

Noel nodded. "They're hunters, just like us... And as much as I'd rather keep planning on where to hit the Order where it hurts, we can't just leave our own to deal with this alone." He picked up the pace again, approaching the small town that stood between the crags, a settlement carved right into the towering rock. "They'll be tracking it down as we speak."

Lightning felt her eyes widen at the sheer size of the village, and at the wide number of people working out the fields, or even in the shade of the streets; could they all truly be loyal to Etro? She herself had met less than a dozen other hunters in her life, and the sudden amount of people who looked up at the riders as though they were kin, there were simply too many faces to count.

Noel led his horse down the main pathway of the little town, and it was only when someone called out to him that he stopped. "Are we late?"

A man in red robes, with a rough, yet scholarly voice, he soon stepped up beside Noel's horse. "No, but you had best hurry on towards the temple... Last I heard, they nearly had the beast cornered in one of the canyons." He drew his hood back to look Noel in the eye, stern and almost authoritative. "That place... The relics alone are worth more than a hundred manticore hides, so I must plead with you to take utmost _caution_."

Noel nodded. "Don't worry, Professor... We'll drive it out of there if we can, and even if it won't budge, I'll make sure the structural damage is minimal."

"Good, good..." The professor slowly leaned away, and he gave the rest of the riders a small nod, before he stepped back to let them through. "Ride swiftly, Shadow Hunter."

Lightning couldn't help but catch the way that Noel tried not to wince at such a title.

They rode on into the daylight, beneath the towering crags and long pillars of dusty stone, through the canyons that led on towards the mountainside, yet it seemed that there would be some time yet before they arrived.

Fang spoke up after a while, still holding on against Lightning's waist. "What sort of professor was that?"

Noel glanced back over his shoulder. "Professor Lathom, he's been helping us unearth the temple in the canyonside for years, now... He's not a pact member, at least not that I know of, but he's just as trustworthy as anyone else."

Lightning started to explain what Noel meant by trustworthy. "When you take on the pact, Fang, it means that Etro's been able to see right into your soul and find you worthy... So whenever you use a charm, other hunters know that they can trust you, because Etro already does."

"Exactly, a code between us all." Tipur spoke up from behind, waving for their two other companions to keep up. "A code of hunters and shields, swords and blood... All within the goddess's grace, of course; there's no use going to war without a true cause."

"Is it really a war, Tipur?" Noel almost sounded as if he was suddenly on the verge of exhaustion. "Will it be war? We don't have the numbers for a war."

"Maybe a short war, boss... But you just know as well as I do that we've got to see this come to an end." Tipur lowered his voice. "He _saw_ something in you, Noel, something even more than what we all see... You'll take us places in due time, I'm sure of it."

"I just hope you're right." Noel turned his horse down onto a narrower path, leading the way through the winding canyon walls. "Nearly there, now."

Lightning spoke up again. "What sort of temple is this?"

Tipur answered her. "An ancient one, kiddo." He quickly found his smile again. "The entrance is down at the very bottom of the cliffs, but it stretches all the way back up to the top, from what we've seen."

Noel cleared his throat. "It's one of the temples of our forefathers... A shrine to the goddess of death, and if you believe in the old stories, it was a place where Etro herself once walked among mortals, guiding them against the plague of monsters."

Fang began to rest her chin on Lightning's shoulder again.

Tipur called out. "Against the dragons, you mean."

"Well, they were definitely included..." Noel didn't seem the type to fidget, but Lightning caught that same look again, almost a reflexive wince. "But it was more against the sudden swell of monster population."

"Glad I wasn't around for it." Tipur narrowed his eyes when one of the younger hunters bit back a laugh. "I'm not _that_ old, kid!"

"Anyway..." Noel pulled his horse to a stop near the edge of a high embankment, a steep, dusty hill that led all the way down towards what looked like a wide stretch of rocky ground, and then off in the distance, a small, marble building, half-covered in solid stone. "Here we are."

Lightning led Sarga to a slow halt as well, and she peered out over the canyonside, down towards the small temple entrance, but as she examined it further, she realized it did indeed stretch out over the flat face of the rock, up towards the sky, almost higher than she could see. It simply blended in with the rock, as if someone had merely let the earth grow up over it and become hidden there for thousands of years.

"Interesting..." Fang leaned in to stare at the unusual architecture. "So there's a manticore in there? Close quarters, not the best place to fight it off."

Noel nodded. "We'll might have to lure it out, but our friends from Poltae are probably already inside... We should find them and hear whatever plans they might have."

And then they were off again, riding on down the canyon path and into the wide stretch of earth that stood before the temple, and by the time they approached the entrance itself, Fang suddenly called for a halt.

"Look, if this thing manages to get the jump on us, I'd just rather be prepared." Fang tried to dismount from the saddle, and while it wasn't her most graceful maneuver, she managed to land on both of her feet. "The ponies won't get spooked by a little fire, are they?"

" _Horses_." Noel swung down from his saddle as well, and he signaled for the rest of their motley little group to do the same. "Not by simple fire, but by magic? Possibly."

Fang walked a good distance away, beside the marble pillars that led inside the temple, and she slowly began to weave a small spiral of flame between her hands, gradually crafting it out into the lance she had once wielded against a pack of dire wolves, yet that had been with much less deadly intent.

Lightning led Sarga over towards where her fellow hunters were ordering their horses to stay still, but when she looked back at Fang, she felt a sudden flicker of pride in her heart. She watched the way the fire danced, twisting and turning within the hands of a 'mage', off into a beautiful spear of pure flame.

"Nice." Noel tugged his hood down while he made his way up towards the marble steps, glancing at Fang's weapon as he did so. "It's not often you see mages who look just as deadly as their magic."

Fang quirked an eyebrow at that, and she almost smirked, slowly twirling her spear around with both hands. "Just wait until you see me up against that manticore..."

Lightning just rolled her eyes, but she followed after the rest of them, down into the darkness of the temple halls, though the way forward was well-illuminated by both Fang's spear and the torch that one of the younger hunters lit, using a bit of chemical ignition to bring the flames to life.

The ceiling stood so far above them, and every little sound echoed against the lofty walls, no matter how quiet it was. Lightning almost began to feel the same way she'd felt when she detached herself back in the northern lands, in the presence of a mighty giant, yet the stone she walked upon, it was just as silent as the canyon floors.

Noel pulled one of his gloves off to whistle very quietly between his fingertips, before he motioned for everyone to stay still. He listened to the silence, waiting for any hint of an answering call.

A few moments slipped by, before a similar sort of whistle echoed out into the shadowed halls, a flickering sound, both low and very deliberate.

Noel nodded to himself, before he began to explain the meaning behind it. "They're waiting for us."

Tipur unsheathed his weapons, one of which was more of a jagged sickle than any form of traditional blade, though he also wielded a flat armament, a very large sort of dagger with what looked like metal saws at the end, almost a shortsword. "...Then let's not let them get a head start on us."

The sound of even more blades echoed out, of Lightning's own sword, and the weapons of each of the younger hunters, and then Noel himself brought forth his dual weapons, a simpler sword and that strange contraption of twisted metal lines.

"Just don't get hasty." Noel kept his voice down, arms at the ready. "Manticores are nothing to sneeze at."

Lightning almost thought back to the time when Odin had been stung by such a terrible, scorpionlike tail, but she kept her mind focused on the task at hand; even if Noel already trusted her from a trial of combat and by her charms, her worth as a hunter had yet to be seen. Perhaps it was unfair, she realized with just a hint of guilt, to be taking such time away from her original mission, but if made Fang feel better to learn as much information as they could, Lightning could think of no better way to befriend such a formidable group of hunters than to actually go _hunting_ with them.

Yet when the floor almost began to shake beneath the weight of something utterly massive, something that awaited off in the distance, and when the air began to reek of both sour breath and pungent decay, Lightning knew that they were all in for a whole other ordeal entirely.

* * *

It was far above the cliffs of the vestige that Bhakti stood alone, gazing out over the snowy mountainside for what felt like the hundredth time.

"If only I could fly as you can..." Bhakti tried not to curl up on himself, for even a magical construct could feel loneliness at times, especially when both of his caretakers were so very far out of reach. "Am I truly like the fal'Cie? Without wings?"

He watched the falling snow, silent and still. The winter winds were far stronger in such a high place, so open in the air, but he had little to worry from the chill.

"All that I have gathered about the fal'Cie suggests that they live without souls." Bhakti shivered, despite not feeling chilly. "But you created me in a different way, didn't you?"

He could hear no answers in the silence, or even on the wind, so Bhakti slowly retreated into the vestige, clambering over the jagged rocks. "It was a soul... Just a sliver of a soul, wasn't it?" He crept back down into the darkness, across the glowing crystals and the twisted, melted metals, long hardened by the cold. "The fal'Cie have no souls, but if my findings are correct, they can indeed feel emotion... But could that be what drives them to create a focus?" Bhakti crawled even further into the walls of the vestige. "Perhaps I have yet to find the reason."

* * *

"Etro's _sake_..." Noel kept his voice as low as he possibly could. "What the hell is _that_ doing here?"

Down below, within a much larger chamber of the temple, there slept a beast with the body of a massive red lion, bulkier than even the largest of their draft horses, with a mane of black, the lanky tail of a scorpion, and then, upon the height of one of its shoulders...

Fang narrowed her eyes with a soft, silent hiss. "A l'Cie..."

Noel tightened his grip on both of his weapons. "A _beast_ l'Cie? Think it could've swam out here from wherever a fal'Cie was hiding?"

Lightning tried not to glance at Fang. "...But why make a monster into a l'Cie? If it can't understand what focus it was given-"

"The fal'Cie aren't _logical_." Fang almost let her voice grow sharper, but she steeled herself, quietly walking on, following the way they all crept throughout the temple ruins. "They're just twisted, soulless monsters with no sense of wrong and right."

Tipur spoke up in a whisper. "You know about them, then?"

Fang tried not to sigh. "More than I'd like to..."

"Listen, whatever the case-" Noel paused to signal at the group of Poltae hunters who were waiting on the opposite ledge. "We have to kill this thing fast and clean; I think luring it out like this would only lose us the lure... A l'Cie, it could go Cie'th at any moment."

Lightning spoke up. "It probably won't behave naturally in this state."

"Right..." Noel crouched beside the edge of the temple platform, staring down at the sleeping manticore. "Fast and clean, anyone have any ideas?"

Lightning pointed at the massive scorpion tail. "Sever it first... The venom might not kill as quickly as those claws, but I've had to deal with the recovery time before, almost lost my horse from it." She leaned in slightly, reaching down for one of her charms. "You trust me, Noel? I'll get that tail off as fast as I can... Just wait until I'm visible again, or as soon as I manage to strike it."

Noel narrowed his eyes at her. "'Visible'?" Those same eyes went very wide when Lightning disappeared into a translucent form. "Sheesh... Don't make me jealous, Light."

Lightning slipped down over the edge within mere seconds, and she landed on both feet against a lower ledge, holding Overture at the ready.

Noel signaled for the opposite group to wait. He watched the way that the dust scattered slightly beneath Lightning's boots, which let him track her descent into the temple, before she suddenly leaped again. She dropped without a sound, sword held high and ready to strike down upon that massive tail, falling through the musty air and off towards the ground below, before a sharp, sickening crunch echoed out into the halls.

The beast woke with a guttural, bellowing howl, tail half-severed and bleeding, and that mark upon its shoulder began to shine so brightly, the jagged mark of a l'Cie, a bestial l'Cie, before it was met with the end of Noel's sword.

Fang called out as she jumped off into the darkness, spear aloft and soaring down to meet with the beast below, and she felt the impact of her feet upon that fuzzy hide of red, forcing her lance down within the glowing shoulder of the beast.

The dead silence gave way to that first ragged howl, of a lion enraged, swiping out and thrashing about within the hollow earth, while the rest of the hunters leapt down like swift, swooping birds, and only then did the true battle begin.

Lightning, still translucent, she almost cursed the way her sword hadn't fully severed the tail, but she ran for it again, heart hammering with every leap she took, until she was close enough to jump up and swipe at the scorpion's carapace. "Fang! A little help?!"

But Fang was gripping at the back of the manticore, tossed around and thrashed within the air, but she kept holding on to her spear, focusing on the clamor and strikes of their fellow hunters. "Help with what?!"

"The tail!" Lightning rolled aside to avoid a kick from the hind legs, before she leapt up again and swiped out at the wound she'd already inflicted. "The _tail_ , Fang!"

Fang roared and thrust one of her hands behind her, and a gout of mighty flame came rushing off into the darkness, illuminating the massive halls of the temple, and the sheer brilliance of the heat began to burn away the last few ligaments that kept the scorpion tail intact, before it fell to the ground with a dull, muffled thump.

Lightning almost smiled, and she turned back to join the fray, dodging swipes of those mighty claws and slashing out with her own steel, yet she found herself drawn to that certain mark beside Fang's spear, the burning brand of a l'Cie. In hindsight, she knew it wasn't unusual to see that it looked like an eye, a reddened iris with a single white pupil, such a painful sight to even look upon.

A shout drew her back to the present, for one of the Poltae hunters had suffered a savage bite from those massive jaws, and he was retreating to bind up the wound, while Noel took the very forefront of the battle, dodging those teeth and baiting the beast while his fellow slayers kept hacking away.

Fang tried to yank her spear out from the shoulder so she could thrust it down again, but it was rather steadfastly locked inside the muscles and bone, so with a huff, she moved to grip at the mane itself, still balancing upon the back of an enraged beast, no easy task for those without fiery claws of her own. How easy it was for them all to assume of her a simple mage, a human of mere magic fire and a few arcane tricks, but the flames that burst from her fingertips and sank so deeply within the red lion's flesh and upper spinal column, they were anything but human.

Lightning swiped at one of those massive paws, blooding her sword within the thick black liquid of such a beast, a slow, inky substance that dripped like tar, likely a defense mechanism to keep such injuries clotted up.

Noel blocked a savage bite with his shieldlike blade, before he struck out at the manticore's nose with his smaller sword, making it bleed like it had never bled before.

Tipur called out to Fang. "You doing okay up there?!" He ducked beneath a swipe of one of those paws, and he rolled off to the side to strike deep into the belly of the beast. "One hell of a mage, aren't you?!"

Fang almost hissed when the manticore suddenly reared up, for it was trying to escape the pain of being slashed at from underneath, and she was taken along for just a moment, before she finally decided to let go.

Lightning rushed in to cut at one of the tendons upon the beast's hind leg, rendering it rather limp and useless, and it was only moments before the mightily rearing lion lost his balance, and with a dull, blooded thud, he fell motionless upon the temple grounds.

Noel took a moment just to catch his breath, for he was almost utterly covered in that thick black blood. "Don't relax just yet..." He took a slow step forward, gently prodding at the beast's nose, testing for any hints of breath that still remained. "Check the brand."

Tipur hurried over to examine the reddened welt, still with the tiny white pupil, and he slowly shook his head. "Still there... Still a l'Cie."

Fang looked up at where her spear was still lodged right beside the brand, deep within the beast's shoulder. "Do you guys know more about l'Cie than we do?"

"Depends on what you know." Noel took a moment to nod at the Poltae hunters, who began to kneel down and speak the traditional words of Etro's message. "We've had a few run-ins with refugees who thought they could take on a fal'Cie... They always turned, and never into solid crystal."

Lightning slowly shook off a bit of the blood from her sword. "And what does it mean if the brand is still there?"

Noel paused, before his eyes gradually widened at the way the mark was glowing. "We might just find out..."

A sharp call for retreat, yet Fang could scarcely hear it, for she was suddenly staring into the eyes of a jagged, crystalline creature, but it wasn't in a solid state, no, it was a Cie'th who rose up once more from deep within the ashes and dust, massive, blooded and plodding, yet still so utterly powerful.

"Fang!"

She could hardly even feel the hand gripping down on her shoulder, for she was gazing upon the fate that Vanille could have once found, a bestial Cie'th, a creature of petrified flesh and sharp, jagged crystal, rather unlike the endless slumber of a focus rendered complete.

Fang was suddenly dragged away, shook back to her senses, and only then did she catch sight of the way Lightning was glaring at her, still guiding her further and further away from the temple, all while the sound of crashing and trembling earth grew to such deafening heights.

It was the sudden brightness of the sun that caught her off guard, but Fang just kept following Lightning out into the light of day, where their fellows were already either mounting up upon their horses or preparing an outdoor counterattack for the Cie'th, a rallying force that they were likely quite welcome to join.

Lightning swung herself up onto Sarga's back, reaching out to help haul Fang towards the saddle as well, and with a shout and a slight kick of her heels, the massive horse broke off into a run, circling around the wide open canyon in order to face the beast headlong.

And there it was, far faster than any stone creature had a right to be, a lion of ragged crystal and burning eyes, of rocky hide and claws that shone so brightly beneath the sun, given new life by the cursed brand. The mark itself almost looked to have doubled in size, for it had curled and twisted itself all around the fiery spear that still remained lodged within that fractured shoulder.

Lightning readied her bow, abandoning Sarga's reins in favor of keeping her hands steady, and she reached for the drawstring quiver upon her belt, before she loosed a single shot off into the raging beast. Noel was riding forth as well, and he slashed out with his blade in an attempt to strike the brand, but the manticore reared up again, far out of reach, just barely missing a strike at the back flank of that chestnut steed.

"Damn it..!" Tipur struck down with his short sword, cracking away just a small bit of the crystal, for it had yet to fully harden from the recent transformation into a Cie'th. "Get the brand!"

Noel reined his horse back around, weapons at the ready, and yet another arrow from Lightning struck down into the hide of the beast, fracturing that stony hide to the point where a sword could reliably strike against it. "Keep that up, Lightning!"

Lightning shouted for Fang to steer Sarga while she kept firing off even more arrows, but the horse himself seemed rather keen on running steadily, for he had likely carried riders who practiced archery before.

The Poltae hunters had all traveled there without steeds, but they also carried bows, which they retreated slightly to fire off in great volleys of whistling, barbed arrows, enough to crack away most of the outer crystal hide.

One of the younger riders, he leaned in to swipe at the manticore's shoulder while his horse ran past, but an ill-timed crash of crystal and jutted stone sent him reeling to the ground, while his horse screeched and toppled away, deeply gored by the hooklike claws and silenced by that massive, gaping maw. Noel reined in his own steed again, leaning down as far as he could to drag the younger hunter away from the manticore's reach, but one of those sharp claws caught his own arm, drawing out a sharp line of liquid scarlet into the air.

Tipur almost seemed to roar in retaliation, and he sent his own horse into a charge, before he struck down into the very gaze of the beast, the furious eyes, bright and terrible and utterly bleeding, above the snarling, dripping maw of horse blood and so many jagged teeth.

Lightning felt as though the entire world around her was going slower and slower, arrow after arrow sent out with little to show for her strength but mere fractures, just cracks within the cloudy crystal. And in that moment, with Noel hauling the young hunter off to safety and Tipur engaged in such savage strikes to those eyes, effectively blinding the beast, she knew what she had to do.

The charm at her neck, it held such power, took such a toll upon her body, and even if she would be exhausted after the fact, there was only one thing to do. She suddenly felt Fang's arms tighten around her waist, a warm embrace, just enough comfort to assure her without words, to silently say that she'd be well taken care of, carried away from the danger if she were to collapse from the sheer effort alone.

And with that, Lightning pressed her fingertips down against the silver charm.

It was a bond of blood, a pact of the hunter and the beast, of mere mortals and the distant goddess of death. An undying Cie'th, it went against every law of nature, the rule that all must someday die, even immortal creatures, for their world would eventually end, as all things did. But it was life she was protecting, those fleeting moments of comfort, of love, even of brotherhood, of her fellow hunters who trusted her for the bond she shared with their goddess.

She remembered those same words, while the thunder sounded off in her ears, while the energy gathered out from every inch of her body, readying itself to strike.

 _You are a messenger of death, but you are also a bulwark of life._ Her mother had spoken each of the tenets while walking down along the sunny beaches of their home, without knowing of her own fate beneath the fire. _It is more important to protect the ones you love than anything else you might learn in these times._

Lightning felt her throat slowly tighten, gripping the sheer power in her hand, within her fingertips, the namesake she had once taken for herself. Her mother's face seemed so close then, and her father's as well, just like the way he once struck down against an equally thunderous beast.

A bolt of electricity, the force that once brought fire into the world before any other heat existed, before the existence of wyrms, before the gentle glow of the morning sunlight, there had been the great storms that raged on without rain, without end, only the fierce, primal darkness that soon gave way to such unending light.

Her vision blurred with the sudden force of so many sparks, and her nose twitched at the scent of pure ozone, yet even when her horse reared up at the sound of such fierce, brutal lightning, at the arc of power that found its way off, surging down into the heart of the Cie'th, Lightning merely slumped against the mane of the horse, before she was drawn back into those warm, steady arms once more.

* * *

She dreamt of swift wolves in the dark, of a struggle to escape the snare of bloodshed, and she dreamt of the falcon flying so high above the plains, of a lonely soul upon the wind, without a family in sight.

A small figure sat before her, silent and still, and Lightning almost wondered if she had finally found her pwn end, lost within the power of such thunder.

"It is not your time... This is only a dream." The robed figure wore the mask of a barn owl, sleek and calm. "You've spoken with the spirits."

Lightning found that she couldn't move, or as she soon came to realize, had no body of her own, at least not within the misty dream.

"Not many have the will to hear them anymore." The figure sat within a wide circle of candlelight, of liquid silver, slowly pouring down from beneath the gentle flame. "Even if we are all still capable."

Lightning wanted to narrow her eyes at the monotone sound of that voice, but she still could find no body of her own.

"But you should know this... They will not keep you from death." The figure slowly rose, standing within the circular symbol, at the very center of the eye. "The spirits are as fickle as the wind... Trust only in those you hold close."

Lightning suddenly felt the true depths of the pain, alone in such a strange place, unconscious and utterly tired, even if she could barely even feel where she was.

"And even if you do find your answers..." The figure stepped through the fire, leaving it without even a single mark or burn. "They may not make the difference."

There was the child again, the lost face of one who feared for herself, for being left so alone in the world, the bitter face that needed to be close, needed to be loved, a vulnerable, wandering spirit who eventually locked herself away. And there, in the darkness, was the face of a wolf, the beast who stood beside with her wild fellows, fierce and merciless to any who threatened her pack.

Lightning just slept there for a while, caught between the eyes of her past and future, or could it be the other way around? In her exhaustion, she dreamt of such teeth and talons, of thorns and boiling venom, of the strike of pure light that would give way to such untamed fire, the glow that kept the night away.

"It may be that you need to create your own answer."

It was a battle of mere moments, even though it began to feel like unending hours, of years within the dream, a struggle of teeth and talons that raged deep within her own mind, caught between two beasts who held claim over herself.

"The falcon and the wolf." The robed figure knelt down beside her. "Neither of them truly stand for what you are now... You may need to let them go."

And Lightning slept, deep within the conflict of her own heart, waiting until the world felt much more silent again, until the beasts finally began to sleep alongside her, quiet and tranquil within the dream.

* * *

"Hey."

Lightning didn't move for a long moment, not until a gentle hand slowly swept over her shoulder.

"Light... Come on, now." It was Fang's voice that called out from somewhere beyond the darkness. "Don't make me worried."

Lightning tried to open her eyes, and when she finally did, it wasn't the canyon walls she looked upon, nor was it their room in the inn. No, it was an unfamiliar place with many small cots, with candles and the subtle aroma incense, yet overall, the room smelled like the crisp scent of the sea.

"There you are." Fang was sitting on the edge of the bed. "Made all of us a little worried, back there... I had to learn how to steer a horse because of you."

Lightning tried to speak, but her voice was a bit cracked and breathy. "What happened?"

"You shot the damn thing apart, that's what happened." Fang held up a clay mug of water. "Hit the brand like it was nothing... It fell to pieces, just like that in that book you showed me."

Lightning slowly took a sip of the cool liquid, leaning upright as she did so.

"Noel said we could stay here as long as we needed." Fang smiled softly, before she reached out to pat Lightning's back. "Perks of being in a secret society, eh?"

Lightning drank down a bit more of the water, before she lowered the mug, looking around at the room. "We're back in Luxerion?"

Fang nodded. "They've got a real nice place, here... Like a village, almost." She gently soothed her hand over Lightning's spine, just a comforting little gesture. "Almost makes you wonder how the Order hasn't found it."

"They have the gate guarded, don't they?" Lightning began to sit herself upright. "Plus we're in the Warren... I haven't seen any soldiers in these streets."

"That's true." Fang sat on the edge of the bed for a while, before she moved to stand up again, stretching out her legs. "Listen, Light... If these people of yours have experience with Cie'th, and maybe even l'Cie, then I think we should take them up on sharing what they know."

Lightning blinked against the soft light of the sun, which was trickling down from the narrow glass windows. "How long do you want us to stay here?"

Fang shrugged, slowly pacing around the room. "Just long enough to find our answers, like before... We stumbled into a goldmine, Light, I don't want to pass this up."

Lightning winced at the aches and pains in her limbs, though she'd avoided any serious blows from the manticore. "Strange, it doesn't feel much like a goldmine."

"You should've _seen_ it, Light." Fang stepped back up beside the bed, leaning down to look Lightning in the eye. "If you hadn't passed out, they would've been cheering for you..."

Lightning narrowed her eyes a bit, glancing away. "It's a culling, Fang, not for heroism."

"A culling of Cie'th; I think a monster like that takes a hero to kill." Fang sat down again, speaking softly. "But then again, you wouldn't be... _You_ , if you weren't modest."

Lightning closed her eyes when she felt Fang reach for both of her hands. "I don't want to be a hero."

Fang's voice brushed against her cheek. "But you want to protect people."

Lightning kept very still. "Maybe I don't know what I am..."

"Maybe you don't need to be anything." Fang's voice felt like the only sound in the world, all that ever existed, at least in that moment between them. "You're Lightning. You can be heroic without being a hero, and you can kill without being a killer."

Lightning slowly grit her teeth together. "...But I can't be alone without being lonely."

She could feel Fang start to kiss at the edge of her cheek. "Do you want to be alone?"

Lightning didn't speak for a long moment, yet when she finally did, it was only a whisper. "No." There was always the pain of growing too close, of bonding herself to others, others who she knew could be slain just as easily as the mighty manticore, others who could drag herself back into the darkness again, mourning them as she did so long ago. But it would likely hurt even more to push them away, Lightning knew, to hunt alone, to live without her family.

"That's good." She could hear the mirth in Fang's voice. "Because I've grown rather fond of you."

Lightning tried not to smirk. "Fond enough to carry across the world... Fond enough to help save your sister?"

"Sounds about right." Fang smiled when Lightning's eyes flickered open again. "We'll get her out of there, Light."

Lightning leaned in to rest her chin against Fang's shoulder, a soft hug, just enough to feel so close again. "I know we will."

* * *

The night sky stretched on across Luxerion, and the sound of footsteps drummed quietly against the rooftops.

"And if you're really on board for all of this..." Noel leapt past a gap in the buildings, waiting for Lightning to follow. "You and Fang, you shouldn't be staying somewhere you might be discovered."

Lightning landed with a soft grunt, but she stood up just as quickly to walk across the roof. "I'll tell Fang to cancel the inn reservation."

"If you've got things there, bring them with you." Noel peered out over the glimmering city, looking out from behind the solid mask, the visage of the Shadow Hunter. "If this _is_ war, we'll need every able set of hands we can find." He turned to stare at the distant cathedrals, before he began to move forward again, just as swift as the wind. "And if that means getting recruits from Poltae, or neighboring reinforcements, we'll do so."

"We shouldn't talk about this out here." Lightning followed after him, running from roof to roof. "Just in case we're overheard."

"The Order is a deaf organization, Light; when it isn't cracking the skulls it wants to crack, it's just sitting there like a bump on a log, nothing more." Noel began to move on towards a distant tower, almost soundless with each nimble step he took. "They're just as solid as a shield, don't get me wrong, but even the fake leads we've let slip to them have gotten us nowhere... They only seem to care about one thing."

Lightning kept as close as she could to Noel's path, running along in his footsteps. "And what 'thing' is that?"

"You've earned my trust, Light, so I'll tell you in a minute." Noel paused very suddenly, before he ran off again, approaching the tower. "How good are you at climbing?"

Lightning didn't bite back a smirk, for it was already hidden beneath the fabric of her mask. "I can climb."

"Good... Because this is one thing that I _don't_ want overheard." Noel ran further and further for minutes on end, before he suddenly leapt out to grab at a loose bit of brickwork in the tower, hauling himself up step by step.

Lightning followed suit, climbing along to scale the massive, narrow tower, just like the cliffs of her childhood days, or the slippery rocks beneath a waterfall, or even the scales of a mighty dragon, no matter how friendly they might have been.

The wind soon grew frigid, and the height itself was almost dizzying, just a distant blur of buildings and bright streetlights, of a glowing, glittering city that stood so very far below. But by the time Lightning finally dragged herself up to the top platform, resting beneath the face of a massive clock tower, she had more than enough space to acclimate.

"There's a story we tell to the kids... The strays, you know?" Noel sat down on the ledge, and he took his mask off, letting his legs dangle out against the dark of night. "People in the Warren, they don't always live long enough to take care of their children, either that or they just don't care... And if the stray kids agree, we take them in and make hunters out of them."

Lightning moved over to perch against the edge as well, beneath the luminous glow of the tower. "You give them a livelihood."

Noel nodded. "Back when I was a kid, hungry enough to try it, I tried to steal from a man in the crowds, a man who I'd later learn was named Caius... The Shadow Hunter."

Lightning kept very quiet.

"He didn't chase after me, didn't even try to take back the coins..." Noel's voice almost sounded a bit strained. "He just tracked me down later on and told me he was impressed."

Lightning nodded. "One of the strays."

"Yeah." Noel looked out above the city, gazing up at all of the stars. "The Children of Etro took me in, made an honest man out of me... And then, years later, I lost my mentor to the Order."

Lightning's eyes drifted down to the lights below.

"Caius was _killed_... And if he hadn't taught me better, I would've gone after them." Noel's hands tightened into fists. "I would've killed them all, maybe even gotten myself killed in the process." He tried to breathe deeply, attempting to calm himself down. "You're probably wondering why we attacked them, the other day."

Lightning nodded, still looking out over the city.

"They stole something that we've had our eyes on for years, now... Something straight out of a storybook." Noel slowly folded his arms against his chest. "Caius was tracking it, and in the process, they killed him; it was only years later that we even deciphered where he'd narrowed it down, and our people overseas actually retrieved it."

Lightning turned to look at Noel. "And what is 'it'?"

"This might sound insane." Noel shook his head. "I know _I_ thought it was insane when I first saw it... Like a tiny piece of the gods themselves, stuck here in a physical form."

Lightning's eyes widened slightly.

"They call it the 'White Crown'..." Noel slowly let his legs swing back and forth. "A magical artifact, Caius wrote about as 'unfathomably powerful', as something that nobody should ever get their hands on, but he wanted to find it so we could destroy it before the Order ever got hold of it."

"A race, then." Lightning could feel the chill winds brushing up against her clothes. "And they stole it?"

"Last month, we were transporting it in by ship, but before we could even get it up to the Warren, there was an ambush." Noel grit his teeth. "Like I said, I'm still really new at leading us... We had to abandon the crown and get our injured back home for treatment."

"So they still have it..." Lightning turned to look at the one cathedral that dwarfed all the rest. "And you want it back."

"We were going to obliterate it, but there's only one way to-" Noel paused, and he kept very silent for a long while. "Only one way to destroy something that powerful, and if that didn't work, we were going to try and hide it somewhere that the Oder could never find."

Lightning nodded to herself. "And that's why your people broke in, wasn't it?"

Noel smiled. "Imagine my surprise when Tipur told me about finding a sister in the heart of enemy headquarters... Looks like our searching brought us both to the very same place."

Lightning slowly leaned back to look at the sky. "If I wasn't so sick of thinking about fate, I might call it that."

"Fate's very real, in a sense... But it's never entirely solid." Noel took a deep breath of the midnight air, crisp and clear and somewhat calming. "One of my closest friends is a very firm believer in that kind of thing."

"So, the plan is to get the crown back, and what else?" Lightning glanced back over her shoulder at the massive clock tower, such a feat of mechanical engineering, the likes of which she'd never seen before. "We can't just storm a place like that again, not after you kicked the hornet's nest."

Noel shook his head. "They tore the place apart, no crown in sight..." He slowly reached out to point in a different direction, at a wide stretch of buildings, a place which stood off in the aristocratic districts. "No, why keep it in a place of public worship? It's in _there..._ I can almost feel it."

Lightning turned to look at all of the lamplit buildings, at the grand structures between the tall spires and hanging gardens of the upper city, pristine and untouched, so much so that she could barely believe they were in use.

"You know who rules in Luxerion? It isn't a king." Noel slowly rose upon the edge of the tower, kneeling there like a predatory beast. "It's someone very intelligent... Someone who doesn't show their face, doesn't take credit for anything... Someone invisible."

Lightning kept gazing at the distant palaces, at the gardens lit by glowing lamplight. "Someone with a figurehead? Just a puppet?"

"Close." Noel pointed back at the Hall of Devotion. "There's no head priest in there, but they've somehow gotten along for all these years without any hint of a power struggle... There has to be someone up the food chain from them."

Lightning nodded. "And we just have to find out who?"

"They've been baiting us for years, but we've never taken it..." Noel stood up fully, watching as the city slept on below. "Not until now... If they figure out how to use the crown, then we're all done for." He took a very deep breath. "I just can't help but wonder if that's _exactly_ what they want us to do."

Lightning stood up as well. "What would they be expecting you to do?"

Noel narrowed his eyes at the glimmering city. "To get the statue of Etro back to the way it belongs, break in to take the crown..."

"Then we'll need misdirection and reconnaissance." Lightning stepped over towards the adjacent edge of the tower, standing upon the very corner of the platform. "Make them think that we're doing exactly what they expect us to do, and then, once they move their own forces in response..."

Noel suddenly smiled. "...Then we hit them where they least expect it."

"We hit them somewhere they'd never think to look." Lightning almost smiled as well. "We cut the knot."

* * *

It was quite early in the morning by the time that Lightning made her way into the bunkroom, where Fang was already dozing off upon one of the spare cots. There were other women sleeping in their own bunks, from warriors to clerics of the goddess's faith, all resting there in the dark.

Lightning leaned in to kiss Fang's forehead. "Got room here for two?"

Fang grunted, drowsily rolling off to the further side. "...Maybe."

Lightning sat down, and she started to take off her outer clothes, leaving just the chest wrap and her short pants, before she slowly crept down beneath the blankets.

"Where've you been?" Fang kept her voice low enough to not wake anyone else. "Secret missions? More monsters to slay?"

Lightning rolled her eyes, before she slowly let them fall shut. "Just planning our next course of action, scouting out the area."

Fang turned over to hug Lightning close, breathing in her familiar scent. "Something exciting?"

Lightning shrugged, and she nuzzled herself closer to Fang's body, slowly dozing away. "Probably."

"Count me in, then." Fang kissed at Lightning's forehead, before she started to doze off as well. "Count me in..."

* * *

She dreamt of the red forest again, the warm winds that ruffled against the pale hide of a wolf, while the white falcon perched far above.

But what was she, herself? Lightning could scarcely see her own body, nor could see make out what her limbs were supposed to be, only that she could finally move around and travel across the fallen leaves, quickening her pace into a run. Was she truly human again?

The breeze brought a soft sort of comfort to her inner questions, but it didn't answer them, not even when the dry leaves danced about and rattled against the tired old earth, nor even when they brought her to a path within the autumn forest, two roads that stood before her.

And there they were, the beast and the bird, both waiting for her to choose, yet try as Lightning might, she just couldn't find the will to turn around and leave. The wolf sat quietly, patiently, while the falcon almost seemed ready to fly away. They waited upon either path, each side of the way forward, but it was many long moments before Lightning even began to move.

She looked at the wolf with a twinge of pain and something that almost felt like guilt, watching as it walked away, moving off into the scarlet veil of leaves, and she knew that she would likely never see it again.

But the falcon lingered on, perched there upon a branch, gazing down at her with those sharp, keen eyes, yet Lightning didn't approach it, either.

She took the path that led right between them, the wilderness between the roads, and she ran forward, ready to meet whatever waited beyond the warm realm of perpetual autumn, whatever fate might have in store for her. She felt her feet touching down against the dry grass, within the sudden snap of frost that covered the whole world in such boundless white, and while she couldn't see it, she knew that the wolf ran with her.

There were pale wings at her back, ice in her breath, and the first shimmer of both gold and silver in her eyes came to a steady boiling point, ready to leap forward, to fly, to take her one step closer...

There was another gaze, waiting somewhere within the darkness.

...Closer to the balance between.


	31. Visions

Fang knew that she was dreaming by the thick scent of exhaust and rubber, from the sea of cars within the highway that sped on without pause, though she herself only lingered there, standing upon the dry grass of the median strip.

It had to be a dream, she knew that for a fact, for no human of her own world had ever created something so very fast, so _exhilarating_ as the roaring vehicles of the road, if only for the lack of petroleum. There had been no wells of ancient life that once died and festered beneath the earth to become great caches of oil or coal, no fuel to find and hoard up and tinker with. And because of that, several alternatives were sought from either animal fat or plant oils, not to mention the mighty lumber reserves to warm their houses at night, or in rarer cases, fire magic.

Fang almost shrugged at the thought of it, of a world where the gods hadn't even thought to create the ages of beasts who would roam the earth before mankind, the vast forests and primal life, all fated to return to the deep, dark earth as natural reserves of fuel. Had the gods merely skipped ahead in their usual plans, had it been a new world where they were allowed to do whatever they wished?

Her gaze slowly focused upon the parked vehicle near the edge of the road, right where her past life had left it. Yet the dream she was standing within, she realized, it wasn't quite like the one with the little tribal village, the one that stood witness to a falling, burning meteor. No, she when she felt an urge to move her arms, they moved, and when she wished to draw in a deep breath of air, her lungs obeyed, and she already felt fully aware that it was indeed just a memory, not the sort of dream that she was forced to follow as it once had been.

But she could still feel a nagging tug from the back of her mind, the many inner thoughts of her past self, the pressing issues of the evening. It was only a matter of time before Fang relented and let herself walk back towards the motorcycle, grabbing at her helmet from atop the seat.

She felt fortunate that her subconscious mind was at least able to remember how to balance atop the vehicle, and that her past life seemed to be very aware of itself, that she could drive back into the roads while letting her current mind wander off to other places, to her own life, or even beyond.

There was still the question of the vestige, which was at least a week of steady flying away, perhaps a bit less if the wind was on her side, and there was also the troubling notion that Lightning herself had dreamt of what could only be a fal'Cie. But was the monster truly inside Luxerion? Had Lightning merely been dreaming of the being that they would both soon meet within the vestige? It wasn't unheard of for a lone l'Cie to wander quite far from the place where it had been branded, but for a manticore to have swam all the way across an ocean, it almost felt more than absurd.

The rumble of the road felt solid within her ears, muffled slightly by her helmet, but she just kept driving on, traveling further and further into the depths of a sprawling city. Her past life seemed rather keen on a certain destination, but Fang herself could only wonder about where they were going, and why she was gripping at the handles of her motorcycle so very, crushingly tight.

Perhaps in her own world, back there, perhaps there was just a lost vestige beneath the sands of the desert beyond the mountains, where the beast could have stumbled inside and found itself cursed with an unknown focus. The mighty dunes were vast and unexplored, so it wasn't out of the question that the brand could have originated there.

But there was some part of Fang's mind that just wouldn't let the other possibility go, for it had brought its claws right down into the fact that she trusted Lightning's dreams far more than she probably should, that there could very well be something quite sinister at the heart of Luxerion itself. But the fal'Cie weren't rational, she told herself for the thousandth time, they were practically insane, at least from what she had heard within those deafening cries and mechanical screeching, back when Vanille had collapsed against the floor in rapid convulsions, before the world around them went utterly silent.

There had been a small black mark on Vanille's outer thigh, Fang witnessed it with her own eyes, wondering if such a thing was some sort of dark, twisted joke. It had been branded there by incurable, irremovable magic, by a beast who didn't seem to belong within their world, sick and debilitated, far too powerful for itself to control.

And Fang had just watched, silently seething, holding Vanille so very close to herself as the walls almost seemed to come alive with the massive, mechanical beast that was chained into the vestige itself. It was bound by metallic sinew and steadily leaking fluids, of viscous magic and dark, endless blood, a living vestige, so far beneath the depths of the sea. Perhaps it had been her own anger that made Fang leave it there, swiftly carrying Vanille away, perhaps it had been out of spite to abandon those cries of agony, the wailing bellows of sheer anguish. But if nothing else, the monster had stolen precious something away from the one she held so dear, and it had felt rather simple to just leave the godlike beast, to let it cry and fuss all it wanted, for she knew she needed to try and wake Vanille.

And within a dream of tall buildings and long, endless roads, Fang closed her eyes when her sleek vehicle paused, idling beneath a red streetlight. She could still smell the many scents of oil, the aroma that felt like it was seeping down into everything, for she knew it had become the very lifeblood of humanity in that world. With innovation came new advances, and with advances came general safety, leading to less death within the widespread populations, to mightier strongholds and larger tribes, to small cities and then even bigger territories, to great empires that soon spanned the earth itself. And in one such modern place, Fang slowly glanced up at the world that stood around her.

The sky was quite darkened with rain clouds, and she could see billboards flashing above in languages she couldn't read, showing pictures of things that she herself had never seen. Even if her past life knew what they were, she seemed far too intent on finding her destination than to even notice them.

Fang's voice left her mouth in a low mutter. "And where is that, anyway?" She pressed her foot down to the gas when the light turned green. "Just where the hell are we going?"

It was a memory, she knew that much, that her past life was long dead, just a ghost within her mind, and that she couldn't quite answer herself, not unless the memory found itself in a position for her to freely speak. So with a sigh, Fang let herself drive forward, past the many sights and sounds of the massive city, between tall office buildings and grand promenades, rivers and railroad tracks, beneath statues and memorials for events that had all occurred so very long ago, thousands upon thousands of years, likely in a whole different reality from her own.

Fang believed that Mwynn was always the great architect, a gentle, yet aloof goddess, the one at the very heart of the matter. She was the first and last to ever exist, even if such things sounded like a logical paradox. But Mwynn herself was often a paradox, that much was clear, a deity who left almost all of the worlds and universes that she created to their own devices, though it was often due to harm from the very things she crafted, whether it was due to her fellow gods or the sheer power of her own creations. With a single whim, she could end the world, she could undo all that she had ever made, and yet she hardly ever remained there to witness what else occurred, for it seemed that she only ever returned as a final solution.

Fang had once seen it with those keen dragon eyes, with the gift of past visions and her own other lives, from the genetic code that repeated and layered down on upon itself each time she was brought back from the mind of a goddess, changed from mere thought into a physical form, back to blood and flesh, to the very first breath in her lungs, all drawn from the abstract concept of memory.

It had been upon one such life, a woman who stood at the end of the world, one who watched as the earth crumbled down beneath her feet and fell away in floating cinders, when the very gods themselves were dying, bleeding out within the fractured halls of a celestial realm.

A godslayer stood at her side, the savior of the human race, as she had often been called, one with the jagged sword of a phantom, of the elusive knight who watched over her from afar. And Fang herself stood proudly, yet with such caution, wielder of the soul of the dragon king, for in those times, there were those who could call upon the spirits, upon the very guardians of mankind.

Yet the galaxy had been ruptured, torn asunder by the gods themselves, so envious of the untapped power within a human soul, of the mysterious things that they could barely see, that they could hardly comprehend. The hearts of mankind, even the distant shepherds themselves, the ones chosen to stand watch over the souls bound for Etro's realm, those who had been driven into a desperate struggle for control over the gate, the gods simply could not reach their secrets.

Etro's gate, Fang remembered, more of a concept than a physical doorway; it was the very passage between life and death, even the place that waited beyond, the unseen realm of chaos. And it had been torn as well, so intricately linked with the celestials themselves, even if they could barely sense it. It had been ripped apart like mere fabric, as if each rift was akin to the wounded flesh of a mortal beast, left to bleed out and die at a pace that would swiftly see the very planets collapse upon themselves, a broken galaxy, fallen and unsalvageable.

It was only then that Mwynn chose to intervene, to call upon the same beings of the first world, of the humans that were once never meant to exist, yet when Etro herself had bled in such great sorrow, the very first emotion that had ever occurred, it brought chaos to the universe, and with chaos came mankind.

Fang still remembered those last few moments, how her own body fell to the ground in a dying world, how her soul was taken away from herself, how Lightning had reached out to bring their hands together, guiding so many countless souls along with her. And with death came the void of thoughtlessness, a peaceful realm of long, dreamless sleep, but there was simply no way of knowing how long they had drifted there, if time even existed in such a state. They were mere memories within the mind of a goddess, lost souls that would someday return again.

She could feel the wind on her skin, the misty, drizzling rain upon the bare neckline of her jacket. It even dripped beneath the chin of her helmet, moving on within the dream of a world that likely had no deities to speak of, a universe that Mwynn had left to progress on its own.

Fang had once felt such a sharp, prickling anger when she first remembered the true reaches of her past, of the way her fate seemed to twist itself in repeating ways, of loss and abandonment, of fighting just to live through another day, beneath the cruelty of nature and the struggle of fellow human life. Fang remembered how she once snarled so low in her throat, no longer just a wyvern, but a greater beast, one who could take on her past form, a woman who knew the whims of fate far too well, of lost friends and utter loneliness, and the sudden isolation of her newfound mind, it proved too much to handle.

The dream grew even darker as the day shifted on towards height of the evening, and even when the clouds threatened to fall with more than a handful of raindrops, even when the streetlights bloomed to life and illuminated the path ahead of her, Fang just couldn't help but think of other things.

Her draconic peers had often been a source of even greater frustration, much too occupied with themselves and their newfound gifts to focus on the past. Yet those who did, they became more and more feral, lashing out and killing impulsively for little reason but to try and suppress the barrage of sensory input, of the memories that ceaselessly plagued their dreams. There had been some help, of course, within their fellow dragons, if only for a while.

Many meetings took place atop the same range of primal mountains, of those who wished to find out if their past beloved ones were there among themselves. She remembered a certain couple, a rare case indeed, for it soon seemed as if even the thousands of gifted wyverns were still too little a number for more than a few past connections. Fang had befriended the two of them rather quickly, in search of solace for the lonely pain, for the relentless memories of her own death and suffering, and the pair of them seemed rather keen on friendship.

They soon spoke of the children they once had in a previous life, of how they loved them with all of their hearts, and then of their sorrow when it seemed as if was not meant to occur once again. Fang had balked slightly at the details, but at least her friends didn't speak graphically, yet it was clear that despite their efforts, the gifts of the gods had erased a certain capability. They had heard no news of successful additions to their race, no children, draconic or otherwise. No new families.

It was many years later that Fang almost lost her senses, for her pair of friends hadn't returned for yet another consecutive decade, surely either tired of speaking to her, or put to death by the growing forces of humanity. And it only further served to drive her away from such things, to hunt and hide in the forests, away from the human tribes and their deadly weapons, alone and bitter, savage and utterly intent to forget that she had ever known a family of her own, those who had once loved her unconditionally.

Yet it had been Vanille who found her, who helped ease the pain, who taught her to make the past lives feel like entirely other people. She told Fang to think of them as merely genetic memories, a code written by the invisible hands of a goddess, fated to be different each time that she was brought back to the world, deigned by the unseen whims of chaos.

Fang remembered a world where she loved to create things, to play with colors and pigments and fine brushes, to put whatever was on her mind into a physical form, yet she also she remembered a time when she could barely even stand to look at artwork, at such wasted time, for there were threats to be dealt with before any small form of recreation could occur. She could remember a life that loved to run across the grasslands, and a life that often found herself curled up beside the warmth of one she cared for, and of another life that fought a brutal battle against the forces of nature itself, and of a life that had been locked away, a primal, wordless mind, a wild beast within the confines of a metal cage, yet none of what she could remember was happening within the current dream.

She'd stopped quite suddenly and parked her motorcycle in the high floor of a public garage, and it was only when she was within an elevator that she finally opened up the purse at her side, gazing down at the universal language of music. And there, she realized, _there_ it was, the very bones of a subtle memory, enough to make Fang's heart thrum at painful speeds, for it was the origin of a thread that linked each life, each separate mind, connecting them in a strange sort of message that any listening ears could understand.

Why then, did she simply roll up the sheet of paper and stuff it back down in her purse, before she stalked out from the elevator, onto the dark, glimmering pavement, and into the bustling crowds of the city? Why did she feel like her skin was smoldering right up, and why did her fingernails suddenly press so deep against her palms?

Her past life took hold of herself with a sharp breath, with narrowed eyes and a rather determined stride, swift on the warpath for something that made her blood run so very hot. A reaction from the notes on the paper, perhaps, or something else entirely, something that only made itself clearer when she approached the lights and sounds of the inner city, up towards the grand halls of fine entertainment and creative arts. A memory flashed within her mind, music and words, the glimmer of light on the edge of a sleek instrument, a demonstration of sheer skill and precision, of a single figure that sat beside the crashing accompaniment of sharper sounds and percussion. Her thoughts were suddenly awash with such bitterness, with blurry confusion and the sourest pains of uncertainty. They were _her_ sounds, the rhythm she had always known, had followed her entire life by since long before she could even remember.

And in that moment, within that dream, she could scarcely even hear it in her own ears, not above the clamor of concertgoers, of cars and taxis and the occasional blare of a bus horn. The lights of the city shone so very brightly in her eyes, which soon narrowed to scan the area, sharp and quickly fixating upon the one billboard that caught her attention.

 _'Eden Society of Musical Arts,'_ it was the name that stood beside a grand hall in the center of the massive plaza, a structure of such opulence and shining high class, so much that Fang almost felt like a mere vagrant among the people in tailored clothes and fine jewelry, such physical wealth, like so many peacocks in the presence of a bird of prey.

But she had no talons to flash, no reason to find jealousy out of anything that she could see there, nothing but what had been stolen from her. It was almost unthinkable to have lost her life's work to someone she had never even met before, someone she had never known existed. The fact that she was actually paying them a favor upon that night, shelling out her own money for a ticket to the event, just to get even a sliver of a chance to prove herself the rightful owner... They were _her_ notes, her melody, the song that she'd written since she was only just a child with a homemade set of strings, hardly the finer instruments she saved up every scrap of money for. It was _her_ song, and she was more sure of that fact than anything else she had ever felt before, so much that she'd never shared it with anyone in her entire life, not even those she held close.

So why, then, was some impostor headlining the grandest concert hall in Eden with the very same song? It defied all rational thought, far beyond coincidence, not just the same few notes, no, it was _identical_ , at least from the brief sections she had heard. Her song, she thought, had been stolen away and propped up within one of the most prestigious societies of musical art in the entire country, or perhaps the world, and the very thought of it made her want to lash out and snap something right in half.

Yet there was some time left before it all began, enough for her to wander up the grand stairwells and into the larger, open areas, marble pathways and archways, terraces with fine benches, bronze and mahogany, polished so thoroughly that their surfaces reflected the very lights of the city. She saw fountains and gardens, so detached from the nearby din of the streets, like a shard of silent crystal in the very center of an active war zone.

It was the distant noise that drove her onward, the sounds of the crowds and the outer clamor of the city, the lifeblood of the modern world. It felt reminiscent of the underground bands and the 'noisemakers', as they were called, grungy and dark, so proud of what they had created, whether it was something newer than the morning news or more traditional, of soft, tiptoeing sounds or the din of deep electronics, or even an experimental fusion of the two.

Fang would have smirked if she hadn't felt such ferocity, for her own tools of the trade were mostly a blend of both worlds, of the old masters who worked with sinew and fine wood, and then to those who used only the keys of a computer to synthesize their inner visions. She'd named it Highwind, the prize of her collection, a narrow length of strings and tuning devices, for it had little need of a resonating chamber, at least beyond the sleek metal designs that flared outward, though they were more of a tribute to the cellos of old than for any practical purpose. But there was little time to dwell upon such things, she needed to hear for herself if what she suspected was true.

It was rather simple to take out her ticket and get it stamped, to glide her way on through the murmuring crowds. She almost felt blessed to be tall enough to see far above them, past the rows of souvenir and information booths, all the way up to the distant balconies that led down towards the concert hall.

She spent only a moment or two to admire the fine craftsmanship of the building itself, a testament to the solid architecture that had lasted for many centuries, yet had it been given a rather modern touch in the new ages of mankind. Speakers lined the ceilings and upper archways, rigged to be as unobtrusive as physically possible; yet to a curious eye, they could be seen for just how effective they might be, spreading sounds in a way that would make the listener feel as if they were right there in the midst of the show.

Fang found her seat and waited, ignoring the idle chatter of the people all around her, the sounds of curiosity and barely restrained excitement, the first flutter of ocean waves before an ensuing storm. A thought crossed her mind, that perhaps it was actually possible for two minds to come to the very same creation, the exact same song, but even still, the chances of that level of detail felt more than astronomical. It was the same song in every way, she'd heard it for herself on the video interview with a woman who barely spoke, yet could still create such heartfelt sounds.

How unusual it felt to see someone so outwardly cold, as if a marble statue had been cast to life, yet hadn't lost the inclination for frigidness, to sit there beside the interviewer as if she would rather be hammering jagged nails down into her violin than to spend even a moment longer in that place, quietly explaining that _yes_ , she had indeed written the final arrangement for the upcoming concert. More questions were asked in varying detail, of how it was possible for a simple, yet distinguished violinist to have turned herself towards writing an entire score of music, to which the woman's demeanor went even colder. There was likely an edit in the interview, dialogue placed in different spots, a brief pause in the recording, before the violinist had been coaxed to speak so quietly of how it was more than possible for her to have different talents at the very same time.

It was an answer that made Fang's jaw tighten, that made her grit her teeth, though she forced herself to stay calm, to sit there in such a fancy concert hall with only her jeans and a faded t-shirt, for there was far too little respect in her mind to even bother dressing up for such an occasion. She wore her various tattoos out in the open, vibrant designs upon her arms and lower neck, wild things that drew more than a second glance from her fellow seated attendees, yet she only had eyes for the distant concert stage.

Perhaps it took mere moments, or maybe a million years, but the chatter of sound suddenly and swiftly drew down to silence, and Fang watched as the hall grew very dark, so much that she could scarcely see beyond the back of the seat of the next row, but then, little by little, the stage below grew brighter.

They had all already filed out beneath the darkness of the stage curtains, dozens of musicians clad in classic suits and flowing dresses, all sitting so very silently and still, waiting for the lone man at the podium to begin. It was their lack of motion that defined them, so many eyes turned towards the conductor, yet otherwise without action, an army at the mere whim of the one in charge, the one to lead and guide their many talents.

Fang found her gaze lingering upon the musicians with the strings, then the percussion, past the woodwinds and the brass, and back to the strings again, where she finally caught the one she was searching for.

A sleeveless gown held her from the chest downward, within rich, red waves of silk that almost seemed more like the petals of a flower than any synthetic fabric, so much so that they looked a deep purple when the lights moved away from them just right. She was sitting there, poised with a polished violin that looked so very dark beside the paleness of her skin, resting in wait, keeping the bow right beside the motionless strings.

Fang stared at the stage in silence, waiting, watching, just a lone dreamer in the midst of a soundless memory, before it suddenly, gradually began.

The first strings sang out into the darkness of the hall, beneath the bright, blinding lights, soft sounds that only began to rise in slow paces, like an early breeze in the springtime, in need of coaxing and support. They were soon given the solidity of deeper sounds, the earth that stood steadfast beneath the gathering wind and rain, against the mighty waves of the ocean, a tide that would surely come before too long.

Yet they took their time, a prelude to the world that had yet to begin, and when Fang closed her eyes, just for a moment, she could almost see the sparks in the darkness, the fire that began with only a single small glimmer of light, gasping for just a mere breath of air. It was creation, those lines of life and knowledge, the mere embryo that had only to wait for later times, to gather itself and grow.

It became the sound of childhood, quickening in pace, the first few steps out from the darkness of ignorance, away from the void, suddenly so high and fast that it was heartbreaking; the sweetness of youth, of terrifying innocence, the little bird falling away from the shelter of the nest, of wings beating against the soundless air, lost and desperate and fragile.

And within the dream, Fang felt her chest tighten at the very sound of it, felt her breath catch within her throat, witnessing the memory of a diving falcon, then of a woman with such similar wings, of her own hair whipping in the air, of the small smile far above her, trusting that she could fly upon her own two limbs. She felt the memory of such dark feathers, of keen eyes within the howling snow, the sounds so strong that they could nearly rend her body apart, yet they were nothing but waves in the air.

The concert hall was brimming by then, sounds and echoes in the darkness, and Fang opened her eyes again to see the faster gestures of the conductor, and how each branch of the musicians, each type of instrument, how they all worked in such harmony, with such cooperation. The one she had searched for, the woman with such soft pink hair, her only attention was for the leader, and the thought of it almost made Fang want to snap. Dutiful, strong and elegant, a woman of great poise and precision, without missteps or the chance to diversify her sounds, just a mere solider in the line, no different from any of her peers, even despite the slight, lingering glimmer of hidden promise.

Fang heard the songs of long stability, then of a crashing change and the very lowest depths of humanity, of the rising tides, of great leaps out into the unknown, of the hardship from those who rose up to challenge the way the world had once been, all culminating in what felt like hours of such classic sounds. Beautiful, indeed, yet hardly anything out of the norm.

But then, when it seemed as though the final score had already dawned, when it felt like the last crescendo had risen up from a gradual pace, loud and grand and utterly unifying, a blend of each piece that came before it, there was a sudden, deafening silence.

Not a murmur passed within the many people of the crowd, not a whisper of confusion, only baited breath and open eyes, waiting for whatever might come next.

The brightness dimmed upon the stage, traveling back and forth with long, narrow pillars of light, yet the musicians kept perfectly still, mere statues in the dark, before one of the lights lingered upon the fabric of a deep, scarlet dress.

She began while still sitting down, keeping the violin poised beneath her chin, gently drawing the bow back and forth in notes of highness and clarity, seemingly ignorant of the lack of movement from the conductors hands, yet it was only moments before she rose up to her feet. The lights shifted down to shine in from either side, illuminating the soloist, the lone soldier in the dark, the sounds that echoed out from the stage like the calls of a drifting soul, growing almost low enough to become distant rumbles of thunder.

 _Her_ song, Fang thought, the overture to those final sounds, the song she had always known, echoing deep in her mind until it reached very the contours of her body, to her bones and flowing blood, a signature within her soul. And there it was, she realized, stolen away and played there for the ears of millions, televised and spread throughout the world, so much that there would be no doubt of who had first shown it to eyes of the media, and to so many people that listened beyond.

Fang's heart might have felt as if it was sinking silently, so very far away from herself, if only for the fact that her eyes were still locked upon the moving figure, on the quickening pace that thrummed against that dark, classical violin, before something that she never expected to occur, it just suddenly came crashing into the world.

The crowd nearly murmured at the sudden flash of color, deep reds to a sheer, blinding white, a gown swiftly removed and unclipped to reveal the visage beneath it, a silken garb of pale, shimmering silver, a moment of silence within the song, right where Fang had once written it, before a slightly different instrument was offered from a stagehand within the darkness.

And it was the pickup beneath the stings, Fang realized, enough that she felt almost bold enough to laugh at the absurdity, at the louder music born from transmitted currents, from different wires, from invisible signals and a rapidly growing intensity. An electric violin, forged and curved together with such strong pieces of metal, lines that shone like unearthly coils, it suddenly sang of the wanderer in the plains, the lonely bird at the very height of the sky, a single shard of silver beneath the rage of a gathering storm.

The conductor moved down from the podium, walking into a dance of his own baton and the sleek violin, playful as swans upon the mirrorlike surface of a lake, as pale wolves leaping back and forth in the snow, enough that the crowd murmured with low laughter when the violinist flashed just the smallest of smirks, seemingly defying the conductor's direction to move off on her own, a woman who tossed the rules aside and walked on between those who began to join her, no longer a solitary act.

She led them further with such strides of sound, pacing them and never letting more than a single one of those strings go silent. The taut muscles in her arms flexed; they were moving there without the cover of sleeves, for she was still wearing a garb that only covered herself from the collarbone down. The fabric was far thinner, less conservative, enough to tempt the eye up towards her strong limbs and powerful shoulders, but the focus was always drawn back to the rapid strides of her violin.

There was power in the sound she made, a sense of grace, and there was a force behind the muscles in her arms, behind the fire flashing in her stance, no longer so icy and unyielding; she was within her element when she moved, when she began to glide on from row to row, building and coaxing the sounds all around her, calling them on with the high cries of war, a sprawling army gathered at the very edge of different worlds.

It was the song that had once called to Fang's ears since she was only a child, the sound of thunder and a massive cavalry, of horsemen and countless hooves, vibrations that reached down into the very depths of the earth, spilling dust and pebbles and waves of sound out into the air, a feverish din of many heartbeats and minds likened down to a single focus, to charge out and run and find their right place in the world. Fang could almost envision the pale knight on horseback, a wild thing in the midst of a thousand blades, of flying streaks of hot blood and clashing steel, of a helmet emblazoned with the sigil of a branching lightning bolt, unmarred by the clamor of battle.

And in a pale gown, with sounds that had long since thrown aside the more classical stances, shifting into a blend of noise that sounded louder and higher than physically possible, faster than she should be able to achieve, an earthly valkyrie upon the stage, a woman with sweat trickling down her forehead from the sheer effort of keeping the pace.

In Fang's mind, watching those rapid strikes and the thinly-veiled pain, an effort of sheer determination, she felt the flames in her own mind start to falter, quelling the anger that she'd once held onto so very tightly. Those arms had to be screaming out in time with the violin, had to feel like they were on fire by the utter speed, the calculated timing and unwillingness to ever, even for a moment, ever stop.

And it grew to a boiling point, a clamor of instruments and whirling sound, rising and flaring out with such grace and mounting volume; there was a warlord on a hill, the general of an army calling for a final charge, a blare of motion and such blinding speed, and only then, when the violinist sank down to her knees, still in the throes of her performance, with such blurry eyes and rapid, fevered breaths, only then did the song dive down and finally, utterly slip away.

The silence lasted for only a moment of time, and in Fang's ears, the roaring din of applause wasn't nearly as loud as the music had been, no matter how deafening it was. She watched the conductor break his routine, drop down to the side of the violinist and gently touch her shoulder, yet she merely waved him off, standing up to give a single bow beside her compatriots. She lingered there, still holding her violin, almost as if she had grown quite numb to the sounds all around her, standing there with a gaze that didn't even track the movements of the abounding crowds, the people of the massive concert hall.

But where was the rest of it? Fang's past life felt as her mind spun with confusion, for why had the song suddenly stopped before the second half? Why did it draw to an end before it could even truly finish? But her current self, her living life, she took over for just a brief moment. It was a dream that Fang had never witnessed before, a memory she'd held within the unknown depths her mind for her entire life, something that she'd never acknowledged before that very moment, and in a sudden instance of clarity, she rose up to her own feet among the standing crowds, and she began to join the applause.

The minutes passed by in such deafening numbness, and before long, Fang found herself sitting again with her hands braced down on her knees, gripping them until her knuckles turned white. She watched the people around her as they began to file away from their seats, chatting among each other with an air of satisfaction, enough so that it almost began to feel infectious.

Fang had traveled in time, wandering back into her own memory to witness a grand feat of musical art, of the one she knew must have also explored the world by sound, by the feeling of a violin beneath her chin, by the vibrations that danced so deep within her fingertips. Had it been her own idea to change gowns within the middle of the performance? A clever trick, one that Fang herself hadn't even anticipated, for the second dress was just thin enough to hide there beneath the first, likely as a symbol of change, of hidden depths.

Could such a woman truly have stolen her song away? Fang's past mind reeled at the sheer accuracy of the entire score, almost perfect, all up until it ended without truly finishing, like the very first limb of a tree, missing the many leaves and branches to make it whole.

It was simple then, to swiftly stand up and move on through the crowds, towards the upper balconies of the concert hall, to search for anywhere that might look too official for unauthorized access, damn the consequences. She _needed_ to know, and she knew that she might never get another chance to do so, and to let such an opportunity slip away without answers, it nearly felt akin to abandoning her own livelihood.

And there it was, before too long, the hallway that led towards the back rooms, where the technical crew was venturing out to accept many colorful boxes of sweet snacks and drinks, chatting beside those who looked to be on the catering team. Perhaps it was the widespread chaos of so many people, those in casual clothes who laughed with their friends who were dressed in uniform, crossing the boundary between backstage and otherwise, perhaps that was why it was so easy for Fang to just pick up a box of doughnuts and blend right in with the crowd. She soon made her way into the bare walls of the back rooms, places unpolished and merely for practical space; the key was to act natural, as if she truly belonged there, wandering the hidden realms behind the stage, until she finally caught sight of such pale pink hair.

There she was, just sitting there with the faintest smile on her face, accepting the praise and smiles of none other than the conductor, a young man who sat beside her with the air of a close friend, perhaps even a brotherly presence. Fang swallowed back the last few traces of anger, abandoning the box of pastries upon a stray table, before she slowly began to move forward. There was another woman, younger than the violinist, yet they were nearly identical in most facial features, definitely a sister. She was almost hopping up and down on her toes, beaming and laughing in such hushed awe, before she reached out to hold both of her sister's hands, squeezing them tight.

And such a sight was enough to smother away the embers of doubt, the anger Fang that had brought with her on such a dark, rainy evening, yet it was also enough to make the ashes stir with something entirely different, curiosity, perhaps... Or the single question that just wouldn't go away. She stood there for a short while, waiting for the first lull in the sounds of the room, for the jovial conversations and celebrations to fade down a bit, and when they finally did, Fang drew in a deep breath, and whistled.

It brought the room to an even quieter state, beneath the sounds of a practiced voice, one who took control, who began to pick up where the gathered musicians had left off, the second side of the rapidly spinning coin, the other half of the song, the roots of a budding young tree. She whistled in low, simple sounds, yet it was the simplicity that brought greater allure, the promise that there was something else to such a similar tune, something that had yet to be discovered.

And that distant gaze, soft and blue, no longer so cold, not among friends, it didn't quite rest upon where Fang was standing, but the violinist swiftly went still, listening with what could only be described as a shocked, yet silent epiphany. And she soon moved, standing up, all despite the slight looks of concern on the faces of her companions, the mere distrust of a stranger, but Fang just continued on, slowly finishing the song that had been left so uncompleted.

Yet nobody spoke when she was done, not even a call for security, for those eyes that had gone so close by then, those ears that listened intently, they stood near enough for her to reach out and touch. But Fang didn't move, she didn't speak a single word, just gazing back into the eyes that looked far different than they had before.

"How did you come up with that?" The violinist spoke in a low murmur. "Can I ask your name?"

Fang glanced at the silver instrument that stood upon one of the tables, safely back inside its carrying case. "...You can call me Fang."

"Fang." She took a moment to think it over. "I don't think you would be back here if you didn't know mine, or is that presuming too much?"

Fang shrugged. "Didn't stop to check. That's a pretty fancy song you wrote."

"...Lightning." She gestured at herself. "And you have a pretty fancy song, yourself."

The younger woman near the chairs suddenly stepped towards them, revealing a rather anxious look on her face. "Light?"

Lightning turned so that part of her face was visible to the general area behind her. "It's alright, Serah." She soon moved to face Fang again. "How did you- This is going to sound insane." Lightning slowly moved away, running one of her hands through her hair, which slowly began to muss apart the ornate braids and translucent hair ties, but she didn't seem to care. "I've been working on this for... Years, now, and I thought-"

"You thought it was finished?" Fan held back a sharp, wry laugh, and she lowered her voice for only Lightning to hear, despite the curious glances from the rest of the backstage staff. "If I hadn't heard you out there for myself... I only came here tonight because I thought you stole it."

Lightning paused near the edge of a refreshment table, and she slowly reached down to touch the wooden surface, finding her way towards a pitcher of ice water. "You thought I 'stole it'..? Stole what, exactly?"

Fang stepped over to stand right beside Lightning. "My song, my damn _song_ , I thought you-" She paused, watching the way that Lightning traced her fingertips against the top of a plastic cup to tell where the boundaries were. "It's just way too close to be a coincidence."

"You're a musician, then?" Lightning soon poured a bit of water into the cup, before she lifted it up to take a very small sip. "That little whistle fits it pretty well, I'll give you that."

"'Little whistle'?" Fang could see the pride in Lightning's stance, in the way she listened to each tiny sound anyone made, from the softness of footsteps to the conversations all around her, even to the way Fang tried not to fidget, moving her feet back and forth against the wooden floor. "Would've brought my damn strings if I'd known this would happen..."

Lightning's mouth twitched into a small smile. "What do you play?"

Fang glanced away, and she tried not to sigh in frustration, sidestepped by so many questions other than her own. "A lot of things. Look, I'm just here to know if you really did think of that song all on your own, or if you might've-" She paused, rather unsure of what else to say.

"If I might've seen the score somewhere?" There was suddenly such amusement in Lightning's voice, so much unlike the woman Fang had witnessed from the video recording. "I've never even heard anything with the same tune... Have you?"

Fang slowly leaned against the edge of the table, letting her shoulders slump in defeat. "Only when I've been playing it."

"I wouldn't believe that if I hadn't just heard you." Lightning took another sip of water, idly tracing the raised logo on the side of the plastic cup. "It's almost like... The missing piece." She kept silent for a while, before she turned her head to lean a bit closer to Fang. "I didn't even want to share here it at first, it always felt too personal."

Fang went very still at the soft tone of Lightning's voice.

"I have friends here." Lightning reached over to place her cup back down against the tabletop. "The music academy, here in Eden... They're my only real friends besides my family; they convinced me to play it tonight, to share it in the first place." She soon leaned back against the table as well. "I guess it was good enough for a finale."

Fang tried to bite back a smirk, but it slowly curled over her lips. "More than good enough, take it from me... I've got the whole damn thing written down back at home."

Lightning shrugged. "If that's the truth, it's one heck of a coincidence." It almost seemed strange to see her speak so causally in a silken gown and heels, in a hairstyle that looked like it must have taken hours to complete; there was a thin, intricate braid of long pink hair that was pinned flat towards the back of her head, mimicked on the other side by an identical braid, and a small, white ribbon tied the rest of it down near the back of her neck, keeping it out of the way from where her violin had been resting.

"A coincidence..." Fang leaned away from the table, slowly stepping back into the middle of the room. "Sure."

"You're leaving?" Lightning stayed right where she was. "What, you just waltz in here, and-" She paused, thinking for a brief moment, before she stepped forward as well. "They'll kick you out of here if they see you don't have a pass."

Fang paused, peering out at the way a few members of security were already eyeing her presence. "What makes you think I don't have a pass?"

Lightning scoffed under her breath. "Really? Don't give me that." She turned to make her way back towards where she had been sitting before, waving for Fang to follow.

Yet Fang just stood there, watching the way that the young woman who looked like Lightning's sister, who she'd called Serah, how they spoke so quietly to each other, and how Lightning felt around for where her purse was hanging against the back of the chair, before she unzipped a compartment that held a small number of thin white cards.

The young man who sat near them, he spoke just loud enough for Fang to overhear. "A friend of yours..? Or someone else?"

"I'm not even sure." Lightning took one of the cards out and set the rest back down inside her purse. "I'll be back in a moment."

Fang just waited there, staring right at the security guards, but when she heard the sound of soft footsteps behind her, she looked back over her shoulder. Lightning almost seemed to look lost for a brief moment, for she was in an unfamiliar orientation, without specific sounds to guide her onward, but when Fang slowly moved her feet against the ground, it was then that she was given a small, white card.

"Hm?" Fang accepted the rather plain piece of paper; half of it was blank, but upon further examination, she realized that the top part was inlaid with a short pattern of small dots, while the rest of it was written in very simple text, with an email address and what was likely a cellphone number. "Is this supposed to get me out of here without trouble?"

"It might." Lightning still spoke very quietly. "But it's more for the fact that I'm curious to hear you play."

Fang started to trace her fingertips over the bumps at the top of the card. "Really? For all you know, I'm just a damn good whistler."

It almost seemed like Lightning might've laughed, but she simply gave Fang a small smile again, stepping a few paces away. "Why would a 'damn good whistler' go to a concert like this? To see a nobody perform?"

Fang's grip tightened slightly against the card. "Nobody who plays that well is a 'nobody'..." She looked back at Lightning, at the recent marks of effort upon her fingertips, slightly reddened and perhaps previously calloused. "Or at least you won't be a nobody for long." Fang raised her voice by a small degree. "That's the dream, isn't it?"

Lightning slowly turned her head to the side. "What is?"

"To write something amazing... To get famous." Fang drew in a deep breath, and then exhaled. "That's what they say, at least."

Lightning just shrugged. "I prefer my privacy."

"...You do seem the type." Fang glanced down at the card again. "So, what, I just email you and set up a jam session?"

Lightning did laugh that time, quietly, not much more than a single breath. "Give it a good subject line... Something I'll recognize."

And with that, Lightning returned to the chair that she had been sitting on before, the very picture of poise, even with the barrage of questions from her sister and friend, inquiries of whoever the odd stranger could be, what she could have possibly ventured backstage for, especially with a song of her own, but Lightning soon just closed her eyes, answering in only vague responses.

Fang slowly traced her fingertips over the line of dots again, before she retreated from the backstage halls, silently evading the security personnel as best she could. Though it seemed like with the card in her hand, and from the way that they'd watched how she was speaking with one of the musicians, it was just enough to get her away from there without more than a sharp glance or two.

And she was out, walking amid the crowds of mingling people, of those who found the same excitement in their hearts from such a grand place, from the joy of universal speech, of music that bridged the gaps between any language that had ever existed, spoken or otherwise.

Before she even knew it, Fang found herself back on the seat of her motorcycle. She could feel a sudden sense of fluttering in herself, yet it was somewhat quelled by the thought of driving more than just a few miles to get back home. So she sat there for a brief while, with a swiftly beating heart, with a small business card in her hands, with the sheer privilege of contacting such an incredibly skilled musician.

"Never gotten a girl's number just by whistling before..." Fang reached up to massage her forehead with the edge of her wrist, debating with herself over laughing out loud or lamenting the fact that she might've truly gone insane, or that she'd just imagined the entire thing, that she'd never truly possessed a song of her own. "Get yourself _together_ , Fang." She roughly rubbed at her temples, for she could still feel the aftereffects of the loudness, the sheer sounds of the massive concert hall.

It was around midnight by the time she was back out upon the open road, driving down the roaring highways that would eventually lead her home, only a city or two away from the center of Eden. She could still picture it within her mind, the practiced steps, the way that Lightning had walked out there with such confidence, such grace, all while playing her heart out upon the stage.

And within the vivid dream, Fang's past self began to mumble quietly, smiling from within the confines of her motorcycle helmet. "At least it was worth the ticket price."

* * *

It was nearly dawn outside the quiet bunk rooms. Beneath the warm blankets and the strong arms of a loved one, Lightning slept soundly in the early light, dreaming of a world she had once lived within, once walked upon, fighting fiercely against those who sought to exploit it.

But that was neither the time nor place, not in that moment, not when she dreamt of a lazy summer day, when she was sprawled elegantly upon the sofa, _the_ sofa, the fancy one that was meant for Fang's clientele, not her, but it seemed to be a very special occasion indeed.

"That's good." Fang dabbed a brush into the colors of the wooden palette, gazing at the canvas as well as her subject of choice, at the way that her girlfriend kept so very still beneath a long, silken strip of cloth. "You wouldn't believe how many people just can't stop squirming around."

Lightning felt those keen eyes roaming over her body, and while she wasn't quite in the nude, it felt more than close enough; there was little left to the imagination with only that narrow strip of of silk above her more sensitive areas. It had taken a great deal of coaxing, of course, gentle persuasion that the image would never be seen within any of Fang's portfolios, never in a gallery, only for the two of them. So Lightning played nice, and she let herself be subjected to just a little bit of lipstick and subtle eye shadow, all for the way it made Fang look almost giddy at the chance to paint that image, such a reclusive, secretive subject.

Those secrets, all of the dark nights spent huddling in wait for a subject of elimination, or for further directions to be phoned in, or even spent evading rapid gunfire, shooting back just as quickly as she could and praying she still had the time to reload and move to greater cover, lest she ever leave Fang all alone back home. And that was why Lightning waited so patiently, why she let her image be painted in great detail, something to keep and admire, for there was simply no knowing when her luck would finally run dry.

There was still the part of her that realized it was only a dream, just a memory, and that she could probably move around without really upsetting Fang, at least until she was able to wake up from it. But there was also the part of her that marveled in the precision of Fang's craftsmanship, of each chosen color and brush. She painted without sound, other than the occasional bit of conversation, for it took great focus to paint so realistically with such fine oils, to capture the way each texture blended with the next, from a sheet of scarlet cloth to the pale skin that rested beside it. It needed to truly breathe, to appear almost as real as a photograph, an image for her to marvel at and keep forever, a single chosen moment in time.

So Lightning waited, gazing up at the tall poster that Fang used to help keep her clients from getting bored; it was a rather large scene with hundreds of detailed objects upon it, so much so that one would always find new things every time they stopped to examine it.

"There's a hidden image in there, you know..." Fang's eyes were full of mirth. "They use those in dentist's offices, when you have to sit still a long time."

Lightning glanced back at Fang with a rather noncommittal look. "Consider yourself lucky that I'm not getting my mouth poked at."

Fang only smiled, dabbing one of her brushes down into a different part of the palette. "Should I paint you with big teeth, then?"

Lightning just rolled her eyes.

"Or maybe walrus tusks." Fang spoke very softly, still quite focused on her work. "But I don't think you'd look nearly as pretty with flippers..."

Lightning fought the urge to twitch or fidget around, and she took a very deep breath of air, taking in the scents of the oils, of so many different types of paper and different supplies in the room, not to mention the faint chemicals of the paint. "You really think I'm pretty?"

Fang's eyes didn't move from the canvas. "You're a knockout."

Lightning kept staring at the poster on the wall, trying not to shiver without her clothes. "But that's not why we're here."

Fang smiled ever so slightly, before she glanced back down at Lightning's face. "Why do you think we're here?"

Lightning gazed at the poster, at the maze of images and colors, so many different things. "We're here because I came back last month with a broken nose... You want to get a picture of me while I'm still pretty."

And that was when Fang paused, setting her palette down with a rather firm look in her eyes. "That's not it at all."

"I'm not saying it's a bad thing." Lightning still didn't budge a muscle, and she spoke without moving much of her mouth. "You want something like this in case I come back with something worse... If my nose doesn't heal so well next time."

It was swift, then, and Lightning barely realized what was happening until her chin was held with such a strong, yet gentle grip, turned to look Fang right in the eye, at the fierce, fiery spirit that shone deep within.

"That's not it." Fang spoke in a rather stern murmur, kneeling down beside the elegant little sofa. "You could crawl back here with ten times the damage, I won't give a damn... You're my girlfriend; I don't care about what you end up looking like." After a silent moment, she slowly traced her fingertips over the curve of Lightning's jaw. "I just care that you're okay."

Lightning blinked a few times, thinking over the words that Fang spoke with such utter sincerity, but it was an entirely different matter that made her glance back at the oil paints. "Uh..."

"No, Kitty!" Fang whirled around almost instantly and grabbed the upturned tube of paint away, but not before a certain house cat had gotten quite a bit of his dark fur to appear a bit less featureless, splotched with light pinks and a bit of dark red from the palette, which only made him mewl and squirm a bit from atop the counter beside the canvas.

When she caught sight of the full scope of the situation, Lightning let out a quiet sigh, before she pulled the long strip of silk cloth up against herself, sitting upright upon the sofa. She watched the way that Fang scolded and lifted the fluffy black cat up with both of her hands, trying to keep the collateral damage to a minimum with all of the loose, dripping paint.

Lightning's clothes were folded neatly beside the sofa, well out of range of the oil paints, so she simply reached for them and tugged her underclothes back on while she spoke. "You know that naming your cat 'kitty' is just like naming a dog 'doggy', right?"

Fang hurried off towards the small metal sink on the wall, the one where she usually washed off brushes and other such supplies, and she turned the faucet handles to the warmest temperature she could manage. "Really not the time, Light..."

Lightning began to stretch out her arms and legs, working away the little aches and pains that came from such an utterly motionless activity. "I thought you closed the door."

Fang glanced over at the other end of the little studio, and at the door that led towards the rest of their apartment. "Yeah I did, but he's a _sneaky_ little bastard..." She swiftly grabbed a stay bit of cloth and dampened it within the sink, before she helped the splotchy cat down upon the tile countertop, trying to scrub the paint away. "You wouldn't believe how many times I've found him crawling around in my supplies."

Lightning started to glance around at the room itself, at the walls that were stacked almost to the ceiling in wide canvasses and large buckets of paint, the likes of which Fang used for bigger projects, murals, perhaps, or huge paintings for her wealthier types of clientele.

" _Bad_ Kitty." Fang spoke in just a murmur, more of a emphatic tone rather than true scolding. "This'll be toxic if you try and lick it out, yourself... You'd better hope it comes off easily."

The cat just wriggled a bit, mewing at the way that Fang kept washing his fur with the damp rag, but he didn't try to run away, even when it became quite clear that the oil paint was much too sleek and slippery to completely wash out from his fur.

Lightning dressed herself again, listening to the muffled sounds of Fang gently scolding the fluffy cat as she clipped off the bits of painted fur with a pair of scissors, until a rather disgruntled feline darted off and away from the countertop with only a bit less fuzz to show for it.

And Fang just sighed to herself, leaning back to rest against her chair, letting her arms fall to either side. "Remind me to keep a closer eye on the oils."

Lightning buttoned up the last few bits of her shirt. "We'll take a break, then?"

Fang nodded. "Yeah." She looked over at where the cat had been prodding at the tube of oil paint, at where it had splashed it all across the counter and even down to the floor beyond, where her pallet had also fallen. "Gotta clean this up, first..."

The two of them soon found themselves kneeling there with cleaning supplies, with chemical mixtures to hopefully remove all of the paint, a type of foamy liquid that Fang explained was much too harsh for the skin or fur of a cat, something that required both of them to wear their own gloves.

And Lightning leaned back after a while, glancing over at where the cat in question was sulking beneath the sofa. "Remind me to never let you convince me into more pets."

Fang nodded, and she kept scrubbing away at all of the fallen paint. "We just don't have the room for it, anyway... One cat is more than enough."

Lightning could feel the way her past life started to tense up at the words Fang said, how her mind wandered to the far greater scope of the lives they were living, the oddity of a contract killer and an independent artist holed up in a tiny studio apartment, with only a pet for daily companionship. It wasn't often that Lightning's past self had thought beyond the next few months of her own life, for there was little use to getting worried over the future or distant events. But the fact that she could still feel a dull ache in her nose, it was enough to make her stop and wonder; how long would it be? How many years did they really have with each other? How many months were left for them before her luck truly ran out?

Fang paused when she noticed the slight gleam of conflict in Lightning's eyes. "What's wrong?"

Lightning glanced away for just a moment, before her current self took hold, breathing a bit quicker than before. "If I ever... If something ever happens, it's going to turn out okay."

Fang set the cleaning rags down, and she inched over to rest beside where Lightning was sitting against the floor. "What do you mean? Did something happen with work?"

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut at the low tone of Fang's voice, so soft and gentle. "No. I'm just planning ahead; if something ever does happen to me-"

"Light." Fang took off one of her gloves to brush her fingertips against Lightning's chin. "You can quit any time, can't you?"

And her past life chose to speak, shaking her head. "I can't, not with a clear conscience." Lightning opened her eyes to look back at Fang. "They _kill_ people, Fang... They might not have blood on their own hands, but we've tracked the source, and it's only going to get worse if we leave it alone."

Fang almost seemed at a loss, still tracing her fingertips against Lightning's jaw, before she moved her thumb up to stroke along her cheek.

"If I die." Lightning tried to keep her voice from being anything but steady. "If that happens, I want you to stay strong." She knew it was close to pointless, that she couldn't be witnessing such a dream if she hadn't already died in the past, hadn't been shot down and left to bleed there against the cold, dark pavement. "...I want you to keep living."

Fang blinked away the slight bit of moisture from her eyes, tugging Lightning over to lean against her, pulling her there upon her lap, quite unwilling to let go. Yet it happened so quickly, even within the warmth of the embrace, the sudden, arresting void, the way the sky spun so slowly above her, reeling with the deafening crack of a gunshot, with the rich red hue that seeped out from beneath her own clothes, dripping down to rest against the hard, merciless ground.

It seemed impossible for her to remember anything beyond her own death. She was dead, after all, just a soulless body, likely buried or burnt away, she wasn't sure which, so it came as quite a surprise when she started to see the aftereffects, the unquelled rage that Fang let loose upon the world, the years of physical training, the inheritance of Lightning's own killing tools, of guns and knives, poisons that could stop a heartbeat within seconds, and then, when it was all said and done, she saw that same person kneeling down against the empty floor of the studio, slowly tracing her fingertips over the place where scarlet paint had once been. She was gazing at it, looking out with the single eye that she had left, for the other half of her face was still covered up from the effects of such violence.

 _I'd love you without eyes._ Fang turned her gaze up towards where her canvasses once stood, at the cobwebs and drifting motes of dust, even at the way the sunlight streamed in from behind the musty curtains. "That's what you'd say, isn't it?"

Lightning had no voice to speak with, no eyes to see, though she still felt her own presence move to rest beside Fang, trying to comfort her as much as she could.

"I've been getting these dreams." Fang slowly traced her fingertips against the faded red stains on the floor. "Weird dreams, dreams where you're still with me." She slowly reached up to take the fabric cover away from her face, revealing the eye that looked so pale and sundered, so very sightless and unmoving. "But you can't be here, not right now... Not really."

The flow of time was unalterable, there was simply nothing to be done for the past, yet Lightning found herself trying anyway, regardless of the utter futility. Though Fang seemed so numb to it all, to the loss, to the pain of seeking out her feverish revenge, a life thrown apart in such anger, such hate, fully accustomed to the terrible aches of being alone.

"But you will be." Fang turned her gaze back up towards the ceiling, leaning down, resting against the wide, empty floor. "Maybe I've just gone nuts... But these don't feel like any average dreams." She began to close her eyes, but one of her eyelids, the damaged one, it could barely twitch itself shut. "But nothing about you was average, was it?"

Distant birdsong echoed out from the tall trees, against the glass panes of the window, and after a long moment of stillness, Fang rose back up to her feet, moving to open up the window and let a gust of fresh air inside. And Lightning moved beside her, just a mere phantom of herself, of what she had once been, a very small presence in the world.

"I'm going away for a while." Fang looked down at all of the sprawling city streets, at the cars and taxis and pedestrians, all living out their lives in constant motion, spending their days beneath the beauty of the summer sky. "It's only healthy, isn't it? To go out and see the world... Get my mind away from here for now." She looked over her shoulder, gazing at the empty room. "But I'll be back."

Time moved on in snippets of sound and motion, with the gently falling leaves, with the soft light of day and the sudden dark of a frigid night, of floating snowfall, cold for so many days, until the slowly budding blossoms began to take hold again, bringing on rich floral scents and the gathering essence of spring. Lightning watched the little birds as they fluttered from branch to branch, she watched the spiders weave their delicate webs within the corners of the window, and she watched the people of the city moving along in very the same way they had always done, back and forth, back and forth. The phantom of herself still lingered there within the halls of the apartment, for it seemed that Fang still couldn't bear to stop renting the place, not even with how empty and silent it had become.

Perhaps it had been years, or only several months, but it was on another warm summer day that Fang returned with a large parcel in her grasp, something that she soon set down upon the floor of the studio. It took many moments for her to finally work up the nerve to pull the shiny paper away, lovingly wrapped there with clear tape and curly ribbons, revealing the gifts that waited within.

Lightning knelt there as well, invisible and unheard, but she almost felt as though she suddenly wanted to laugh out loud or cry, or perhaps both at the very same time.

The box held gifts of all sorts, souvenirs and little trinkets from what looked like every country in the world, from bottles of fine perfume to mere postcards, seashells plucked away from the ocean foam and delicate silk woven in such long, spiraling designs, but it was what was resting there in the very center, that was what caught Lightning's attention.

"I still go there and put things on it... Flowers, you know." Fang turned to stare at the window, hiding her eyepatch with a slight tilt of her head, but nothing concealed the scar beneath her other eye. "Serah usually goes with me; it's a real nice place, Light, but you just aren't there anymore." She slowly lifted the smallest item from the box, a rounded case, sleek and finely crafted. "Not like here."

And Lightning wanted it, from the way Fang opened the little box, the soft velvet holder for the slim, shining ring; she wanted Fang herself to gently slip it upon her finger, to hear those words, but yet again, time moved on without her.

The cobwebs were soon swept away, the walls and floors scrubbed clean. Strange people brought furniture inside, new and utterly unused. For a moment in time, Lightning felt the first few flickers of fear, for what if the ring itself had meant something else entirely? Why were the people cleaning the apartment if not to rent it out? But she was just a ghost, or rather, a memory of a ghost, hardly capable of influencing the world at all, a victim to simply waiting there in silence, trying not to shout at the way everything was changing, how it all looked so different than before. There weren't any of Fang's paintings, nothing upon the walls, only new carpets and heating fixtures, nothing that truly reminded her of home.

But then, once she had finally holed herself up in the bedroom, hiding there in the midst of such new furniture, nearly on the verge of collapsing into nothingness, to move on towards the great void beyond the realm of life or otherwise... A fluffy black cat wandered in from somewhere outside. Lightning peered at the way it walked with signs of great age, no longer so spry or mischievous. Perhaps there was some merit to the age-old legend, the one that said animals could see or even sense spirits, for it slowly began to approach her presence.

A voice called out from the opposite room. "Kitty?"

But the cat simply settled down and curled itself up beside Lightning's phantom, purring so quietly. She almost wanted to reach out and pet it, but without a physical form of her own, it was utterly impossible.

Soft footsteps echoed in from the living room, yet Lightning didn't dare look away from the cat, not until she could see the way those hands picked it up again, cuddling close to the crook of Fang's neck. Lightning suddenly realized that Fang had grown older as well, not quite middle aged, but somewhat close. Just the sight of her there, holding on to the companion they had once shared, in the place they had once lived within, it swiftly dawned on her that such things weren't meant to be abandoned, and neither was she.

And yet again, time moved on so much faster within a dream, with new things being placed here and there on the new furniture, even an old framed picture of them both, resting upon a small table in the living room. It was also where Fang set down the souvenirs and the tiny, rounded box; perhaps it was a shrine to what had once been, just a slim silver ring upon such soft velvet cloth.

But even when the months moved on, and as Fang spent more and more time in the apartment, reading books or caring for the ailments of the elderly cat, or even staring at that strange device with the changing pictures, even then, there was simply no sign of her paintings.

Lightning lingered there within the general area, sometimes beyond the walls of the apartment, gazing up at the sky, or even in the nearby plazas or parks, just to find a change of pace. Yet she always returned to see if Fang had retaken her passion again, even if it was just to pick up a pencil and doodle something. But it was always the same, the normal routines; Fang would wake up and get showered, pour out a bit of cat food that was dosed with medicine into a bowl, before she would go to work, and then return home without even a single urge to create artwork, not anymore.

It became a waiting game, a test of how much influence Lightning had left upon the world, and she truly tried, pushing and grasping with every ounce of force could muster, just to try and reach Fang again. Lightning had a firm feeling that Fang always sensed how she was there, how her presence wasn't quite bound to a grave, more to the place that she had enjoyed the most of all, to the little comforts of life. And it was only on a particularly rainy day that anything happened at all. It was a drizzly day, a slow, cloudy day, and only then did Lightning move her ghostly form right against where Fang was sitting, before she chose to think upon the rather unique taste of cherry candy.

And it was almost uncanny, the way Fang slowly reached down into one of her pockets to retrieve a piece of it for herself, unwrapping the plastic cover with her fingertips, all while she still focused on a moving picture on that strange device. Lightning swore that she could suddenly taste the sweet, fruity flavor as well, and she nearly wanted to hug Fang for it, or to just pick up a pencil and shove it right within her grasp. It was only see if she could make something again, if she could create an image out of mere colors and lines, anything to know that the Fang she had once known was still in there, somewhere.

But it only happened a few minutes before the movie was over, the sudden exhale of a sigh, the way Fang moved to push the device shut, until she reached out for a stray bit of notepaper and a pen.

"You're making me feel _insane_." Fang murmured each of her words, and she slowly braced the paper down against the flat surface of the laptop, sketching out a handful of things, from swirling flowers to stray feathers, even a tiny black cat at the top corner of the page. "And don't you dare think that I don't know you're there, little bird... Never believed in ghosts before all of this."

Lightning kept herself very close to Fang's body, a wispy sort of presence, lingering there like a plume of soft, invisible smoke.

"It's just tough, Light." Fang glanced over at where the actual cat was lounging upon a nearby windowsill, watching the rain. "I really... Lost it all, for a while." She began to close her visible eye for a moment, before she leaned back a bit. She listened to the low, muffled sounds of the city, from the distant streets and rumbling cars to the patter of falling raindrops, to the deep, rolling peal of thunder, echoing from somewhere very far away. "It felt like there was nothing left."

 _I'm here._ Lightning curled herself against Fang's presence. _Please._

Fang rubbed off a bit of moisture from her cheek, before she reached up to tug her eyepatch away. Lightning could see it, then, the scarred eyelid and the injured eye, for it had never quite healed to the point of a full recovery. Fang began to trace her fingertips over the soft leather surface of the patch, before she set it down against the arm of the sofa.

It was moment or two before Fang returned to her work, slowly drawing out a larger creature within the scattered flowers. Lightning watched the lines of ink swirl much closer together, of scales and slightly jagged points, of a fierce beast in the midst of such soft roses, resting there within the long, curled blades of inky grass.

"I've been dreaming a lot." Fang spoke in a low murmur. "It used to make me want to keep living... And it made me come back and find you again." She drew a dark monster with only one eye, a scaly animal that slept within the flowering field, with wings that almost looked like the limbs of a massive bat, and with a narrow, slender snout, both elegant and wise. "Dreams... Not as crazy as believing in a phantom, but pretty damn close."

Lightning just looked upon the watchful dragon, and upon the human who was soon drawn in beside it, someone in pale robes and a curved hood, with a sword at her hip and just a mere ghost of a smile on her face.

 _The future?_ Lightning could feel the dream shift with time, with the details that Fang drew over the passing moments, perhaps from parts of their own life; there was the cat again, and a bowl of candy in the grass, or a distant forest with hundreds of birds flying up from deep within it, even the eyepatch that she slowly drew in upon the dragon's face. _Or... A mix of both worlds?_

Fang began to hum as she worked, gradually remembering how it all used to feel between her fingertips, the way she used to sketch and draw, to paint entire images with ink or even oils, and she quietly sang about them in low, wordless sounds.

It was a song of one who'd once walked so alone, a single soldier in the fields, but as the moments slipped on and on, Fang almost swore she could hear someone else humming along.

* * *

Another dream stretched on into the early light of day, a dream of a vast, modern world, the same world that Fang had driven all the way home in, then promptly collapsed against her bed and slept without a sound.

There would be time later on, a time for anticipation, time dedicated to greater study, just to prepare herself for further social interaction. She would have to learn what not to ask, of what boundaries might already be in place, but within that moment, Fang simply dreamt of sleeping, and then of waking up to the inescapable scents of breakfast.

With a growl deep inside her stomach, time swirled on until she was standing there in the kitchen with a rather groggy look on her face, accepting a fresh plate of waffles from her roommate, who had to stifle a small giggle at the way Fang merely slumped down against one of the kitchen chairs.

"Long night?" Vanille, that was who had lived with Fang ever since transitioning to adulthood, two orphans who pledged to stay together, no matter what might happen. "Seriously, Fang... You didn't stay out too late, did you?"

Fang shook her head, before she picked up a fork to start wolfing her breakfast down. "Just didn't sleep as well as I'd like."

Vanille sat at the table as well, still holding her own plate of food. "How was it?"

Fang poked her fork against a bit of pooled syrup, and she began to spread it out more evenly. "How was what?"

"You _know_ what..." Vanille picked up a slice of strawberry from her plate. "Concert tickets. What sort of concert was it?"

Fang just grunted quietly.

"Hey." Vanille reached over to tap at one of Fang's hands. "I made you breakfast, the least you can do is not be a big lump and tell me about it... Was it bad?"

Fang sighed, and she shook her head. "No, not bad... Just confusing."

"Confusing?" Vanille leaned back in her chair. "How was it confusing?"

It was a long moment before Fang answered, for she still had to mull the situation over in her own head, just to try and explain it in a way that wouldn't make her sound too insane. "Have you ever made something, and then seen something else... Something about ninety-nine percent identical to it? Enough that it can't possibly be a coincidence."

Vanille just stared at Fang for a while. "Did someone steal one of your songs?"

Fang shook her head again. "No, there was just no way it could have happened... I don't upload them online, don't share them with anyone, not until I'm up on stage, and this one, I've never even played it when I'm not alone." She took a very deep breath, and then went back to eating her breakfast. "It's probably on TV by now, and if it was a live broadcast... Then it'll be all over the internet."

Vanille began to eat her own breakfast as well. "What sort of concert was it?"

Fang thought back to the grand music hall, to the evening gowns and tailored suits, to the chandeliers in the main lobby that sparkled so far above. "Classical... But there was a twist at the end."

"Ooh." Vanille smiled in a rather mischievous way. "What sort of twist?"

"Well, it just..." Fang caught herself smiling as well. "Out of nowhere, they just handed someone this electric violin, and _bang_ , it was like nothing else before it even mattered..."

Vanille's smile began to grow ever so slightly. "You sound a little dreamy about it, Fang."

Fang just waved her off, grunting again.

"Sure, sure." Vanille gave Fang a fake little pout, still digging into her breakfast. "But you only ever sound like _that_ when something really gets to you."

Fang's mind began to wander back to the plain white card that was still waiting there in her jacket pocket, and she prayed that Vanille couldn't see the look she was trying to hide. "...I might have made an acquaintance."

Vanille looked back up from her plate. "An 'acquaintance'."

Fang nodded. "I'm supposed to email her, she wants to hear me play."

Vanille's eyes widened slightly. "Really? Someone you met there?"

And Fang fell silent again, despite the repeated questioning, even the same excited tone that Vanille kept speaking in, hounding her for any details she might let slip, all up until they'd finished breakfast and wandered out into the living room, where Fang finally sat down with a grumble, searching the internet for what Vanille so impatiently wanted to know.

"What is it?" Vanille leaned her arms against the top of the computer chair. "What are you doing, Fang?"

Fang simply navigated her way to one of her favorite music websites, the very same one where she had looked for a place to buy tickets from, and it was hardly surprising to find links to the recorded videos from the event in question. And Vanille's eyes widened again, gazing down at the recordings of the show, so very close to the stage, to the woman dressed in red, and then both white and silver, with the violin that sang so brightly.

"She said-" Fang paused when the song picked up in pace. "She said her name was Lightning."

The excitement seemingly began to triple, and Vanille swiftly went over to her own computer to start listening to the entire performance, all while calling back at Fang to stop lazing around and to go get the email address. It was a command that Fang only obeyed after getting a cup of fruit juice and something more substantial for her headache; the trouble of both an overactive roommate and such a loud concert, it was starting to grind down into an even greater pain inside her head. It was only after doing so that she finally sat back down, gazing at an empty email message, before she gradually began to type.

 _Subject:_ _About that music session, meet-up, whatever you want to call it._

 _Hey. I wouldn't be writing this so soon if I wasn't under the threat of my 'little sister' maiming me for not hopping right to it, so... Here I am, if this isn't just a false email account, of course. It's gotta be annoying getting creeped on after a show, (I know the feeling firsthand,) so if you don't read the rest or respond to this, I totally get it._

 _And I'm sorry for going out there, intending to call you out on something you didn't do. I guess the world is just big enough for two people to write same song? And I'll admit, there were more than a few parts of it that I didn't even think of, but I have the whole ending written down right here in my notebook, so if you still want to hear it on something other than a whistle..._

 _Well, just get back to me whenever you can. No rush._

 _-Fang_

It was only later during the day, in the early afternoon, only then did Vanille call Fang back towards the living room.

"It just got there; can I read this one, too?" Vanille grinned when Fang sat back down upon the computer chair. "Or do you want to look it over first?"

Fang stared at the unopened email. "I'll forward it to you if it isn't... Isn't-"

"Isn't personal?" Vanille just rolled her eyes, before she swiftly skipped away, returning to her own desk. "I swear, you get a girl's number and then it _all_ goes-"

"It's not like that." Fang almost smirked at the tiny pout on Vanille's face. "Come on, just a little privacy."

Vanille merely shrugged, turning her desk chair back around to face her own computer.

It was almost slightly intimidating to finally click upon the email, one which had no subject title other than what Fang had previously written.

 _Hello Fang._

 _There's really no need to apologize for last night, and no need to worry over little sisters, either. I have my own fair share of that back at home._

 _As for getting 'creeped on' after a show, I can't honestly say that I've had that problem very much. My friends usually keep us all covered, and when you can't even see people leering at you... Let's just say it's a problem that tends to take care of itself._

 _I'm still very curious to hear what the continuation would sound like on a proper instrument. I'll admit that I've never heard someone so adept at whistling. It was actually a bit of a shock, to be honest. The song I wrote just_ _happened_ _, pure inspiration, and to hear something that matched it so perfectly, it was very surprising._

 _And yes, I do think that the world is big enough for something like this. I actually spoke about the situation with my own sister, and she's inclined to agree, even if the two of us did scare her a little bit last night... (It's just not very often that I go out of my way to meet new people, and she later told me that she was wondering if her influence was starting to rub off on me.)_

 _My schedule's actually a bit hectic right now, regrettably, so we'll need to plan the meet-up at least a few weeks from now. Would you even believe me if I said that I wanted someone else to perform the song for the first time? There was an interview, one that I'm guessing you might have seen, (if you heard the song before the concert,) and it was the first time I'd ever played it for anyone but my friends._

 _I've found that the media tends to jump on that sort of thing. People who aren't interested in a 'plain' musician sometimes get their attention caught with... 'Alternative selling points.' It almost makes me want to crack someone over the head with my violin. But last night was worth it, at least to see how happy it made everyone in the team. They've been waiting to play it in front of a crowd for a long time._

 _I'm sorry for rambling so much. I'm actually procrastinating something quite close to that very same subject... Maybe if you reply quick enough, I can keep hiding out here and write back, at least until my sister drags me away to answer their dumb questions again._

 _-Lightning_

Fang slowly leaned back in her chair, thinking over everything that Lightning had written. She soon forwarded the email to Vanille, and then she began to type out her reply.

 _Hey again, Lightning._

 _Interviews on a weekend, huh? That's gotta be rough... To be honest, I've never much liked them either. The sort of folks who listen to my stuff, they hardly ever have the attention span to actually watch them, anyway. :P_

 _But I really feel you about the media thing. I've had friends before with stuff that gets people going for no real reason, quirks and little things, the 'flavors of the month' that people start to admire and then obsess over, but then they forget about it once something else catches their eye. It's not a fair thing, and I want you to know that it's not why I'm offering to do this with you._

 _I'm actually a little curious about something in a similar vein, and I'm hoping that this isn't weird to ask, but is someone reading what I write to you and typing back your reply? (Or is there such a thing as a braille keyboard?) I'm just wondering if there's a middleman, here._

 _Let's hope they haven't dragged you off for interrogation yet. :)_

Fang went back to proofread the email, before she sent if off and turned around in her chair, glancing over at Vanille. "You hungry for lunch yet?"

Vanille was still reading the previous forwarded reply. "What does she mean by 'alternative selling points'..?"

Fang kept very quiet for a long moment, before she looked back down at the plain card that still rested upon her desk. "She's blind, Vanille."

Vanille swiveled her chair around almost immediately. "You're serious?"

Fang nodded. "It doesn't show much on camera, but in person, you can tell that her eyes don't really track anything." She turned back to the web browser, searching for a certain page that she'd looked at before. "I was reading about it earlier... It says some people who are legally blind can still see certain movements or levels of brightness, stuff like that... But last night, I had to step around a bit just for her to figure out where I was."

Vanille didn't say anything for a brief while. "You really wouldn't know it by watching her, there..."

"Yeah." Fang soon stood up from her chair, stretching out her arms. "Lunch, then?"

They were soon in the midst of making sandwiches and pouring a few glasses of fruit juice, all while they spoke about the day ahead, from the very same emails to what Vanille had to work on during the afternoon, and if Fang would also be practicing at the same point in time.

"It actually does help me focus, just when you stick to the quieter stuff." Vanille carried her plated sandwich and a glass of juice back into the living room, following after Fang. "Unless you're gonna keep emailing your friend all day..?"

Fang rolled her eyes at the sly tone in Vanille's voice. "We're not friends yet."

" _Yet_." Vanille smiled and sat down in her chair, spinning slowly in place. "And _also!_ You can't rely on just your looks now, either, you've got to be interesting on your own!"

Fang sighed under her breath. "She's way out of my league, Vanille, even for friends."

Vanille stopped swiveling in her chair for a moment. "Why's that?"

Fang tried not to frown, and as she reached out for a small bite of her sandwich, she noticed a new email in the inbox. "Because she was playing for a packed concert hall in the middle of Eden... Because her email domain is short for 'Eden Academy of Music'."

Vanille began to nibble at her sandwich as well. "And why does that mean you can't be friends?"

Fang almost scoffed. "Because almost everyone in Eden is a gigantic snob... You've seen the people I play for; they aren't the type for finery and evening gowns."

Vanille just smiled to herself, and her voice took on an almost singsong quality. "Maybe I still don't see your point..." She turned in her chair again, glancing around at the room. "Because all you're saying is that she was playing music in a fancy place and goes to a fancy music school... Not that you couldn't be friends."

Fang merely shrugged, before she started to open the next unread email.

 _Negative, interrogation imminent. Please send immediate supply drops of both pepper spray and those stupid fluffy doughnut things you can get at the corner store in order avoid a severe increase of crankiness. (They haven't dragged me off just yet; my sister's still placating them in the lobby, but who knows how long that will last...)_

 _And yes, I'm on my personal laptop right now, hiding out in a broom closet, or somewhere just as cramped. I can't really tell without sticking my hand in something that I'd rather not experiment with. Neither my laptop or my phone has braille keys. I have heard of some keyboards that have them, but I've never needed one. It's not too hard to memorize button placement, and I also have an application that relays text to audio and my own voice back to text, so there's no middleman, just me._

 _Would the first Friday of next month work for you? My calendar has that entire weekend off, so if either of the next two days would work better, just let me know._

Fang looked away, slowly shaking her head. "Silly girl..." She smiled to herself. "Hiding out in a broom closet."

Vanille turned around with a rather curious look on her face. "What's she doing that for?"

"Hiding, like I said." Fang began to type in yet another reply. "This might get even more interesting."

Time passed with each day and night, with lone practice sessions and the exchange of more emails than Fang could ever count, ranging from merely the mundane to topics she never quite believed she could write. It was after a few days that Lightning suggested they use an instant messaging system, for with her busy schedule, it proved rather hard for her to keep editing long replies into coherent paragraphs, and that simple conversations would be much easier for her to manage.

Fang was resting one night with a book in her hands and her phone on the arm of her chair, and she glanced up when a quiet buzz made the device wobble back and forth.

A new text from Lightning hovered at the bottom of the screen. _Wrote up a few new rough drafts._

Fang set her book down against her lap to type out a reply. _Send them over for me to try out?  
_

It took a moment or two for Lightning to respond. _I'll do so as soon as I get home. I've been looking over the documents you sent me._

Fang smiled to herself. _'Looking?'_ It seemed that Lightning was often rather fond of such humor, so much so that Fang felt comfortable enough to reciprocate.

 _Hah. Serah helped me to get more than a few of them translated, so you could say I've been 'feeling' them up._ There was a long pause. _How long have you been writing music?_

Fang glanced up at the moonlight on the ceiling, which was slightly hidden by the glow of the lamp from the living room table. She took a brief while just to think, before she began to tap out her reply. _I had a friend when I was really little, she knew how to play the harmonica, and only that... But she could write up better music than anyone else I ever knew back then._

After a moment or two, Lightning texted back. _So you followed her example?_

 _Yeah._ Fang took a very deep breath, gazing up at the window, and at the distant crescent moon. _She helped me make something back then. It kind of looked like a messed-up harp, but it made good enough noise, at least for us kids._

 _The next reply almost seemed to bump against the bottom of the screen._ _Did she help you write the ones you sent me?_

Fang's expression faltered, slowly fading, and it was a long while before she could even think of the right words to type. _No. I don't know where she is now. Kids in the system, you don't get much choice in the matter._

A long moment passed by without reply. _I'm sorry, Fang._

 _Don't be._ Fang urged herself to try and smile. _It's just life, you know? Shit happens._

There was a long pause, long enough that Fang almost went back to her book, but another buzz from her phone brought her attention to the screen. _Serah and I were almost put in there, the system. But I was old enough, and our parents left us enough for me to finish school and get into the academy. It was the scholarship that really made it happen. I know what it's like to be without them._

Fang just stared at the screen of her phone.

 _Your sister, you took care of her?_

Fang slowly started to type again. _Yeah. We're not sisters by blood, but in a foster home, you need all the friends you can get. We're still roommates, now._

 _I'm glad you have her._

Fang smiled to herself. _Thanks, Lightning._

 _Call me Light._

And with the passing time, she felt as the dream twisted by with yet another jump, of nights and days and steady rainfall, and it was on one such day that she began to strap a rather large carrying case to her back, bringing it out towards where her motorcycle was waiting inside the garage.

Vanille waved and called out from the door that led back inside the little house. "If you're not gonna be back by dinner, call and let me know!"

Fang waved back at her, starting up the motorcycle and checking one last time to make sure that her cello case was secure against her back, before she drove on down across the front driveway with a rumble of sound, traveling off into the width of the suburban street. It was still early in the day, a drizzly sort of morning that often hinted a bit of sun beyond the gaps in the clouds, but not much else.

She drove further and further into the sleepy city, past her usual haunts downtown, venues and bars, occasionally larger concerts, or group events and freestyling performances, but none of those places held her attention, at least not at that moment in time. There was someone else waiting for her on that rainy little Friday morning, someone who seemed almost too perfect, too close to her various interests and upbringing, but Fang wasn't one to question her luck, at least not for long.

The highways soon greeted her with fine sprays of rainy mist, nothing too damaging against her thick leather jacket, but it made her helmet a bit foggy, so she kept to the lanes without many vehicles in front of her. It was the freedom, she thought, the mobility of the motorcycle that truly appealed to her, but the style and inherent factor of coolness didn't much hurt, either.

The hours passed by in a blur, a long drive up to Eden, to the capital of Cocoon, a place that Fang scarcely even believed she was visiting of her own accord, of her own desire to show Lightning exactly what she was capable of.

It was nearly noon by the time she finally drew to a brief halt, checking her cellphone for directions, before Fang turned her motorcycle down onto a long, quiet street, a cul-de-sac with many flowering hedges and colorful gardens, of vines that trailed up along many of the cute little brick houses. She drove up the incline of the street, towards the very end of the road, and that was where she finally caught sight of the house she was looking for, one that stood rather privately between twin patches of pine trees.

Fang parked near the edge of the driveway, careful not to disturb the lawn, before she pushed the kickstand down and pulled off her helmet, where she shook out that dry, itchy feeling from her head, the kind that always happened from such long drives without being able to adjust her hair. She moved away from the seat, slowly approaching the front walkway of the house, before she reached down into her jacket pocket for her cellphone, just to make sure that she had indeed arrived on time.

The sound of her shoes brushing against the stone tile made Fang's stomach twist into knots, just a physical reminder that she was indeed going to be near Lightning's presence again, no longer just speaking over texts. It was enough to make her pause for a moment, silently steeling herself. How had it been so much simpler to trespass her way backstage and approach her there? Shouldn't it have felt _easier_ after all of the correspondence?

Her fingertips felt slightly clammy when she tapped at the doorbell, listening to the quiet chime that echoed out beyond the walls. Fang drew in another deep breath, and she slowly forced herself to relax. If she just separated the fact that they'd met under any other circumstances, that this was merely her texting friend, just someone who loved music as much as she did, perhaps it might be just enough to calm her nerves.

It was only after a moment or two that the door creaked open, but it wasn't Lightning who greeted her. The young woman who Fang could only assume was Serah, she was standing there, the spitting image of her older sister.

"You must be Fang..." Serah stepped down towards the step that Fang was standing on, and she offered her a rather cautious, yet gentle handshake. "I've been hearing a lot about you."

Fang smiled softly, and she noticed that Serah was glancing up at the cello case. "Lightning's sister."

Serah nodded. "Serah Farron." She soon stepped back up into the front entryway of the house, gesturing for Fang to follow. "Light's already getting things set up." Serah paused, before she quietly closed the door behind Fang. "The practice room is down in the basement."

Fang took a moment just to look at the hallway around her, at the small rack of keys labeled with tiny dots, and at the umbrella stand that was also propping up a long, white cane with an orange mark at the end, reflective enough to be seen at a distance.

"I'll show you there." Serah gave Fang a wary sort of smile, likely still getting accustomed to the reason that she was visiting in the first place. "I've actually got to thank you... Don't tell Light I said this, but I haven't seen her get so excited in a long time."

"Oh?" Fang kept glancing around as Serah guided her further down the hall, towards the small junction that led to another door, which was already open to reveal the flight of stairs that waited beneath. "Sounds like I've got my work cut out for me, then."

Serah smiled, perhaps just a bit less anxious than before, and she began to walk down the carpeted stairs. "I suppose you do." She leaned over the thin rails of the stairway, and she quietly called out. "Light, you okay there..?"

Fang leaned in to see that Lightning was in the midst of adjusting the inner parts of an amplifier, feeling her way around inside the mechanism.

"Yeah." Lightning turned her head somewhat to face them, still fiddling with the wires. "Please don't tell me it was just another door-to-door salesman."

Fang smiled to herself, before she chuckled softly under her breath. "Would you like to purchase a subscription for cable television, ma'am?"

Lightning's expression almost seemed to brighten. "It _is_ you."

"The one and only." Fang soon started on down the stairs, making sure that her cello case didn't bump into the wall or the railing, before she felt her feet touch down against the hard floor of the basement. "Nice setup you've got here..."

"It works well, big enough for decent acoustics." Lightning started to feel around the floor for her screwdriver, before she picked up the back of the amplifier, which she then set back down against the main device. "And for the record, we don't have cable."

"Internet streaming, then?" Fang looked back up and winked at Serah, who just smiled and slowly shook her head.

"Pretty much." Lightning stood up to carry the amplifier a short distance away, before she placed it down near one of the basement walls. "This one's given up the ghost."

"Oh." Serah leaned over the railing of the stairway to see the device in greater detail. "And it was a good one, too..."

"We still have the others." Lightning tilted her head slightly when she heard Fang walking against the floor, and she only spoke when the sound went silent again. "You brought your notes with you?"

Fang almost nodded on reflex, before she cleared her throat and spoke. "I've got everything."

Lightning almost smiled, and she walked over to touch the back of a folding chair. "That's good." She slowly sat down and turned her head towards the stairwell. "Still there, Serah?"

"Yeah." Serah glanced between her sister and Fang. "Do you need me for anything?"

Lightning shook her head. "Thank you, though."

Serah smiled to herself. "Have a good time."

It was a moment or two before the door clicked shut from above, and only then did Lightning speak again. "I _hate_ those stairs." Her tone held just the slightest hint of amusement. "I can barely even hear it whenever she's sneaking up on me."

Fang glanced at the stairway. "Because of the carpet?"

Lightning nodded. "It muffles the footsteps." She slowly began to relax against the chair. "Sit if you like."

Fang stepped over towards the opposite seat, and she sat down, but not before she lifted up the shoulder strap of her cello case, setting it down beside her feet.

"Is this the one you were talking about?" Lightning leaned forward at the sound of the instrument case touching the floor. "The electric cello."

"Yeah." Fang reached for the zipper of the case. "It's, uh... Got a name, but it might be a little strange to say it out loud."

"You can tell me if you want." Lightning listened to the sounds of the zipper, and then to the rustle of paper from a compartment inside the case, likely Fang's composition notes. "What, is it something inappropriate?"

Fang chuckled quietly. "No, nothing like that." She soon peered at the sleek device, tall and narrow with many strings of a metallic sheen. "This is Highwind."

Lightning almost seemed to smile. "Wouldn't that be better suited for a flute?"

Fang smiled as well, slowly lifting the instrument case away. "Sure, but I don't think you could find a flute half as cool as this sucker." She took the cello bow out from a side compartment, along with a neatly-tied bundle of cables. "Have you tried out the latest one I sent you?"

Lightning reached over towards a small table beside her chair, and she felt around for the sheets of printed plastic, all coded in the language of tiny bumps. "I've tried to memorize them, but I haven't played the newest ones out loud." She held the braille notes upon her lap, tracing her fingertips over each line. "You sent part of _your_ song, didn't you?"

Fang took a very deep breath. "Yep."

"It's almost... Too perfect." Lightning kept touching over each row of the dotted symbols. "I haven't gone insane, have I?"

"I don't think so." Fang set her own notes down upon a nearby coffee table. "And believe me, I've been asking myself the same thing for weeks, now."

"One big coincidence..." Yet even as she said it, Lightning didn't sound very sure. "Should we get started, them?"

They spent a bit of time tuning the strings of their respective instruments, and also hooking Fang's cello up to the amplifiers, for Lightning's violin had a wireless transmitter on the side.

"Must be handy." Fang took a moment to examine the well-hidden device. "Hard to imagine carrying a cello around like that..."

Lightning just kept testing the sounds of the strings, adjusting the pegs at the very top of the board. "Do you know how many rehearsals that little stunt took?" She almost seemed to smile again, but it was hidden ever so slightly. "I stopped counting the times I ran into something."

Fang frowned a bit. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"

"No." Lightning began to test the tune again, and she finally seemed satisfied. "Maybe a few bruises, but it's not like I care much about those."

Fang settled back into her chair with the cello between her knees, holding the bow just above the strings. "Are you ready?"

Lightning lifted the violin beneath her chin. "We should try a practice round, first."

Fang nodded. "Which song?"

Lightning seemed to think it over for a moment, readying her bow. "...Do you know _'Pride of the Palisades o'er Cocoon'?_ "

Fang narrowed her eyes by a slight degree. "That's a folk song."

Lightning nodded. "Gran Pulsian." She leaned back against her seat as well. "Your accent is pretty telling."

Fang glanced down at her cello, and she slowly envisioned the grand mountainsides at the border of Gran Pulse and Cocoon, the 'Palisades', as they were called, for they were massive walls of natural solid rock, a physical piece of history from several different stories, in times of war or otherwise. "Glad to know it's still audible."

Lightning almost looked confused. "It's very strong."

Fang shrugged. "Maybe I've just stopped noticing the difference." She slowly lowered her voice to a soft murmur, and she started to count out the beats.

It was sudden then, the sound, the way it filled the room with such steady music, an old song of numerous travelers, just a simple tune of the hope they held for better days. Lightning kept in time with Fang's cello almost perfectly, other than a few missteps in the pacing, which was the whole purpose for practice, after all. Fang brought in the low notes, the background, gently drawing her bow against the strings, while Lightning soon took the lead with a higher pitch and a swifter pace, the voice of the song and the story, of the travelers who all once walked over the same well-worn paths.

Fang vaguely remembered the song from a time when she was very new to Cocoon, a time when old stories were traded beside the campfire without pause, told by those who seemed older than the land itself. A caravan, she remembered, migrants searching for a life within the strong cities of Cocoon, yet still proud enough of their own heritage to pass it down in music, in tales and fables and art. Just a simple little song, akin to brief bedtime lullabies or schoolyard chants, rhymes that stuck to the mind like old, twisty pathways in the woods, almost in a way that brought surprise whenever it was so clearly remembered.

They kept on for a good while, even past the second chorus, but when it became clear that they were both well within the reach of their own proverbial wavelengths, silence began to fill the room again.

"You weren't kidding." Lightning moved the violin down from her chin for just a moment. "You're no slacker, Fang."

Fang felt herself smile softly. "Neither are you."

Lightning reached for the plastic notes again, reading them one last time, before she lifted the violin back up beneath her chin. "Should I start?"

"Yes." And Fang listened, waiting for that first stroke of sound, the single spark of noise, the gathering strength, the song that echoed out into every facet of her mind. "That's good, Light."

Lightning continued without speaking, and she slowly drew the bow back and forth, playing the song of the lonely warrior, the very first half of their story.

Fang closed her eyes just to envision the physical scene of the melody, of a figure who stood alone in the world, a swordsman in the fields, a lone rider on the path. She could almost feel the gentle winds in her hair, the feeling of the dusty ground beneath her boots, or even the gathering sounds that echoed off in the distance, the quickened pace, a bird suddenly taking flight from atop a tall branch.

It was mere moments before Fang began as well, low and steady, the deep sounds of the earth beneath their feet, the tall trees within the forest, noise drawn forth in a traditional way, in the natural sounds of a cello.

Lightning kept on with the higher notes, the increasing pace of a violin, moving quicker and quicker with each swift breath that she took, each moment that passed by in such sounds, the high warbling of a bird or the sharper calls of a beast, for the instrument she held didn't rely on size alone.

It was simple at first, simple in nature, their rapid dance upon the strings, back and forth, back and forth again, yet at the very height of the peaks, at the bridge between chasms of depth and complexity, nearer to where Lightning had once stopped before, Fang suddenly broke routine. The cello was far more versatile than it might have seemed at first glance, and she smirked to herself when Lightning almost jumped at the sudden clap of sound, a strike of thunder in the midst of such steady rainfall, a sharp, simple drag of her bow against the strings, almost quicker than her own eyes could track.

But Lightning herself kept steady, kept to the detailed notes that she had previously read, and they grew further together, rising up to such impossible heights, mere eagles on the wind, subject to the whims of their own feathers and the rush of air beneath their wings, and that was when Fang's headstrong nature spoke yet again, only without words.

A keening sound, a cry to match the sharper teeth of a violin, fingers that adjusted rapidly against the upper strings of a modern cello, for it was a maneuver that nearly matched the wails of an electric guitar, only far deeper in intensity. Lightning still kept up the pace, listening so closely that it felt like no other sounds could exist, as if the noise that rose up like massive, rapid waves, like the feeling of gale winds against her skin, of her heartbeat thrumming so forcefully in her ears, it felt as if nothing else mattered at all.

Fang drew the song to greater heights, deeper intensity, continuing on from where Lightning had left it upon the tallest peak of the world, just scraping the clouds; she kept it moving, kept playing, further and further into the depths of the mighty, endless sky.

She could tell somehow, within the vibrant dream, that Lightning already felt like she was floating, like her feet weren't even there upon the floor. Fang almost struggled to keep her own breath steady, even when her mind kept screaming for her to match the intensity, the sheer loudness of the noise. It was a race of both thoughts and actions, of keeping one stride right there behind the next, of balancing high upon that tightrope, so far above the shimmering scope of the night, the grand stars that Lightning had only been able to read about in storybooks, the galaxies beyond their own deep blue sky. And Fang brought it to her, the sights she would never see, the scenes of birds in midair, in a graceful plummet from the outer reaches of the world, still keening, still striking her bow against the strings, those claps of each mighty shock wave, enough to make her feel like the earth was nearly about to tremble and crack.

And they grew to the very highest peak of the song, the pinnacle, past the rapid and steely crescendo and the roaring flame of the heart itself, so climatic, without bounds, a bridge beyond the physical senses, deep into the mind, into the world beyond their own limitations, the sheer ecstasy of sound.

It might have been on instinct that they finally drew to a close, to the last conclusion, to lower, longer notes and gradual tones, to the armies returning from such a long, weary battle, the dragon roaming back into its warm and earthly den.

Lightning looked as though her muscles ached with the sheer effort, but she kept going, kept playing her violin until the song finally came to a end, where she let her arms go slack, slowly leaning back against her seat.

Fang watched a thin trickle of sweat as it dripped down from her own forehead, moving against her nose. She'd played roughly enough to fray the hairs of the cello bow, which was non-damaging to the overall sound, but a signal of hard effort, nonetheless.

Lightning set her violin down against her lap, and she took a very long moment just to breathe, lost in the silence of the empty world, so soundless without their song. She still listened closely, breathing in slow little breaths, before she heard the echo of a much heavier instrument being set down against a different surface.

"That was..." Fang trailed off, slowly standing up from the chair. "I don't know what to call it."

Lightning huffed a quiet breath, and her mouth hinted at a small smile. "How did you make that sound?"

Fang glanced back down at her cello. "Which one?"

"The loudest one." Lightning soon leaned forward in her chair, before she placed her violin atop the nearby table. "Almost like a sharp drumbeat... I've never heard a cello make that kind of noise."

Fang stepped back over towards her own instrument, yet it was only a moment or two before she carried it over to where Lightning was still sitting, positioning the strings for her to feel it.

"Fang?" Lightning went very still when she heard Fang set the cello stand down, and then the instrument itself. "What are you doing?"

"Can I hold your hand to show you?" Fang knelt beside the chair. "It's simple, really."

Lightning took less than a moment to think it over. "Okay." She almost looked hesitant at the first touch of Fang's hand upon her own, but when her fingertips brushed against the smooth metal of the instrument itself, her expression shifted to that of curiosity. "It's not even hollow, is it?"

Fang shook her head. "It's mostly the board and strings, and then the decorative metal to make it look like a cello." She moved Lightning's hand up to touch the strings themselves. "I can pluck it like a guitar, or drag the bow right over it to make that louder sound."

Lightning began to move her fingertips against the metal wires, before she gently strummed at a few of them. She listened to the sounds it made, feeling as each vibration echoed right beneath her own skin.

"Sounds nice, doesn't it?" Fang slowly stood up again, and she let go of Lightning's hand. "But I think it sounds even better when yours is playing beside it."

Lightning's lip twitched slightly, another hinted smile. "You're good enough to play for bigger crowds."

Fang paused, standing between each chair. "I've played concerts before."

"More than that." Lightning lowered her words to a murmur. "You're talented. It comes naturally, you can just tell by the way it sounds."

Fang reached up to run her wrist against her own forehead, before she stepped away, back towards the other chair. "I dunno, Light." She soon sat down again, gazing out at the pale blue, almost milky hue of Lightning's eyes. "It's not that I don't think I'm capable; I'm not modest, you know... It's just a question of where I want to be."

Lightning sat there for a while, thinking silently, before she slightly turned her head to face the basement stairwell. "We have something here that I've never heard before... We have a song that comes from somewhere I didn't even know existed." She let her eyelids slip shut, though it made little difference to the world around her. "I don't know, either. I don't like publicity, but I still think something like this should be shared."

Fang reached for her notepapers, stacking them up neatly, before she tucked them back down inside her cello case. "You already shared it."

Lightning opened her eyes again. "Half of it... I didn't have your half." She gently crossed her arms against her lap. "They want more, Fang, but it's yours. It's not mine to share."

"...We should take a break, right?" Fang stared at the sheer fatigue on Lightning's face, the strain that came from far more than an average effort in instrumentation. "Maybe we can play something else after that."

Lightning slowly nodded, before she rose back up to her feet. "It should be around lunchtime; have you eaten yet?"

"No, but I don't always-" Fang paused when Lightning suddenly reached out to feel for where her arm was. "Don't always stop for lunch."

Lightning found the curve of Fang's wrist and let her fingertips hover against it. "You shouldn't skip meals." She tilted her head to face where Fang's voice was coming from. "You're taller than me, aren't you?"

Fang glanced at the top of Lightning's head. "By a few inches, maybe."

"I thought so." Lightning let her own hand drift away. "Have you ever made a panini before?

"No... Not unless it's the same as grilled cheese?" Fang watched the way that Lightning turned to move towards the stairway, walking in between the folding chairs and the various amplification devices, before she reached out for the stairwell banister to feel her way around. "Light, we could just do something simple-"

"They're simple." Lightning waited near the bottom of the stairs. "You coming?"

Fang almost felt at a loss, just for a moment, but she began to walk forward again, leaving her cello standing right there in the basement. "It feels like you're outrunning me."

Lightning turned her head away to hide another smile. "Should I slow down?"

"No." Fang smiled as well, following her up the stairs and towards the closed doorway, where Lightning reached out for the handle and opened their way up to the ground floor. "I'll just have to keep up with you, Light."

"I think you can do it." Lightning turned to face the other end of the hallway, and she led the way down towards a rather open kitchen, one that was connected to a small living room with a much larger table for group events. She merely walked over to what looked like a breadbox, feeling around for the handle in order to take out a package of fresh ciabatta bread. "Here, I'll teach you."

"Okay." Fang smiled softly again, and she watched how Lightning felt around the outside package of the bread, searching for the opening. "I've only had them in sandwich shops."

"It's much cheaper to make them at home." Lightning turned to face the other doorway, before she called out in a slightly louder tone. "Serah?"

It was just a moment before Serah called back. "Yeah?"

Lightning kept holding the package of bread. "Have you had lunch yet?"

"Nope." Serah stayed quiet for a moment. "Are you making something?"

Lightning set the bread down against the counter. "Panini."

Serah called back. "Count me in, then."

Lightning walked over to wash her hands in the sink, soaping them rather thoroughly, and she was rather careful to scrub at her fingertips in particular. "You won't mind if I have to touch some of this, right?"

Fang stepped over as well, waiting to wash her hands. "Touch?"

"I usually can't tell if the food is right unless I can touch it." Lightning held up her hands to show off the soap suds. "Hence the washing."

Fang smiled a bit. "Washing's a good idea either way." She waited for Lightning to rinse off her hands and step back. "And no, I don't mind."

Lightning reached out to find the texture of a paper towel holder, and she pulled off a few pieces to dry her hands. "Do you like tomatoes?"

"Yeah." Fang soon washed her hands as well, scrubbing just as carefully as Lightning had done. "There's not a whole lot of things I don't like."

Lightning knelt down beside the refrigerator, and she reached in to search around for a mesh package of ripe tomatoes, feeling them by unusual surface beneath her fingertips, before she found a container of mozzarella cheese with the braille label that Serah had printed out for her, which was also how she identified a small box with fresh basil.

"Fancy, eh?" Fang stepped aside to let Lightning place the ingredients down on the counter. "I'll have to think of something to return the favor."

"You don't have to do that." Lightning reached up into one of the cabinets for a small bulb of garlic, which she removed a single clove from. "I invited you here, it's only fair that I try to be a good host."

"Well, yeah." Fang watched how Lightning removed the thin outer layer from the garlic clove. "But what if I want to do the same thing?"

Lightning paused, before she reached out for the package of bread. "Then you'd have to invite me somewhere."

Fang felt her mouth easing back into a warm smile, soft and fulfilling, rather like the bright little flutters that still traveled around within her chest. "Teach me this, first."

Lightning fought back a smile of her own. "We'll need a bread knife." She moved over to reach for one of the wooden racks, long before Fang could even reply. "Could you get the wide skillet out from the cabinet beside the oven?"

Fang soon knelt down to find the place she meant. "The one with the weird handle?"

"That's it." Lightning started to carefully cut up the bread into slices, feeling her way over each one to make sure that they were all quite even in width. "Serah's been bugging me to get an actual panini press, but it almost feels like cheating."

Fang stood back up with the skillet, and she carried it over towards the stove. "Should I get the heat going?"

"Yeah, about medium." Lightning reached up for the cabinets again, returning with a bottle of olive oil. "But put a little bit of this on it first, and spread it out evenly."

Fang did as she asked, but she also watched the way that Lightning started to swiftly chop up the tomatoes into slices, as well as the mozzarella cheese. "...You look like the chefs they have on TV."

Lightning moved over to pick up the garlic clove. "Why's that?"

"You do it _fast_." Fang watched as the olive oil started to shimmer above the heat of the stove. "I can see why your name's Lightning."

Lightning paused, before she began to rub the clove of garlic against each outer crust of the bread slices. "It wasn't always that." She moved slightly to the side. "Hand me the olive oil?"

Fang did so, and she kept watching the preparation process, the way Lightning spread just a tiny bit of oil over the inner sides of the bread, before she placed the cheese down on top of it, and then the tomatoes, then both a dash of salt and pepper, and then yet another layer of cheese.

"You might start to feel like a different person, sometimes." Lightning repeated the steps on the other sandwiches, with the oil, cheese and tomato, seasoning, more cheese, and then another slice of bread. "Enough to need a different name."

Fang glanced down at the skillet on the stove, which was already starting to let off a slight bit of steam.

"These are ready." Lightning stepped over, gently brushing against Fang's arm, before she reached over to feel the heat above the pan. "And this should be ready in just a minute."

"Just like grilled cheese?" Fang paused when Lightning reached down for her wrist again. "...Fancy grilled cheese."

Lightning lifted one of Fang's hands. "It's okay if I show you like this?"

Fang glanced back at the stove. "Yeah."

Lightning used her left arm to reach for the sandwiches, and she used her right arm to move Fang's hand, helping her hold the sandwich as well. "We'll just set these down in the pan."

Fang did as she asked, letting Lightning guide her into positioning it correctly upon the wide, warm skillet, and they'd soon placed all three sandwiches within the heat.

"Most recipes say to put the bread down first and layer on the rest of it on top from the pan itself." Lightning smiled a bit, before she let go of Fang's wrist to brush her own fingertips together. "That's just a little out of my league, though."

"I'd bet it turns out just as well." Fang watched how the bottom slice of bread began to change color, slowly and gradually over the course of a couple minutes. "Do we need to flip these?"

Lightning reached down before Fang could react, swiftly tapping at one of the lower slices of bread with her fingernails. "In a moment or two."

Fang's eyes nearly widened at the sight of it. "Don't give me a heart attack, Light... How does that not burn you?"

Lightning shrugged. "I'm just quick enough."

Fang almost felt the urge to laugh. "...You see why it feels like you're outpacing me?"

"We'll need a pan lid to press these down." Lightning gave Fang just the tiniest hint of a smirk. "And I've heard you play far faster than anything I'm doing here... I think you'll adapt."

Fang felt a smirk tugging her lips as well, and from deep within the dream, from how she could feel those warm flutters echoing against her heart again, she soon moved on over to follow Lightning's directions, aiding with the rest of their preparation.

* * *

It was fully dawn by the time that Fang let her eyes drift open again, and she felt a brief sense of disorientation from waking up in a strange place. But when she felt the warmth of Lightning's body against her own, it made her stop and think, remembering the events that had occurred. She could hear the soft conversations and sounds of slumber from their fellow bunkmates, the people of the women's sleeping quarters, from those so very faithful to Etro, friends of Lightning by the bonds of mutual faith.

It was that realization that made Fang relax again, snuggling right back beneath the blankets, before she leaned in to whisper softly against Lightning's ear. "Hey, Light."

But Lightning didn't yet wake, sleeping so silently, and it was only when Fang rubbed such gentle hands against her back that the started to stir.

"It's already dawn." Fang felt a twinge of relief that none of the women around them seemed to care that they had slept beside each other. "We should get up."

Lightning mumbled something rather incoherent, and it took a bit more of a massage just to wake her up enough for clearer speaking.

"Hey." Fang stared into those keen blue eyes, no longer so cloudy, yet she found that the very sight of them didn't change her inner feelings at all, still so comforting to look upon. "Did you sleep well?"

Lightning yawned, and she nodded against the woven pillowcase. "Weird dreams." She suddenly looked at Fang in a rather searching way, gazing deep into her eyes as if there was something different to be found there, even if they hadn't changed at all. "There was a forest at first, animals... And then-" Lightning leaned in to whisper even more quietly. "Do you remember a ghost?"

Fang's brow furrowed in confusion. "A ghost?"

Lightning nodded. "From who we were before."

Fang thought over all of her past memories for a long, silent moment, but she merely shook her head. "No, no ghosts."

Lightning suddenly closed her eyes. "Then I hope you remember it soon."

And Fang just stayed there, resting upon the blanketed cot, gently running her hands down against Lightning's back. She thought of the invisible fingerprint that they both carried, a signature of both physical certainty and a unique form of natural chaos. Within a certain world, from a different upbringing, a whole other life, a different personality, regardless of fate, it would naturally grow in the way that it had been fostered, but perhaps in a much more unusual way, occasionally.

A slightly more jovial sort of Lightning, for example, one who often joked in her own way about the fact that she'd been born differently, more than a bit teasing of those who walked on such eggshells around her. She tried so much to make them realize that she was hardly any different from themselves, and that the life she lived, a world without images or vision, that it only meant that she had to make do with the other senses she'd been given.

"We should get up." Lightning looked over at where she'd folded up her new garments during the previous night, for she was wearing only her short underclothes beneath the bed sheets. "There's a lot we still need to do."

Fang nodded, and within a silent moment of touch and movement, she gently kissed at Lightning's cheek.


	32. Flock Mentality

There was something to be spoken upon the nature of Etro's followers, on the sheer amount of trust that they seemed to hold for each other. Fang began to wonder if it was truly because of what Lightning had said, that they merely took the power of the charms to be enough proof of one's ability and faith, or if it was simply some level of internal instinct.

The day itself was only just beginning. There was enough daylight to see without candles, at least by the time a rather prominent woman introduced herself to both Lightning and Fang; she was an older, more experienced individual than most of the other hunters they had met, and she looked just as much of a warrior in her nightclothes than in anything else Fang could imagine. And it was true that many of their bunkmates looked to be of varying physique, as some seemed more suited to a life of academic studies than to any sort of combat, yet most of them were either very lean and wiry, or muscular enough to fight toe to toe with any sort of feral beast they might wander across.

"It's good to meet you... My name is Heloise." The woman shook hands with both Fang and Lightning, and as they introduced themselves in turn, they both found that there was a rather strong grip to the gesture. "I haven't seen the two of you around here, new recruits?"

Lightning moved to stand up from the edge of the bed. "We're guests, technically."

"Ah." Heloise smiled at Lightning. "Then it's good to have you here in a time like this... But it might not be the best time for sightseeing." She glanced over at Fang. "The boss mentioned guests, now that I think about it; I suppose it's up to me to show you both around today."

Fang reached over to pick up her daily clothes from the small bedside table. "And why's that?"

Heloise smiled again. "Ah, we take shifts every day, those who live here in the operating base, the compound... Today the girls make the meals, and tomorrow the boys take their turn, and the schedule repeats each day." She turned to gesture towards a few of the nearby denizens, the women of the sleeping hall. "You all ready to get moving?"

Only a few of their fellow bunkmates were still sleeping, and most of the ones who were seemed to be bandaged up or recovering from bruises of recent combat, perhaps a scuffle in the streets, or even an animal wound. Yet most of them, the women who were slowly waking up to start their day, they either nodded or murmured in agreement.

"Alright then..." Heloise gestured for Lightning and Fang to follow after her. "Baths first, then breakfast." She repeated a similar phrase later on down the rows of bunks, calling out for the women of the hall to follow her.

Heloise must have been some sort of administrator, Fang thought, for even if Noel had sounded rather adamant that the Children of Etro had no true leader, perhaps that was merely more of a formality. It almost seemed to her that whoever the person in charge was at any given time, that perhaps the commands they gave weren't as stringent as they might seem, or perhaps it was all based upon an honor system, with those who felt naturally inclined to lead would choose to do so in more relaxed, natural terms.

It was certainly something to think about, especially when the both of them were led towards a rather large bathhouse, one that was connected to the sleeping quarters. It was a wide, clay building that was already filled with swirling steam, with deep mist from the pools of hot water, which was brought in from a metal mechanism positioned beside the ceiling. There were also several rows of wooden washing bins, where some of their fellow women were already cleaning their robes or other various garments.

Perhaps it was truly a communal living space, a religious home for those who chose to do their work from inside the compound, in which certain routines sprung naturally from day to day life. Fang wondered if that was truly the case, all while she followed suit with the other women, divesting of her own clothes, rather intent on a morning bath within the warm, clay pools. Perhaps there was even some unseen code of ethics that the followers held, the division of chores and labor, something that Fang would soon learn for herself, and that it was something which held more than met the eye. Yet in that moment, lounging quietly against one of the sloped walls of the shallow pool, while she accepted the gift of a bit of soap to wash herself with, Fang found that it was far more entertaining to watch the way that Lightning interacted with her peers, and also how she didn't even seem very bashful with her own body.

It may have been the faith again, Fang thought, the inherent sort of trust between those of a close religious family, for Lightning merely washed herself as well, quietly answering any inquiries that might have been directed her way. She seemed to draw closer and closer to openly speaking with her fellows, naked in more than a single sense, and that certain charming side of herself seemed to take full hold of her interactions. Yet it was rather difficult for Fang to feel even the slightest pang of jealousy from such things, enough that it nearly felt nonexistent, swiftly stifled by the curiosity to see how Lightning would act among those who she felt so safe with.

Back then, weeks before, when the two of them had first met upon that fateful day, that moment of swords and blood, of teeth and harsh whirling frost, when Fang had been woken up to the first sting of a woman who thought she could slay a dragon with a mere stab to the skull, a rather unusual notion, if Fang was to be perfectly honest... It was on that day, that moment when she first looked upon the frigid chill of those keen eyes, and felt the stinging pain of nonacceptance. She was simply a threat, a legendary wyrm who waited there upon the mountainside, so wild and unknown, a beast to be eliminated and sent back towards the cold grips of death, yet even though her own strength and control won the day, it came at the cost of Lightning's trust.

There were those days, those long, lingering hours when Fang ventured back into the little cavern with the blankets, sitting there in her human form, yet she could still feel that terrible hate, the sharp barriers that Lightning held high. They were not kin, not people with any real common ground, and even that first gift of food, it was only taken due to hunger, and then spoken back to with words half-tinged in delirium. A wound to the head seemed to become a rather grave issue indeed, one that needed more than a brief time to heal, time to let Lightning rest and perhaps foster a bit of trust. And that trust, perhaps it only truly began from the fact that Fang could have easily left Lightning out there in the cold, or even worse, finished the battle in a much more decisive way.

It was for that same reason that it almost felt strange to watch Lightning acclimate, to grow more talkative with the women around her, to see those barriers melt beneath the warmth of those who had lived the same life as she did, hunters and warriors, the keepers of the eternal balance, the tenets of Etro's will. Yet Fang just smiled to herself, for she could feel a slight swell of pride in her heart, simply because of the way that it seemed Lightning had found her own kind. They were so gentle and fierce at the very same time, birds of a feather, wolves of very different packs, yet they were all connected by a common goal. And Lightning, she was merely a lone wanderer, one who had stumbled across her own species, her own kin, deep within a world that had forced them all into hiding.

"Gran Pulse, eh?" Heloise was still speaking with Lightning. "Never been out there, myself."

Lightning looked to be scrubbing a bit of liquid soap into her hair. "I actually grew up on a chain of islands... Not quite as impressive as Nova Chrysalia, though."

One of the other women spoke up. "It's pretty hard to compare with an island of this size... I'd call it a small continent if I didn't know any better."

Heloise spoke again. "Ah, but size isn't everything."

The group shared a bit of laughter, yet they all kept very quiet beneath the soft light of the morning. The clay bathing pools were starting to shimmer with a surplus of soap bubbles, and a few of the women were already moving out towards the source of the fresh water to rinse themselves, a sort of mechanism that Fang would equate to a modern shower, yet it was much longer and larger, more like a pipe with several sprayers along the entire length.

"Just curious-" It was Heloise who spoke yet again, for she had moved to sit against one of the edges of the pool. "The two of you, are you going to be here with us for long? If so, I'll see about getting you some daily supplies."

Lightning glanced back at Fang. "We won't be staying longer than we need to."

Fang paused to consider if she should ask Lightning what Noel had planned with her over the previous night, for it seemed as if both of them had grown rather intent on getting to the bottom of the Order's aggression, and Fang herself, she couldn't deny that it was for the very same reason that she'd first thought of Luxerion. As much as the threat of violence concerned her, she hadn't known the full extent of the problem, and it almost seemed to grow deeper and deeper with every scrap of information they learned. But there was still time that they could spend there, as long as it would help the situation, and the vestige would surely wait, even if it made Fang want to frown at the thought of postponing the chance to get Vanille back out of stasis.

Lightning soon moved up from the warm waters as well, rinsing herself off in the showerlike spray, until she felt clean enough to wander over towards the many stacks of towels, where she accidentally reached for the very same one that someone else was going for.

"Sorry." Lightning reached for a different towel, yet the sudden chill that ran down her spine, it made her look over at a rather sullen individual, one who refused to meet her gaze. "Sorry..? Is there something-"

The woman suddenly glanced at her with rather striking eyes, wary eyes, before she simply picked up a towel and walked away, not even pausing to reply.

A moment passed by in utter silence, and Lightning slowly wrapped herself up in one of the fluffy, woven towels. She pondered over the sudden shift in attitude, of how friendly the rest of her peers had seemed, Heloise in particular, a woman with an almost motherly sort of air... And it was that moment that Heloise herself walked up to the stacks of towels, before she leaned forward to whisper something, words for only Lightning to hear.

"Don't you worry about her." Heloise soon wrapped a towel around herself as well. "Mages, you know? Some of them, they cast pretty spells, and then they think themselves much too high and mighty to be here with us... Beryl's the poster child for snootiness."

"Beryl?" Lightning wondered for a moment if that name was chosen for the color of her eyes, just as pale and green as the foam of the sea. "You don't hear names like that very often."

Heloise chuckled quietly. "Snooty name for a snooty girl... She's got a lot to learn if she wants to make any friends."

Lightning kept her voice to a low murmur. "Is she new here?"

Heloise shook her head. "No, she and her sister came here many years ago, but the elder always seems more steadfast... They're from the Warren, you see, strays who came here to us for a better life." She picked up a smaller towel to dry off her hair with, before she sat herself down on a nearby bench. "I suppose that's why _we're_ here, to make warriors out of paupers... They're supposed to become a part of our community, but if you want my opinion, the magic's already gone straight to her head."

Lightning sat down on the bench as well, drying off her own hair with a towel.

"And listen, that's not to say the same of all mages." Heloise glanced over at a certain woman who was still bathing in the pools. "Holly, over there, she's saved my sorry behind more times than I can count... She's got barrier spells down to a science, enough to stop a charging wyvern dead in its tracks."

Lightning spoke again. "Have you ever had dragon sightings?"

Heloise went quiet for a brief moment, as if she was thinking it over. "Distant ones, occasionally, but those could always be false alarms... They're probably already extinct, thank the gods."

Lightning suddenly felt her fingertips tighten against the towel. How easy it would have been, weeks ago, to immediately agree that such things were truly for the better of the world, that such power had no place within the control of a wild beast, but since learning of the plight of the dragons...

"You hungry for breakfast?" Heloise smiled at her again, a warm, almost crooked grin that rather reminded Lightning of her own mother back on the little island chain, simply happy to see her presence. "Like I said, it's our turn today to cook; it's almost a friendly competition, to be honest, to see if we can outdo the boys."

Lightning slowly smiled as well. "I've actually been teaching Fang how to cook."

Heloise's grin widened. "It's a very good skill to know! We teach it to all of the children who find their way here, no matter how young they are." She glanced over at where Fang was rinsing herself as well. "A shared talent among friends, eh?"

Lightning nodded. "...It happened before I even realized it." She looked over to catch Fang's gaze, and then she smiled softly. "She's not of the faith, but I trust her just as much."

"Ah, you don't have to be faithful to be trustworthy." Heloise's hair started to fluff up from the way she was drying it. "Before this whole Order commotion started to grow even worse, we all had friends of the other faiths... Still have a few, but most of them are wise enough to distance themselves from those in open season."

Lightning took a deep breath. "Open season."

"Aye, but the problem is, they're hunting _hunters_." Heloise held one of her arms up to flex it. "The _best_ hunters... If it weren't for our tenets, Etro's grace, we'd show them what for." She went back to drying her hair. "Defiling her statue like that, heavens above... But none of us truly wishes for a war."

Lightning almost smiled at the way her newfound acquaintance fretted over the situation for a while, muttering to herself and smoothing out her frizzy mane of hair with both of her hands.

"And it's a shame, a _real_ shame, what with things like the scuffle at the priory..." Heloise sighed, before she rose back up to her feet, still holding the towel against herself. "But that's neither here nor there, not when we've got breakfast to make."

Lightning soon met up with Fang again, who merely tapped at her shoulder and smiled, readying herself for the day by drying up and gathering her clothes again, silently sitting on the bench beside her.

It was many moments later that they found themselves in the dressing room beside the bathhouse, which was much less humid and warm, but not chilly enough to feel uncomfortable.

"I've never seen so many." Lightning clasped the buckle of her belt down against her waist. "So many of us... From the way my parents talked about it, you'd think we were dying out."

Fang kept silent for a very long while, still dressing herself in that blue and green garb, before she spoke just low enough for Lightning to hear. "I'm glad we found them."

Lightning soon leaned herself against Fang's shoulder, for it seemed as if their fellow occupants of the dressing room were much too focused on their own tasks to notice. It was just a touch of their arms together, resting shoulder to shoulder, chaste and silent, and it made Fang reach over to gently squeeze at Lightning's hand. There was always the temptation, the urge to stay right where they were, to rest a while longer, yet the morning light was already high above, waiting for them to join the people around them, and they didn't linger there for very long.

The sunlight poured down from atop the compound walls, and if it wasn't for the flowering gardens and the air of cheerfulness in the crowds of people there, Fang would have thought that the compound itself looked rather like a community of military barracks. There were the sleeping quarters on either side of the main gathering space, the bathhouses that were connected to each of them, and at the midpoint, there seemed to be a general purpose building by the western city wall, the one that stood somewhat opposite to the first gate, the passage hidden in the alleyway. And it was in that same main building, it was there that they found the bustling kitchens, greeted by none other than Heloise, who gestured for them both to walk over and join her with a rather large pile of flour and dough.

"I hope you like biscuits." Heloise was already starting to knead some of dough up into small, squarish pieces. "Does anyone _not_ like biscuits? None that I've ever seen, anyway."

Lightning stepped over to pick up a bit of the dough as well, which she began to knead against the wooden counter. "So, the goal is to outcook the boys?"

Heloise smiled brightly. "Aye, it is, but strictly in an unofficial sense; competition is healthy, but some of the younger folks tend to take it too far, so the only prize is our pride." She handed Fang some of the dough as well. "I know you two aren't staying here long, but it's very nice to have women of your age around here... Not that I don't enjoy teaching the children, but they don't always understand what I have to tell them."

Fang started to knead the biscuit dough between her hands. "And what do you have to tell us?"

"Just the way of things, here." Heloise glanced over at where some of her fellows were cooking strips of meat above an open fire, or pans filled up to the brim with soft cheese curds and potato slices, or even wide skillets with all manner of sizzling sausages and sweet roasted vegetables. "We teach the children to cook during lunch or dinnertime, breakfast is more for us... We need to wake up before trying to wrangle with that sort of attention span."

Lightning smirked to herself. "Remind me to never have kids."

Heloise laughed very quietly. "Aye, I don't think I could handle any of my own... We don't take in infants, not unless they have nobody else to care for them, and the children, we wait until they're fifteen to choose if they truly want to take up the oath or not." She took a moment to glance at the small silver pendant on her own neck, but with the flour upon her fingertips, she left it alone.

Lightning reached for another bit of dough. "Ten is the traditional age."

"That it is..." Heloise began to place a few of the raw biscuits onto a greased baking pan. "But without their parents being of the faith, we're more of an orphanage in that sense; most of us don't feel that it's right to impose that choice on them so early."

Lightning glanced down at the neckline of her own clothes, where her pendant was resting just beneath. "Would you recommend the same to others?" She took a brief moment to explain the situation in her own homestead, with the way that Hope had shown more than a bit of interest into the faith. "He's in his early teens, definitely past ten, but it still doesn't feel right... I'm not a parent, and I don't think I ever will be, but he just doesn't have anyone else."

"It seems right to wait." Heloise kept kneading more of the biscuit dough. "The children here are often shaped by their lives in the streets... It's a very violent way to grow up, and to teach them swordplay, beyond basic defenses, we usually wait until seventeen for that, and that's only if they show true dedication the faith."

A brief moment of silence passed between the three of them, before Fang suddenly spoke up. "So when you use those charms of yours... You've got a connection to Etro with them?"

Lightning glanced up from where she was working. "I already explained it, didn't I..?"

"Yeah, I'm just curious." Fang reached over to place another biscuit down with the rest of them. "You don't really _hear_ her, you've said... Just a mental connection?"

Heloise answered Fang with a patient smile. "Our goddess isn't one for speaking, even from what we know of the old stories... 'She is as silent as the moonlight, yet as fierce as the raging wind, but still as gentle as a mother owl with her hatchlings, high up within the branches of the world'."

"But you do need faith, enough faith to believe in her." Fang glanced at Lightning's neck, at the silver chain resting against her skin. "For the charms to work... You've really got to believe that she's looking out for you, somewhere."

Lightning almost wanted to frown. "I've told you all of this before."

Fang kept very silent for a moment, still kneading the soft biscuit dough. "Yeah, you have." She waited for another moment, before she met Lightning's gaze. "Is it really such a huge deal then? To join the faith?"

And Lightning could fully feel the way that Fang stared at her, the gentle fire in her eyes, still so powerful, so very fierce and consuming.

It took a while to find the right words, and after she spent a moment to compose herself, Lightning spoke. "It might not seem 'huge' from an outside perspective, but it's... Very important to all of us." She almost wanted her new acquaintance to speak up as well, to reaffirm what she had said, but Heloise had fallen rather silent, herself.

"I'm not trying to say it like that, Light." Fang tried to make her voice sound softer than before. "I'm not great with outright saying it... Sorry, but we've been- You know, and I just want to learn as much as I can about all of this." She glanced away and took in a deep breath. "I know it's really important to you, and I just need to know if me... Being who I am is going to make this difficult."

Lightning narrowed her eyes in disbelief. "Why would you even think that? We're not an exclusive faith."

Fang tried not to grit her teeth. "Maybe I'm just asking this wrong... Maybe this isn't the right time."

Heloise suddenly spoke with a rather gentle sort of laugh to her voice. "Is it that you want to join us, dear?"

Fang went very still at the look that flashed within Lightning's eyes, an answer right there under her nose, yet so very unanticipated; she almost seemed to stand there, frozen in dull shock, as if she had been struck over the head with something right out of nowhere, a topic she had never pushed, never even offered, for the fact of the matter was that Fang had not been born as a human, and by extension, possessed a different sort of soul. Could a _dragon_ truly be inducted into the faith? Could her soul react to the blood of a goddess, bound there in a pact to serve out her will, to keep the balance of the world intact? Yet Fang herself just went back to kneading those little biscuits, silently sulking over the truth of her own curiosity and utter transparency, over the fact that such a thing might have very well been impossible.

Lightning suddenly spoke again. "I think you're right... This isn't the right time." She reached for another clump of biscuit dough. "You don't have to change your beliefs for anyone, Fang, especially not for me." Lightning looked back over at Fang. "But if you find that you really do want to do it, I won't try and stop you."

Fang kept her gaze upon the soft, sticky dough between her hands, and she lowered her voice to a dull murmur. "I just _like_ it here... It's almost like a family, you know? They don't even have to _know_ you."

Heloise smiled to herself from where she was placing a tray of the biscuits down into the heat of the ovens.

"They just take people for who they are..." Fang tried to keep her voice even and calm. "I'm not too keen on the gods, Light, but I can't say that I wouldn't appreciate living like this."

Lightning didn't respond for a long while, yet when she did, she spoke very quietly, little more than a murmur. "You don't have to be of the faith to live with us, back in Sunleth... You just have to be _you_."

* * *

It took less than half an hour to let the biscuits bake and fluff themselves up into little squares, and both Lightning and Fang soon helped to place them down within flat little baskets, and then carry the finished product out into the dining hall. The space itself was rather wide and roomy, with many tables on the same level of flooring as the kitchens, but there was also a raised podium near the furthest end of the hall, likely used for speeches or addressing the entire room, though it was empty at that time of day. Instead, several dozens of the compound denizens were all mingling by the tables dedicated to serving food, and they spoke among themselves in low, yet friendly tones, getting their plates filled and carrying over their breakfasts to eat at the dining tables.

Lightning peered around at what she assumed must be roughly around two hundred adults, for the women had been joined there by their male counterparts, along with the numerous children who lived in the compound. There were people of all ages, varying ethnicities, and more types of voice than Lightning could even count; there were those who spoke softly, or with a grand sort of tone to their way of speaking, which filled the room up to the rafters with varied pitches and sounds. It almost felt as if she had stumbled across a lost treasure so deep within the depths of the city, a place hidden by walls and imposing guard towers, yet so sheltered in rich community and inner dialogue, a faith founded upon the concept of balance, yet also the pursuit of human fulfillment.

She watched them while she carried those baskets of biscuits into the hall from the kitchen, listening to all of the voices and sounds, and if Lightning hadn't been so focused upon the answers she sought, she might have gone out to make a few more acquaintances with her own peers. But there was other knowledge to be found, a strategic plan to enact, so many other things to be done before she could rest, and she resolved herself to see it happen just as quickly as she could.

Lightning looked around to find Fang, to join her with getting a bit of food to start their day with, and the two of them soon sat down to eat their breakfasts within the dining hall, finding a spot where they could be alone enough to speak openly about such matters.

"Noel mentioned something else that was scheduled today." Lightning was eating a bit of bread with jam and butter, and she was sitting close enough to Fang that she could feel the soft warmth of her draconic soul, though it seemed as if she might have tried to dim it down a bit, at least enough to avoid suspicion. "He said they clean and perform upkeep on the compound every week, so it might be a good time to speak with him about what we'll be doing next."

"He hasn't figured something out yet?" Fang nibbled on one of the fluffy biscuits. "Couldn't he just share whatever information he has and be done with it? Or do we still need to go and find this out?"

Lightning shrugged. "That's the problem... The Order is acting unnaturally, no obvious paper trail, nothing to indicate an actual policy change on their aggression." She took a moment to glance around, just to make sure nobody else was in earshot. "Something important was stolen, something we should help them get back... And in the process of doing it, we might just learn what we need to know about the Order."

"Nothing on l'Cie, then?" Fang slowly leaned away from the table. "Suppose I shouldn't be shocked... Next to no one knows anything, just like before."

Lightning tried not to frown. "We'll figure something out."

They kept eating their breakfast in silence, yet it wasn't a cold feeling that ran down Lightning's spine, not a chill of the distance between them, it was more of a companionable sort of pause, the time to think over their plans and ponder future actions, and perhaps even their own personal matters, as well.

It wasn't long before their peers were finished with the breakfast meal, and it seemed as if Lightning had heard the truth on the matter of washing and maintenance, for many of their fellows began to file outside or pick up plates for cleaning, and even more of them soon began to haul large buckets of soapy water out through the dining hall.

Lightning soon rose up as well, carrying her plate towards the place where they were being stacked up to be washed, before she moved to look at Fang, and then for any hints of Noel. It took her perhaps a minute to catch sight of him, for he was sitting there in plain clothes, garb for daily wear, not the long battle robes or the owl mask, and Lightning soon saw Tipur as well, who was also in regular clothing.

Once they had approached the table where Noel was finishing with a morning meal, Fang spoke up again. "How's the arm?"

Noel glanced down at the bandage on his upper forearm, the part where the manticore had clawed him, before he slowly began to flex his fingers against the tabletop. "Stings a bit, but I've had worse." He looked at both Fang and Lightning, almost sizing them up once again. "We've been talking over our plans for today."

Fang sat down upon one of the nearby chairs. "We've been doing the same, but I'm not exactly clear on what we're going to get _done_ , out here... I know I'm not in the same loop as you guys, but I'd appreciate a little more clarity."

Noel nodded, gazing down at the reddened bandage on his arm. "You're looking for answers about the Order, same as us." He rose up to his feet after a brief moment of silence, lifting his empty plate. "Listen, we all pitch in on cleaning days... How about we talk this over outside? It'd be nice to get some fresh air."

Fang knew there was likely a different reason, the fact that sound traveled far differently outdoors, perhaps in a way that would lessen the chance of rumors spreading around the compound, just to give them a bit more privacy.

Lightning spoke up. "Fresh air... Sure." She waited for Noel to walk over and place his plate near the rest of cleaning equipment, while Tipur seemed to have business to attend to elsewhere, for he left with only a slight nod towards the three of them. "I was also wondering if the place we looked at last night-"

Noel held his hand up to his own mouth to signal silence. He kept it there while he led the way towards the doorway, before he let it fall to have Lightning speak again.

"The palaces." Lightning kept her voice low, walking on beside Fang and Noel. "I was wondering if the reconnaissance jobs we spoke about, if we could get those done before long... And figure out who's really in charge of the show."

"We will." Noel led the way past some of the sprawling gardens, past the training areas, and on towards the front of the compound. It was a part of the main building near the alleyway gate, likely made up of offices or meeting rooms, or perhaps a place for storing written knowledge within. "Tipur's in charge of infiltration, which you'd already know firsthand... He'll be getting a team ready today for intelligence gathering, some physical scouting and patrols; we've already done a lot of this with the Hall of Devotion, you know." Noel paused beside one of the stacks of cleaning equipment, before he knelt down to pick up a long, broomlike brush and a full bucket of water. "But I have something else in mind for us, today."

The three of them soon found themselves all with such long brushes and soapy water, scrubbing at the tall, clay walls of the main compound building. There were other hunters who did the same, people in plain clothes, those who worked hard into the early hours of the morning, sweeping the pathways or washing the various walls. There was even a large group of children who were tending to some of the garden plants, along with an older supervisor, all caring for the grounds that smelled so strongly of herbal scents, of bright flowers and rich spices, even of shallow bowls of nectar left out for the tropical humming birds.

Noel spoke up again after a brief while, still cleaning off the walls with the long, rough brush. "We've been planning to 'remedy' the statue in town for a while, now... If the two of you want to see how we usually deal with these things, then you're welcome to come with us, today."

Lightning glanced up at one of the cobwebs near the roof of the building, and she reached up with her own brush to clear it away. "What exactly will we be doing out there?"

"Observing, mostly." Noel looked back over his shoulder at the flowering gardens. "We save violence for desperate measures... Not as a means to further our cause."

Fang followed Noel's gaze, off towards a small corner of the gardens, past the people who were tending to the plants; there was a small statue that stood in the corner of the flowerbeds, a slim, winged figure with the rounded visage of a hooded robe, yet it was the lone man who knelt before the marble pedestal who caught Fang's full attention.

Lightning looked over as well. "Why is he alone, there?"

Noel closed his eyes for just a moment. "Self penitence. He knows we won't accept his help with cleaning, today."

Fang tried not to tilt her head in confusion. "So he's just sitting there, instead?"

"It's a community chore... It's a privilege to maintain this house." Noel turned back to start washing the wall again. "We all pitch in, like I said, but some of us here, they think that he crossed a line that shouldn't even have been touched."

Lightning lowered her voice a bit. "Did he break one of the tenets?"

Noel nodded. "Like I said, intelligence gathering is something we know a lot about, and one of those things, even if it's hard to do, is to accept that some of our own can go rouge." He slowly shook his head. "Not 'our own', technically, but one of our contacts in the priory down near the high harbors, we lost communications for a few weeks, and then our friend, there..." Noel glanced back at the distant man, who was still bowing before the tiny statue. "He broke a tenet while trying to reestablish ties with our man inside... I don't know exactly what happened, he wasn't willing to say, but all rumors seem to point towards the fact that one of the monks was injured, and our friend right there, he came back looking like the fox who'd just raided the chicken coop."

"So his punishment is _not_ to work?" Fang glanced back at the gardens again. "Sounds a little backwards to me."

Noel kept his voice low. "The thing is, Fang, we aren't workers by nature." He brought his brush back down to clean it off in the bucket of water. "We're hunters, followers of Etro's path... And the punishment for willingly harming our fellow man, a peaceful man, _without due cause_ , that's up to Etro herself." Noel lifted the brush back up again to scrub it against the wall. "His bond with the goddess is up to the both of them... And if she forgives him, all is well, but if not, then he'll just have to find his own way."

Fang slowly looked over to share a glance with Lightning, a silent sort of understanding for her past reluctance to come to blows with guardsmen, or even any of her fellow humans, for it seemed as if the tenets of Etro's will went beyond the few that she had revealed.

"And I'm only the boss in times of dispute." Noel kept scrubbing at the walls, tending to the house of the faithful, the shelter for Etro's children. "When we can't decide what to do based on the tenets, _that's_ when I take charge, when we get to use more force than we usually would... But the rest is up to Etro."

Lightning kept her voice low. "And these acts of aggression, they'd fall under self-defense?" She closed her eyes for just a moment. "I've had to defend myself in the past, Noel, and Etro didn't leave me for it."

"That definitely falls under self-defense." Noel paused for a moment to massage the wound on his arm. "What he did back there, whatever it was, it wasn't justified." He moved back to scrub at the wall. "The problem is, those guards at the statue... It's just not the same as neutralizing a hostile target during infiltration; they just doing their jobs out there, so we can't drop in and start a fight without exhausting our other options."

Lightning brought her brush down to clean it off within the water. "How do we get it uncovered, then?"

Noel smiled with a clever sort of look in his eyes. "I'll show you once we've finished here."

* * *

It wasn't long before an entire hour of work was done, and Noel himself wandered off for a while to redress in his traveling garb, gray robes without a mask, and a concealed pair of slim daggers at his belt. Their group left the compound with Tipur and a small number of other hunters, traveling by the routes upon the high rooftops, the pathways that let them move in both silence and stealth, for not many of the citizens of Luxerion ever bothered to look up.

And it was there, back in the plaza with that billowing red ribbon, it was there that Lightning waited, perched upon the high rooftop of a brick tower, watching the way that Fang followed Noel's directions to climb it from far below.

The statue still stood hidden by the thick cloth, waiting there with a jagged sword and the scarlet streak of fabric, a signal of impending bloodshed, quite opposite to the blue ribbon of dueling that Lightning had spotted upon that first, fateful night. Color was just as much of a signal as scent; silver for their bond with the goddess, red for danger or warnings, blue for peaceful exertion and upward motion, and in rarer cases, green for shelter, safety, or even medical aid, depending on the situation.

Fang soon made her way up towards the shingled roof, panting slightly from the exertion. Yet she had a very energetic glow about her, almost as if the action itself was fueling her own desire to move forward again. She quickly perched herself up there as well, sitting right next to Lightning.

"Right, then..." Noel clambered up to sit near them, gazing out over the plaza below. "The thing about the city guard is that they're almost like us; they stick to protocol unless the situation gets out of control." He turned to look at Lightning and Fang. "Think, now... How do we get them to let us uncover it without bloodshed?"

Lightning thought back to the sudden surge of fear in the crowd, of the clash of the jagged sword against the pale fabric atop the statue, before the atmosphere had grown so very silent again. "Something that involves a threat."

"Yes." Noel started to narrow his eyes at the crowd below. "But what else?"

Fang suddenly chuckled to herself. "Panic in the crowds... Sooner or later they'll be calling for reinforcements."

Noel nodded. "Exactly."

"'Exactly'?" Fang leaned forward a bit to examine the distant guardsmen. "Those ones don't look like pushovers, you know... And you think _more_ of them is gonna make them feel like scurrying off?"

"That's not it, Fang." Lightning's mouth slowly tugged itself into a smirk. "Noel, you said it yourself; without protocol, it's up to a leader to decide what to do... What the smartest decision is."

Noel smirked as well, hidden slightly beneath his dark gray hood. "We just need to scare them enough to get a sergeant assigned."

Almost as if on cue, a lone visage in the crowds glanced up to acknowledge the three of them, the sly face of Tipur, only he stood there in the garb of a civilian, a man with no silver to speak of, just another citizen out for his daily chores.

"You clever bastards." Fang murmured just under her breath. "But what if you get someone too stubborn to retreat?"

Noel shook his head. "We work with tools of death, but they aren't our only methods." He barely even twitched when a different person in the crowd suddenly cried out in sheer terror, one of his own fellow followers, dressed within the clothing of just another mere civilian. "Fear is just as effective."

And Tipur shouted out as well, furthering the catalyst with a raw act of mock anger, of a man calling out against some unseen threat, enough to urge the crowd around him into instinctual, tribelike behavior; it was as if they stood upon the deep rippling of a great wave, cries and sudden movement, flashes of a lurking predator that just wasn't there, of those faithful to Etro calling out from all around the circular plaza, spurring the people there into yet another sudden frenzy.

Yet Noel simply watched, practically invisible from such a distant vantage point, before he quietly started to speak. "It won't be long, now... See how much they stiffen up?"

And Lightning watched, gazing down at the way the guardsmen yet again held up their shields and advanced upon the crowd, clearing out the rabble of panic by way of a brandished weapon, yet they almost walked with an air of uncertainty, with helmets that turned each and every way around, searching for whatever could have frightened the people into such a state.

"And if the guards themselves won't admit to it, the _people_ need something to make them feel safe at night..." Noel almost sounded regretful of the whole ordeal. "They'll call for someone they can trust, someone high up enough in the ranks to issue orders."

Fang crossed one of her legs against the other, dangling her feet beside the rooftop. "And what then? You think you can scare them enough to call a retreat?"

Beneath the shadow of silver cloth, Noel smirked yet again, watching the steadily calming crowds, but he said nothing else to answer her, and merely watched.

* * *

The sun had risen far into the sky by the time they approached the inn again. It was quick work to gather up their things and check out from the front desk, and even quicker to make their way back down into the sprawling city streets.

Lightning walked with her backpack on her shoulders, holding one of the straps with her left hand. At every other junction in the road, she glanced up at the rooftops, almost as if she expected to see her fellows again, but they had likely already returned to the compound without attempting to escort her back.

Fang walked onward as well, and it was only once they'd moved out into a wide, lonely street that she spoke again. "Weird stuff around here..."

Lightning nodded silently.

"Imagine if we just skipped the place entirely." Fang took a moment to look around at the streets, at the various people going on about their daily lives. "You've got family here, now... That's what this is, isn't it?"

"I think so." Lightning leaned in to gently brush their shoulders together. "But I have family back home, too." She glanced up at the sky for a while, peering at the soft, wispy clouds. "How long do you think we'll really be here?"

"Long enough to get to the bottom of this." Fang tried not to grit her teeth. "I won't lie, I don't like the idea of staying in the Warren... But the compound seems pretty safe, well-protected, and the people there... They're nice enough to stick around for." She looked back over at Lightning. "I mean it, Light. It's nice to be alone sometimes, but people like this..."

Lightning could see those many years of solitude in the way Fang looked at her, the time spent guarding over a silent crystal, protecting it from the world, and even from the years beyond that, far before Vanille had ever brought relief from the void of being so alone.

"It's almost enough to make you want to be a part of it." Fang kicked at a stray pebble in the road. "Maybe that's why they're so secretive... They've got a family of their own to protect."

Lightning looked down at the cobblestone street. "And you... Want a family?"

Fang kept silent for a long moment. "I want to be part of yours."

Lightning could feel that fluttering sensation in her heart again, one that she stifled in her expression by just a slight tilt of her head, glancing away from the look of genuine affection on Fang's face, the desire to be nearer to her, just to be more than those who simply sought relief with each other, to feel more than merely an echo of love.

"I can remember it being like that." Fang savored the soft breeze of the ocean on her skin, and the warmth of the streets, illuminated by the light of the sun. "I remember being in a family."

"...Fang." Lightning paused in her tracks, standing there beneath the shadow of a metal overhang. "I need to ask you something."

Fang paused as well. "Yeah?"

Lightning tried not to bite at her bottom lip or to fidget in any way. "You didn't kill me on that mountain because you remembered who we used to be... But what if those lives didn't exist?"

Fang tipped her head in confusion. "What do you mean? Lots of people remember them... Throughout history, even."

"That's not what I mean." Lightning took a slow step forward. "Hypothetically... If I was just some hunter who'd tracked out down out there, if we hadn't had those lives together before this one-"

"Light." Fang reached out to touch one of Lightning's shoulders, gently running her palm against it. "You're talking about something that doesn't exist."

"It still matters." Lightning's eyes were clear and honed, focused upon the gentle look on Fang's face. "If I was someone you didn't know... Would I even be alive today?"

Fang's gaze suddenly hardened right to ice. "Yes."

Lightning's expression barely flickered. "How do you know?"

"Because I don't kill humans." Fang kept her voice low enough not to be overheard. "Just like the people here, I don't kill unless I have to... Unless I've got no other choice." She leaned in to brush her chin right beside Lightning's cheek, whispering against her ear. "You don't think I'd ever want to hurt you, do you..? You don't think it'd feel like I was hurting myself just as badly?"

Lightning tried not to let her next breath shiver beside her voice. "I've never been with anyone before, Fang. I don't know what to think."

Fang slowly moved her arm down and around Lightning's waist, pulling her close, away from anyone who might see.

"I do feel comfortable with you." Lightning bowed her head low, resting against the warmth of Fang's shoulder. "It doesn't make much sense from how we met, but there's just something _there_ , something we didn't lose whenever we died..." She kept silent for a long while. "I dreamt about a wolf last night." Lightning closed her eyes for a moment. "I could feel what she was thinking... She loved her family more than anything, even if the word 'love' made her feel afraid."

Fang tried not to smile wryly at such things. "Why would a wolf ever feel afraid?"

Lightning fought the urge to punch Fang's shoulder. "Because it meant she'd be hurt if they ever went away... It made her feel weak and useless."

"I see." Fang gently moved back, reaching down to hold Lightning's hand. "But what if the wolf knew that her family wouldn't leave her?" She started to lead Lightning forward, and they walked even further along the emptier side of the street. "What if she knew that her new friend was there to stay?"

Lightning stared at the ground beneath her boots. "She would still feel weak for needing them."

"Even if it made the whole family stronger?" Fang smiled softly at nothing in particular. "This wolf sounds like she worries more than enough to keep them safe."

Lightning watched the sunlight as it traveled down along the metal hilt of her sword, sheathed as it was, the scabbard was almost just as reflective. "Maybe her teeth aren't enough."

"Then maybe she just needs to have a little more faith in her friend's teeth." Fang glanced back over her shoulder with that same soft smile, hardly reminiscent of the draconic smirk she was so often fond of. "Maybe her friend likes her enough to chase anything nasty away."

Lightning almost paused again, yet subtle warmth of Fang's hand in her own, it kept her from stopping along the sidewalk, from looking away from those gentle green eyes, even from the way that Fang's mouth quirked up in amusement.

"What's on your mind, Light?" Fang looked back at the road ahead. "It feels like there's something you're not letting on to."

Lightning blinked a few times, just to keep her vision clear. "An old fairy tale... Tools of the gods, fables to keep children from misbehaving."

"Hard to imagine those bothering you." Fang glanced back over her shoulder again. "Really, Light... You know you can tell me anything."

Lightning gently squeezed at Fang's hand. "Last night, Noel said they found an artifact overseas, but that the Order stole it from them."

Fang squeezed Lightning's hand as well. "What sort of artifact?"

"The kind that could put the whole world in danger." Lightning tried to swallow away the sudden pang of fear in her throat, such a foreign presence, as if something had gripped right down against her neck and sent it there. "We're going to try and get it back, to destroy it, but if the Order... They want people like us dead, Fang, they want me and Serah _dead_."

Fang stopped still in her tracks, but she didn't turn around for a long while, seemingly locked in place. "That's... Not happening." When she finally looked back, it was with the same sort of fire in her eyes, embers that needed only a single breath to light up and burn again. "Not on my watch... Nobody's hurting either of you."

Lightning could feel it from where their skin touched, from the flame inside Fang's soul, barely stifled by the control she was exerting upon herself, just to keep the heat down, to keep the fires at bay.

"What artifact is this?" Fang took a step closer to where Lightning was standing. "What's it called? Are you sure Noel's even right about it?"

Lightning drew in a shallow breath. "One of Mwynn's crowns... Just a fable, I hope." She tried to look away from the sheer determination in Fang's gaze. "But he said that the previous Shadow Hunter didn't seem to think so."

Fang took a long moment just to think, to piece out the problem within her mind, before she turned to face the pathway again. "Then we'll help them get it back."

Lightning soon followed with a rather weighted feeling in her chest, with a slowness to her steps, yet when she scolded herself for simply hesitating there upon the boundary of danger, of the lives she lived to protect, it became all the easier to swiftly travel on back towards the compound, towards where her distant family was surely waiting.

* * *

The act of reconnaissance was often taken at face value, for the process of mere information gathering or even scouting of an enemy encampment, but it often proved just as useful to walk right in and act as if one belonged there. Simple stealth maneuvers, infiltration, the very process of conditioning the minds all around oneself.

Such confidence came from knowing that there was always a mask to fall behind, tricks to play upon the unaware, even the mere clothes of a nobleman, a spotless disguise. To put on the skin of the beast itself, to walk among the nobility as one of their own, ladies within fine gowns and powder, men who wore velvet suits of more colors than one could count in the curve of a rainbow, it was all part of the game that they played, the illusion crafted with both natural skill and finesse.

One of them glanced at another, followers of Etro's faith, just a simple signal that all was still quite well, that the beasts hadn't noticed an impostor within their den, a bird of prey in the guise of fur and noble claws, chatting and mingling among the other guests of the public meeting house. It was a grand hall, suited for dozens upon dozens of various people, for nobles of the highest class; anyone who didn't fit the bill was swiftly escorted away, anyone with unsavory tendencies or mannerisms.

An open buffet of food stood mostly untouched, only sampled upon in the smallest degree; it was enough to make those who had once lived each day with empty stomachs, past children of the Warrens, it was enough to make their eyes linger there and stare, to gaze deeply at the finery out on display, knowing that their cover would surely be shattered by taking more than a small morsel or two, and never more than that.

They stood as stray cats within the company of lions, perhaps much more fearsome from a past of hardship and trails, yet outclassed all the same. It was a game of the mind, a mental spar of both wit and reflex, a question answered in a way that befitted a certain class, even if one needed to bluff more often than not. It was a counter-technique to weed out those with lower standing, to move on to the next who might be of better class, yet it was still only a prelude of what else was left to come.

It was a lone man who appeared, an old visage of a man, a man with a tall golden scepter that reached the fine carpet of the floor, a man with the pale robes of a religious leader, yet none of those who hid within the crowd knew his name. Perhaps he had simply grown to power and wealth within his later years, unknown to society until he felt it necessary to distinguish himself, yet the man with hair of long fine white, with sleepy eyes, so very gentle and soft, yet far too keen, just enough to betray the true nature within, a man who sought power above all else...

One of the hunters narrowed his eyes from within the crowd; he knew a beast when he saw it, a beast with a mane of silk and a flaring golden crest upon his headpiece, with the beads of a monk around his belt, yet none of the humble air they often held.

And it was then, in that moment, that he cleared his throat, and the room went silent; a simple sound, yet distinct enough to pass as a peal of thunder, and quite likely just as commanding. "Only the greatest of salutations to you, my friends..."

The hunters watched, and they waited, gazing on with eyes that looked right beyond the veil, yet perhaps not far enough to pierce away the mysteries of the man, to find where their goal truly waited for them. Yet it was enough for one such individual, one who answered only to his goddess and to the hunter of such elusive shadows, it was enough for him to know.

A mere man stood above the rest, a leader of the higher class, one who spoke of opportunity and further purity, to cleanse the very body of sin by the way of donation, a right of sacrifice for the greater good. Their city was under siege, they must be able to see that, they must see that it was being terrorized by those who followed after the wretched goddess of death, even if such a title was far too noble for the likes of her. Couldn't they see, couldn't they _sense_ the looming air of death and decay, the blight that lingered so deeply within such places as the Warren? It was too good a name, he claimed, perhaps befitting of harmless rabbits out in the wild glens, not of rats who stole breadcrumbs and coins straight out from one's pockets, thieves in the grimy darkness, dealers of death, suffering and misery, mere animals to be dealt with by the sword.

A hunter stared straight into the eyes of his prey, an elder beast who barked much louder than he had any right to be. Yet the sheer confidence in those sleepy old eyes, no matter how truly false it might have been, it was just enough to strike any notion away that their target was anything close to simple. The hunters knew, perhaps by instinct, that their prey was far deadlier than any mere predator.

* * *

The daylight was full and bright by the time that Lightning found herself alone in the dining hall, for Fang had offered to take their personal belongings into the sleeping quarters. The scents of a midday meal wafted out from the nearby kitchens, yet Lightning's thoughts wandered far from the prospect of food. She'd heard the legends before, the tales that told about the objects of the gods, mighty items lost to the flow of time itself, but such stories always seemed to imply a more metaphorical lesson, overall. An empty crown, for example, the symbol of a puppet king, a ruler propped up on the beliefs of his people alone, a placebo for the wounds of the nation beneath it, not an actual object of power.

So could it be that her worries were unfounded? Lightning knew to trust in her fellow hunters, if only for Etro's faith in them, but could it be that Noel's well-meaning concern, that it was all over a mere trinket, not a real artifact of any caliber? She told herself not to fret over the question itself, that there was absolutely nothing to gain from simply waiting around there without actually doing anything, from letting the indecision fester inside her heart, but the very thought of such a thing falling into the wrong hands, it felt almost impossible to ignore.

Fang still hadn't returned from the sleeping quarters, so Lightning waited there in silence, resting her head against one of her hands, which was propped on the table by her elbow. She had already gone into the kitchens themselves to ask if she could help there, but the younger girls were taking their turn with cooking the lunch meal for that day, and there was little left for anyone else to do. Lightning had felt a slight sense of pride seeing them there, making a grand mess of the counters while still creating cohesive plates of food. The sight of it almost made her mind wander to other times, to another young girl who had yet to properly learn the finer points of preparing a meal.

She remembered how it felt back then, when her own mother helped her learn how to swiftly cut up a pile of leafy vegetables upon the countertop. The smell of oranges from her perfume, how it felt so safe inside that little kitchen, it was all as fresh as the memories of baking bread within a little clay oven, of learning to mash fruits together and strain out the juice for drinking. There was little coincidence that Lightning had later built her own kitchen in the same orientation, the place that she had known before, a physical memory to touch and hold onto. There were the same exact places to slice up a fish, to chop vegetables, or even toss bits of unused food into, a bin for compost, the fertile mix for spreading out across her neighbor's fields for growing crops. And the thought of home, of the safety that came from such a place, the thought of it ever being threatened, such a notion brought both a sense of certainty and fear, of the absolute promise she once made to herself just to keep it from ever being harmed.

It felt like hours before something in the dining hall began to change, yet the time hadn't been quite so long in truthful terms. The children soon came walking out with full baskets of bread, with big trays and platters of food to put down for people to choose from, or even whole plated meals for those without much preference in the matter, or with little time to dish up food for themselves.

Lightning watched as the girls chattered and giggled among themselves, children of all ages, some of which even looked to be in their early teens. It was the sight of which made her own mind wander to the thought of a younger Serah, to the sound of her laughter in the ocean wind. Perhaps it was the thought of such things that caused a few of the girls to wander over and check in on her, just to make sure that the gloomy look on her face wasn't anything too serious.

One of them sat down at the opposite side of the table. "Are you okay?"

Lightning nodded without speaking.

"You don't look okay." One of the other girls slowly tilted her head to the side. "You look like you've got a tummy ache."

Lightning tried her best to smile. "I'm okay." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I was just thinking about my sister, about how much I miss her."

Another of the girls spoke. "Then you should go talk to her, right?"

Lightning slowly opened her eyes again. "We don't live on this island. I'm only visiting."

The girls almost seemed to be at a loss, and a few of them wandered away to keep carrying food out into the dining hall, but a couple stayed at the table, sitting there in silence.

Lightning stared at the gloves on her hands, the dark leather that felt just as soft as velvet. "I wrote her a letter, but it still feels like I'm not being a very good sister." She glanced up at the sight of someone familiar, off in the distance. "Have any of you ever heard the story of Mwynn's crowns?"

One of the girls nodded. "Yeah, but it's not as fun as the one about the water people."

Lightning almost smiled to herself. "And which story is that?"

"The people with whale tails!" The girl waved her hands around like flippers. "Like a goldfish, but with hands."

Lightning wondered if perhaps the child was much too young to know the real meaning behind such fables, for it seemed as if she was far more interested in the literal subject matter itself. Yet as the moments passed by, and as the children lost interest in sitting there with her, it was a different person, one who Lightning recognized, it was an older girl who soon approached to sit at the table.

"Hi. I didn't see you at breakfast." It was the young teen, or perhaps even younger than that, the one who had been watching the gates of the compound, the one by the name of Sibyl. "Still doing stuff with the Shadow Hunter?"

Lightning nodded. "We've been working together on something."

Sibyl nodded as well. "That's cool... I wish I could do stuff like that." She looked down at the plate of food she had brought over with her, and she picked up a small piece of bread. "I'm still not... You know, with the Etro thing; they say you have to be older, like my sister."

"I think it's a good rule." Lightning glanced at some of the people entering the hall. "Is your sister a hunter?"

Sibyl nodded. "Almost everyone is, she gets to fight and hunt things, and go on patrols in the city... I know how to fight already, but they still say I'm not old enough for it."

Lightning kept silent for a long while. "How did you learn to fight?"

Sibyl grinned. "My sister taught me; she always says to kick them in the crotch."

Lightning tried not to laugh, though she almost smiled at that familiar spark of fierceness. "It sounds like more of a defensive maneuver."

"Well, yeah." Sibyl munched at another thin slice of bread. "They let me guard the gate 'cause I already know how to stick someone with my knife... But that's not what it's really about."

Lightning's expression sobered slightly. "I'm glad you know the difference."

"I've seen it, you know." Sibyl looked away. "It happens fast... People bleed, they bleed like anything else; they die like mice in a trap." She closed her eyes to push the memory away. "That's why we're here, we won't get hurt in here."

Lightning knew that it would likely be more damaging than it was worth to point out that no place could truly be so exempt from danger, so she held her tongue, silently waiting there at the table.

Sibyl only spoke again after a moment or two had passed by. "Are you hungry?"

"I'm waiting for a friend of mine." Lightning glanced at one of the doorways. "You met her yesterday, too."

"Yeah." Sibyl poked at some of her food with her fork, yet it seemed as if no part of it would go to waste. "I saw the one who got hurt yesterday... The horse he was riding got killed."

Lightning tried not to frown. "It wasn't an ordinary manticore."

Sibyl glanced back over her shoulder, just to make sure they were mostly out of earshot. "I snuck into the clinic room to bring him some cookies, yesterday... He was real sad about the horse." She looked back at Lightning. "He said your friend is a mage."

Lightning didn't even realize how much her jaw had started to clench. "She knows magic."

"I wish I knew some." Sibyl suddenly had a rather distant look to her gaze. "Mom knew magic, but she didn't use it much."

"Really?" Lightning glanced up when Fang finally appeared near one of the doorways. "It's pretty rare to know unless you study it every day."

Sibyl shrugged. "Mom didn't study it, it just happened." She frowned a little bit. "I tried to learn some, but it's just not the same... Not like my sister does."

Lightning paused. "Your sister is a mage?"

Sibyl nodded and smiled. "Yeah! She's got some real special magic, too, not just sparkles or making stuff move."

"Hey, kiddo..." Fang walked up to take a seat beside Lightning. "Already had lunch, Light?"

Lightning shook her head. "I was waiting for you."

Fang smiled softly. "You don't have to do that..."

Sibyl stared at Fang in a very expectant way. "Is it really true? Are you a mage?"

Fang paused for just a moment, before she tapped at her own chin in a rather thoughtful manner. "Well, that depends..." One of her fingertips suddenly came alight with a slight plume of sharp, colorful fire. "On your definition of magic."

Lightning bit back a smirk at the way Sibyl's eyes widened so very much at the sight of the flame, at the way it simply sprang to life at Fang's own will, flickering there upon her skin, even in the moment when yet another figure approached their table.

"...Sibyl." The hooded figure merely stood there, gazing down at the fire from a good distance away. "Don't bother anyone, okay?"

Sibyl just turned around to look at who had spoken, before she grinned, shaking her head. "I was only asking if she was a mage, too!"

And Lightning knew, from the moment when she finally caught sight of those eyes, green as the foam of the sea, yet just as sharp as shattered glass, with a voice that she had once heard beneath the mask of a rather unusual owl...

"Come on, Ber'!" Sibyl tried not to whine, or even pout. "It's just _magic!_ It's so fun to watch..."

And Lightning knew, in that moment, that the rather moody mage who was standing there quite rigidly, gazing at the three of them with just the slightest twinge of contempt, that her name was none other than Beryl.

* * *

The evening was only just beginning by the time the alley gates creaked open, allowing a rather large group of hunters to return. Their faces looked quite sullen and grave, and it was Noel himself who walked out to meet with them within the gardens, speaking over all of the things that they had learned.

"Well, it's nothing too substantial, but troubling nonetheless." Tipur let out a sigh while he settled down upon a bench, sitting beside a patch of bright flowers. "I don't much like it, boss... They've got one _nasty_ son of a bitch squawking up there about the Warren, outright asking for money, but who knows where it's really going."

Another of the hunters spoke up, one who was still cleaning a bit of powder from her face with a cloth. "I heard talk of them doubling the city guard for the yearly solstice."

"The solstice..." Noel slowly looked up at the sky, and he could feel the faint wind of the ocean drifting in from beyond the city walls. "I nearly forgot about it, with all of this."

"A new moon." One of the other hunters, an older man, he spoke in a rather hushed tone. "Bad tidings if it falls upon the same day."

Tipur tried not to scoff. "We don't need superstition... We need to figure out this new player in town, if he's really got any say in what the Order does."

Noel glanced back down at the gardens. "Superstition is just an extension of traditions, Tipur; the moonlight is our friend." He soon knelt down beside the wide flowers of hibiscus plants, resting there among his fellow hunters. "But you're right, we can't let it get in the way of our operations... Who was this new 'player' in town?"

Tipur reached down for a handful of scattered documents from his jacket pocket. "Goes by 'Galenth Dysley'... He looked old enough to be a head priest, but from what we've dug up, he's more of a special interests man; he owns an estate in the area, one of the ones we checked out, all spotlessly legit, at least from the surface."

Noel accepted the documents with a small frown, and he leafed through to find the notes about the estate itself. "Wealthy enough to take interest in the artifact?"

The hunters all kept silent for a brief while, before the woman who had spoken before, she began to murmur again. "More than wealthy enough... He looked like a walking treasury."

Noel nodded, browsing through all of the documents. "The ones who attacked the caravan, do we have any leads on who hired them?"

Tipur spoke again. "We've got the company itself, but it'll likely take time to figure out if this is really our man or not... A certain contractor might prove useful; do you remember the one I mentioned, that 'Mister Pyle' of the inner harbors?"

Noel narrowed his eyes at the papers, at a public copy of the real estate purchase. "If the Order has him speaking for them, then he's our man, like it or not... But whether he has the artifact or not, we'll just have to figure that one out when we can."

"We'll keep on it while you deal with the plaza." Tipur rose back up to his feet. "The recruits out there know enough from me, now... I think it's better if I focus on intelligence." He didn't wait for Noel to respond. "Now, I'd like to get out of this damn getup and back into something comfortable..."

"Thank you, Tipur." Noel kept reading over the documents while many more of the hunters moved away, and only once he was alone within the gardens, sitting there upon the fertile ground, only then did he slowly close his eyes. "What have you gotten us into, Caius..?"

A slim, pale moon was rising high into the evening daylight, yet there was no answer upon the wind, or even within the gentle rustle of garden flowers.

"We don't have the numbers for further escalation." Noel spoke as if he was planning out the entire operation inside his head. "We just don't... They have _hundreds_ , if not thousands, and you can't trick thousands with fear." He slowly leaned himself back against the trunk of a nearby fruit tree. "What am I supposed to do, Caius..? Have you and Etro already sent us help?" Noel thought back to the fateful moment when Tipur spoke of encountering a friend in the most unlikely of places, a fellow hunter in the battlefield. "You said I was _ready_ for this."

The moon rose silently, while the sun slowly began to sink down beneath the height of the compound walls.

"I don't feel ready." Noel spoke in just a whisper. "I don't feel ready at all."

* * *

It was by low candlelight that Fang pulled off her shoes, sitting there in her underclothes, all while she took care to listen to the low conversations of the bunkroom. The day itself felt like it had passed by so very quickly, for most of her time had been spent moving from place to place. She'd gone from the compound to the plaza, back to the inn to gather up their things, and back again to store everything there beneath the bunk that they'd been given. Later on, Lightning wanted to observe the grounds for a while after lunch, and it seemed as if it was already time for dinner before they got to explore the entire compound.

Fang stifled a small yawn with her wrist, feeling rather full from the food she had eaten; after the meal, one of Etro's followers offered to take her and Lightning on a night patrol, a message brought to them from Tipur himself, which meant that they were to get some rest beforehand by way of sleeping in the bunkroom, yet Lightning herself was nowhere to be seen. Fang supposed that she was probably off brushing her teeth somewhere or washing in the baths again, habits that she always practiced each night and morning, almost without fail, to the point where Fang merely shrugged her shoulders and learned to ignore it. And it wasn't as if such stringent hygiene did any harm, after all, even if her immortality magic was supposedly shared right there between them, although such things had yet to be seen.

A gentle voice drew Fang away from her thoughts. "Hello again."

Fang looked up to see the older woman, the one who Lightning had already somewhat befriended, the kindly one named Heloise. "Hey."

"I just wanted to tell you that this one here..." Heloise tapped at the higher bunk, the one above the bed that Fang was sitting on. "It's also empty, so the two of you don't have to share this one if you don't want."

Fang bit back a tiny smirk. "Can't say we'll take you up on that offer..."

"Ah." Heloise moved to sit down on a small chair beside one of the nearby beds. "I want you to tell me if anyone gives the two of you any trouble."

Fang kept quiet for a long moment, before she glanced down at her bare feet, gently swinging them back and forth. "Even if they do, we won't be here long... We've got places to be once we get this situation sorted out."

"Even so." Heloise leaned back in her chair. "I'm somewhat of a matron here; I like to know that everyone is getting along well together."

"That's kind of you." Fang leaned herself back against the bedpost, the wooden beam that supported the bunk above her own. "Lightning and I... We're sort of a special case."

Heloise glanced around to make sure they could speak without being overheard. "You seemed very curious about the faith today."

Fang felt a slight flutter of tension in her stomach. "I just want her to know that I'm serious about it, you know? We're not... We haven't known each other for very long, but it already feels like I never want it to stop." She closed her eyes, just to think of those rare little smiles, the way Lightning often snuggled herself right there beneath Fang's chin, of the feeling of her heartbeat in the darkness. "...It feels _real_."

"If it feels that way, does it truly matter if you're of the same faith?" Heloise gave Fang a warm smile. "She doesn't seem the type for prayer or tradition."

Fang smiled as well. "She's really not... I think I've heard her say one long prayer, a hunting prayer, and that's the only other one besides when something dies."

"We're hunters by our very nature." Heloise just sat there, resting within the thin plumes of incense smoke, beneath the low, dark aura of the evening. "Those who return to Etro's side, we speak our words to guide them there... But also to keep our own paths clear." She reached up for her neck, turning her own pendant to reveal the eye of Etro. "We must see the world with vision unclouded by guilt, by the clarity of Etro's will... We are both her eyes and arms, her messengers in this world, and we do what we must, all without pausing to dwell on our regrets." Heloise moved to adjust one of the incense sticks in a nearby dish. "And the senses are just as susceptible to doubt; we speak in color and in scent for that very reason... It can calm the mind to sit and speak, but our goddess is one of silence, and fire can burn without more than a whisper."

Fang watched as the thin smoke curled out into the air, slowly dancing within the dim candlelight. "Funny... Bhunivelze is the god of fire."

Heloise didn't stop smiling. "Yet we are the children of both chaos and balance." She took a deep breath of the warm herbal scents. "It's the chaos that sets the world in motion, the violence, the suddenness of death, but there is an order to those same designs, the scale that only tips beneath something too powerful to control itself." Heloise closed her eyes, still breathing deep. "We hunt to preserve that balance... We adopt those forms of chaos, the tools of death, the natural chaotic order of the world, yet in doing so, we often find ourselves with very powerful choices to make." She slowly opened her eyes. "What to kill? What to leave alone? A beast that lives well within the balance can be left to its own devices, but a monster who threatens to destroy the world around it... It falls to us to carry that decision to the grave."

Fang let each of those words sink in for a while, and she only spoke again when she was sure she had the right thing to say. "We left a pack of dire wolves alone, even when they threatened us."

Heloise glanced back over at Fang. "Was it their territory?"

Fang nodded. "We were just passing through it... But you'd consider something like that a monster, wouldn't you?"

"They can be disruptive enough to classify." Heloise closed her eyes once more. "But then again, so can normal wolves."

"So, a monster that lived in balance... You wouldn't want to kill it?" Fang slowly closed her eyes as well. "That would go against the tenets, wouldn't it?"

Heloise smiled again, warm and gentle. "It certainly would."

* * *

It was past evening by the time that Lightning found herself curled up beneath the blankets, slumbering there while Fang still lay awake, even though the room itself had grown so much darker with fewer candlelights. She could feel that soft heartbeat again, the slow rhythm against her own, a promise that Lightning was truly relaxed, even in the presence of a dragon.

Fang tried to close her eyes, and she tried to make herself sleep for a while, but her mind just kept rambling and racing all around, even when she began to breathe deep of that calming incense, the scent of home and hearth, of a family at rest. Lightning stirred occasionally, mumbling something in her sleep, yet she would always find comfort in the warmth of Fang's skin. She'd cuddle right back up to rest there, hidden beneath the shadow of the upper bunk.

Fang ran her fingertips through Lightning's hair, using her left hand to gently massage at her shoulders, holding her there between the blankets. ... _You're safe with me, you know that?_

Lightning twitched again, dreaming silently, but her subconscious mind slowly began to react to the telepathic thoughts. _I know, Fang._

 _I won't let it hurt you._ Fang hugged at Lightning with all the gentleness she could muster. _We'll figure this thing out together..._ And as she closed her eyes, slowly fading away into the realms of sleep, it wasn't a memory that first greeted her, but the image of Lightning herself, a figure within a pool of blue, beneath the golden veil of starlight.

Lightning knelt with the wolf at her side, with the falcon circling far up above, with eyes in the darkness, eyes that peered at her without blinking; it was a dark gaze, glimmering and soft, yet clearly the tools of a predator. And Fang merely waited, watching those wild eyes that stood there in the presence of such beasts, of glowing runes, resting deep beneath the water, of pale lights within the sky, totemic visions and the presence of something far older than either of themselves.

The wolf slept within the rolling waves of the sea, beneath the shadow of the falcon, and it was that same image that Fang found herself focusing upon, moving further and further into the depths of her own mind. While she did so, Lightning merely slept there within a nest of her own feathers, pale whites and specks of tawny brown, just light enough to look pink.

* * *

It became clear beneath the falling rain that a certain someone didn't much care for the water. And that certain someone, despite the time spent moving around and resting beneath the pouring rain, she only stopped looking so grumpy when Fang finally took notice of her discomfort, offering her a fur shawl to wear over her chest and head, which was quite eagerly accepted.

"You seemed fine sleeping out in the woods, and it was raining even harder then..." Fang sighed when Lightning glared at her yet again, from atop the seemingly haphazard saddle of a horse. "What? You'd rather walk?"

Lightning just hissed very quietly, and she closed her eyes beneath the shelter that Fang had given her, a pelt from a beast who'd once raided the village's store of grain supplies, at least until Fang herself had slain it.

"We won't get there any faster with a moody attitude." Fang adjusted her grip on the reins of the horse, yet she sighed when Lightning went silent again. "Just be glad Yeul was nice enough to give us this."

The horse himself was a rather spirited beast, though he was more than calm enough to follow Fang's orders without delay. He held a buckskin color to his hide, and had the name of 'Buck' itself, which was a bit too unoriginal for Fang's tastes, yet it wasn't her horse to name.

Lightning tried not to make a small sniffling sound; her nose was running from the dampness of the cold forest air, and it had been doing so for days. Because of the effects from her last dose of antibiotics, her body itself almost felt as if it could scarcely summon the strength to move, much less walk around to find wherever the distant tracking signal was coming from. Yet she did have to count herself lucky that such a strange planet also had strange animals to ride upon, as well as a strange companion, one who didn't seem to mind that Lightning was resting her head against her shoulder.

Far above, Bahamut followed after them from the sky, calling out any dangers or interesting things he might have seen throughout the rainy days of early summer, deep within the heat of the rising air.

Fang felt the numerous raindrops pattering against her hair, against her skin and fingertips, but she just kept holding the reins, leading the horse on towards the direction that the signal had pointed. Lightning seemed rather adept in figuring out which way they should go, even if she didn't know the terrain, which did prove rather difficult whenever they wandered right into the edge of a cliff or a wall of solid undergrowth, or even a river that ran for many miles without pause.

It was at once such place that they stopped for the night, a night without rain and a very clear sky. It was there that Fang unsaddled the horse and began to set up camp beside the riverbed, before she picked up her spear, trudging on over towards the water's edge.

Lightning watched Fang's preparations for a brief while, but the urge to find somewhere to warm herself grew to be a more pressing matter. She gave the strange creature with hooves a rather leery look, before she reached over to take out a thick woven blanket from their supplies within the saddlebags. The horse merely nibbled at a bit of grass on the ground, and he only looked off to the side when Lightning chanced the desire to pat at one of his shoulders, but he still didn't pay her much mind.

Lightning moved back towards where Fang had put down the sleeping mats within the grass, and she soon settled herself against her own. She then moved to wrap herself up in the blanket, before she turned to watch the way that such a long, sharp spear was hovering just above the surface of the river.

Fang knelt there, poised and ready, waiting for as long as it took for a small, speckled trout to wander into the range of her weapon, even if it took several minutes of utterly patient silence.

Lightning didn't even blink at the sudden flash of both sound and rapid movement, the signal of a hunting strike, the death of a fish upon the end of a metal spear. She merely looked away from it, up at the evening sky, already so filled with early stars and sun-tinged clouds, before she let her eyes slip shut.

The sounds of rustling grass, and then the scraping of many scales filled the air, and soon it was joined with the sound of branches being placed down against each other, and then the strike of a match. There was a fizzling hiss of combustion, and then finally, the warm, crackling fire that would keep them warm throughout the night.

Lightning kept very still for a while, and she didn't even move when Fang tapped at her shoulder, not until she realized that she'd nearly dozed off beneath the blanket.

"Hey." Fang was kneeling there with a small plate in her hands. The dish held a good bit of the cooked fish, as well as a couple of dry biscuits from their supplies. "You've got to get your strength back... No skipping meals."

Lightning slowly sat upright again, and she accepted the plate with a nod.

"Fancy trick you pulled back there." Fang began to sit down with her own plate of fish. "Burning yourself away... I nearly thought I'd lost you."

Lightning's feathered ears twitched slightly, but she ate without speaking a word.

"Let's just be glad that Vanille wasn't there." Fang picked up one of her own biscuits, before she dipped it down into a bit of the natural oil from the fish. "She might've gone and doused you with a bucket of water..."

Lightning still didn't speak, but she did try to copy the way that Fang had made the biscuit a bit more moist with the fish juice. It seemed as if she rather liked the taste of the trout, at least from how swiftly she was eating her share.

"Speaking of Vanille." Fang glanced over at where the saddle and the saddlebags were resting near the edge of camp. "We'll need to find her a present, if we can."

Lightning finally spoke. "A present?"

"Yeah, I always try to bring one back for her whenever I leave the village for long." Fang almost smiled, for it seemed as if each lesson with her books was starting to pay off in the long run. "I gave her a bit of crystal on that first day you were here, remember?"

Lightning nodded. "It's nice." She took a moment to think while she ate a bit more of the fish. "Does she like other crystals?"

"Yeah, I suppose so." Fang set her plate down for a moment, just to stretch out her arms. "It's more about what she can make with them, though."

Lightning soon began to finish up her meal, and when she was done, she reached out to pull the blanket pelt a bit closer around herself.

Fang stood up to retrieve a small metal pitcher from their supplies. "Are you cold?"

Lightning nodded while she settled herself down again, resting against the mat.

"You've just got to get strong again." Fang carried the pitcher towards the river, where she dipped it down to collect a full amount of water, before she brought it back up towards the campfire. "What you did, back there... What would you call it?"

Lightning shrugged from beneath the fuzzy blanket.

"You burned most of yourself away, I know that much." Fang set the metal pitcher down within the embers of the fire. "Spontaneous combustion? It looked like you controlled it, at least."

Lightning just closed her eyes, even when Fang stepped over to kneel beside her.

"Get better, okay?" Fang watched the way that Lightning's ears twitched at the sound of her voice. "I don't want you getting sick again."

After a moment or two, Lightning slowly opened her eyes. "Why do you care?" Yet her voice held no malice, no contempt, just simple curiosity.

Fang tried not to frown, despite the innocent tone of the question. "Why wouldn't I? You were hurting."

Lightning narrowed her eyes in confusion. "I'm not family."

Fang felt a bitter smile tug at her mouth. "You don't have to be... I'd still feel pretty bad if you got sick again."

Lightning stared at Fang's expression for a while, before she closed her eyes again. "You're too nice."

And at that, Fang leaned away with a low, stifled laugh, and she looked up at the open sky, smiling at the absurdity of the situation. "You know, nobody's ever told me that before." She let herself gently drop down against the grass, laying flat on her back beneath the stars. "There's not a whole lot of people I've ever taken close care of... Indirectly, maybe, but not in the same sort of way."

Lightning mumbled at a bit, clearly not knowledgeable enough to understand most of what Fang was saying, but it was clear to her that her previous comment had been taken in stride, perhaps even as a compliment.

"Remember when you said you weren't a bird?" Fang didn't wait for a reply. "I think I've figured it out, now."

Lightning merely rolled over upon the sleeping mat.

"Because you're not a bird, even if you can turn into something like one." Fang stared at the glimmering light of the stars. "They tell lots of stories back at home... Stories about places I've never seen, places with all sorts of things." She could feel the heat of the campfire from just a short distance away, warming her skin, where she had taken off her sandals to walk around with bare feet. "Stories about dragons and monsters, just fairy tales... But it feels like you came from one, too."

Lightning grumbled slightly, and she tugged the fur blanket closer to herself.

"People visit us in town, sometimes." Fang stretched her arms aloft, splayed out within the deep grass, feeling the softness of each blade as it brushed against her skin. "You ever wonder how we have so many antibiotics? We let clinic trade for it, for lessons to make their own medicine, it was from all of the surplus supplies, stuff even I'd helped to gather... So many people didn't get sick that year because of it." She watched the thin, wispy clouds as they traveled in long plumes against the night sky. "I'd never even heard of a vaccination before that... But I got them, all the same."

Lightning finally decided to speak. "Fang... Too many words."

Fang herself had taught Lightning to say that whenever the conversation became too complicated, yet she merely went silent for a while, at least until the urge to talk became too great again.

"Sorry, Light." Fang didn't even move when she felt Lightning approach the grass beside her. "I don't usually talk so much... You're just a good listener."

Lightning sat there with the fur blanket wrapped all around herself, just to keep the chill away. "Are you lonely?"

Fang closed her eyes, and she sighed. "Yeah, sometimes." She kept herself very still, even when she could hear yet another rustle of grass, before a sleek, feathered form suddenly settled itself down beside her. "Don't fall asleep there... I don't think you'd appreciate me carrying you back to your mat."

Lightning merely ruffled up her feathers, fluffing her herself to keep a bit of air trapped between each feather, to warm it with her own body heat, creating another layer of insulation beneath the fur blanket.

"Just like a bird... But not a bird." Fang hummed in slight contentment, even when she felt those soft, fluffy feathers brushing up against her arm. "You know what you are, Light?"

Lightning just snuggled herself under the blanket, laying there with her talons resting against the puffed up feathers of her body, before she tucked her head down beneath one of her wings.

Fang smiled softly to herself. "It's like... Calling a dragon a lizard." She slowly closed her eyes, breathing in the rich scent of the campfire smoke. "You're a phoenix."

* * *

"Hey."

Fang's eyes drifted open, though her vision was quite blurry until she blinked.

There was a very tall woman standing there beside the bunk, gently tapping at Fang's shoulder. "Hey, Tipur said you're on night patrol with us."

Fang mumbled something under her breath, but she nodded, moving over to wake Lightning up as well. It took a moment or two, yet they were soon both awake, both getting dressed again, before Fang found herself wandering on after the one who had woken her up, a woman who already wore the mask of a great gray owl.

"...How the heck do you get around in those things, anyway?" Fang began to yawn against the crisp night air, wearing her blue shawl upon her shoulders. "Doesn't look like they have holes to see out of."

The woman paused, before she slowly reached up to remove her mask, revealing the translucent layer of magic within it. "They're enchanted." She held the mask up to show Fang and Lightning just how large the inner field of vision was. "I can honestly see better with it on than having it off... It's like everything in the distance is crystal clear."

Lightning began to don her own method of anonymity, the pale fabric from within the hood of her upper garb. "You're Holly, right? Heloise said you knew barrier magic."

Holly nodded. "I'd show some to you, but Tipur's waiting for us with the others." She took up her mask again, which for some reason had no need of anything to tie it down against her face. "May I ask your names?"

"Lightning." Lightning followed after her, past the courtyard gardens and the front pathway, up towards the stairs of a tower within the walls. "Fang, you coming?"

Fang had paused to stare at the moon for just a moment. "Yeah." She moved to hurry on after Lightning, walking up the spiral staircase that led towards the upper heights of the tower. "Where are we headed tonight?"

Holly kept leading the way up towards the top. "We're actually doing a bit of advanced reconnaissance; Tipur will explain."

Fang merely shrugged, for it seemed as if Holly was the type to follow her orders without more than the slightest delay.

"But to be honest..." Holly lowered her voice a bit. "I wouldn't be too surprised if we got into a scuffle out there." She soon reached the highest of the tower floors, and she moved to push open one of the doors with her shoulder. "We're here, Tipur."

He was already standing there in his avian guise, along with a few other recruits, those who wore only plain masks upon their faces, without carvings or signifiers of any kind. Perhaps it was only the senior hunters who marked themselves in the visage of owls, or perhaps they simply had to earn such a right.

"Good timing..." Tipur's mask, the screeching barn owl, it almost seemed to clash with his welcoming tone of voice. "We're almost ready to get going tonight."

Lightning stepped over to peer down from the compound railing, and she could see that it stood nearly as high up as the walls around the city itself. "Almost?"

"Yeah, got a gift for you." Tipur stepped forward with what looked like a thin leather wristband in his grasp. "No more carrying your charms around in those pockets... We might need your talent tonight."

Lightning glanced down at the dark, polished leather, the bracer that was inlaid with small openings to hold dozens of different charms, and she slowly accepted it from Tipur. "...Thank you."

"It's nothing, really, we give them out to everyone capable of using one." Tipur still seemed rather proud of himself at just how well the color matched with the dark hue of Lightning's gloves. "And that's for you to keep, you hear? Gotta keep yourself safe out there... No room for fumbling around in pockets."

Lightning took a moment to position a few of her own charms beneath the stretchy sort of fabric, the slots that kept the silver trinkets quite secure against her arm. "Really, thank you for this."

"Don't mention it." Tipur stepped back to stand beside the younger recruits, before he cleared his throat to address the entire patrol. "Right, I'll keep this short, sweet and simple... We're going out tonight for routine scouting, but we've also got a second job to do." He moved to stand upon the very edge of the wall, gazing down at the lanterns that lit up the streets of the Warren. "There's a certain company that runs... Less than legal operations down by the harbors, and I have it on good authority that they contracted the thugs who stole our artifact in the first place."

Lightning began to attach the wristband against her arm. "And we're out to get solid proof?"

Tipur shook his head. "We don't need solid proof, not when we're taking this into our own hands... No, we're out to make a few plausible connections out of this mess." He swiftly clasped his hands together, simulating a silent punch. "We've got a new player in town, and it's time to see if he's got anything to do with our artifact."

And with that, they were off along the wall, moving so swiftly and silently across the stone pathways, down to the rough bricks of the barrier that they could climb down and across from, and then up towards one of the clay rooftops of the Warren, where they could run from roof to roof in relative silence.

Fang tried to keep up with them as best she could. Though her human form was admittedly a bit out of practice, at least when compared to her other nature, she manged to keep a good pace beside her companions, traveling on into the main streets of the massive, sprawling slums.

"Our target tonight, he operates near the harbor district." Tipur took a moment to crouch down near the edge of the rooftop, just to examine the road below. "As always, no killing unless there's no other option... But if any of you find yourselves between an enemy blade and a much rougher place, take the better option." He silently tapped at his belt, beside the curved sickle weapon that gleamed beneath the light of the moon. "There's no shame in self defense."

One of the recruits spoke up. "This artifact, it's worth bloodshed?"

Tipur rose back up to his feet. "Let me put it to you this way... It could cause the amount of blood we spill to increase tenfold by other hands, or even more so, if Caius was right." He moved towards the other edge of the roof. "Getting it back is our top priority."

Lightning began to grit her teeth at the sound of such things, but she merely kept following after her fellow hunters, running and jumping across the gaps in the rooftop path. She could feel the wind as it whipped itself against her clothes, against the skin of her face, though her mask kept it from touching her nose and mouth. Her blood ran high from the sudden rumble of adrenaline, from the knowledge that they would soon be approaching the harbors. The outskirts of the Warren led down to grimy stone roads with puddles of frigid saltwater, a dark, looming place that sent every nerve of her body into high alert.

Yet it took them scarcely half an hour to arrive, to fan out and scout the area for any possible dangers, a pack of hunters on the prowl, before they soon met up once again, just four of them, while the recruits kept watch of the streets from above.

"Right, then..." Tipur knelt down beside Holly, gazing at the sight of a small candlelit office. "Still awake, it seems."

Lightning kept her voice to a low murmur. "Our target's in there?"

"He'd better be." Holly brought down a long, tapered staff from where it had been clasped within a leather holder on her belt and upper back. "Or this is going to be rather awkward, don't you think?"

Lightning felt her fellows move on instinct, a pair of hunters in the dark, and she swiftly dropped down as well, glancing back to see that Fang had done the same, before four sets of boots touched down against the cold grime of the streets below.

Tipur took point, weapons at the ready as he snuck out along the brick wall of the building, peering in through the gaps of a shuttered window, before he gave his companions a single nod of affirmation.

And that was all it took, for Holly stood back while the three of them rushed at the door, and she cast out a thick, translucent wall of magic, a solid barrier within the alleyway, blocking off both of the entrance points on either side of the road, before she bolted right inside the building as well.

A man there was breathing in such short gasps, pinned back by the crescent sickle upon his neck, eyes wide and bulging with fear, while his hands grappled with the wrist that held the weapon so very close.

"Quiet." Tipur backed himself away from the desk, beneath so many drifting, scattered documents, dragging the panicked man off into the center of the room. "You want a slit neck? Keep struggling."

"I don't-" The man wheezed when Tipur suddenly jabbed the blunt end of a sword against his belly. "Don't have _any_ idea what this is about! What are-"

"Oh, I think you do..." Tipur nodded at Holly, who walked over to examine the mess of documents. "Mister Pyle, is it?"

The man went very still, even with the slight trickle of blood that kept streaming down against his throat. "What do you want with me?"

Lightning moved to look the man in the eye. "We want answers."

Tipur smirked at the sharp chill of her voice. "That's right, my man, you've crossed the _wrong_ people this time... And I don't think my friend here appreciates such acts of aggression, do you?"

Lightning's eyes almost seemed to gleam, and one could only guess that she was smirking beneath the pale white cloth.

"Oh yes, she's not very happy about it at all." Tipur tightened his grip upon the hilt of the crescent sickle. "That's why you can see her smiling, you see... I've told her she can gut you herself if we don't learn whatever we need to know."

Mister Pyle, to his credit, merely sputtered out a sharp, yet silent breath, and his face began to turn very, very pale. "What do you need to know?"

"That's much better." Tipur's voice took on a slightly warmer tone. "Now, who hired you to contract those thugs to the docks on the third of Paletree?"

Pyle's eyes darted over towards the documents before he could even think to stop them. "We don't use names in this industry-" He sputtered in pain at the sudden sharp pressure against his stomach; the blunt end of the sword was being rammed even deeper against his belly, yet he knew to bite back his cries, if only for the blade still at his throat. "No, no names... No names, I can't-"

"I think you can." Lightning narrowed her eyes, and she leaned in to look him in the eye. "You know what this reminds me of? Someone long ago, with their knife at my own sister's neck; she kept herself quiet too, she knew screaming would only make it worse." Lightning gazed at the thin trickles of blood that seeped down beneath the crescent blade. "You want to know what I did to the one that cut her?"

Pyle wheezed again, and his fingertips started to tremble.

"I watched his brain fluid drip across the edge of my knife." Lightning's eyes tracked the rapid, fluttering pulse beneath that steely blade. "So... No names? Do you have a family, Mister Pyle? I think you'd rather be able to get back home to them in once piece, wouldn't you?"

"There's..." Pyle swallowed away another burst of fear. "A safe, in the back room, documents... Proof of purchase, transactions, _names_ , just _don't_ -"

"Now that's the spirit." Tipur glanced back at Holly. "Would you mind telling my other friend here how to access this safe? We'll need to confirm it before I let you on your merry way..."

"Keys." Pyle's eyes flickered towards the doorway. "Combination code, too... Six-three-five-three."

Holly tucked away some of the fallen documents into the chest pocket of her robes. "Where are the keys?"

"Desk drawer, the back room... Left drawer." Pyle closed his eyes with a shiver. "I won't tell a soul about this, I _swear_."

"Can't say I believe that... No sir." Tipur lowered his sword away from Pyle's stomach, but the kept the sickle quite tight upon his throat. "But I think you'll find that we wear our masks for a good reason."

Fang, who had been standing out of sight from the interrogation, watching the doorway for any hints of intrusion upon the magic barriers, she reached up to try and make her shawl hide a bit more of her face than before.

"You're... You're going to kill me, then?" Pyle shivered again, still breathing in those sharp, hoarse gasps. "I... I cooperated!"

Lightning glanced over when Holly returned with an entire armful of paper documents, of envelopes and signed contracts, even a charter that held more names than they could immediately count.

"Tipur." Holly passed some of the information over to Lightning to carry. "We're done here."

Tipur nodded, before he lifted his sword again.

Pyle simply cried out at sight of it, yet his voice swiftly died down from a single blunt blow his head, before he crumpled into a limp mass upon the floor, laying there in a motionless, unconscious stupor.

"Someone will have heard that." Holly handed out more of the information to both Fang and Tipur. "We need to move."

"Right then." Tipur sheathed both of his blades away and tucked quiet a few of the documents into his robe pockets, before he hurried on out towards the front doorway. "Time to go, friends..."

Lightning ran with a decent share of the information in her own pockets, darting out towards the part of the alley wall with rougher bricks, and she clambered her way up towards the rooftops with Fang at her side. They both knelt there before very long, watching the way that Holly spun her staff around to reapply the barrier magic, along with a thick seal upon the doors and windows of the office itself.

"He'll be out for hours." Tipur lifted his hand to signal for all of the younger hunters to regroup at his location. "I didn't cut him deep enough to bleed out, but he'll have one hell of a headache when he wakes up."

"A headache..." Fang knelt down to offer Holly a hand in climbing back up to the roof. "A headache and one hell of a pain in his neck."

"He knew what he was getting into." Holly soon clambered back up beside them. "Those documents... 'No names' indeed, they're _full_ of names, dates, locations... The Order isn't as deaf as we thought."

"Let's get it back to base before we worry about that." Tipur started off in a slow walk, waiting for the recruits to make their way back to him. "I'm curious, though... Lightning, what you said back there, was it true?"

Lightning followed him across the rooftop. "About my sister? Yes." A almost somber look filled her eyes, yet she still kept moving forward in a steady pace. "We were ambushed when we were younger... I did what I had to do to keep her alive."

"Well, we'll be getting to the heart of it soon." Tipur quickened his pace when most of the recruits fell into formation beside them. "We'll get our answers... Maybe even make the place safer in the process."

Fang listened to the words Tipur spoke, yet she couldn't quite help the sense of restlessness in her heart, the foreboding sensation that one often feels upon stepping somewhere that one shouldn't, perhaps a guarded place, or a hidden nest of serpents. But she simply followed on after Lightning, resolved to the fact that the city itself would hold their answers, if only for the dangerous price of being within Etro's good graces.

* * *

The voice was low, a deep, solid tone within the grand halls of the meeting room. "And you did as you were asked?"

A streak of morning light spilled across his blooded throat, bandaged carelessly with a thin cloth; he was a man with dark shadows beneath his eyes, a face creased with what must have been hours of stress and worry. "Yes, my lord."

"What of the one... The one without the mask?"

The man swallowed, slowly reaching up to massage the skin so close beside his jugular vein. "She wore a mask, my lord, but it wasn't of Etro's ilk."

"Interesting."

"Am I... Free to go, my lord?" The man nearly shivered beneath such a piercing, powerful gaze. "I've done everything you asked."

"Indeed, you have." A pale scepter touched down against the marble floor, tall enough to be a walking staff. "Then you would know that you are of no further use to me."

The guardsmen didn't flinch, nor did they even turn their gaze towards the sudden streak of scarlet liquid, the spray that shimmered so brightly within the morning sunlight.

"Well done." A small droplet of blood trickled down across curve of the golden scepter. "I believe it is high time that we begin."

* * *

The room was still lit by flickering candlelight in the early morning, and the scent of incense burned just as strong as before. Lightning traced her fingertips against the subtle pattern upon the leather band, the feathery designs that swirled back and forth, up and down between the spaces that held her charms quite safe.

"Are you gonna feel it up all morning, or actually make out with it?" Fang smirked from where she was resting beneath the blankets. "We've probably missed breakfast already."

Lightning merely yawned, before she set the bracer down near where her backpack was resting, right beside the bed. "I'm still tired."

"Well, that tends to happen when you run around the city all night." Fang yawned as well, and she hummed when Lightning settled back down beside her. "Strange, how things turn out..."

Lightning closed her eyes and snuggled herself back up against Fang's neck.

"You're pretty damn cuddly for such a firebrand, aren't you?" Fang hummed again, wrapping her arms around Lightning's back. "Maybe you _are_ a wolf; you're all teeth when you mean business, but when you get the chance to snuggle..."

Lightning fought the urge to nip at Fang's neck to make her quiet again.

"I've been thinking lately..." Fang stared at the thin wisps of incense, the smoke that trailed out from a small container of slow-burning sticks. "When we're done here, once we get moving again, I still owe you a dance."

Lightning mumbled her words against Fang's throat. "I nearly forgot about that."

"I miss being-" Fang kept her voice to a whisper, even though the only other women in the bunk room seemed to be fast asleep. "I miss being like I was."

Lightning moved one of her hands up to touch the bare skin of Fang's neck. _You miss being a dragon?_

 _Yeah._ Fang closed her eyes, and she took in a deep breath of the warm, floral incense, before she exhaled, and then gently kissed the top of Lightning's head. _It's part of me, Light, just like my human side._

 _I'm sorry you can't be it here_. Lightning hugged her arms around Fang's shoulders. _Once we've finished... When we get home, you can be like that again._

Fang smiled to herself. _Even in the village?_

Lightning almost wanted to roll her eyes at that, but they were already shut. _Maybe not the village._

 _Right... Don't want to scare the living daylights out of anyone._ Fang nuzzled the edge of her cheek against the woven pillows. _Do you think we could tell them eventually? At least someone like Serah._

Lightning opened her eyes for just a moment, and a brief look of concern crossed her gaze, before she let her eyelids slip shut again. _I don't know, Fang. We'll have to see._

Fang could feel those first few wisps of sleep within her head, the haziness that came from staying up so late into the morning, but a single thought began to cross her mind, right before she drifted off into slumber. _If your family is anything like you, Light... I don't think we'll have much trouble at all._

* * *

It was within the dream that she woke to the sound of flapping wings, of small clicks of rapid sound and the hiss of a terribly frustrated creature. Fang opened her eyes to see a dark eagle flying right above the little campsite, all while a much larger falcon kept hopping around with her wings held out on either side.

"Light..." Fang sighed and rolled over against her sleeping mat. "It's too early for this, go back to sleep."

Lightning just kept jumping up as high as she could, and she flapped her wings to try and catch the air beneath them, and while she was able to get herself a few feet out into the air, she seemed too exhausted to really sustain it for more than a few moments of time.

" _Light_." Fang slowly covered her face in her hands. " _Sleep_ , Light, it's not time to fly around."

Lightning hissed again, before she landed right on her talons in the grass. " _Fly_."

Fang opened her eyes to see that yes indeed, the beak of a massive falcon had just spoken in the pattern of human speech. "You're going to wear yourself out if you keep trying that, it's too early."

Lightning looked away, and she pinned her ears flat against her head. "...I'm _stuck_."

"I know, Light, but you won't be for long." Fang slowly sat up against the sleeping mat. "You'll fly again once you're strong enough."

Lightning's ears began to relax against her head, but she still stood there with her wings slightly outstretched. "I don't like it."

"I know." Fang rubbed the sleep from her eyes, before she reached towards her satchel to search for something inside it. "I'll tell you what, you can hold onto my good luck charm until you can fly again."

Lightning soon stepped over with a rather curious look in her eyes, moving across the grass to peer at what Fang was holding.

"I found this on the mountain where I trained Bahamut to hunt." Fang held up the tiny shard of clear stone, and she moved it around to catch the first few rays of sunlight. "Like a little piece of the sky... Just keep it safe for me, okay?"

Lightning soon sat there within her human form, holding the little blue stone against her palm.

"Now, get some more sleep... Please." Fang started to lay back down upon her mat. "You know, the more rest you get, the sooner you'll be flying again."

Lightning stared at the wisp of white mineral that spun deep within the rock, a streak that almost looked like a gentle little cloud. She slowly traced her fingertips against the smooth surface of the stone. "It's a crystal?"

"Yeah, probably." Fang stretched her arms out against the fuzzy pelts, the scattered blankets upon her mat. "I just thought it looked pretty."

Lightning kept very quiet for a long while, before she settled herself down on her own sleeping mat. "...Serah likes crystals."

Fang's eyes widened slightly. "Serah..? Who's Serah?"

Lightning didn't speak again for a longer time, but she did pick up the device that still hummed with solar energy, with that single blinking dot. "She's family."

Fang turned to look at where Lightning was resting upon her side, facing the river that whispered beside their little campsite. A few scattered feathers were still drifting on above the grass, little bits of downy fluff that Lightning had likely lost from the stress of flapping around. And there, by a nearby fallen tree, Bahamut perched himself upon a certain branch, one that had a pale white feather floating around beneath it.

"He wasn't teasing you, was he?" Fang gave her feathered companion a rather stern look. "Flying around like that..."

Lightning shook her head. "He was flying, but it wasn't to be bad."

Fang wondered if perhaps that was the longest sentence she had ever Lightning speak in her newfound language.

"I wanted to fly too." Lightning reached down to pull another blanket over herself. "We lived somewhere high."

"Somewhere high." Fang stared at the trees far above the campsite. "That little house you drew?" She remembered the second picture, one that Lightning had started to draw once she grew too bored of merely resting on the clinic bed. "On a floating rock..."

"Nothing floats here." Lightning rolled over to lay on her back. "It's... Weird."

Fang smiled softly. "Feathers float... Birds float."

Lightning's ears twitched back and forth. "Birds _fly_."

"It's similar enough." Fang glanced back up at Bahamut. "Your home, it was in the sky?"

Lightning nodded. "We fly there."

"'We flew'." Fang looked at Lightning again. "Past tense is flew."

"Flew..." Lightning nodded. "We flew there."

"That's right." Fang smiled slightly to reassure her. "Listen, even if I can't get you back home again... I can at least get you your family back."

Lightning glanced down at the tracking device.

"If they're out there, we'll find them." Fang closed her eyes. "Just try to get some rest."

Lightning soon closed her eyes as well. She listened to the sounds of the wind, of the river, to the way that the strange beast they had ridden there was munching along at the grass, even to how Fang kept breathing so steadily, enough to make her feel more at ease. She wasn't quite sure of the exact reason that they'd found themselves together there, or what motivation Fang might have had besides altruism, but Lightning knew that within that place, beside a hunter of such fierce creatures, the one who gave her soft pelts to sleep upon, thick furs to warm her throughout the night... She knew that in that presence, she was safe.

* * *

Morning had already dawned to its brightest state, leaving the compound in midday, and the denizens there were mostly at work for the day, sparring or training among themselves, or making sure that the perimeter was secure. It seemed as if word traveled quite quickly within such a tight-knit community, and perhaps even the news of impending violence had crossed from person to person, setting the entire atmosphere on edge.

Breakfast was just a few slices of leftover bread and fruit from the kitchens, and Lightning took care not to get in the way of the children who were already preparing the counters for lunch. It was the boy's turn to cook meals for the day, so it seemed only fair for Lightning and Fang to take their food outside the kitchen, sitting in the gardens for a while.

Fang could feel the warmth of the sunlight, the wind that made the flowers rustle right along with the leaves. She closed her eyes for just a brief moment, before she felt something brush against her shoulder. Lightning was sitting there was well, deep amid the tropical blooms and long, soft grasses, eating a bit of the fruit they had been given.

"They're probably out there again." Fang watched the wings of a tiny insect flapping so silently in the wind. "Getting ready to take the statue back... To take their goddess back."

Lightning leaned herself against Fang's shoulder, gentle and warm.

"You think they'll want us there with them?" Fang tossed a small bit of bread into the garden, where a strange little squirrel suddenly darted out to grab for it, stuffing each and every crumb up into its cheeks. "Even if they're trying to scare them off, it might get bloody..."

Lightning handed Fang a bit of sliced fruit. "I've dealt with bloody."

"I know, but it's still a risk." Fang lifted the fruit to her lips, and she inhaled the sweet, fragrant scent. "If you're going, then I'm going with you... I've got your back."

Lightning was about to respond, but a certain visage that appeared from across the gardens, an approaching figure, it made her fall silent again.

It was a woman who wore the robes of the hunters, a face hidden beneath the mask of a bay owl. "I would like a word with you."

Fang nearly narrowed her eyes. "With both of us?"

"I'd prefer to speak with my own kind." The eyes of the mask almost seemed to gleam beneath the sunlight. "I mean no offense."

Fang shrugged, before she stood up to stretch out her legs, wandering off into the garden paths.

Lightning tried not to grit her teeth. "You'd better have a good reason for that."

The woman, the one Lightning knew was named Beryl, she still didn't remove her mask. "A better reason than you might think... We need to speak about the current state of our people." She knelt down across from Lightning, gazing back at her with that strange, almost alien mask. "I'll apologize for being blunt, but I think that you of all people would understand the necessity of being honest."

Lightning sat up a bit taller within the whispering grass. "Just say what you need to tell me."

"You asked for my name, before." She slowly removed her mask. "My name is Beryl."

Lightning stared at those strange eyes, the eyes that held so little emotion, yet still looked so very bright in color. "Lightning."

"Word travels fast." Beryl sat down against the grass. "Tradition isn't quite how it used to be... I learned your name from someone who hadn't yet earned it."

Lightning glanced away. "Are you just here to talk semantics, or..?"

"No, and for that I also apologize." Beryl's expression almost seemed to soften. "We're on a dangerous path, our kind... A path we've always walked, but it still grows more and more thick by brambles and thorns." She set the mask down upon her lap. "Noel is a fine leader, Caius wouldn't have chosen him otherwise, but he's blinded by his duty, Lightning... We don't have the numbers for a war with the Order."

"I've gathered as much." Lightning leaned forward to rest her hands against her knees. "I think Noel knows it, too."

"But still he provokes them." Beryl lowered her voice to a hushed whisper. "He might not wish for human bloodshed, but that's the path we're on... An open assault against the Order will see all of us wiped out, _erased_." She tightened her grip on the edges of her mask. "And for that, I need to ask for your help."

Lightning quirked a single eyebrow. "My help?"

"You've spoken to them, haven't you?" Beryl's eyes traveled all around, gazing at something that Lightning couldn't see, something that lingered against her soul. "The spirits... You have their scent."

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Their scent?"

"I don't have a better word for it." Beryl looked back at Lightning's face. "Residue? A trace of their presence? Whichever you prefer, you've spoken to them, and I know it."

Lightning shrugged. "But what does this have to do with anything?"

"We don't have the numbers for a war." Beryl's eyes turned to peer at the distant walls of the compound. "But I know a place that does."

Lightning slowly rose to her feet. "You're serious?"

Beryl nodded. "Will you travel with me, there? I need you to see what I intend."

"How far is it?" Lightning looked over at where Fang was still wandering around, out of earshot. "And I'm not going anywhere without Fang."

Beryl stood up as well. "That's not a problem... As long as she can control her own magic."

Lightning gave Beryl a rather pointed look. "Really? She's not a child, you know."

"Even an adult can lose control." Beryl donned her mask again. "I just prefer to stand on the side of caution."

"You won't have to worry about her." Lightning tried not to sigh, and she started off to speak with Fang. "Show us where this is, then."

* * *

The entrance to the catacombs was nestled right into the sheer wall of a cliff, deep within a meadow of sparse flowers and low, humble grave markers. A blank flag billowed within the wind, and the willow trees creaked and rustled with each gust, while the leaves on the ground were scattered back and forth with every breeze.

Beryl led the way towards the tunnel of deep stone and tall marble pillars, walking just as silently as she could.

"And what exactly are we looking for, here?" Fang glanced around at the cemetery stones, at the graves that were resting within the solid earth. "I thought you said we were going to get help?"

Beryl's eyes narrowed slightly from beneath her mask. "We are."

Fang looked down at the entrance to the catacombs, before she narrowed her eyes as well. "Yeah, let's go dig up a bunch of corpses and convince them to fight for us..."

Beryl glanced back over her shoulder, gazing at Fang. "You're closer to the truth than you realize." She gestured for both Lightning and Fang to follow her. "We're not after corpses, though... We're after ghosts."

Lightning paused for a moment to think of what that could possibly mean, before she moved to follow after Beryl. "Ghosts are incorporeal."

"They are, yes, as a default." Beryl held her hand up and focused for a moment, and when she spread her fingertips apart, a small, shimmering wisp of magic floated within her hand, illuminating the way before them. "Please just trust me, would you? I'm already trusting both of you not to tell everyone about this right away... It might take some convincing to prove my point."

"What are you even talking about?" Fang quietly snapped her fingers, and a flame of her own flickered forth. "You want us to convince a bunch of ghosts to go spook up the Order a bit?"

Beryl hissed very quietly. "I agreed to take you along with us if you could control yourself..."

"What's out of control?" Fang wandered on down the catacomb steps, glancing around at the various carvings upon the walls, or at even the marble pillars that kept the roof aloft. "Calling you out on a dumb idea isn't being out of control."

"You think that I'd waste our time when we're talking about something so _important?_ " Beryl turned around from where she was standing against the stairs, and the magic on her fingertips flared slightly. "This is a matter of life and death we're dealing with... No, I'm not suggesting we 'spook up' the Order, I'm suggesting that we use the tools we have to turn the tide in our favor." She didn't wait for a response. "Let me just explain this from the beginning."

The walls of the catacombs glimmered within the light of the twin magics, and the dust echoed softly against the floor with each step that the three of them took.

"Centuries ago, Luxerion once underwent a massive cultural shift." Beryl kept walking down the stairway, traveling deeper and deeper beneath the earth. "There were several factions in power, too many to name without a history book in hand, but the basic concept that you need to know is that two prominent armies rose up under the command of those who sought a to hold position of power... The armies were basically siblings, families, all divided by the sudden struggle to rule Luxerion." Beryl paused beside another tunnel, before she turned to lead the way down a different flight of stairs. "They were honorable soldiers... They did what they had to do in order to keep their people safe, to protect their way of life, and then, in the end, neither side really won." She peered down into the darkness, towards the end of the tunnel. "Even the textbooks don't really know if there was ever a decisive ruler, but the total lives lost... It was practically catastrophic."

Lightning blinked against the steady shadows of the catacomb, yet she suddenly paused at the sight of a distant, wispy figure, a translucent form within the hollow cavern.

"They buried them here." Beryl held her hand up to illuminate the mouth of a much larger tunnel, practically an underground hall, home to rows upon rows of wide marble caskets. "Right here... _Thousands._ Honorable soldiers, people who only wanted to keep their home safe... But they're trapped here, kept away from Etro's realm."

Fang tried her best to look impressed at a rather vacant room of graves, but she only needed to glance at Lightning's face to tell just how many phantoms were truly lingering there. Lightning herself had gone very still, gazing out at the blur of numerous ghostly soldiers, men and women in full armor, wielding swords, spears and mighty shields, all milling around in preparation for a skirmish that had never even begun.

"I've spoken to them before, they're more than friendly." Beryl made the magic on her hand brighten outward, enough to show the full width of the massive, silent tomb. "They all seem to think that there's a battle happening 'tomorrow', and guess what?" She turned to face both Lightning and Fang. "Both sides were buried here... They can't even tell the difference."

"What does this mean for us?" Lightning nearly shivered when one of the phantoms brushed up against her as it walked on by, scouting out the tomb. "People without a pact to Etro, they can't even see them."

Beryl kept very quiet for a moment, before she spoke in a lower tone. "How much do you know about spirits?"

Lightning glanced at yet another phantom that crossed her path. "Not very much."

Beryl turned to lead the way further into the catacombs. "Most of what I've been able to research, it all points to a certain... Manifestation of an idea, a concept, the _spirit_ , if you will, of certain places." She walked on between the crowds of ghostly figures, through the encampment that they all seemed to be tending, preparing to go back to war. "I once managed to contact one, the spirit of a little island to the east of here... The spirit of the city there." Beryl walked on to approach a large alcove within the musty caverns. "An idea made physical... The very _soul_ of the place it inhabits, _that's_ what a spirit is."

Lightning watched the way that Beryl knelt down within the alcove. "You think... A spirit is a soul?"

"Yes, but they're not quite like our souls." Beryl reached for a small cloth pouch from the chest pocket of her robes. "They're a compounded being of human personification and group emotion... You must know the old stories, the gift of souls to our world?" She began to pour out a bit of rough, powdery incense upon the stone floor. "Etro tore herself out of grief... The first humans were born of the blood she shed, when it saturated the simple creatures of the world."

Fang slowly knelt down on the floor as well. "That's a story from the worlds before our own."

"It happened, all the same." Beryl started to spread out the powder into the symbol of a wide, watchful eye. "We're not debating the facts of the past, but the reality of the present, of relatively new souls... Spirits, _souls_ born out of our own personification of the world." She closed her eyes for just a moment. "Would you like to meet the spirit of Luxerion?"

Lightning knelt down as well, sitting beside the small circle of incense. "If you tell can me why we're going after this idea in the first place... What does a spirit have to do with all of these phantoms?"

"Incorporeality..." Beryl began to hone the pale magic within her fingertips into a much sharper force, into a small, budding flame. "It's only an obstacle if the soul itself is unfocused... Lost, if you will." She narrowed her eyes until the spark suddenly lit the spearhead of the incense circle, drawing it up into fire, a growing, flickering force that swiftly burned far faster than any natural flame. "They have desire in their hearts, of course, but without clarity, without the eyes of a true spirit, they'll never find their purpose again... They'll never be released to join Etro's realm."

Fang spoke up once more, watching as the fire grew brighter and brighter, a living flame within the darkness of the catacomb. "And what purpose is that?"

"To protect their home from annihilation." Beryl held her arms up and aside, calling the inferno to an even greater degree, to a rippling, seething force that swiftly glimmered and boiled within the incense, teeth and claws, of sheer black and white, a mane of burning fire. "And we can guide them to it."

It was a king who rose up from within the ashes, a king with a crown of earthen black and a pelt of pure blinding white, a lion with the sharp roar of battle, and when it stood so tall among the catacombs, a lord of shadow and burning flame, one of the phantoms in the hall suddenly walked straight into a marble pillar, and then toppled over.

Fang's breath caught silently at the sight of it, a ghost brought to her own vision from mere invisibility, from nothingness, a solid figure, one who actually looked rather confused about why he couldn't simply walk through corporeal objects anymore, but he quickly seemed to right himself again. And the presence itself, it began to spread, the racing heart that began to beat so proudly within each of the soldier's bodies, the true lion of Luxerion, the spirit who paced along through the dusty catacombs with teeth born out of sheer love for his home, a leader among the gathered souls. And she could see them, each of them, and it made Fang rise up to her feet again, gazing out among the masses upon _masses_ of shimmering phantoms.

"You wanted numbers?" Beryl rose back up to her feet as well. "He'll lead them for us... We just have to pick the right time."

Lightning took a slow step forward, moving back out within the thousands of souls, the lives that swirled all around her, no longer so aimless or lost. "They can really fight for us?"

"Light, I can see them." Fang gently tapped at one of the phantom's shoulders, and she almost smiled when her fingertips met with resistance. "Yeah, I'd bet they can fight..."

"You see this, though?" Beryl pointed at a few of the phantoms who were slowly glimmering in and out of existence, before they finally flickered back into a non-physical state. "My own will isn't enough to keep them here, and neither is the spirit... We're going to need everyone on board with this plan, and you'll need to help me with it, Lightning." Beryl moved to stand right beside her, and she slowly removed her mask. "Listen, I might not always agree with him, but Noel seems to trust you... And if he thinks Etro trusts you, that's good enough for me." She looked Lightning right in the eye, gazing at her without a hint of hesitation. "You need to help me convince them, to make them _believe_ in the very spirit of this city, or we're all looking at a battle we can't win."

And the lion himself began to slowly fade, peering out at the darkness of the catacomb, fueled only by the waning fire and the belief of a single living soul, before he flickered out into nothingness. Fang soon looked upon an empty room, upon invisible ashes, upon ghosts she could no longer see.

"Will you do it?" Beryl didn't move her eyes from Lightning's gaze, and she held out her hand in a slow, almost tentative gesture. "Will you help me?"

Lightning felt her mouth tug itself into a small smile, before she accepted the handshake with a rather firm grip of her own. "What else would I be here for?"


	33. Primal Fears

"There's only one issue." Beryl gestured at the wide legion of phantoms. "I've been operating on guesswork, mostly, but if they _were_ to fight for us, to 'retake' their homeland for the good of the people... Succeeding an objective like that, it would almost definitely let them find their way into the afterlife."

Fang glanced around, searching for any hint of an ethereal presence in the catacombs, but she could see nothing but dust and the occasional cobweb. "So, we've got one shot to make it count..." She started to wander beside a few of the stone coffins and the countless urns, gazing down at them. "If Noel's planning to force those guards at the statue into a retreat, then we should really save our 'secret weapon' for something more decisive, shouldn't we?"

"Exactly." Beryl began to move back towards the entrance of the crypt. "I've shown you this because I believe an outside perspective could be exactly what we need... But I think we should keep this between us, at least until the time comes when we're planning a greater assault." She donned her mask again, before she paused upon the first few steps of the stairs. "If it even comes to that."

Lightning took one last look at the room of so many countless phantoms, before she walked over towards the stairs as well. "And nobody else knows about this place? About the ghosts?"

"Not that I know of, no." Beryl turned to glance at the tomb again. "But I'll bring it up with the rest of the magi, back at home; we'll need all of the power we can get to make the spirit stable."

Fang walked up towards the stairs as well. "Now, I've got a question... Why is the thing unstable in the first place?" She gestured at the smoldering circle of incense. "Light, that spirit back in the north, you said it could move from place to place..? It didn't seem to need a hand in summoning itself."

Beryl started to move up the stairway. "There's something utterly _foul_ in Luxerion... It feels like there always has been, but I think we're seeing the true effects of the corruption firsthand." She gestured at the tombs all around her. "The people here, they were buried before such times, when the city wasn't much more than a few different hermitages and small, connected villages... When the canals were dug, and when the walls went up, when the harbor connected the island to the world-" Beryl paused to look back at the both of them, and the eyes of her mask almost seemed to gleam. "Have you felt it, too..? That lack of soul? The way the city always seems so... _Absent_ , of that same spirit." She lowered her voice to a softer whisper. "Other places aren't like this... They aren't leeched away by something so sinister."

Lightning forced herself not to wince at the sudden memory of empty eyes, and of so many thousands of faces.

Fang spoke in a lower tone than before. "And what do you think is causing all of that?"

Beryl shrugged. "The question is, what _could_ cause such a thing? The Order, perhaps?" She turned to keep walking up the stairs. "They've held the artifact for too brief a time, this can't possibly be blamed on it... There's just something poisoning the city from the inside, and if there's anyone to deal with it, it's _us_."

After a moment of silence, of traveling even further towards the surface of the crypt, Lightning spoke. "Do you believe that a dream could point to the future?"

Beryl didn't look back from the direction she was walking in. "Of course. You've heard of seers, haven't you?"

Lightning slowly followed after her. "I've never met one in person, but yes... Do you believe that a dream about a fal'Cie, that it could mean there really _is_ one in the area?"

"...That depends on the kind of dream." Beryl led the way back up the narrow stairways, further and further towards the entrance of the crypt. "But seers are even rarer than mages; it could always just be a dream, nothing more."

Fang drew in a deep breath of the cool, fresher air, of the gentle breeze blowing in from above ground.

Beryl soon stepped up towards the ground level walkway of the catacombs. "Right then, I'm going to go look into alternative powering resources, just in case we can't convince enough people about this... You know the way back home, don't you?"

"We do." Lightning moved up from the tombs as well, and she nearly exhaled in relief with being back out from such a dark, stuffy crypt. "...You're one to travel alone, aren't you?"

Beryl's next few words, they sounded as if she was ever so slightly amused. "Owls don't fly in flocks. You might find them living close together for safety, but some of us..." She started off in a different direction than before, moving out towards a high wall that stood all around the graveyard. "Some of us prefer to follow the old ways."

Lightning watched the sudden, graceful leap and a magical rush of air, the physical energy that propelled her most unlikely companion up and atop the wall. It seemed that for what she lacked in strength, Beryl made up for with magical prowess.

"I meant if before, half-mask... _Lightning_." Beryl traced a single, slender fingertip against her own carved visage. "You're very brave for letting them see your eyes." And with that, she disappeared over the edge of the wall, moving off to somewhere in the outskirts of the city.

"Weird one." Fang slowly stretched her arms out beneath the midday sunlight. "It's the weird ones who usually end up the most interesting, though..."

Lightning reached up to touch the pale fabric that was resting beneath her hood. "Do you get the feeling that we're already closer to figuring this out?" She blinked at the sheer brightness of the sun, so high up in the sky that it almost seemed to be directly overhead. "When we first got here... You _felt_ it, didn't you?" Lightning turned her gaze back towards the cemetery grounds. "Did it always feel like this?"

Fang started to stroll forward again. "No, not always." She peered up the iron-wrought gates that stood beside the tall stone walls, before she gestured for Lightning to follow her. "Keep in mind that I wasn't _here_ for very long, at least in the grand scheme of things... Only when Vanille wanted to look something up or study."

Lightning stepped over to keep up with Fang. "Do you still have that feeling you told me about? That there's something important here?"

Fang held back a smirk. "Yup."

Lightning kept following on after Fang, past the graveyard gates and off towards the cobblestone path that led back towards the more rural parts of the city, home to wide open orchards and great fields filled with various crops.

"And you know what?" Fang stretched out her arms again, and Lightning almost imagined that they looked like wide black wings again. "We might've actually found a person grumpier than you."

Lightning fought back a tiny scowl, and she merely reached up to yank Fang's shawl up and over her head.

"Gentle, now..." Fang smirked as she caught the wrist that Lightning had reached up with. "I'll have you know that I'm rather fond of your prickliness."

Lightning just stood there with her wrist in Fang's grip. "Prickliness... Like a porcupine?"

Fang nodded, before she glanced at the tiny scar upon one of Lightning's fingertips. "But you're a lot nicer to be around than any porcupine I've ever met."

Lightning started to close her eyes when she felt Fang trace over each of her fingers. "I can't imagine a pleasant porcupine."

"Why do you think I keep coming back, Light?" Fang's voice suddenly grew closer, brushing against Lightning's cheek. "Why I keep _finding_ you again, in each life?" She gently twined their fingertips together. "Maybe you're just my type."

Lightning tried not to chew at the inside of her cheek. "Maybe you're just a masochist..?"

Fang hummed with a low, quiet laugh. "Maybe you're not as difficult to befriend as you think."

Lightning opened her eyes again, gazing back at that sly, draconic smirk. "Maybe you're ridiculously charming."

Fang's eyes flashed with mirth. "Confidence is attractive, Light..." She slowly leaned away, still holding Lightning's hand. "I like people who can hold their own against me."

Lightning started to walk forward again, moving side by side with Fang. "We still haven't had that spar."

"Just haven't had the time, Light." Fang peered out over the sprawling fields and small villas near the edge of the inner city, the fields that rolled on beneath the tall city walls, bordering them off from the sea. "And you know, your health wasn't looking so great for a while, back there."

Lightning thought back to the feeling of blood trickling down through her hair.

"And we've still got things to do." Fang gently began to swing their linked hands between them, savoring the soft feeling of Lightning's skin. "But, Light... If the worst comes to worst, we can always leave before it gets too rough around here." She turned her gaze towards the distant city, to the tall towers and mighty citadels. "I'm not one to turn down a challenge, you know that, but we're here to figure this aggression out, not start a war with Bhunivelze's people."

Lightning's gaze went very low for a moment. "If we hadn't met the people here, or learned about this artifact, I might've said we should just leave immediately." She gently squeezed Fang's hand. "Like I said, I don't need closure, just as long as we're still safe back at home..." Lightning looked down at the path ahead. "But I can't really ignore something like this."

Fang nodded, still gazing out at the city. "A few more days here is nothing, Light."

Lightning took a deep, steady breath of the floral air, of the scents of the grass and the dirt path beneath her boots. "Does she... Do you know if she's really still aware? That dream I had, if Vanille really _was_ trying to tell me-"

"I don't know what she's thinking, Light." Fang almost wanted to grit her teeth at the memory of what Lightning had shared, those eyes between the branches of the deep red trees, the voice that could _only_ be Vanille's, so very quiet and morose. "And again, like I said, she's got this guilt thing..." Fang held her breath for a moment, just to keep herself from raising her voice. "Why would she not want us to save her..? It just doesn't make sense to me."

Lightning's mind wandered back to the feeling of blood upon her throat, trickling down against her skin, but she kept those thoughts to herself.

"Well..." Fang paused at the height of an incline in the long dirt path, and she looked out over the sprawling expanse of the city, at the shining gold and black hues of the stately chapels, at the clay buildings further down, and then at a distant clock tower, rising much higher than almost everything else she could see. "We'd better get back, shouldn't we? They might even be getting closer to Noel's plan."

"I hope so." Lightning felt the strong tropical winds at her back, rustling the longer flaps of her clothes. "I can handle bloodshed... But whatever we can avoid is for the better."

* * *

They approached the compound near the very height of midday, just in time to see a group of Etro's followers, those who were likely leaving to incite yet another wave of panic near the statue of Etro. One of them, a young man who Lightning didn't recognize, was leading them.

"Boss was looking for you." The man wore a set of average plainclothes, but he carried the unmissable scent of incense. "Something about tonight's plans."

Lightning nodded her thanks to him, before she approached the alley gates with Fang. Another follower was guarding it, but he quickly opened it up for the two of them to pass, though Lightning wondered where the young girl, Sibyl, might have gone off to.

"It's weird..." Fang stretched out her arms again. "I'm almost starting to get used to the place." She peered around at the courtyard, and at the gardens out in front of the office building. "Think we should go looking for Noel?"

Lightning pulled her hood down from atop her head, and she glanced around at the compound as well. "Probably." She could smell the rich scents already, the floral gardens, the sharper incense, even the smell of saltwater from right beyond the walls, but what she didn't expect to sense was the sound that reached her ears.

Hoofbeats drummed steadily against the ground, before a lone rider appeared, a woman wearing yet another carved avian mask. "You're Lightning, right?"

Lightning nodded, and she glanced up at the steed who held a blue roan color to his hide, one who had stopped to pace at the ground beside her.

"Boss told me to help you and your friend get caught up with them." The woman took her mask off to reveal a face that Lightning hadn't seen before. "They've got some errands to do... High-profile errands."

Lightning stepped back when the woman dismounted from the horse. "Alright."

"This one answers to 'Rune'." The woman reached up for the horse's reins to offer them over towards Lightning. "Once you're on, I'll tell him to go and find the boss for you."

Fang quirked at eyebrow at such a claim. "A horse can do something like that?"

The woman handed Lightning the reins, before she turned to address Fang. "With the right training, sure... Doesn't hurt to breed magic in them, either."

Fang slowly reached up to let the horse sniff at her hand. "Interesting."

Rune snorted quietly, but he seemed very docile, patiently waiting there for Lightning to swing herself up upon the saddle.

"And he's more than strong enough for two." The woman donned her mask again. "Oh, before I forget... The name's Myta, and if either of you need anything from the stables, you just come and ask me, you hear?"

Lightning nodded. "Thank you. We will."

"Hell, how much more of this little trip is gonna be riding up there on a horse?" Fang started to climb atop the saddle as well, using one of the stirrups to make her way behind Lightning. "I swear, if my ass isn't damn well sore and broken by the end of this..."

Lightning just rolled her eyes at that, but she watched closely when Myta leaned in to whisper an order beside the horse's ear. Rune whickered quietly, before he began to walk forward once more, approaching one of the side gates of the compound.

"Smart little pony, isn't he?" Fang leaned over to rest her chin on Lightning's shoulder. "Really though, what kind of horse understands something like that? Reminds me of a certain songbird..."

Lightning loosened her grip on the reins. "I've always thought Odin was a little too smart for his own good... But I don't know his heritage, so there could be anything in his bloodline." She almost smiled when Rune quickened his pace, easily smoothing himself into a brisk trot across the compound. "And this one isn't a pony, Fang; he almost looks like a draft horse."

Fang shrugged, and she leaned back to look at the tall stone walls that were quickly rising above them. "They need to be big for hunting monsters, don't they?"

Lightning nodded. "Warhorses."

"Hmm." Fang looked back down at the path ahead of them, watching the way that a few other hunters moved to open the gate they were guarding. "Let's just hope he really knows where he's going."

And the very moment when they were out there upon that lonely, dusty street, Lightning swiftly dug in with her heels and fully loosened the reins, savoring that sudden rush of air and the feeling of Fang's arms lurching out to grab around her waist, just to hold on within the sudden sharp gallop that Rune leapt right into, racing on down into the city streets without even a moment of hesitation.

She was alive upon the saddle, perhaps not in the same sense that she always shared with Odin, not the bond of like-minded partners, from her guardian of so many lives, yet it was enough to make Lightning's blood sing with the sound of thunderous hooves, of horseshoes clanging down like so many massive metal bells.

" _Damn_ it, Light!" Fang hissed and grabbed on a bit tighter. "A little warning, maybe?!"

Lightning merely smirked against the wind, before she answered in a low, almost sly sort of tone. "You seemed rather keen on aerial tricks before we got here..."

Fang tried not to sigh. "Yeah, but I _expected_ those." She had to raise her voice over the rush of air and the deep drumming of rapid hooves. "It's pretty different when you aren't the one in charge."

Lightning leaned in towards the motion of the galloping steed, and she watched while each of the streets moved on in a blur beside them. "I'll teach you how to ride on your own, someday."

"Sure..." Fang tucked her chin in against Lightning's shoulder. "Just as soon as the damn horse can catch up with me, first."

Lightning glanced down at where Fang was still gripping her arms around her waist, a tight sort of hug, enough to keep her firmly grounded there. "It's a good skill to know."

Fang squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment. "I don't doubt it."

Lightning leaned to the side when Rune began to turn, galloping on down towards the more open areas of the outer Warrens, the sparse pathways and small fields of dry, somewhat fertile grassland. "Where do you think we're going?"

Fang shrugged. "Wherever the hell Noel is."

Lightning tried not to roll her eyes again. "Smartass..."

Fang nearly smirked, still tucked in against Lightning's shoulder. "You know it."

* * *

Luxerion was well known for its widespread waterways, those low, creaking canals and the hidden sewer systems that quite ran deep beneath the higher levels of the city. Most of them were used for the purpose of transporting goods, or for traveling by boat, but the unused canals, those tunnels of stagnant seawater and dark, pungent rot, they were home to a certain type of person, the sort who didn't mind shadows or the thick scent of grime.

Rune had slowed to a halt near the edge of a certain stairwell, resting right beside several other saddled horses, and there were more than a few steeds that Lightning recognized from back in the compound stables. She soon dismounted, landing with a quiet thump of her boots, before she moved over to secure Rune's reins against a long metal post, the one where the other horses were tied.

"Sheesh..." Fang's nostrils twitched at the scent of saltwater and slimy mold, perhaps even more pungent than the harbor district had smelled. "Not a nice place to hang around in."

Lightning moved away from the group of horses, and she knelt near the edge of stairwell, peering down at the world of drifting wooden platforms and grimy boats below, surely not the grand canoes nor cargo freights that could often be seen in less shady parts of town.

"Let me guess, they're down in there?" Fang leaned over to rest her elbows against the railing, which was thankfully quite free of grime. "Want me to keep watch up here? Keep the ponies company..?"

" _Horses_." Lightning started to pull the fabric of her mask up and against her mouth and nose. "And yeah, if you're too much of a chicken-" She almost smiled when Fang knelt down right beside her. "Better stay with the rest of the barn animals."

Fang gave her a rather blank look, before Lightning suddenly felt a tight, shivery sensation at the back of her neck.

"Fang!" Lightning hissed to keep herself from gasping or even laughing, and she grappled with Fang to get both of those hands away. "That's not fair!"

Fang just kept pinching at Lightning's neck, soft enough to only tickle her. "Oh? Who's the chicken, now?"

Lightning tried not to squirm around, and she finally managed to wrench Fang's hands away. " _You,_ _you_ will be if you stay up here..." She rose to her feet and gently cuffed Fang at the back of her head. "Seriously, Fang... Come on."

Fang stood up again with a crooked sort of smile. "There's a big difference between being 'chicken' and not wanting to smell like whatever's down there." She exhaled, and then she finally began to follow after Lightning. "The things I do for cute girls..."

Lightning made her way down the long grimy stairwell, one that had the hollow remains of scattered barnacles stuck right to the bottom sides of the wood. "I'm not cute."

"You are most certainly cute." Fang tugged her dark blue shawl to cover her own nose and mouth. "Smells like a whale died down here."

Despite the smell, rancid or otherwise, Lightning kept traveling into the darkness, beneath the gloom of the deep canal, between those watchful eyes within the shadows, even the pale limbs that swayed like branches in the wind, the people there, denizens of the city beneath Luxerion. Fang felt a sharp prickle run down her spine, and she moved in to walk a bit closer to Lightning, for a certain protective streak began to burn bright in her mind. The people there, they were likely those with nowhere else to turn to, but desperation could infect even the most kindly of thoughts.

Lightning's eyes began to scan the narrow pathway, the long, stony platform that ran beside the darkened waters. "It's this way." Despite the scents of mold and drifting seawater, she could just catch the faint trail of incense, one that led her even further into the shadows, until her eyes slowly adjusted to the murk.

It was a hollow tunnel, lit by tiny candles on the floor, and the path led around and around, spiraling down into the deeper earth. The firelight cast such formless shadows upon the grimy walls, such flickering tongues that danced around like wild, feverish serpents. Yet the cool gaze of a hunter cut right through the darkness, down into the labyrinth of caves that waited far below.

Before long, a lone voice grew louder and louder, from mere murmurs to soft, clearer words. "The fragile ones, the flesh that _tears_ , it was madness that took him down!" The voice trembled as it spoke, still so very whispery and faint. "I saw it, my dear hunters, 'twas not a strike of any staff I know of, not a weapon of mortal hands..."

Lightning narrowed her eyes against the darkness of the caverns, but she just kept following after the scent.

"A lion's breath, yet the teeth of a wyrm... This is _no_ work of man, my friends." The voice grew much more mournful and low. "I know it, you think I'm mad, and that may be true, but I've _seen_ it here, beyond these mortal eyes... The flesh that tears."

Another voice echoed out, a familiar tone. "Calm down, gramps." A brief pause. "We didn't come here to doubt you."

The first voice trembled again. " _Your_ seer, she does not see this..?"

Lightning turned a narrow corner, and she soon looked upon a rather rounded room within the depths, lit by brighter candlelight. There was a scraggly old man who sat beneath a thin, ragged blanket, while a small number of people in white robes, they were kneeling all around him.

The old man's eyes went very wide. "Ah!"

"Relax." It was Noel who spoke next. "They're just friends of ours..." He looked over at them from beneath the mask of the laughing owl. "Glad you could make it."

Lightning took a slow step further into the room. "High-profile errands, huh?"

"That's happening later." Noel rose up to his feet. "We just wanted to ask our friend here if he's seen any... Interesting things about the Order."

The old man stared rather blankly at the stone floor. "Her eyes, they see further than mere flesh allows, I simply see through her..." He leaned back, revealing the elegant silver chain that dangled around his neck. "Are they of the flock? I do not wish to speak to any other."

Fang tried not to sigh in frustration.

Noel knelt down again. "Yes... Just continue, please."

The old man mumbled quietly, before he reached up to touch the small, rounded tattoo upon his throat. "So many of you, now... It wasn't always like this, you know." He peered at each of the masks around him. "Our flock was quite scattered before the Order grew talons of its own, before that bond was torn... We hunted freely, and lived above such burrows."

Noel waited patiently while the elder kept on with his rambling for a while.

"We were still connected, yes, yet not like this place you speak of... Our Shadow Hunter, he did not walk among his own people." The old man sighed, a long, tired sound. "Your seer, she truly has not seen it?"

Noel spoke very quietly. "She tells us whatever she sees, brother, but different eyes see different things."

"Ah, well." The elder turned his gaze back to the floor. "...There is a place far deeper than this one." He slowly covered his face in his hands. "I am ashamed to say that I did not linger there; I woke with a terrible feeling of cold, you see, as if the eyes I looked upon, as if they had stared right back into mine... There is a beast within the garden."

Lightning felt a sudden sharp chill run down her spine.

"There will be great bloodshed." The old man shook his head back and forth. "Yes, Etro's children need not wait so long to join her... Their death, it approaches in the form of war." He lowered his hands to peer off into the distance. "A spirit fades from the great emptiness, from the beast waiting for the slaughter; it knows not of the knife at its neck, no... It cannot see."

"What of the statue?" It was Tipur who began to speak. "What of our plans, brother?"

"They _cannot_ see." The old man kept shaking his head. "There is a friend in the dark, there, an army waiting for their final call, but that may never come to pass." He narrowed his eyes from between his steepled fingertips. "Yet, there is another friend on the wind... One who has braved the currents of fate before, one who has bathed in the river of death." The old man's eyes almost seemed to glimmer beneath the candlelight. "Our savior is borne on the wings of Mwynn."

Noel leaned forward to pat at the old man's shoulder. "Rest, if you need it."

"Not yet." The elder raised his chin up proudly, still as much of as a hunter as he once ever was. "You speak of a plan? A trick to play?"

"The cover on the statue." Noel pointed in an upward motion. "It's an insult that we're going to rectify... So we could use all the foresight we can get."

"Alas, I have seen nothing of such a trick." The old man reached up to gesture at a small indent on one of the walls. "But I can give you my blessing, for whatever help it might bring."

Lightning moved to kneel down as well, though Fang remained at the stone archway of the room, standing there in the darkness.

"Not one of unerring faith, eh..? A skeptic?" The elder cackled, before he accepted a small silken pouch of dried herbs. "Never let anyone order you around, child, but I will pray for your safety, all the same..." He pinched out a bit of the dusty mixture between his fingertips, and then he slowly began spread it all around before him. "Her eyes can see far beyond ours, into the very depths of our hearts; even those who do not believe, if they are of good nature, she abides."

A circle was soon created, the eye of Etro, and for the second time that day, a ring of fire swiftly crackled to life.

"The watchful, the keepers of our mortal world... The tenets guide our path." The old man closed his eyes. "To watch over the eternal balance, to tend the flow of life and death, yet never tip the scales."

Lightning watched the fire ebb and grow.

"Accept the spoils of your livelihood, but should you come across a soul in need, one without payment to bear, your duty is unchanged..." The old man cleared his throat. "I trust you all will remember this, for the Order is fond of such precious gold." He slowly opened his eyes again. "Respect your prey; never lose sight of the true target, the final path, even yourself." A hint of sorrow tinged his gaze. "You are a messenger of death, but you are also a bulwark of life."

Lightning felt her fingertips tighten against her palms. Even the small variations in the tenets, they were so close to what she had always listened to as a child. There were still those warm memories of when her father used to speak them aloud from his own father's book, for their own tenets had been passed down through each generation, unchanged.

"You shall never slay or harm your fellow man, not unless there is due cause or reason." The elder reached down into the silken pouch again. "Your kin is sacred, yet your role is humble and free... You are a servant to the daughter of Mwynn, yet you are bound by no chains but your own." He slowly spread more of the incense around the ring, deepening the bright, colorful glow. "And your soul, once your duty is complete, may you swiftly join your fellow kinsmen, the angels of her realm... Those sacred guardians of Valhalla."

There was a long, unbroken silence, before Noel began to speak. "The tenets guide us."

A low murmur passed between each hunter, repeating that same short phrase.

The old man leaned in to gently blow the fire away. "...May you all find what you seek."

* * *

Their trip back up from the canal took less than a few minutes, yet Lightning felt as if each of her steps was weighted somehow, drawn down by some unseen force.

"We've still got work for today." Noel lingered behind the small group of hunters, still walking along the long wooden stairway. "And we'll need to do our best to keep this down to a lower sort of profile... Which means we need to run interference."

"What sort of interference?" Lightning looked down over the railing, gazing at the murky ocean waters. "Are we any closer to the actual plan?"

Noel paused as well, before he moved to look out over the length of the entire canal, winding about like an eel until it disappeared against the hazy horizon of the city. "The plan's ready, yes... We just need the tools." He turned back to keep moving up the stairway. "How much do you know about misdirection?"

"More than enough." Lightning glanced back at Fang, before she walked over to follow Noel. "Same as what we spoke about... Make the target think they're looking at one thing while the real action moves on in the background."

"Exactly." Noel soon stepped up towards the metal rail where the horses were still waiting, and he untied the reins of one of them. "We have the numbers to intimidate a guard regiment of that size, but what then?" He quickly moved to pull himself up atop the saddle of a steed that Lightning recognized, the same one she herself had ridden a few days prior.

Fang walked up to the street level as well. "Yeah... What then?"

Noel peered down at them from beneath the mask of the Shadow Hunter, and his next few words, they were likely spoken through a smirk. "Then we prepare the real show from the shadows."

* * *

It was a quick ride through the outer Warren streets, a journey down to a place of great commotion, of bustling commerce and such loud, massive crowds, so much so that they all needed to dismount from their horses, while a single hunter stayed behind to watch after them.

The group was even smaller then; Lightning recognized Tipur and Holly, and then Noel, of course, and there were two others who wore plain masks, likely younger recruits, which left herself and Fang to make seven, total.

They moved on through the crowds without pause. Lightning soon felt the telltale brushes and bumps of would-be pickpockets, yet her belongings were all kept within her chest pocket, and there was little a cutpurse could do about that. She looked over to make sure that Fang had done the same, yet the shoulder bag she often carried was still safely back at the compound, so there wasn't much to worry about.

There were lines of market stalls and stationary caravans, between tall towers of wooden crates and pens full of squawking barn fowl, not to mention as many horses as could be kept in tightly crowded stalls for the purpose of sale, and there were even a few donkeys with colorful blankets atop their backs. Lightning's nose twitched at the scent of tobacco and incense, thought it wasn't quite the same as the herbal blends of her own faith, much too incohesive and overly smoky.

Fang peered around at the entire spectacle, and she quickly thought back to the many markets that she had seen over the years. Yet not many of them could compare to the raucous din and the sheer number of people there in the cramped streets, all sheltered from above by colorful tarps of cloth, the heavy shade provided for ease of purchase within such a hot tropical climate. And Fang suddenly realized that such a thing could be taken for the very definition of 'shady', perhaps put in place for irony's sake, but she merely followed along after her companions, watching over their backs for any hint of danger.

It took several minutes of travel, for most of it was spent pushing on through the packed crowds and those who roamed around the streets in search of making a random sale, peddling small trinkets or 'miracle' potions, or even what looked like counterfeit goods, but they soon arrived at the strange little place that Noel seemed to be looking for.

"Alright..." Noel lingered beside the entrance of a small pub, where he turned to whisper the current plan. "We've got an appointment today with a certain client, one who might be feeling a little out of his element..." He looked over at Lightning and Fang in particular. "A very high-profile client."

Fang glanced back at the crowds in the street, though she knew that the noise was likely enough to drown out any nearby listening ears.

"Basically, if you spot any trouble..." Noel turned to face the doors of the pub. "Run interference; you deal with it before our man in there gets spooked out of the deal."

Lightning knew better than to ask whatever the 'deal' could be, likely a purchase agreement if they were meeting in person. So she simply nodded, and then followed after her fellows, walking down into the dim atmosphere of the bar.

Tipur strolled over to one of the smaller tables, and Holly joined him there, while Noel made his way over towards the front of the bar, as if he didn't even know the people he had gone inside with. They were to act naturally, then, so Lightning walked over towards a chair near the front windows of the pub, where Fang moved to sit beside her.

"Looks an awful lot like rain." Fang slowly leaned against the wall-mounted table, sitting atop a very tall bar stool. "And it was so nice, earlier."

Lightning peered up at the dark, heavy clouds that lingered above the cloth ceiling of the market streets. "A storm from the sea, you think?"

"Could be." Fang slowly traced one of her fingertips against the wooden table, glancing at the rest of the bar from the corner of her gaze, but she didn't see any disturbances brewing. "Whatever happens tonight, it's going to be done in the rain."

"They might wait." Lightning sat sideways on the bar stool, facing Fang. "If this is something-" She paused to peer at the lone hooded figure who was suddenly approaching Noel, a person who quickly sat down at the bar beside him, likely the 'client' in question.

"Something important..?" Fang didn't turn to look, but her gaze did drift towards the furthest corner of her vision. "We might have some time to kill."

Lightning nodded, and she looked away, gazing out from the window. "We'll just have to see."

Fang stretched one of her legs with a soft yawn, the very picture of calm, yet she was listening to every small sound of the room, from the clicks and taps of mugs upon tables to the muffled sounds of conversations, the low noise that made an entire ambiance of itself. The raucous din of the streets felt far more distant than it truly was, stifled by the thick walls and windows that kept the little pub in relative peace.

"Protection-" A few of the words were too distant for them to hear. "Can you _guarantee_ it? I can't get a caravan out there without-"

Noel's voice was even harder to catch. "It's a promise."

"You'd better know what the hell you're doing." There was the sound of something faint, perhaps an exchange of goods, or even currency, before a single set of footsteps started to echo away.

Lightning kept her gaze upon the window, but her ears were on full alert, pricked and primed to the soft little noises, and she waited until a masked figure strolled out from the pub to let herself relax.

"Looks like rain." Fang gently drummed her fingertips against the table, just a faint whisper of sound. "A storm, maybe..." She felt her lips curl into a small smile. "But I've always been fine with rain."

* * *

It was a deluge indeed, deep beneath the darkness of nightfall. The hooves of a team of mules sank down into the deep, puddled mud of the earth, hauling along a carriage full of barrels and crates, and of mechanisms covered up by very thick tarps.

"Scouts sure are taking their time..." Tipur reined his horse in to ride closer towards the caravan. "Think there's trouble?"

"They would have signaled." It was a different hunter who spoke, one who Lightning didn't recognize. "You want us to fan out?"

"No." Tipur glanced around at the procession of riders and the wagon that creaked in the heavy rain, before he flicked his horse's reins to move slightly ahead. "Noel had better know what he's doing... He should be _here_ , not babysitting some paranoid merchant."

Fang glanced up from where she was riding her own steed, having recently been taught the basics during the evening. It had been the stable master, the woman named Myta, who helped Lightning convey how to properly command a horse from atop the saddle, not just how to steer it in a certain direction. And Lightning was there in the rain as well, riding beside the caravan, silently protecting it from any trouble that might occur. Yet the hours had slipped by without more than a stubborn wheel or two, easily fixed by a few strong pushes from behind the carriage.

After a brief while on the road, traveling through the more rural areas that stretched out between the Warren outskirts and the more industrial areas of the city, Lightning spoke up. "Would it be tactless to ask what we're escorting?"

Tipur laughed quietly. "We'll go over the plan before long... But there's no secret about what a ballista looks like."

Lightning glanced over at the heavily covered mechanisms. "Sounds more like a siege weapon to me."

"Misdirection, Lightning..." Tipur rode his horse up beside the mules. "You'll see soon enough."

* * *

Noel arrived long after the caravan had entered the compound gates, and when he finally did ride in, only to approach the dining hall on foot, dinner itself was nearly over. He walked inside with his mask in his grip, with a look in his eyes that spoke of deep, steely determination, and it wasn't long before he stepped up towards the small podium that overlooked the hall.

And a sense of great silence drew closer and closer, while hushed conversations began to draw to an end. So many eyes soon peered upon their designated leader, the fabled Shadow Hunter, at the young man who only ever acted in authority within such times of uncertain conflict.

"I'll keep this short and simple." Noel leaned one of his arms against the podium, the limb that was still wrapped beneath a blooded bandage. "We'll go over the actual plans later on, but for now... It's enough for me to say that we'll be going up against the Order tomorrow."

Murmurs of several dispositions began to echo within the hall, some of agreement, some otherwise, but there was a certain tone of respect to the general air of the varied responses.

"And it's not a decision I make eagerly." Noel closed his eyes for just a moment, before he looked back down at his people, his faithful kin, and he started to speak again. "But the Order, they're stolen something from us... The symbol of our goddess, of course, but also the artifact that my predecessor swore his life to protect." His fingertips swiftly tightened into fists. "And they can't be allowed to study it... To harness the power it hides; doing so would mean an end to all of us, so we all have to make a choice, now." Noel looked between each table, between each set of curious eyes that gazed right back at him. "Will you stand with me to take back what they've stolen? To brave the visions of our seers, and decide the fate of us all?"

True to their nature, the assembled hunters remained silent, but within due time, a few of them began to rise, standing up from their seats in the hall.

Lightning soon drifted to her feet, peering up at her brother of the faith, the equal master she had once locked swords with, had dueled for the mere honor of acquaintance, and she stared back at him with a gaze of utter trust. She could feel it then, how Fang stood up beside her, the very bulwark of her heart, the wings at her back, so very strong and sheltering.

"We hunt together." Noel slowly moved away from the podium. "And if this is our final stand... We take it without fear."

* * *

The dream came to her in the form of an eagle, of black wings that circled her soul with such gentleness, and Fang slowly began to wander even further beneath the void.

Was it a memory? It couldn't be one of the same kind, at least, for she could move and act of her own will, after all. It almost seemed as if she was nowhere at all, just an empty expanse that she could walk upon, while the eagle flew so high above her.

Perhaps it was simply a world of her own mind, a place that didn't exist on any true physical level. Fang slowly began to sit down, despite the fact that there was nothing to really sit on, and she thought of the city she had just fallen asleep in, mighty Luxerion, so tall and proud... And yet so very comatose at the same time. She could still sense the darkness that lingered all around her, a wide stretch of black, almost like the membrane of her own wings. Fang sighed very quietly, before she willed herself to become a wyrm again, at least within the bounds of her own mind.

And a voice brushed against her own thoughts, so very soft, yet clear. _A void is the absence of change._

Fang blinked at the swirling darkness. _And w_ _ _hat__ _am I supposed to do about it?_

 _What 'can' one do?_ The voice paused, as if to think. _A true flame will always cast a shadow._

After a moment of her own pondering, Fang leaned down against one of her wings, and she took a very deep breath, holding it tight. She exhaled in the low, keening sound of a distant song, a mere ember on the wind, but the ashes within her voice curled out and snapped among the warmth.

And there she was, gazing deep into the fire, a shared dream within the darkest depths of night, yet Lightning herself didn't seem to be quite aware of her own presence.

 _There was no brightness in the world, not before such fire._ The voice felt so soft within her mind. _No warmth, no heat, only a void... Bereft of balance._

And Fang saw that fire, the inferno that sang so strongly within the heights of the sky, the flames that crackled out and made the oceans dry, killing away the first few microbes of life upon the earth.

 _There was no balance to preserve them._ The voice grew quieter, much further away. _Another void, yet of light, not of dark._

Fang watched the lone figure before her, the pale form of Lightning, how she simply disappeared into the blinding glow.

 _Follow her._ The voice nearly faded into silence. _You know the abyss is unending._

And Fang moved, a mere bird on the wind, a dragon in midair, flying and pitching herself down into the void of white, searching for what had once been so very lost, taken away by the whims of fate, of mere luck, by the chance that they would never find each other again, or that one of them would be extinguished.

She had once died, Fang suddenly remembered, long after the point when she had lost an eye, half of her vision, yet when she finally settled herself down for the last time, resting in the presence of her lost love, she had woken within that realm of swirling colors, and she finally saw her for what she was. There was a soul on the wind, so featherweight and free, finally reunited within that distant world, a perpetual sort of place, the abyss beyond mortal comprehension.

There were no faces, no physical forms, no arms, nor teeth to bare, merely souls that swirled on in the absence of such solidity, two that interlocked into a fitting harmony. She was one who walked along the edge of death, a soul of that very tipping point, the balance between both realms, and her partner, her love, she was the one who traveled above the very same line.

A mirror stood between them, translucent, yet reflective; both faces that looked upon it, they were shown in a backwards image, yet they could both easily see who looked right back at them. She moved to touch the rippling surface, and the water parted beneath her skin, so clear and untarnished, a purity that could never have occurred in any natural world.

 _Fang?_ Lightning's presence echoed out into the dream. _What is this? What are you dreaming about?_

 _...Nothing, Light._ Fang slowly closed her eyes, before she let herself drift away. _Just get some sleep._

* * *

From against the softness of a fur blanket, feathered ears perked at a familiar sound.

Within a different dream, a somewhat preferable dream, Fang was sitting near the campfire with a glass tube in one hand and a small syringe in the other. "It says that this one, it's for stuff like the flu..." She carefully extracted a dose of the clear liquid, making sure that there were no bubbles inside the device. "Come here, Light?"

Lightning tried her very best not to hiss at the mere mention of the syringe, and she pulled the blanket over her head.

"Light." Fang almost wanted to smile wryly at the sight of her. "You don't want to get sick again, do you?"

Lightning's voice was a bit muffled. "...No."

"Then you need vaccinations." Fang sat there for a while, readying a small bit of gauze with antibacterial liquid. "Come on, it only stings for a second."

Lightning peered out after a moment or two, and her ears went flat against her head.

"Look, I won't force you." Fang kept holding the syringe and the patch of gauze. "But we've got enough here for you and a few others." She looked down at the written instructions in the small wooden box, a case that held several more vials of liquid and equipment to clean the syringe. "I know you were... You know. You got hurt, and I wouldn't do anything like that." Fang glanced at the way Lightning stared at her. "This is just to keep you safe."

Lightning's tone of voice didn't make her sound very impressed. "Safe..."

Fang nodded. "Do you have these where you're from?" She tapped at the glass tube of the syringe. "They make sure the bad bacteria can't hurt you."

Lightning narrowed her eyes for a moment. It was the same word that all of the strangers kept saying, ' _bacteria_ ', as if that was the thing that had made her sick, had gotten so deep into her lungs, had made her use her inner power in the most damaging of ways, to let it burn within herself, to kill such strange 'bacteria'. And it wasn't as if she hadn't ever gotten sick in her own world, there were illnesses, of course, infectious germs that could be rather deadly if they weren't dealt with, but how was she supposed to know what was in that certain syringe?

Fang leaned back a bit, still sitting there in the grass. She slowly closed her eyes, feeling the cool morning air on her face, warmed slightly by the campfire. The river ran on beside the campsite, and she could hear the sounds of the horse that they'd ridden, how he still grazed in the tall grass of the field. There were the sounds of so many insects in the distance, a living presence within the lowlands, of sparse forests and mighty plains, crickets within the undergrowth.

But then, there was the sound of shuffling blankets, of soft footsteps in the grass, and Fang soon opened her eyes to see the one who sat down next to her, the one with feathers on her pointed ears.

"Hey." Fang kept very still. "I'm sorry about all of this, you know? I know you'd rather be back home, flying around."

Lightning slowly held out her arm, and she tugged back the thin fabric of her shirt sleeve.

"I just want you to know that." Fang reached up with the gauze, gently rubbing it against Lightning's upper arm. "But I think this world might be big enough for you to find somewhere new."

Lightning's gaze flickered from a sudden pinch of pain, and she swiftly closed her eyes, feeling the rush of fluid that moved right into her veins, the vaccine that could help her body fight off further sickness. Fang watched the slight flush that crept over Lightning's face, likely a reaction to the pain, or perhaps embarrassment for the tiny hiss that sharply left her lips, a sound to inspire menace in whatever had tried to harm her. But it wasn't truly harm, far from it, and she knew that, even though her body didn't. A quick snap of electricity danced upon her fingertips, but it didn't leap away, it only lingered there, at least until she snuffed it out against her palms.

"There you go..." Fang quickly took out a bit of medical tape and fresh gauze from the medical box, sealing up the tiny puncture site with a makeshift bandage. "Wasn't so bad, was it?"

Yet for the moment, Lightning's eyes were still shut tight. While it hadn't hurt very much indeed, it was just enough of a sting to remind her... There were still so many scratches on her skin, also bandaged, but they were _there_ , and she could vaguely remember the sudden panic before her transition into stasis, the fevered rush to find her family within the chaos.

"We'll only have to do a few more of these." Fang closed the box atop her lap. "Then just a couple every year, and that's not much of a hassle."

Lightning's voice was just a whisper. "There weren't enough."

Fang felt a slight prickle run down her spine. "What?"

Lightning was just sitting there, gazing down at the grass beneath her legs, at the strange weapon that was still holstered to her belt. "We left, but there weren't enough."

Fang placed the box down beside her traveling gear. "Weren't enough of what?"

Lightning almost seemed to grapple with herself for the right phrase to say, before she slowly pointed up at the sky, tracing out a long line in a gradual, downward motion. "Crystals." She set her hand back down against one of her knees. "They're dead."

Fang felt a slight twinging sensation at the thought of such things. "But you're alive... That's important."

"No." Lightning looked back down at the campsite. "I'm alone... Maybe." She stood up to retrieve the tracking device from beside her sleeping mat. "They could- Might be dead."

Fang watched the way that Lightning sat back down again, holding the mechanism so tightly.

"Serah..." Lightning stared at the blinking dot. "She could be."

"Light." Fang rose up to her feet. "You're not alone, okay?"

Lightning just kept staring at the device.

"I know I'm just some stranger to you, but if you feel alone..." Fang trailed off, feeling the gentle wind upon her face, the coolness of the early breeze. "I'm right here."

Lightning felt her eyes prickle with something that she'd much rather suppress, so she merely blinked, and then reached out for a blanket to warm herself.

"We should get moving again soon." Fang walked over to pick up the metal pitcher with a spare rag of cloth; it had been resting in the embers of the fire all night, and had since started to boil once she'd stoked the flames back up with fresh branches. "But breakfast comes first."

Lightning didn't say anything for a long while, though she did glance over at the campfire when a certain scent filled the air, something dark and earthy.

"Yeah, my mom always used to make a pot of this for breakfast..." Fang had already poured out some of the boiling water into two small cups, where she lowered small bags of semi-translucent cloth into each portion of the liquid, where it had since turned the water into a much deeper color. "I never liked it much when I was little, but I started to miss the taste later on."

Lightning pulled the fur blanket a bit closer around herself.

"She'd put honey in it whenever I said it tasted gross..." Fang stirred the mixture with a small spoon. "Almost wish I'd brought some with us."

Lightning sniffed at the deep herbal scent, before she moved over to sit down beside Fang.

"I didn't take much time to pack." Fang kept stirring at both of the cups. "You seemed like you were in a hurry to get going, and I won't lie... It's nice to be out traveling again."

Lightning blinked when Fang handed her one of the cups. "What is it?"

"Tea." Fang lifted her own cup up to gently blow on the rising steam, before she picked out the small bag of herbs. "You don't eat this part."

After a moment or two of silence, Lightning copied the gesture, slowly cooling the tea with a small gust of her breath. "What _is_ tea?"

"Plant juice?" Fang shrugged. "I know it can taste like fruit or flowers, too, but I'm not sure how they make it."

Lightning soon plucked out the little cloth container from her own cup, before she closed her eyes and took a tiny sip. It was quite unusual, at first, for the sheer heat of the liquid almost seemed to block out any flavor, but when she took a bit more time to really taste it, to let it cool upon her tongue, she realized that it did indeed taste like a rather strong plant.

"I just know it calms me down." Fang sipped at her own cup, gazing off into the distance. "Whenever I got moody, mom used to sit me right down at the kitchen table and make it... I wasn't the greatest kid in the world." She gently traced one of her fingernails against a floral design on the side of the cup. "She was too patient, I didn't deserve it."

Lightning remembered that word from one of Fang's books. "You seem patient."

"Do I?" Fang watched as the steam rose away from the little teacup, how it swirled off into the early morning air. "Maybe I'm just following her example."

Lightning kept sipping at the tea, savoring the way that it made her whole body feel so warm, even warmer than the blanket draped over her shoulders. She knew that her foreign language skills weren't quite practiced enough to keep up with Fang, even if most of what she heard in the last few moments was understandable, but if there was just some way to communicate a certain memory...

Fang looked over when Lightning reached out for a stray branch from the pile beside the campfire, and she watched while a certain image was soon scratched down there into the ground, a stick figure with ears that looked very similar to Lightning's.

"Mom." Lightning drew out a simple skirt on the stick figure, along with long, somewhat spiky hair that looked quite like her own. "She made..." But Lightning knew no foreign words to describe what she was thinking of. "It was something soft."

Fang soon looked at another picture, an image of a square item with rounded corners, perhaps some sort of pastry.

"It was like fruit." Lightning used the stick to tap at the center of the object. "Mixed fruit... But the outside was solid and soft."

"It sounds good." Fang took a moment to examine the drawing. "Like a cookie?"

"Softer." Lightning thought back to some of the food that Fang had brought along for their earlier travels. "Like bread."

Fang hummed in understanding. "Maybe she can find the things to make it again once we find her."

Lightning almost seemed to stiffen, tightly gripping at the teacup in one hand and the stick in her other. Fang watched the sudden reaction, the volatile look in Lightning's eyes, the soft blue tones that sharpened and went so dull at the very same time, before she realized just what sort of mistake she had made.

"I was young..." Lightning spoke in a low murmur. "Serah was even more young."

Fang placed her cup down against the ground. "I'm sorry."

Lightning shook her head with only a small shrug. "It just... Happened."

"Light..." Fang slowly pinched the bridge of her own nose with her fingertips. "I didn't-"

"It's fine." Lightning took another sip of her tea. "Serah, she's family... I'll find her."

"You will." Fang soon gave Lightning a stern, yet gentle look. "We'll find her, no matter what." She took a moment just to gather her thoughts. "Listen, a seer like that wouldn't send us out on a fool's errand... They're there to guide us."

Lightning thought back to the young woman with such long blue hair, almost steely in hue.

"We'll find her." Fang reached out to touch Lightning's shoulder, gently squeezing it. "We'll find her, Light."

Lightning looked back into Fang's eyes, into the brightness that lingered there, despite the dark green tones. What was behind them, she wondered, what was there to silence her fears without fail, to make her own sense of trust feel so strong, to make it grow just as steadily as the offer from her companion? Was it because Fang seemed so very lonely, or because of that same guilt from before?

"But first, breakfast..." Fang moved to pick up one of her satchels. "We should really get moving before morning ends."

Lightning's ears slowly moved down against her head, a sort of gesture that could be mistaken for sadness or even anger by an untrained eye, but it was the relaxation in them that signaled contentment, of perhaps great comfort in her surroundings.

Fang soon leaned back with a box of dry biscuits. "Maybe we'll find a town soon... We could get some real bread, you know."

Lightning had the smallest of smiles tugging against her lips. "I'd like that."

* * *

She felt the soft grass beneath her bare feet, the droplets of dew that clung to her skin, so cold that they felt like specks of ice. There were voices there, the sounds in the trees, but she could scarcely hear them, even when the wind blew right beside her ears, carrying words that she didn't know how to understand. It was only then that a wide, jagged wall rose up above the forest, far above the brambles, but Lightning merely watched it, even when the shadows swiftly moved to cover her.

There was darkness, then the distant sound of the sea. She could almost smell the dark rust on the sharp, bristling metal, the rigid sheets that crackled and hissed beneath such utter pressure.

And she could scarcely breathe. It filled her lungs with such a thick, acrid dust, the scent of salt and twisting metal, the copper taste of blood. Her eyes suddenly stung with a brilliant flash of light, by the twin circles that hovered so far above the twisted heap of metal.

Headlights, search beams, words that she didn't know existed before that moment. Was it a dream? Another memory? It _had_ to be a dream, for why else would she be standing there alone, without even a single weapon to defend herself?

The ground rumbled beneath her bare feet, scraping them raw, almost to the point of bleeding against the sharp curls of metallic dust. She struggled to stay upright within the sudden shift of momentum, the lurch of screeching sound and weightlessness, before she realized that she was falling.

Her stomach seemed to drop away, and she closed her eyes just to keep herself safe from the rush of fear, the instinctual urge to cry out, the instincts passed down from such early times, through each union, each generation of early humans, from those who lived far up in the trees to avoid the beasts who lurked below.

But there were always those, she thought to herself, there were those who could _fly_ far above, those who could swoop down and end it all with just a single strike, who could kill a human right in their sleep. An image of talons crossed her mind, while she drifted there, listening to the sheer rush of air beside her ears; there were claws and teeth in the dark of the night, death from such wild, animalistic enemies.

Though she expected the pain, even the sudden sensation of reeling away from her sleep, woken by the fear of impact, it wasn't the ground that stopped her fall.

And she felt it, with a fleeting notion to escape, but it was one that she could barely even sense throughout the rippling pain; she felt the talons that tore her down to pieces, the golden light that suddenly bloomed beneath her eyelids, the sheer shock of something stabbing right through her body. She couldn't see it, not through the blinding haze, but the pressure built there until she was utterly caught between those massive claws, as if they were shredding her apart, torn bit by bleeding bit.

She could smell it, such rich iron and raw copper, the white light that burned so brightly from above, twin irises that rotated as if they were the spokes of a golden spire, eyes that peered down into the depths of her mind itself. It was punctured, of course, bloody and sundered to scattered scraps, only to be examined and studied upon. A violation.

And yet that didn't stop herself from pushing back at it, for a flare of anger shot through her mind like the whistle of an arrow, from the sheer gall of whatever was trying to invade her thoughts, whatever tricks it might have played to make her feel such utter pain. She surged, flying without a true physical form, striking back with all the feverish power she could muster, even when it merely sparked and crackled against the sharp plates of the metallic presence.

 _What are you?!_ Lightning struggled to regain control of the dream. _What the hell are you?!_

 _You could be given the very same question._ The voice, if it could even be called that, just a thought that suddenly filled her own mind, speaking in time with the clockwork ticking of some massive, unfathomable mechanism, the hiss of boiling steam and the screech of metal scraping against itself. _What are you if not simple, fragile flesh? An untapped mind within something so very primitive and crude?_

And there it was, flashing, dancing through each year, a simple cell, then the child held in the arms of a loving parent, the face that suddenly peered back at her, so soft and innocent, yet already so keen to the world around her. There was the loss, the pain, the air of innocence that floated away beneath the foam of the sea, the fire that reduced her world to cinders, and then the sudden, sharp spark of rebellion, the drive that took the fear and transformed it into venom. There was that anger, she realized, the toxin that burned her from the inside out, slowly killing her without her even knowing it was there.

 _A clever ruse._ The voice ticked on within the subtle rhythm of a coiled serpent. _How to lock away such things? Far easier to change them, to control them by controlling one's self..._

Lightning shook with the sudden force of her own rage.

 _This has been most illuminating._

And she stifled a cry from the pain, back within the shreds of her blooded self, the liquid that dripped down in scarlet streaks within the dream. It was hers, her own life force, so carelessly scattered and torn from her body. She could feel the dull, throbbing pain, the wounds that made her muscles sob, or at least what was left of them.

On some level, a deeper, darker level, she knew that it was only still a dream, that she would soon wake up again, unharmed, but pain was a symptom of the mind. If her brain believed her that body was torn asunder, she could scarcely start to argue with it. Yet her outer thoughts, they weren't so rational, more of a panicked tangle of shock and disbelief, of bright flashes and those terrible eyes, eyes that swiveled and clicked and shifted in place, haunting her full scope of vision while she struggled not to cry.

All was silent. Her eyes burned with that stubborn streak, even while her blood trailed out in thin lines, so chaotic, excruciating, and yet somehow so _real_ , as if the pattern was chosen only by the mere whims of chance, a scattered fractal against the glass surface of the dream. And a single crack, the splintering shards of reality, or perhaps the fabric of something far otherwise, it slowly creaked and groaned, before she felt such utter weightlessness again.

A hunter had caught its own kind, a fellow predator, and she knew that the battle had been lost from her own lack of strength. A warning, perhaps, the lashing strike from something deeply provoked, yet in those blurring depths of her own mind, within the unending dream, she just couldn't piece together why.

* * *

The morning light trickled down from the panes of the windows, and Fang slowly woke to the memory of her first dream. She could feel the touch of early sunlight, as well as the warmth that was pressed up so closely against her back, yet try as she might, when she tried to think back towards what had gone on in her own mind, she could only envision a falcon.

There were others in the sleeping quarters, those who were already starting to wake up. When Fang rolled over, gazing at the one who had been resting against her back, it seemed as if Lightning was still fast asleep.

"Hey." Fang leaned in to whisper against Lightning's cheek. "Morning..."

Lightning's eyes twitched beneath her eyelids, yet she still didn't wake.

"Hm... You'd be pretty ticked at me if I let you sleep in." Fang glanced up at the window beside their bunk, at the glass that was already starting to glow in the pale light of the sun. "Come on, Light, just so I can say that I tried."

Lightning kept very still, even when Fang moved to stroke against each side of her face with her thumbs, tracing over the soft curve of her cheeks, yet when those eyes finally did open to see the light of the morning, they weren't the least bit calm.

They were wide, so very sharp and utterly alert, and a deep, shuddering breath left her lungs, before Lightning went rigid, freezing beside where Fang was pressed up against her.

"Hey..." Fang lowered her voice in concern. "What's wrong? Nightmare?"

Lightning didn't move for a very long while, nor did she speak. When she finally glanced down at herself, confirming that she indeed uninjured, not punctured by a thousand shards of glass or steely talons, only then did she let herself go limp.

"Light?" Fang moved to caress Lightning's face again. "What was it? A bad dream?"

Lightning's eyes slipped shut, and though Fang couldn't even begin to read what she was thinking, a single nod assured her of what might have occurred.

* * *

A warm bath let her mind wander off towards calmer places, yet Lightning scrubbed at her limbs with a sense of what almost felt like fragility. As Fang often said, she wasn't one to back down from a challenge, no matter how far out of reality it might have been, but those same lingering thoughts of bloodshed, of her body broken into pieces, it was just too hard to pretend that her skin didn't feel like a single sheet of paper.

Fang kept close beside her, perhaps sensing that something was very amiss, at least from the chill that seemed to float between them. Or maybe it was for the fact that Lightning had stifled each of her thoughts away, even when they happened to brush against each other. Perhaps Fang knew it would likely be pointless to press the issue, for further questions only gave her a bristled assurance that nothing was wrong, even if Lightning's eyes betrayed the truth of the matter.

They didn't speak again, not until it was time to sit down and have breakfast, surrounded by their companions. It was only when Fang wrapped her arm around Lightning's back, hidden from sight, just a gentle hug, only then did the silence fall away.

"It was a bad dream." Lightning kept ignoring the food on her plate, slowly pushing it around with her fork. "Something I don't want to become real."

Fang finished chewing at a bit of bread, before she spoke in a low whisper. "They aren't all prophecies."

"They'd better not be." Lightning kept her voice just as quiet as Fang's. "Can we... Make them _stop_ , somehow? I never used to get them before I met you."

Fang tried not to frown. "You know how many times I've tried to make them go away?"

Lightning's eyes flickered away from the slight bit of hurt on Fang's face. "Sorry."

"It's alright." Fang reached over to tap the edge of Lightning's plate. "Eat something, get your mind off of it... It always helps."

Lightning looked down at the slices of fruit and the small strips of cured meat, normally quite appetizing, but at the time, they only made her stomach churn in a rather sour, sickening way.

"Hey." Fang was still hugging her arm around Lightning's waist, and she pulled her to sit a little closer than before. "Trust me, Light, it helps."

Lightning glanced up to make sure that nobody nearby was watching. "I don't feel like eating-" She almost shivered when Fang leaned in to hold her so close, a full hug from the side, from the bench they were both sitting upon.

"Shh..." Fang murmured each word under her breath. "Come on, Light."

Lightning nearly started to dig in her proverbial heels and turn away, but when she felt Fang place a small bit of warm bread against her palm, gently positioning each of her fingertips to hold it, she felt the will to fight rushing away from her in only an instant.

"It's just to take care of yourself." Fang waited for Lightning to start eating the little scrap of bread. "Going without it... You're only going to make yourself sick." She slowly pulled off another piece of the bread, before she repeated the motion, placing it down upon Lightning's palm. "I know it firsthand."

Lightning paused, and a strange sort of curiosity crossed her mind. "What do you mean?"

Fang glanced around at the people who were all still eating their own breakfasts, but they were likely too far away to overhear, or too focused on their own conversations. "When I was... When Vanille was gone, when I was looking after her, I almost never left the vestige."

Lightning didn't seem to react for a moment or two, but when she did, she felt how Fang gave her another morsel of bread.

"Bhakti brought food for me, sometimes." Fang watched the way Lightning chewed. "But with the-" She paused. "My _condition_ , it isn't always necessary to hunt."

Lightning's brow furrowed in confusion. "You didn't starve?"

"Felt like I did." Fang slowly shook her head. "Might've been years before I took a trip outside, but I was right back in there before I knew it..." She traced her fingertips against the wood grain of the tabletop. "You ever love someone enough to sacrifice that kind of thing? Don't answer, I know you do."

Lightning's mind had already jumped to the thought of Serah.

"It's loyalty." Fang reached for a small piece of fruit from her plate. "I stayed there until my brain felt like mush... Until I couldn't even hear the whispers anymore." She took a small bite of her food. "Poor Vanille... Probably got tired of seeing me in such a wreck; maybe she decided to stop trying."

Lightning's eyes widened slightly. "Do you think that's why she wanted me to go home?"

"I don't know." Fang's voice grew a bit sharper than she might've intended. "She's family... She knows you don't abandon _family_."

Lightning reached out to touch one of Fang's wrists, feeling the heat and the tension that stood within her muscular limb, so near to the point of frustration.

"We're close enough to nick this right in the vein." Fang's eyes went dark and sharp, honing in on something she couldn't quite see, not yet. "To get some answers of out of this damn city... And your friends, Light, your family, we're gonna help them out until we get it."

After a moment or two, Lightning picked up a small slice of fruit from her plate. "We should probably get started, then."

And Fang smiled, sly and knowing. "Not until you're done with your breakfast."

* * *

Later on, while wandering through the compound, Fang spotted a rather usual sight beside the training grounds.

"Come on, now..." One of the hunters exhaled heavily as his younger companion toppled over from the edge of a suspended rope. "Silly louts, you'd think they'd never walked a day in their life."

It was still early in the midday, and Fang couldn't help but stifle a chuckle at the sight of so many cranky young hunters, most of which had promptly given up trying to overcome the training obstacle. It was a simple sort of device, just two low brick walls with several long ropes spanning between them, while a layer of cushioned blankets and pillows waited just beneath.

"Try again, try again!" The instructor gestured at his trainees with a blunt training staff. "If any of you want to earn your feathers around here, we've got to have this perfect by tonight!"

"What's this for?" Lightning approached from where she had been standing beside Fang. "Not trying to train circus performers, are you?"

"Ah." The instructor waved for her to approach the step stool beside the low wall. "If only I was... No, we're still hoping to have some of these layabouts to help out with our arrangement, tonight." He took a moment to look Lightning over. "I don't know the full extent of these plans, but I know enough to whip this crowd into shape."

Lightning looked up at the thin, yet stable ropes, and her mind wandered back to the times when she once balanced herself upon a single plank of wood in order to build a bigger bridge.

"You're the one Noel invited here, aren't you?" The instructor crossed his arms and turned to face the young recruits. "A master, if what I've been told is correct..? Perhaps you could show these little fledglings how a _real_ hunter operates."

Lightning soon walked up atop the wall, gazing at the ropes from the side. "How much does it move?"

The instructor lifted his foot to poke at one of the ropes. "A few inches, give or take."

Lightning nodded. "Alright..."

And it was fast, faster than Fang would have even imagined, that sudden catlike leap and the way the rope slightly bobbed beneath an increase in weight, before Lightning practically dashed over to the other edge of the training area, up towards the opposite wall.

"There you have it!" The instructor tapped his staff against the wall he was standing on, calling for the recruits to try again. "Not hard at all once you've got the balance for it."

But Lightning hadn't finished, and she turned sharply to jump back towards the same rope, gracefully running across, even quicker than before. "It's almost like a tree branch..." She soon stepped back up towards the first wall, before she turned to speak with the recruits. "It bends and sways with your weight, so you'll have to adjust for that when you move."

There were a few more attempts, some more successful than others, and from where she was standing beside the wall, Fang grew more and more curious about how easy it could really be to perform such a feat.

"Not bad." Lightning kept standing upon her own rope, observing the way that one of the recruits held each arm out to the side for the added balance. "But if you're going to move fast on it, you'll need to tuck your arms in."

Fang approached the stepladder beside the wall. "Think you could take on one more student, Light..?"

Lightning looked down from the rope she was standing on, before she fought back a tiny smile. "Of course."

It was simple at first, just a slow step up there to get her bearings, to feel the rope sway beneath her, before Fang took a very deep breath. Lightning stood right beside her, upon the opposite line, watching the instinctual twitch of each muscular limb, natural balancing maneuvers.

"Makes you feel like you're a hundred feet up in the air..." Fang moved forward again, and she envisioned that she was merely walking upon a thin, translucent line in the sky, as if she still had her wings on either side. "Makes you want to fly."

Lightning's expression twitched at the implication.

"Makes you wish you had wings." Fang kept walking across the rope, traveling further towards the opposite wall. "If only that were possible..."

Lightning turned her gaze to see the soft smirk on Fang's face, that knowing look in her eyes, before it flickered away once her feet touched the opposite stone.

"Well." Fang stretched out her arms, and she stepped back down from the other wall. "Whatever that's for, I'd bet the both of us could help out with it."

The instructor called out from where he was helping one of the young recruits. "I'll put a good word in for you!"

Fang glanced back at Lightning, who was still standing there atop the rope, almost as if she was reluctant to move back down again.

"Come on, Light." Fang walked over to hold up her hand. "We should find out what we need to do today, shouldn't we?"

Lightning kept very silent for a moment, before she knelt down against the rope. "Still always catching me, aren't you?"

Fang grinned when Lightning took hold of her hand, using it to jump right down from above. "Always." She squeezed Lightning's hand. "Now, let's go find Noel."

* * *

It was high above the city streets, far up on the heights of a certain tower that they soon found themselves, once again gazing down at the plaza, and at the line of soldiers who stood guard beneath the statue.

"See that one, there?" Noel sat near the edge of the roof with his mask resting upon his lap. "The esteemed _'Captain Aland'_... Head of the Order's high guard."

Lightning peered down at the man who was armored from head to toe, a solider who held the most massive lacquered shield that she had ever seen.

"So..." Fang was leaning back against the more vertical wall of the spire. "You've got your leader, now, all you've gotta do is scare him off." She knelt down to examine the distant figure, hidden slightly by the reflective light of the sun. "You know what they say about impossible tasks?"

Noel tried not to smirk, but it slowly crept over his face. "Such little faith in us..." He leaned forward slightly, before he rose back up to his feet. "Nothing's impossible with enough skill."

Fang felt herself smirk as well. "You, you're alright." She turned her gaze back towards Noel. "But what about this plan of yours? You're not going to leave us in the dark for much longer, are you?"

Noel adjusted his feet against the roof, standing right against the edge. "No, I'll let you in on it." He stared down at the distant guards, the soldiers who stood so steadfast, so proud, so very heavily armored. "It just depends on which role you'd rather play..."

* * *

They returned for a late lunch, but it was at a time when the dining hall was rather empty. Fang soon poured a bit of soup for herself from a kettle on the food tables, and when she offered a bowl to Lightning, it was accepted rather eagerly.

"Gotta keep your strength up." After a moment or two, Fang led the way over to the dining area. "Probably won't get to have our dinner until we've finished up out there."

Lightning could feel the warmth of the soup bowl in her hands, and she nodded, gazing out at nothing in particular. "Not very good for morale to feel queasy on a full stomach..." She let her vision drift back into focus, where she caught sight of a familiar face.

Fang moved over to sit down with their acquaintance, the 'matron', Heloise, as well as a couple of the younger girls who lived there in the compound, children who likely weren't even recruits, at least not yet.

"It's good to see the two of you." Heloise smiled at both of them. "Quite busy around here, isn't it?"

Lightning sat down as well. "Very." She looked down at her soup, a colorful mix of clear noodles and a few strips of meat, along with various vegetables. "Will we be seeing you tonight?"

Heloise shook her head. "Oh, no, no... Not my kind of work." She gave Lightning a soft smile. "My expertise isn't quite suited to acting, you see, it's better for other things."

One of the youngest girls, still just a child, started to giggle. "She means hitting monsters!"

"Aye." Heloise reached over to ruffle the girl's hair. "Now finish your lunch, dear."

"An act." Fang blew on a spoonful of her soup, even though she truly had no need to avoid the heat. "I guess we _are_ putting on a show, aren't we?"

Heloise picked up a piece of bread from her own plate. "It might not be that way for long, now... Who knows, you might just get to see my hammer in action soon."

For a brief moment, Lightning imagined how that would look, a muscular, yet kindly woman with a warhammer just as massive as any greatsword.

"But we'll just have to see..." Heloise began to spread a bit of jam on her bread, the very picture of docility, but there was a certain gleam in her eyes, the calm anticipation of things yet to come. "I want the two of you to stay safe tonight, you hear me?"

Fang nodded with a small smile. "We will, ma'am."

"Aye, that's what I want to hear." Heloise reached over to help one of the children with cutting up a bit of tougher food. "No good comes of such violence, not with our fellow man."

Lightning stirred a bit of her soup around. "The artifact..."

"Like I said, no good." Heloise leaned back to look Lightning right in the eye. "Keep yourself _safe_ tonight, no undue risks."

Lightning's jaw tightened, and she slowly offered her a small nod.

"I only pray that Noel knows what he's bringing us into..." Heloise released a gentle sigh. "When you get to be my age, bad ideas start to make your bones creak." She slowly turned back to her plate. "I can only hope we'll all last so long."

* * *

The night fell upon the small line of wagons, and across the stony city streets that ran on like rivers in the ground, between the stately buildings of the commercial quarters, all was utterly dark. The moon was scarcely visible beneath the cover of fog, the shrouded mist that hung all about the city streets without end. It was a signal from the goddess, some claimed, a blessing, or simply a stroke of luck at the darkest hour of the night, within a time when heavy hoofbeats sounded off against the cold, empty roads, ushering any onlookers to slip away in fright.

There was a low, yet strong gale of wind that brought the mist up against her, and Lightning nearly began to grit beneath the fabric of her mask. Would their plan truly be enough to succeed? The logistics were all there, of course, with an almost brutal sort of simplicity, yet when she finally looked upon the distant plaza, approaching it from the back of a small horse, one who was not meant for battle, she felt a slight flicker of unease in her chest.

The guardsmen still stood there, fresh from changing shifts, yet the captain himself had chosen to stand watch throughout the night, despite the option to leave. And from the utter silence, like the toll of a great, clanging church bell, his voice rang out into the darkness. "You finally show yourselves?!"

A single rider stood upon the road, deep within the mist, between the buildings that stood empty and silent.

The captain unsheathed his blade with a keening whistle of sound.

A dark horse whickered sharply, breathing out great gusts of mist, pawing his hooves against the damp air, the chill of night. And yet the rider merely waited there, resting within the watchful guise of an owl, with solid eyes that gleamed faintly beneath the light of the moon.

"Ready, men..." Their leader, Captain Aland, he held his shield aloft with a grunt. "Could very well be an ambush."

The lone rider's head slowly tipped to the side, a curious gaze, before a second set of eyes began to glimmer from within the dark mist.

The captain slowly grit his teeth. "Steady..."

Another peal of hoofbeats echoed out from somewhere to the side, towards the street that ran adjacent from the one the rider waited within. It was yet another figure in the dark, a mask that stood so motionless, without sound.

The guardsmen unsheathed their weapons as well, long spears for dismounting riders, for knocking horses right off their feet, and sharp swords for closer combat, polished to an immaculate shine.

There was yet another, a rider from far behind, though the masked figure did not move, it only waited there within the mist.

"Steady." The captain didn't budge an inch. "Steady, now."

A horse suddenly called out into the darkness, a squeal that echoed so high, before yet another rider moved out from within the mist.

Beneath their mighty steel helmets, solid metal, within the scent of such permeating mist, several sets of eyes darted back and forth, this way and that, gazing out at the next rider, and then the next, until each pathway at the plaza, all but a single, lonely one, was solidly blocked off.

And only then, beneath the deafening quiet of such heavy breaths and rapidly pacing hooves, of riders within such _impossible_ masks, barriers that couldn't possibly let them see the world around them, ghastly presences that rode there upon the backs of bristling warhorses, only then did the one with the gleeful mask appear. Keen eyes glittered like the smooth shell of a beetle, or the scale of a wyrm, the darkness of the void, they merely hovered above the symbol of mirth, the sharp laughter that rang so silently in the face of battle, the face of death, the beak that rose just as sharply as any blade, it was the very face of the fabled Shadow Hunter.

There was a sound within the chilling mist, above the hoofbeats, above the sharp shrieks and wails of the anxious horses, above the ghastly din of those who sought out their blood in such silence, _killers_ , the hunters of the mortal realm, heartpiercers and throatcutters, so savage and primeval, and above all of the rest, there was a single, echoing sound.

With a single twitch, a bright red banner trailed down from the gloved hand of the Shadow Hunter. It was a long, winding tapestry of faintly glowing ink, of bright scarlet fabric that bounded over each and every crack and bump in the damp cobblestone, a trail of symbols, of a single word that finally unraveled itself at the toe of the captain's boot.

 _Concede._

Thick sheets of armor creaked in the darkness, while that long red ribbon from above trailed out into the gathering wind. Yet none of the soldiers dared to move, not even from beneath the gaze of so many unmoving eyes. The laughing mask waited there so silently, yet the horse he was riding upon suddenly called out in a bellowing tone, screeching along with the rest of them, pawing and snorting from the sheer lack of motion, a veritable demon in the night.

Flashes of a thousand eyes, of hooked talons in the dark, of predators, _numerous_ predators, too many of them to count, of jagged swords unsheathed from every angle, a suffocating haze of mist and the baying of so many massive animals, warhorses hungry for blood, of steady footsteps so far up in the sky, upon the rooftops, and then a sudden crack of sound in the middle of the night, a peal of what sounded so _loud_ it was _surely_ thunder-

Another cry, yet the sound was unmistakably human, a call for retreat, a command for the last avenue the soldiers had left, the single path of escape from those supernatural, almost alien eyes, of riders without faces, beasts that jeered and flashed their claws without any sound at all. The thick smoke that rose out from the metal casing of a primitive projectile, it swiftly filled the entire plaza in a dark, nearly unseeable haze.

A single voice suddenly flew into the fray. "Now!"

At least a dozen arrows shot down from above, narrowly missing the regiment of fleeing soldiers, a wide-eyed throng of panicked hearts and voices, a mere warning shot, a display of power and force.

It was atop the rooftops that Lightning waited, poised beside her fellows with the tools that they had brought, mighty works of engineering that they'd hauled up to the rooftops during the din with a pulley system, and now that it was time...

"Go!" Noel rode throughout the smoke and the misty haze, striking his sword against the thick armor of a fleeing solider to create more of a clamor. "Ropes, now!"

A mere instant passed before the massive wooden mechanisms rumbled, and then suddenly lurched against their restraints with the rapid release, the whistling and swift projection of a rather bowlike device, or perhaps more reminiscent of a gigantic crossbow. The end was tipped with a harpoon hook, and the power behind the mighty coil of thick tension sent it flying, and then to sink so very deep into the tiles of the opposite rooftop, where several more of Etro's followers were waiting.

And she danced so far above the blind mass of panic and utter confusion, a wild hunter along with the rest of them, swiftly moving on across the thick ropes that spanned over the entire plaza. Lightning peered down with such a clear gaze, so honed and intent, and she quickly leapt away from the tension of the suspended rope, landing so gracefully upon the tall, covered statue.

The voices below grew to a fevered pitch, chanting in wordless shouts and sounds, of unified anger and and a gathering, unceasing rage, calling for their fellows up above to cut away the veil from their goddess, to reveal her to the world once more.

And Lightning stood there atop the cloth that hid such things away, and her blade, her Overture, it suddenly sang out into the air, a single strike against the fabric itself, while her companions joined in as well. A thousand cuts, they would later call it, a story to be told over dining hall meals, during days of greater celebration, but the time had not yet come for rest, nor for relief. The fabric slowly staggered and fell, drifting down and away in long, tattered ribbons, mere strips of white, and their fellows down below began to haul out several wooden barrels from beyond the plaza, swiftly uncasking them to release a sharp chemical scent.

From above, Fang peered down from atop the ropes, for it seemed as if her own prowess wasn't needed to unveil the statue, but when one of the hunters right beneath her revealed a single, unlit torch, she called out from her perch.

"Hey! Need a light?" Fang smirked and swiftly snapped her fingers together, before a single spark fell down, down, _down_ into the ignition point itself.

And a fine blaze it was, crackling, growing wildly, so _alive_ , the unknown flame of a dragon, to be dropped down against the marble pool, the fountain that now glimmered with more fuel than it had ever held of water, before her inferno truly came to life. They watched, masked within the eyes of their faith, gazing on as the last few scraps of fabric fell down beneath the billowing roar of the fire, within the embers that flew out and flickered off into the dark of the night, illuminating the massive visage of a robed, winged woman, the goddess who held a single, jagged sword between her folded, praying hands.

And it sang within their veins, in their bond with the divine, a night without death or bloodshed, a night of fear and cunning trickery, manipulated by their sheer numbers and a veil of the unknown. It sang within their hearts, in their souls, in reverence to their goddess who stood untouched within the flame, who had caught their crimson decree with her own two hands, expertly placed there by precision and force alone.

Lightning watched from far above those flickering bits of cloth, the veil that still drifted on beneath the fire and mist, while she herself perched there upon the shoulder of a goddess, loyal and free.

A victory had been forged with inextinguishable flame, a symbol of their presence, yet none of the hunters could possibly know that they were not the only eyes there within the shadow of night, not the only gaze that peered out in satisfaction.

There would be time for further acts, for delving deeper into the heart of the matter itself, but in that moment, in the silence that followed their return, their journey back to shelter, there was simply no knowing of the trials ahead.

* * *

The candlelight was enough to let her see the room around her. She could hear the gentle words of her fellow hunters, still speaking late into the night, yet she still felt a certain restlessness in her heart.

And Fang was there, already asleep beneath the blankets. Her long hair was slightly tousled, a dark mane against the pale color of the sheets, and Lightning reached over to tuck back a small lock of it behind her ear.

 _Something's out there... I feel it, too._ Lightning bowed her head to brush her lips against Fang's cheek. _It's just hard to talk about it._

Fang slowly stirred, but she didn't wake up. _Go to sleep, Light... We both need rest._

 _But-_ Lightning felt herself stiffen, tense from the very thought that crossed her mind, before she felt Fang's influence, her presence, she felt it gently lull her down into sleep.

She went so limp against the bed, beneath the soft warmth of the woven blankets, and when she opened her eyes within the world of a dream, she could see those gentle green eyes, the vision of a wyrm.

 _Show it to me._ Fang leaned in, circling her serpentine neck so that it curled around where Lightning was sitting. _Another dream?_

Lightning remembered the sudden flashes, the brightness of each brilliant eye, and then the rust, the rot and decay that filled her senses with such terrible unease, it began to fill the dream with all that she had seen and felt.

 _Light..._ Fang moved to curl one of her wings around Lightning. _I'm sorry._

Lightning almost choked at the memory of such bloodshed, of her own torn, shattered body. _There's a fal'Cie in Luxerion, isn't there?_

And within the hazy dream, deep within that realm of sleep, Fang snarled at an unseen threat, sheltering Lightning beneath her wings.

* * *

"But do you think this was truly the right thing?" Candlelight danced against the low walls. "Please... I'm just trying to do my best here, but we're hunters, not warriors." Noel was resting on his knees, staring down at the stone patterns of the floor. "They won't be able to cover the statue again, not until that fire goes out, but a provocation like this-"

A soft voice began to speak. "There will be bloodshed."

Noel's eyes slowly fell shut.

"Such things are inevitable." Quiet footsteps echoed against the walls of the tower. "We can only follow what we believe in..." Her face was reflected upon the clear glass of a small window, a view that let her look out upon the sea. "I see much danger in the coming days."

"How to we avoid it?" Noel knelt on one knee, a sign of deference to the high ranking of a seer. "How do I lead them to safety?"

"There will be... An invitation." She folded her fingertips together, resting her pale wrists against the windowsill. "You must accept it from the hands of such great danger, from the very maw of a beast."

Noel kept very silent, slowly bowing his head.

"Have trust in your family; they work to aid you, even now." Keen eyes peered down at the calm flow of the rolling ocean. "Our newcomers are still the key."

Noel looked back up at the soft swish of silken robes, ceremonial garb, fabric that looked almost like moonlight itself. "Is it fate that they've traveled here?"

Her voice softened to a whisper. "I believe so."

Noel bowed his head again. "Then I'll keep a closer eye on their safety." He listened to the distant sounds of the sea, of the cold winds that blew in strong gales against the walls of the high tower. "But I need to know; is what we're doing here, is it really futile?"

She turned, slowly, facing the very center of the room. "Nothing is futile, Shadow Hunter..." The mask of a gentle barn owl peered down at him. "So long as it keeps the balance intact."

* * *

"So, uh..." Fang felt herself speak within the dream, but the words that left her lips were chosen by her past life. "Want to guess where we're going?"

"I thought it was a surprise?" Lightning smirked to herself, tapping a long white cane against the ground ahead of her. "Unless you want me to guess..."

Fang smirked as well. "Well, we'll need to take a bus ride, unless you'd rather walk."

"Walking is fine." Lightning listened to each sound that her cane made, and she could feel what the touch of it told her, that nothing was ahead of her but the sidewalk. "It's actually really nice living on a street like this, not so many cars around, or assholes on bikes." She adjusted her pace when she felt a small dip in the sidewalk. "...Not that all bicyclists are assholes, of course."

Fang thought back to the first time that she had driven down that very same road on her motorcycle, several weeks ago.

"It's a surprise, then?" Lightning's hair fluttered softly in the autumn wind. "How far away is it?"

"Not very far." Fang tucked her hands down in her pockets, keeping them warm from the chilly air. "To be honest, I'm glad we're walking there... I don't get enough exercise these days."

Lightning felt her cane as it suddenly tapped against a stray tree branch. "Neither do I." She moved to step over it, walking further along the sidewalk. "Did you see that stationary bike in the basement, last time? I need to use it more often."

Fang shook her head, before she realized that it was redundant. "No, I was more focused on what we were doing."

Lightning smiled a bit. "I had fun... And I think Serah's warming up to you."

Fang smiled as well. "I didn't scare her again, did I?"

"No, not much." Lightning paused when her cane touched the end of the sidewalk. "Which way now?"

"To the right." Fang watched Lightning turn and tap out the way ahead. "I've been having dreams about the song, actually."

Lightning tilted her head towards the sound of Fang's voice. "Our song."

Fang felt an odd sensation prickling down through her throat and spine, and she almost had difficulty formulating a reply. "Ours..."

"They fit like puzzle pieces, don't they?" Lightning didn't even pause at the sound of a passing car. "Two halves, two different sides... High and low, first and second."

Fang remembered that first sudden flutter of affection in her heart, so strong and bright. "Suppose they do."

It was only later on, when they were finally approaching their destination, deep within the busy streets of central Eden, only then did the feeling intensify. Lightning asked a question, something that made Fang feel as if she couldn't even hear the loud rumble of cars and bustling taxis, the city busses that passed by like clockwork, or even the din of the crowds around them, such controlled chaos within the streets.

"If it makes you uncomfortable, don't worry about it." Lightning had already reached into her jacket pocket for a pair of very dark sunglasses. "It just helps me keep track of where someone is in a crowd."

Fang nodded to herself, before she slowly held out her arm, letting it brush against one of Lightning's hands.

"Thank you." Lightning took a firm, yet gentle hold of Fang's upper arm. "Just lead the way."

Fang tried to move a bit slower than before, but a slight click of disapproval made her speed up again.

"I can read your footsteps like this." Lightning walked a few paces behind Fang, anticipating each step by the movements of her body, the height of which her arm moved, and it was even enough that she could tell whenever the altitude changed. "So don't worry about going fast or walking over curbs."

"Okay." Fang started forward again. "Is it harder in places you haven't memorized?"

"Not too much." Lightning had already made her cane collapse on itself to hook it against her belt, almost like a folded umbrella. "I wander my way around, maybe ask for directions... Or I just use GPS."

Fang glanced at one of Lightning's pockets. "The magic of a good phone, eh..?"

Lightning smiled again. "When we were little, Serah used to name off every street we walked on, or the ones we passed by... She'd make sure that I could name them right back to her before we went home."

"She's a good sister." Fang looked out over the bustling crowds, at the city streets that stretched on for much further than she could see. "A seeing-eye sister..."

Lightning fought back a quiet laugh. "A while ago, she actually tried to convince me to get a service dog... But I told her I'd rather rely on myself."

Fang glanced up at one of the city signs. "And no need to buy dog food."

Lightning kept silent for a long moment, just following after Fang. "I wouldn't mind a dog, but I like knowing that I can get around by myself." She reached up to adjust the sunglasses on her face. "It's not always that I want to be alone, though, even if being alone is comforting."

"I think I get it." Fang turned to avoid a bit of sidewalk construction, and she made sure that Lightning walked out of the way as well. "Sometimes at night, when there's almost no sound at all... Not even crickets, I just go sit out on the porch and listen."

Lightning spoke in a quieter tone. "Listening to silence?"

"Silence, yeah... The wind, the way it sounds in the trees, whatever else I can hear." Fang nearly smiled at the sight of their destination. "It's good for inspiration."

Lightning listened, and she waited for the noises that could tell her where they were, where Fang had taken her, and when she heard the soft sounds of lobby music and smelled the almost overwhelming aroma of popcorn, a rather sly smile crossed her face. "You _didn't_..."

Fang bit back her own smile. "I did."

"I thought they were offering advanced seating this week, only limited ticket sales?" Lightning paused when she felt Fang stop walking, before a slim piece of paper was suddenly placed into one of her hands. "...How much did this cost you?"

Fang held her own ticket a well. "It doesn't matter." She remembered it then, for the dream was suddenly quite awash with the memories of so many text messages; she remembered that Lightning had spoken quite often about a particular film, that it was supposed to be something quite fantastic, something that she had been waiting for over the course of several years. "Just be glad we walked here... Would've been awkward sitting there in the dark for half an hour."

Lightning took off her sunglasses to give Fang her best attempt at a look of disbelief, yet the small, almost mirthful smile on her lips swiftly betrayed her.

"We should have a few minutes before the previews." Fang glanced down at where Lightning was still holding her arm. "You like popcorn, right?"

Lightning nodded, still with that tiny smile. "I do."

"That's... That's good." Fang felt a warm swell of both confidence and something utterly fluttery, just the sheer relief that such a thing had made Lightning happy, and that the one who shared her song, what she had chosen for them both to experience, that it was definitely going to work. "We should get in there before they run out of gummy worms, too."

Lightning smirked again. "You'll rot your teeth out."

Fang smirked as well, leading the way towards the numerous front doors of the theater. "Nah... Why do you think my name's Fang?"

And the dream became a blur, a mix of so many colors, sounds and inner thoughts, the emotions that still leapt to life, of watching Lightning listen to the story being told within the movie, the songs being played, all while they shared a bag of popcorn between them. Fang remembered the utter darkness of the room, and the way that the reflection of the projected image made Lightning's face seem aglow. She remembered thinking silently, praying that Lightning didn't notice just many times during the film that the mere sight of such things, that they became so much more enthralling.

And when it ended, when the time finally came to stand up again, to walk back up the stairs towards the brightness of the lobby, Fang remembered how Lightning had reached for her forearm again, holding it with so much more confidence than before.

There was a place, Fang remembered, somewhere nearby, and it was there that she suggested they go before returning home. The grounds were lush and quiet, and there was a wide public pond, one with small vending machines near the sidewalks to feed the wildlife with nutritious food pellets.

"What, did he get it?" Lightning was soon kneeling there beside the edge of the wooden bridge, before she reached out to poke at a rather massive koi fish. "Or did the big one steal it again?"

Fang smirked at the koi that kept gobbling down almost all of the food. "No, the bully got it."

Lightning sighed, before she reached out to scatter even more of tiny pellets against the surface. "Remind me to never get a goldfish."

"I thought you wanted a dog?" Fang tossed a few of her own pellets for the koi. "Or was that a 'maybe' sort of thing?"

Lightning shrugged. "I wouldn't mind if Serah wanted one, but I've been too busy for pets." She seemed to mull the thought over for a brief moment. "It just wouldn't be fair to a dog if I couldn't be there with it every day."

Fang nodded to herself. "Maybe you need something less clingy... Like a cat."

Lightning's soft smile returned. "They're too quiet, I'd probably walk into it on accident."

"Hm." Fang tossed a few more of the pellets into the water. "Maybe a horse?"

Lightning nearly scoffed. "You know, they actually train mini-horses as service animals."

"I mean a _big_ one." Fang grinned, and she gently knocked her knuckles against the wooden bridge, as if to mimic hoofbeats. "Like those huge bastards they bring out to pull carriages around during the holidays..."

Lightning's mouth twitched in amusement. "I should let it wander around the yard, then?" She reached for a few more of the food pellets. "I'd have better luck keeping a unicorn."

"Or a dragon." Fang smirked at her very favorite of the koi fish, the one with jet black scales. "Wouldn't that be fun? You'd always need a fire extinguisher, though."

Lightning moved to sit with her knees against her chest, resting one of them against the rails of the bridge. "A dragon with wings, or the kind that's more like a big toothy snake?"

"Either one." Fang slowly leaned against the railing of the bridge as well. "I've got a tattoo of a dragon, you know."

Lightning almost seemed to perk up again. "You have tattoos?"

Fang fought the urge to smirk. "Lots of them... I've got the dragon on my right arm, and his body curls around my bicep, down to my wrist, where his tail ends." She glanced down at the dark, inky scales that stood right beside the hem of her shirt. "And his neck is right next to mine, while his head is right under my ear."

Lightning took a moment to try and map the area out. "Like a pirate parrot on your shoulder..?"

Fang chuckled under her breath. "I've actually never thought of it like that."

"You like dragons, then." Lightning tossed out a few more pellets for the koi fish, as well as for a few wild ducks who had since joined in for the free meal. "Why else would you get a tattoo of one?"

"Not just one." Fang wished that she could wink in a way that Lightning could see. "And yeah... They're just the most badass critters out there, fantasy or not."

"They're pretty cool." Lightning traced her fingertips against the smooth railing of the bridge. "But I wouldn't want them to exist in real life... Too much fire, too many claws." She turned to face the water again. "I was pretty afraid of fire when I was younger."

Fang watched as one of the ducks nibbled at the tail of a koi. "I think a lot of people are." She looked at the way Lightning touched her fingertips against the scales of the silky fish. "Last time I was over, you didn't seem afraid of it."

Lightning slowly began to smile. "That's how I handle fear."

The gentle blurring sensation overtook her again, changing the dream from that warm autumn afternoon to the chill of night, where they sought refuge in a tiny restaurant near the edge of the river, the same body of water where they had fed so many fish.

"You're going to spoil me, Fang." Lightning kept tracing her fingertips against the front page of a plastic menu. "At least let me pay for this one; you already got us the tickets."

Fang moved to rest her forearms against the edge of the table. "What if I want to spoil you?" Her tone hardly phrased the statement as a question. "...We could split the bill."

For a moment or two, Lightning seemed at a loss for words.

"All of this time, the talking, the music..." Fang kept her voice low, speaking only for Lightning to hear. "I've been having more fun over the past month than I've had in a real long time." She looked deep into those eyes, no longer hidden by such dark lenses, not when they were out of the city crowds. "I know I was pissed off when we first met, but being friends-" Fang watched how Lightning's mouth twitched at the word. "I really like hanging out with you, Light... So let me pay for half?"

"Alright." Lightning slowly started to test the rest of the menu for braille. "But you might need to tell me what's actually on here."

Fang still remembered the warm smile that crossed her face. "Sure, Light."

Another blur of motion and sound, those soft conversations that followed on from their decision about what to order, and it was only when the food arrived that Lightning asked a certain question.

"Has everything been alright at your place?" Lightning was touching her fork down against the inner edges of her plate, mapping it out in her mind. "Did Vanille get that interview you were talking about?"

"Not yet." Fang started to chew on a thin slice of garlic bread. "But we're pretty hopeful."

"I hope so, too." Lightning gently blew her breath against a bit of pasta. "She always sounds so cheerful whenever you talk about her."

"Yeah." Fang smiled, gazing out at the sight of the nearby river. "It takes a lot to get her down... If I hadn't had her, growing up-" She paused, and then looked back at Lightning. "Sisters, you know? They can annoy the hell out of you sometimes, but you'd still go to the ends of the earth for them."

Lightning nodded. "I know the feeling; when Serah and I... When we were alone, she took over most of the things that my parents used to do." Lightning took a moment to reach for her glass of water. "There was a whole lot of paperwork... Things that we shouldn't have had to deal with right away, and there was no practical method to translate that amount of text to braille." Lightning slowly shook her head. "Serah read it aloud to me, page after page."

Fang listened, seemingly forgetful of the plate before her.

"And we made it through." Lightning paused as well, sitting there within the dim light of the cozy little restaurant. "We can pay the bills without worrying, now... I only hope it stays that way."

Fang felt the dream blur again, felt the world shift in both time and place, past paying for half of their meal and then a bit of dessert back in the city, before they caught a brief ride on a city bus, for it had grown much too dark for traveling back on foot to Lightning's home.

"I wouldn't mind walking." Lightning had the white cane resting against her lap, with a half-empty cup of ice cream in her hands. "Scared of the dark, Fang..?"

Fang snorted quietly, before she took another taste of her own ice cream. "More like scared of getting mugged at gunpoint."

Lightning smiled to herself. "And here I thought you were _tough_."

Fang leaned back against the seat, before she lowered her voice to sly murmur. "If we ever were held up, Light, you'd find that I'm plenty 'tough'... But it's better to avoid a situation like that than to look like a badass getting out of it."

"That makes sense." Lightning tried to bite off the stem from a bright red cherry, which was partly covered in ice cream. "But I'd like to see you scare someone off with your tattoo."

Fang rolled her eyes. "'See'."

Lightning smirked again. "I can still listen to them run away."

"And why do you think they're _'scary'_?" Fang lowered her voice in amusement. "They're very pretty, I'll have you know."

"Can't they be both?" Lightning looked to be rather enjoying such banter, enough that she could scarcely hide that little smirk. "It's... Actually hard to understand what 'pretty' means, sometimes." She took another bite of ice cream. "I know the definition; something pleasing to look at, symmetrical things, just a synonym for beautiful." Lightning leaned back against the bus seat. "I can't _see_ beauty, but I can hear it... I can feel, too." She set the almost-empty cup down against her lap. "Fang, today was beautiful."

Yet she scarcely even realized what Lightning had said, not until they found themselves back on the road that led towards the little house at the end of the street, all while that long white cane tapped against the sidewalk again.

"It was... Beautiful?" Fang slowly followed after Lightning. "You really think so?"

Lightning nodded. "We went to a great movie, and I got to feed and pet some interesting fish..." She turned her head to face Fang, but her eyes still didn't move, nor did they focus upon Fang's face. "And we got dinner and ice cream... What could be more beautiful than that?"

Fang held her breath for just a moment. "Why do you wear sunglasses in a crowd?"

Lightning paused, as if to ponder the seemingly spontaneous question. "Lots of people who are blind do it."

"But why do _you?_ " Fang tried to make her voice sound gentle. "I know you can still hurt your eyes from looking too long at the sun..."

"That's part of it. It's also so people know who they're dealing with, without me having to explain it." Lightning stopped walking, and she turned all the way towards the side, facing Fang directly. "But I've been told that my eyes are very pale, and they don't move... I've just never needed to move them." She squinted, as if to try doing so for the sake of example. "Sometimes it makes people uncomfortable."

"... _Screw_ that." Fang murmured each word under her breath. "They're... They're not worth that, Light, you shouldn't have to hide it." She told herself to be silent again, just to stop saying such things, but they were already tumbling down from whatever part of her mind willed her to say it. "Because they're beautiful too."

It was later on, for Fang didn't even remember if either of them said had anything else on the matter, it was when they approached the front walkway of the house, where a certain motorcycle was parked in the driveway, it was only then that Lightning stopped to speak again.

"Text me when you get home, okay?" Once she had reached the front door, Lightning pushed her cane to collapse upon itself, almost like a telescopic pointer. "Drive safely."

Fang forced herself to smile. "I will."

"I had a lot of fun today." Lightning reached for the ring of keys in her pocket. "Thank you for this."

Yet Fang scarcely even realized it, and she didn't move a single muscle when a gentle hand touched her shoulder, before Lightning suddenly leaned in press a very brief kiss against her cheek.

"Have a good night, Fang..." Lightning moved to unlock the door. "Talk to you soon?"

Fang felt herself reach up to touch her own cheek, but she also felt any further words grow utterly silent in her throat.

"I'll take that as a maybe." Lightning held back a soft smile again. "I'd better get in there before Serah starts arranging a search party."

"Yeah..." Fang cursed the way that her voice suddenly felt so dry and faint. "Uh, yes... Yes, we'll talk, I'll text you."

Lightning pushed the door open, standing there with the cane in her hand. "Talk to you soon, then."

And Fang remembered the long walk back towards her motorcycle, only slowed by what felt like a mighty gathering of butterflies, the kind that fluttered around in not just her stomach, but also everywhere else they could possibly reach. So she sat there for a brief while, holding the helmet in her hands, until she reached up to slowly smooth her fingertips against her cheek. Before a moment had passed, she finally put her helmet back on.

A certain song rumbled to life, purring beneath the low roar of the motorcycle, hummed so quietly by the one who just couldn't stop smiling to herself, even when that little brick house, the one all covered in leafy vines, even when it faded away from her line of sight.

* * *

The morning sun rose high above the walls of the city, where they walked as mere citizens within the crowd, gazing up at the uncovered statue. There was a sense of awe in the people around them, for the guards hadn't even tried to return to their posts, not with the massive blaze that still burned all around it, the unceasing flame of a dragon.

Lightning stood there, unmasked as well, watching as the fire crackled beneath the bright glow of the sun.

"What's next for us?" Fang was glancing over at Noel. "We've got this part done..."

Noel spoke very quietly. "Just follow me."

* * *

It was a group of hunters who joined them, and there were no recruits on such an occasion, not a single one who didn't have a distinct carving upon their mask.

"Right, then..." Noel knelt down near the edge of a rather stately, elegant roof. "Now, who can tell me why you don't attempt a break-in during the night?" He almost smirked at the lack of responses. "No shame in having a difficult past... I'll tell you why." Noel rose back up to his feet. "Because during the night, when one's senses are on high alert for a burglar... That's when the intruder is most often caught." He gestured at the sprawling expanse of glittering palaces, the estates that lay just beneath them. "The clever thief, he sneaks inside when the owners are away."

One of the other hunters spoke up. "What are we looking for?"

"Documents, any relevant information." Noel glanced at one of the palaces. "We have the papers tying our own case of robbery back to our new player in town, but we don't have much on the man himself." He turned to address each of the hunters again. "The plan is to get in, get whatever we need, and then get the hell back out there before we're noticed." Noel leaned away, moving beside the edge of the roof. "Any questions?"

The hunters moved up as well, and not a word was spoken as they leapt to the ground below, swift and silent as diving arrows. They all soon ran together in a streamlined formation, one after the other. Lightning watched the way that Fang moved so very swiftly, the strength she had to run and leap past gaps in the streets of the estates; it felt almost fitting that she was just as nimble as her draconic form, like a sheet of silk cutting straight through the sky.

They flew in even greater speed, at least until Noel gave the signal to suddenly stop, before the shadow of a small regiment of guards, it slowly passed by from just beyond a marble wall. The order to move again came in the flick of a gloved wrist and the swift movement of their leader himself, leading his fellows on a hunt for information. It was only minutes before they reached the main area itself, the walls that rose so tall with flowering vines, with thorns that lurked beneath those soft, vibrant petals, yet they were hardly any trouble when one wore rather thick gloves.

Fang would later think that it was quite strange that weren't many guards around, but at the time, she took it as a stroke of well-needed luck. In her own quest to help the one she'd grown to love yet again, another life reincarnated, she'd also discovered a threat to their happiness, and it simply needed to be dealt with. And if there was useful information in such a place, a grand palace of gold trim and fine marble, of glimmering shrines to the lofty lord of sunlight, if such a place might hold her answers, she'd join in with Lightning's family to the furthest reaches she could follow.

Noel soon signaled for another halt; the group that he led was lower than a dozen in number, but he had caught sight of the next room, a place full of people. They were likely those who lived there in service to the palace, and if they happened to see an intruder, there was no telling how fast the guards would catch up to them.

A few of the hunters were watching the alternate pathways, as well as the halls behind them, just to make sure that nothing could sneak up on them unaware. Tipur was there as well, with his silently screeching mask, but at a signal to approach, he moved forward to Noel's side.

Noel spoke in the most silent tone he could possibly manage. "We need to find a different way around."

Tipur leaned in to glance at the room ahead. "Looked like there were a few other halls to the left of that last junction."

"Two groups." Noel slowly moved away from the corner of the wall. "Mages divided evenly, at least two trackers per team; as soon as one of us finds enough of what we're looking for, regroup."

And they separated within moments, smaller groups in order for greater stealth. Tipur lead a team of his own, while Lightning and Fang stayed with Noel, along with four other hunters. They moved again in a mere instant, silently traveling across the long corridors and endless halls, until they finally reached something that looked promising.

"Fan out." Noel peered around from beneath his mask. "Two at the door, keep a lookout."

Lightning glanced over to see that a pair of her companions had already moved to watch the doorway, so she herself started to hunt around for anything remotely interesting. It was a room full of tall shelves and packed bookcases, of various alchemical equipment and weighty tomes, likely full of arcane information, yet that wasn't what they were looking for.

Fang started to browse through a stack of documents at a nearby desk, though they seemed to be mostly made up of various purchase agreements. There were payment records, lists of delivered goods, even dates and estimated delivery times, yet what caught Fang's attention was the subject matter itself. They were signed by a name that somehow rang in her mind, a certain memory that she just couldn't quite reach, perhaps even something from a past life. It had happened many times before, of course, for there were bound to be those with a strong enough tie to fate to have held the same name as they had once known, but there was just _something_ about that one... Yet she couldn't remember what.

"Look here." One of the mages, the one Fang recognized as Holly, spoke up. "It's a land purchase..."

"Land?" Noel approached from the other side of the room. "It isn't for the palace here, is it?"

Holly shook her head. "No, it's... This doesn't make sense."

"Let me see?" Noel stepped over to examine the document. "Rights to build underground..? What the hell else could they build beneath it?"

Lightning approached as well. "What is it?"

"The rights to dig even deeper beneath the Hall of Devotion." Noel turned the papers over in his hands. "Like they haven't already dug enough."

Holly spoke in a soft murmur. "You think they could be preparing to store the artifact there?"

Noel shook his head. "Why hide it there when we've proven we can break in without much effort at all?" He peered at the signature at the very bottom, as well as the date. "And the time doesn't match up... This is from years ago." Noel set the documents back down on the desk. "Probably irrelevant."

Holly shook her head. "I've still got a bad feeling about it..."

"I don't doubt that." Noel reached over to examine another pile of papers. "But we need to focus right now."

Lightning spoke up from beside a different table, one that had several strange drawings and diagrams. "Are we just looking for information about the target?"

"Yeah, what've you found?" Noel walked back across the room. "Damn..."

A transmutation circle was carved there into the wooden surface, and several sketches of different symbols lay beside it, along with instructions for different runic sigils, as well as a list of far more alchemical ingredients than Lightning had ever even heard of.

"What are they doing with _alchemy?_ " Noel started to examine the stacks of paper and rolled up scrolls. "The Order isn't usually so keen on science, or even magic..."

"You said our man was new in town." Lightning lifted up a small vial with a pale, shriveled reptile floating within the bright blue liquid. "Tell me, Noel... How would one go about learning to control the power of a stolen artifact?"

Noel's brow furrowed at some of the more detailed alchemy papers. "Not by transmutation, that's for sure... You'd probably just make it backfire, or worse."

Lightning placed the vial back down, beside a rather unusual bundle of herbs. "Then is this even relevant, either?"

"It could probably tell us something if we had enough time." Noel glanced at the hunters who were still watching the doorway. "But we could be running out of time any moment now... No, we need personal documents, something to tell us just who the hell this person is, something we can _use_."

A sudden peal of laughter broke the hushed silence of the room. "Is that all?"

Their reaction was instantaneous, weapons drawn and a scattering of rapid movement, a silent dash into the formation of readied blades, hunters standing back to back, staring out at the shadow that drifted in from seemingly nowhere.

"Child, you have only but to _ask_..." A golden emblem suddenly swayed forward, carried within a pale, wrinkled hand, by the elderly man who leaned upon it. "What questions could you possibly seek from only a humble servant of Bhunivelze?"

Fang narrowed her eyes at the figure who must have appeared out of thin air, even if such things were utterly impossible. She gripped the dagger that Lightning had once given her, and she felt her heartbeat quicken when Noel suddenly stepped forward, weapons raised.

"I would ask why our own order is under _constant fire!_ " Noel rose his voice and held his bladed shield before him, sword at the ready beside it. "What have we ever done to earn such treatment? Why put us at odds, only for bloodshed?!"

The elder, Galenth Dysley, his eyes flashed above a crooked sort of grin. "You assume far too much..." He suddenly faded into thin air, yet Noel whipped around when the same voice sounded right behind him. "Shadow Hunter, is that what they call you?"

Noel lashed out on instinct, striking his blade down against the physical form of a man in robes, but his steel only touched upon a thin ripple of light.

"Oh, now this is disappointing." Dysley returned to his original place, and he almost seemed to shimmer when Noel hissed at him.

Holly spoke up again. "An illusion?!"

Lightning tightened her grip on Overture.

"An illusion, child, is a visual object that does not exist..." Dysley lifted his hand that held the pale golden staff, and when he brought it down, it was as if a sharp shock wave rumbled deep into the earth beneath their feet. "An object that cannot truly influence the world... I am no illusion."

Fang narrowed her eyes at the look Dysley suddenly turned to give her, a piercing look, perhaps a _knowing_ look, yet there was simply no time to dwell on it.

Noel's mask almost seemed to gleam at the eyes. "Where is the crown? The artifact?!"

Dysley smiled in that crooked way again, a grin that didn't reach his other features. "Ah, perhaps you'll see again it for yourself..." He suddenly flashed out of existence again, before he reappeared at the furthest end of the room, far away from the bristling hunters. "That depends on whether or not your ilk will be attending the solstice celebrations..."

Noel kept a firm grip on his weapons. "What does the solstice-"

"Perhaps you should depart while you still have the chance." Dysley's fingertips curled around a white crystal, the circle of layered gemstone inlaid upon his staff. "My guards are known to be very protective... A poor old man, threatened by such savage brutes? You'd be in quite an uncomfortable position indeed."

Noel slowly backed away, yet he still kept his weapons out before him. "This isn't over."

"Ah, far from it." Dysley almost looked a bit forlorn for a mere instant in time, before that smile curled back upon his face. "We finally begin our dance, Shadow Hunter... Do not disappoint."

Lightning felt a ripple of air within the room, the sudden flash of light and the sheer whoosh of sound, before the hunters were all alone again, save for the distant sounds of mighty footsteps.

"Time to go!" Noel hissed out his next few words. "That bastard... He's just playing with us, isn't he?"

Holly raced out into the hall with her staff at the ready, and she quickly sealed off the opposite end of the pathway, before she darted off to join with the retreat. They ran with far greater speed than before, not quite caring if their footsteps were heard, for the alarm had been sounded and the guardsmen were clattering there upon their trail, while Tipur's group was nowhere to be seen.

Noel hissed again, and he swiftly reached up to activate a charm on his wrist, before he suddenly changed course. Lightning knew it was likely a scent charm, something taken from a canine creature, perhaps, or any other monster who operated by their sense of smell, but when she reached over to activate her own, she immediately wished that she hadn't.

It was there before long, the thick scent of so much fallen blood, enough so that their group suddenly faltered within mid-stride, gazing down at the circle of kneeling hunters, those who were pressing whatever cloth they could find against the gaping wound in Tipur's chest.

"Ah..." Tipur's voice cracked and nearly broke when he caught sight of Noel, and the screeching mask fell down to the floor from his grip. "Hey, boss..."

Noel dropped to his knees immediately, and he suddenly spoke in the softest voice that any of them had ever heard him use. "Who did this..?"

"Fast..." Tipur's mouth dripped with scarlet. " _Fast_ old bastard, ran right me through before-" His eyes drifted out of focus, and then back in again. "You all need to run."

Noel reached up to remove his own mask, but Tipur suddenly seized the wrist in question, holding it right where it was.

"Don't let them see you." Tipur's gaze flickered down to look at his own mask. "Don't let them see your eyes, brother..." He tried to push away the hunters who were tending to his wound. "You need to run... You all need to leave."

"Not without you." Noel's voice was suddenly sharp and harsh, seething with an unseen venom. "You need medical attention-"

"He's hit... Near my heart." Tipur's head slowly drifted to the side. "I don't have long... This'll all be for nothing if you try and drag me away." The blood on his mouth began to leak against the marble floor. "They're all running for us, I hear them..."

Holly was already trying to block off the hallway they had traveled from, but there was only one other path for them to leave in, and it was already starting to echo with distant footsteps.

"Get _out_..." Tipur's eyes were slowly going blank. "Don't let it be for nothing."

Noel gripped at Tipur's hand, feeling that slowly fading pulse, before he reached down for the fallen mask.

"I was a _real_ coward when I started, you know... But if I, if I ever make it there, I'll save you a spot." Tipur forced himself to close his eyes. "I'll... Put in a real good word with Etro."

Noel squeezed his hand again. "Damn it, Tipur!"

"It was... Real good hunting with you, boss." Tipur's smile twitched beneath the quickening flow of blood. "Hmm... Make them pay."

* * *

The grounds were still and silent within the evening light, beneath the soft glow of so many candles and the gentle incense in the air.

There was a small place within one of the gardens, a circle of bright hibiscus flowers, and that was where they buried it, along with a thin silver chain.

One of the clerics broke the silence, holding a small white candle between her hands. "The body returns to the earth from whence it lived upon, but we cast the soul to Etro's side, to live eternally within her realm." She reached out to place a single speckled feather beside the mask and chain. "May you return to Etro's arms, and may the goddess watch over your soul."

The gathered hunters repeated the phrase in low, quiet tones.

After what felt like a brief eternity, Noel reached out to place a single handful of soil beside the mask, before he slowly moved away.

Fang watched from a short distance to the side, and she didn't say anything when Lightning walked over to join the silent ceremony. Perhaps it was meant to be a final gesture from his fellow hunters, a farewell in the act of burying such a memory, but for whatever reason, Fang didn't feel as though she was a part of it.

Yet, as if on queue, Noel walked over, and he paused beside her. "You hunted with him, too... You can join if you want."

Fang merely listened to Noel's footsteps fade away, yet she still didn't move, not until Lightning came back again.

"I..." Lightning almost seemed at a loss for words, and the look on her face was almost utterly blank. "I didn't know him, not much, but it still-" Her eyes flickered down to the leather armband on her wrist. "It feels like a brother's been killed."

"Yeah... You've all got a connection." Fang slowly sat down on a bench within the garden. "Come sit, Light."

"It just happened so _quickly_." Lightning moved to rest beside Fang. "Imagine how many years he was alive, he looked older than me... And you turn away for just a few minutes, and then-" She went very silent again. "Death happens so quickly."

Fang nodded without speaking, before she reached over to touch Lightning's wrist.

"I think we all know it once we start." Lightning watched the flower petals drifting in the wind, and she watched her fellow hunters as they spoke their prayers beside the grave. "We work with death, we live with death... And we die before we get the chance to fully realize it."

Fang gently squeezed Lightning's hand.

"I watched them go." Lightning kept gazing up at the garden trees. "The fire took them in seconds... But I was _afraid_." Her grip tightened against Fang's fingertips. "I just dragged Serah into the water with me, and they died." She squeezed her eyes shut. "It happens before you even realize it."

Fang stroked her thumb against Lightning's hand. "We all have our fears."

"It felt like there was no other choice." Lightning's mouth flickered into a tiny, shaky frown. "I couldn't have done anything, even if I'd been brave enough; you just can't stop it unless you get lucky." She slowly opened her eyes again. "Serah... When they cut her throat, we got lucky."

"Don't hold it against yourself." Fang waited for Lightning to look her in the eye. "It's like you said, it'll hurt you from the inside out." She reached up to soothe her fingertips against Lightning's shoulder. "It's _venom_... Don't let your regrets take over."

Lightning glanced back at the mourning hunters. "You sound like you speak from experience."

Fang felt her mouth twitch into a small, yet bitter smile. "Yeah... I just really wish I didn't."


	34. Blood of a Lion

Fang could feel the dream seeping into her mind before she had even settled herself down against the sheets. She nearly tried to fight it off, just to try and stay awake for a short while longer, but the warmth at her side, the soft sounds of the sleeping hunters, even the candlelit darkness, it all soon lulled her to sleep.

"This isn't the safest place to be in." Fang recognized her own voice, even if it seemed so very distant at first. "Bandits, wild animals... All sorts of dangerous terrain."

The drumming sound of hoofbeats echoed out into her mind, and when she opened her eyes again, gazing out at the wide golden plains and the long dirt road ahead of her, she only had to look forward to see who was riding sidesaddle right in front of her, gently resting against her chest.

Lightning looked rather uninterested in the area around them, but she still seemed to keep a sharp eye out on whatever movement she could spot. Those keen blue eyes, a far softer shade than one might expect, they were just as perceptive as those of any watchful predator, even Bahamut, who still flew so far above them.

"We can outrun most animals on horseback." Fang could feel how Lightning's chin was resting against the front of her shoulder, and she wondered if such positions were more normal back wherever Lightning came from, an almost intimate way of sitting. "But bandits, they're a whole other story."

Lightning's voice was just loud enough to rise above the sound of hoofbeats. "Bandits?"

"Bad people." Fang tightened her grip on the reins. "People who kill and steal, even from their own kind... A bunch of wild animals."

Lightning's nose slowly twitched at the scent of the dusty fields. "Not real animals..."

"No, just in their nature." Fang glanced back at the saddlebags just to make sure that everything was still in place, before she looked up at the spear on her back, which was sheathed to a long leather strap on her belt and shoulder, her chosen weapon for both hunting and self-defense. "You're a smart one, you know; you understand metaphors pretty quickly."

Lightning shrugged. "It's simple."

Fang tried not to chuckle. "Not to everyone."

They rode on with the gentle winds of the grasslands, beneath the warm sunlight from up above, past the rolling fields of wild wheat and lavender. They moved up and over hills that sloped right back down into small valleys of their own, and through the terrain that ranged from lowland plains to the distant forests, up until the afternoon was well on its way into evening.

"You hungry?" Fang glanced around at the fields of heather and bristly grass. "We could look around for something to hunt, maybe a rabbit." She almost wanted to smile at the way Lightning's ears perked up at such a word. "You like rabbits, don't you?"

Lightning glanced away to hide the look in her eyes. "The fuzzy ones..? They taste good."

"Yeah, just as long as the meat's fresh." Fang tugged on the reins to direct their horse towards a stray tree near the side of the road. "I'll take a look around for any signs of them."

Lightning soon moved to slip away from the saddle, landing quietly on her feet, before she pulled the fur cloak down and off from atop her shoulders.

"It's much warmer tonight." Fang dismounted as well, and she quickly looped the reins around a low, yet sturdy branch of the tree. "You might not need much more than your normal clothes."

Lightning reached up to tuck the folded pelt away into one of the saddlebags. "We'd hunt back home." She leaned away from the horse, staring rather pointedly at such an unusual animal. "There were... Places with trees, with animals to catch."

"Places for hunting?" Fang started to rummage around in one of the saddlebags for a very small, yet formidable shortbow. "I've been to other towns, other villages, and some of them have rules about hunting... But our place, we've got more than enough game out there to cull in the first place."

Lightning turned to peer at the colorful plains, and she slowly stretched out her arms, almost as if to catch as much of the sunlight against herself as she could.

"You want to stay here with the horse?" Fang reached out to gently pat the creature in question. "What was his name again..?"

Lightning shook her head. "I want to go with you."

"You sure about that?" Fang stroked her fingertips against the soft, fuzzy hide of the horse. "You've gotten better now, I can tell... But this could still be pushing it."

Lightning narrowed her eyes, as if to try and think of the right words to say. "I got sick when I was young." She slowly pointed at the center of her chest, slightly offset to gesture at her heart. "Blazefire... I used fire to make it leave." Lightning took another step towards the sprawling fields. "But our fire is special."

"Special?" Fang followed after her. "What do you mean?"

Lightning seemed at a loss for a brief moment, before she looked back over her shoulder and pointed up at the sky. "It hurts to look at." She gestured at the long rays of the sun. "You can't touch it for long, but you'd still die without it."

"Your fire..." Fang started to hook her bow down against one of the straps on her belt. "You're saying it's like the sun?"

Lightning shrugged again. "It's... Energy." She tried to remember a few of the words that Fang had taught her, spoken out loud over the many days of traveling in such a strange new land. "It's like a heartbeat near mine; it's stronger, strong enough to kill bad things, but it can hurt me if I use it inside."

"I think I get it." Fang remembered the way that she once assumed such things were just as outlandish as an extraterrestrial crashing to earth within a crystal, but she knew how to keep an open mind. "But your electricity, that doesn't hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt." Lightning suddenly snapped her fingers, and a small spark flickered right between them, quite faint beneath the rays of the afternoon sun. "It's not fire, but it can start a fire."

"Okay..." Fang watched the way that Lightning stepped over the patches of prickly grass, still as barefoot as the day she had walked away from the massive crystal. "I could get you a pair of sandals, you know."

Lightning glanced back over her shoulder again. "Sandals?"

Fang pointed down at her own feet, at the thick leather shoes that she wore. "They keep them from getting scratched up."

Lightning's nose wrinkled slightly in distaste. "But you can't feel the ground."

"It's better than stepping on a bristle branch." Fang kept walking on across the wide field of heather flowers. "You don't have shoes where you're from?"

Lightning shook her head. "No, the ground was mostly grass or metal." She looked back up at the sky, before she spoke a word that Fang didn't recognize, something just as cold and smooth as the surface of any blade. "It wasn't like this... So many _things_ on the ground."

Fang glanced at the feathers on Lightning's ankles. "Maybe we can find something you like."

Lightning took a deep breath of the fresh, floral air, still gazing out over the fields, before she looked up to see Bahamut flying far above. "Serah used to tie ribbons around her feet."

Fang watched as the strong winds pushed the soft purple flowers all to one side, almost like the ripples of a mighty ocean. "Why did she do that?"

"They looked nice whenever she flew." Lightning looked up to see the rolling clouds, the puffy white streaks that traveled on within the wind. "...I want to fly."

It was a moment when Fang wasn't sure if she should protest or not, just in case Lightning might have hurt herself from such early exertion, in case her muscles hadn't yet grown strong enough to lift herself off of the ground, but a sudden flash of white feathers and the flapping rush of wind, it stole the very words from against her lips.

Lightning didn't get far, but her wings caught the strong breeze for a while, almost as if to sail across the sprawling fields, a white sail within the sprawling sea of heather. And Fang just stood there, watching the way that she circled around, before Lightning landed rather gracefully within the grass again.

"Light." Fang slowly walked forward, gazing down at a falcon in the field of flowers, a pale phoenix who peered right back at her, still so fierce and proud. "Don't push yourself, okay? It's alright to take it easy."

Lightning spoke in her own language again, and her tone didn't sound argumentative, merely a counterpoint, something that Fang only understood within the context of a dream. "Serah's out there... The rest of my friends are out there." Her words were all strung together like the feathers on her wings, smooth, fluid, and utterly fast. "Most of my people didn't know death before we left home... But my family, _we_ didn't panic when the air started to go bad."

Fang remembered feeling so helpless at such foreign words, at the strange voice of a person from a whole other world, a different planet, lost beyond the stars.

"They went _mad_ , they scratched and leapt at anyone with an advanced boarding pass..." Lightning's eyes darkened at such a memory. "Do you have space shuttles here? Ships that can fly between the planets..? We thought ours was enough to get us somewhere better, but it wasn't." She kept speaking, and her pale feathers slowly began to recede once more. "When you're doomed to die... You can either lay down and take it or _fight_ your way back out." Her voice grew rather fierce, yet still so very quiet. "They all choked on their own breath... I just had to drag us away from it."

Fang felt the dream swirl with Lightning's words, mixing with a memory that wasn't one of her own, of a motley group of travelers all running so very fast along the smooth corridors, the halls of somewhere far away. It had been a massive craft beside the stars, deep within the void of space, all beneath the blare of sirens and the hushed sound of their own ragged breaths, struggling just to stay alive.

There was the sudden vision of a younger girl, the way her face looked when Lightning swiftly activated the stasis field, how her eyes fluttered shut while her entire body swiftly turned to crystal, encased within the very structure of the escape mechanism. And there was the memory of someone else, someone who pressed his hands so firmly against the glass of the outer chamber, quietly vowing under his breath that they would someday meet again, that they wouldn't stray very far from each other in the deep, dark expanse of space.

They merely stood there, ripped and blooded by the talons of their people, a few of the last who ever lived, before the shimmering tethering field reached out towards the other stasis chambers.

"We made it out." Lightning's eyes flickered in the memory. "We survived."

Fang felt herself standing on the edge of one world and another, within the field of flowers and those later days of the very same journey, when the two of them happened upon an old, crumbling ruin near the edge of the road.

Lightning had been sitting there in the dark, covered up in the pelt that Fang had given her, slowly stroking her fingertips against the pale blue crystal in her hands. The scents of both times swirled and mixed in together, the aromatic flowers and the comforting smell of a campfire, the ashes and dust, the embers and those hardy wildflowers. And Fang felt that it was almost strange to have known what Lightning was thinking, to have the memory twist itself out into both of their minds, to feel the first few blossoms of trust and friendship, slowly fostered by the way Fang herself had gone to such lengths over the weeks.

And in the shadow of the night, slowly skinning the hare that she had shot with an arrow, Fang felt her own mind take the forefront. The kill had been clean, quite humane, an instant death, and she would likely be able to sell the pelt and the more useful of the bones to any villages they might find. But the meat itself, it would be cooked above their fire, used to feed both of them for yet another day, and it would strengthen them should any trouble happen across their path.

The first whispering sounds of a song filled her ears, even if she didn't quite react to it. The noise of hoofbeats in the swirling dream caught her attention yet again, until a deep flicker of fear suddenly crossed her heart.

There would be blood, she remembered that much, watching the memory play out in the sounds of a rainy night, in screeching horses and then the dull thud of a blunt weapon against her own chest, before she herself was swinging back into the fray, keeping her spear out at the ready to deflect any weapons that made themselves known. She moved herself so swiftly, standing there to watch Lightning's back, to keep her safe, away from those who sought both their supplies and the value of their very lives, yet there was also a sight there that she would have never, _ever_ expected.

Lightning was just as swift, a blade in the windy rain, rapid strikes of crackling, whiplike energy within the unsheathed weapon from her hip, a blade of something utterly ethereal, something beyond anything else that Fang had ever seen, drawing out the blood and frightened cries of a bandit clan in a spray of scarlet and a sharp, keening voice.

Yet when it was finally over, when they were galloping away on a different horse than before, one who hadn't been cut right out from under them and killed within the road, when they were fleeing with the same supplies that they had brought with them, salvaged from beside the fallen horse, only then did Fang tighten one arm around Lightning's waist, all while gripping at the reins with her other.

She remembered those bleeding cuts that had been scattered over both of them, how they decided to stop and rest beneath a low stone alcove in the forest, for the rain had grown much too strong to keep traveling in such a state.

The horse whickered into the night, pacing as much as it could. It wasn't nearly as well-trained as the buckskin steed that had been loaned to them, but at least it didn't try to free itself from where Fang had tied the reins against a tree trunk, even while the steed still carried the extra saddlebags.

"Damn it." Fang whispered the words under her breath, though she spoke without much anger. She slowly began to wash the wounds on Lightning's arms, even when she was given a look of protest for her efforts. "Light, come on."

Lightning was still gripping tightly at the handle of her weapon, the metal device that could summon such strange swirls of energy, but she soon let herself relax, yet only ever so slightly.

"You're more vulnerable to things like this." Fang pointed at the open cuts, still washing them out and spreading ointment into the wounds. "Can't let them get infected."

Lightning slowly leaned back against the wall of the cave. She turned her head to look out at the pattering rain, and at the poor horse who seemed to be scared right out of his wits. "Are we keeping that one?"

Fang shrugged, and she reached up to bandage one of the wounds near Lightning's shoulder. "Who knows how loyal he'd be... I'd say we should sell him off once we reach a town, buy a decent traveling horse." She frowned at one of the bruises that was already starting to form along Lightning's arm. "I'm sorry I didn't react quick enough."

Lightning took a moment to remember more of her newfound words. "The rain... They snuck up on us."

"They did." Fang could still feel the deep aches from toppling down to the ground, the pain that came from wrenching her leg out from beneath the panicking horse, before she'd suddenly realized that Lightning was already standing there, lashing out with every last inch of her strength. "But you're a fighter, aren't you?"

Lightning slowly released her grip from the handle of her weapon. "I can fight."

"Not just that." Fang moved to bandage up another wound. "You fight like you've done it before, like it's an instinct..." She leaned away, glancing around to check if she'd missed any injuries. "You're as strong as I thought."

Lightning's gaze drifted up towards one of the tiny wounds near the edge of Fang's forehead, just a scratch from where she'd fallen against the dusty road.

"But we should be done with this neck of the woods soon enough." Fang reached for the canteen of water, but she paused when Lightning gently took it right out of her grasp. "Light?"

Lightning didn't say a word. She merely poured a bit of water upon her hands to wash them, before she reached up to dab a bit of the liquid against Fang's forehead wound, cleaning the bits of grit away.

"Light." Fang's gaze began to soften despite the pain. "You don't have to."

Lightning still didn't speak. She just reached for the bottle of ointment as well, but not before she had cleaned out the cuts on Fang's shoulder, the wounds inflicted by the edge of a sword.

"It's nice of you." Fang tried not to wince at the sting of the antibiotic cream. "How are you feeling, though? Looked like you put a lot of effort into it, back there."

Lightning glanced down at the soil beneath her bare feet, the floor of the narrow alcove. "I'm okay."

"That's good." Fang tried her best to relax again, though she perked up at the sound of rustling feathers from out in the downpour. "Bahamut?"

Bahamut landed quite close beside them, gripping something between his talons.

"Come here, you." Fang leaned away from where Lightning was bandaging up one of her wounds, before she lifted the scrap of blooded cloth that Bahamut had offered her. "Chased after those bastards, did you?"

Bahamut merely ruffled his feathers, shaking them out from the rain.

Fang went still when Lightning tried to keep bandaging the cut. "If this was our land, I'd say we should track them down and get rid of the damn problem... But we're strangers here, and I don't know the terrain like back home."

Bahamut called out with a soft sound, a rather low, whispery whistle, before he walked over to scrape at the soft dirt of the alcove, scratching out a shallow shelter for himself.

Lightning only spoke again once she'd finished treating the cuts on Fang's shoulder. "I don't want to kill anyone else, not unless I need to."

"Yeah." Fang reached up to rub at the bandage on her forehead. "Kill or be killed... But don't go out looking for trouble." She drew in a deep breath of the damp, misty air, before she stood back up to start unsaddling the 'commandeered' horse. "And _you_ , your master's dead now... You'd better not act up on us." She started to unbuckle the saddle itself. "What a night, eh?"

Lightning watched the way that Bahamut settled himself down in the loamy soil, and she slowly reached out to pet the feathers of his neck.

"We've still got some food left." Fang carried the saddle down beneath the shelter of the overhang, before she knelt against the earth to spread out a few of their blankets. "But we'd better find a town soon, I'll tell you that much."

Lightning looked up from the ground, and she blinked when Fang offered her a few of the dry biscuits.

"I know it's not ideal." Fang settled herself down on one of the blankets. "But you know, rough times..."

Lightning nodded her thanks, accepting the food from Fang's hand.

"What a mess that was." Fang crossed her legs, and she leaned back against the wall of the shallow cave. "They're getting more and more clever... Bolder, too. The world's never been very safe, Light, but it's not getting any safer these days."

"Yes it is." Lightning took a moment to chew on one of the flat biscuits. "I found you."

Fang's gaze traveled over to peer at the look on Lightning's face, one that seemed dead serious, without any hint of sarcasm or amusement.

"You're... Nice to me." Lightning glanced down where one of her own bandages was starting to turn dark with residual bloodshed. "You don't have to be, but you are."

Fang slowly turned to peer out at the rain. "Would you call me crazy if I said you remind me of someone? Someone... Someone who doesn't exist."

Lightning's ears twitched in thought. "That doesn't make sense."

"That's why it's so crazy." Fang took out her own handful of biscuits from the box. "Never mind... I've just got a few strings loose, that's all."

Lightning pondered over what such a metaphor could possibly mean, though she wasn't quite versed enough in Fang's language to know what it meant.

"I, uh... I don't have many friends these days." Fang munched on one of the biscuits. "Not sure if you understood everything I said before, but that's the gist of it."

Lightning reached over to pet Bahamut again. "You have him and Vanille."

Fang nodded. "Yeah, I wouldn't trade them for anything, but it does get a little lonely." She moved to briefly pet Bahamut as well. "Vanille loves going for walks in the woods, but she's not always so keen on what I do, bringing in food and supplies." Fang slowly wiped the biscuit crumbs from her mouth. "And there's only so much conversation you can get out of a bird."

Bahamut didn't seem to take much offense, but he did gently nibble at Fang's fingertips, at least until she reached into one of the saddlebags to feed him a tidbit of dried meat.

Lightning glanced back at the ground. "I never had many friends." She could feel how Fang looked at her from the warm prickle of her gaze, almost like the feeling of a slightly itchy pin feather. "Serah tried to help, but... You know."

Fang soon offered Lightning a bit of the dried meat as well, while she took a single strip of it for herself.

"We were alone a lot." Lightning sniffed at the strong spices on the meat strip, and she took a tiny bite of it. "She met someone she really liked, and then I felt even more alone."

Fang tried not to frown.

"...I'm not proud of everything." Lightning slowly hugged her knees against her chest, and the feathers on her ankles began to ruffle in the rainy breeze. "I did some things I wish I didn't." Her ears twitched at the many sounds of the forest, the creaking of the trees, the rustle of the damp grass and the undergrowth, the gentle sounds of the rain. "It's hard to translate this."

"I know." Fang leaned back against the wall of the cave again, slightly closer to where Lightning was sitting. "But you're doing just fine."

Lightning felt the faintest hint of a smile twitch on her lips. "They had... Other tongues, back home, I knew a few of them." She started to speak briefly in a very different dialect, one that sounded much slower, more gradual than her native language, rather like the sound of a cooing dove instead of the quick screeches, clicks and chirps of a falcon.

And Fang listened for a moment, before she steeled herself to ask a certain question, one that had been lingering in the back of her mind for quite a long while. "Your people, are they all... Like you?" She slowly pointed at Lightning's feathers. "You're all like birds?"

Lightning reached up to touch one of her ears. "They're different, sometimes." She glanced at the feathers on her ankles, and then at the places where they would sometimes appear whenever she was agitated, just a threat display, such as her shoulders and wrists. "Serah looks a lot like me."

"Well, yeah... Family." Fang tossed Bahamut a bit more of the dried meat. "But you can all fly, right?"

"Yes." Lightning's eyebrows began to furrow at such a question. "What else would we do?"

"You could walk?" Fang just smiled to herself, and she picked up one of the fur blankets from within the saddlebags. "We don't really have shapeshifters here... They're more of an imaginary thing."

Lightning almost smiled when Fang handed her a blanket as well.

"So you see why I've got to keep you safe?" Fang waited for Lightning to drape the blanket over her shoulders. "You're something special... Something that doesn't even exist here, so if you're going to make it, you'll need all the friends you can get."

Lightning's eyes suddenly betrayed the passive look on her face. "And are we... Friends?"

Fang felt the very same smile cross her face that had once been there countless times, the same creases and subtle lines, the very same feeling that flickered deep within her chest. "Only if you want to be."

* * *

There was a shadow in the air, she knew it by the sight of her peers. Lightning stayed awake long into the night, thinking over the sudden loss of her fellow hunter, the display of power and capability from one who seemed to bend the very rules of the world to his whim, faster than any mortal being had any right to be. How sudden it was, just a seemingly routine procedure, mere information gathering, but the cost of such things was paid in far more than bloodshed.

She glanced down at the wristband that held so many of her charms, stored safely beside the bed. Lightning let her mind wander off to the thoughts of her brothers and sisters, to the kinship of their faith, and she felt the emotions simmering in herself. The shock had since dulled the disbelief that such a person could easily kill one of her own, that he could take that life in one fell swoop, like a knife in the dark, talons in the night, and she began to feel a strong urge to keep her own weapons a bit closer.

Rest was very elusive. Most of her peers were either laying awake or sleeping in low murmurs, for it seemed as if such a thing affected both houses of the compound rather equally. Noel had disappeared for most of the evening, only returning to speak a few brief words over dinner, and an air of unease swiftly fell upon the hearts of Etro's followers, while silence had ruled without challenge within the lofty dining hall.

But was it true that such a pursuit had turned futile? Lightning slowly pulled one of the blankets a bit tighter around herself, though she made sure not to steal any of the covers from Fang. The seeds of doubt had already sprouted right up into such untouchable thorns, snaking their way around her mind and choking it, forcing her thoughts to battle between the possibility of just fleeing away in that very instant with Fang, that very night, never to return again... But there was still her loyalty, the blood oath to her goddess that couldn't be forsaken, and if her siblings were truly in such peril, she could hardly live with herself otherwise.

Lightning suddenly covered her ears with her hands, trying to block out the deafening silence. She curled closer to where Fang was resting, just to seek out the comfort of her presence. A deep buzzing sensation kept echoing around in her mind, but when she slowly leaned in to listen to the gentle pulse of Fang's throat, to the heartbeat that she knew could thrum so much louder, could beat with the fire of a mighty dragon, it was just enough to drown out almost anything else. She scarcely even realized that the sound was lulling her to sleep, for her own thoughts were still clashing and racing all around in her head, and her last waking notion was just a simple, tiny wish.

If the gods were truly still present, still a force within their world, even if it was true that their powers had waned, couldn't her own goddess lend her such aid when she really needed it? She wished for the same influence that had once driven her to drag Serah towards the safety within the sea, the same brave heart that beat so soundly in the sight of the rising waves, the same strength in her limbs when she had to struggle and swim for her life within the ocean storms, the very same one that had carried Serah towards the home of a follower of Etro's path, deep within the dark of night.

"You are vermin to them."

Lightning blinked from her place in the dream, and she realized that there was another figure there in the darkness, one who stood so tall beside her.

"Will you lay down and die?" Such cold eyes, they were so utterly frigid, sharp as a jagged length of glass. "They slay your very kin and you do nothing to retaliate? 'Tis nature of mice, girl, not a hunter."

"You... Aren't real." Lightning stood there within the darkness, in the very depths of her own dreaming mind. "You're a memory."

The old woman rapped her cane against the ground, even if there was no actual ground to speak of. "You call out for help and then spurn it as it is offered?"

"No-" Lightning's eyes began to flicker in realization. "I'm sorry."

"Apologies won't save your kin." The old woman narrowed her eyes at something that Lightning couldn't see. "But there is truth to what you say... I am only a memory."

"Am I just dreaming to myself?" Lightning peered around at the darkness. "There's nobody else here, is there?"

"You are only realizing what you already know." The old woman pulled her shawl down from atop her pale gray hair, revealing the face that looked so much like the gnarled knots of a tree, wrinkled and wise. "Perhaps you simply chose a memory you wish to emulate."

Lightning felt a slight bit of acceptance towards that statement, for it was true that she often tried to appear just as impassive and stalwart.

"You have a choice ahead of you... Two separate paths."

The translucent shade of an animal suddenly sauntered out from the shadows, baring her teeth at something else that Lightning couldn't see.

"Fight or flee? Run or protect?"

Lightning felt herself start to move, to walk along with the clawprints in the shadows, following them towards wherever they turned.

"Would you choose a life of stability if it meant your heart was never free?" The voice kept swirling all around her, shifting in with the echoes of the dream. "Or would you fight to save the ones you love, no matter the consequence?"

Lightning turned to search for the source of the voice, but there was nothing there that she could find, all except for that very same trail of prints from a wolf. And there, drifting right above a single knot of rope, she caught sight of the palest feather that she had ever seen.

* * *

In the following hours of the day, as Fang went about the early routines, she noticed that while the air of mourning still lingered in the people around her, there was also something that she couldn't quite pin down. A push for retaliation, perhaps? Many of the hunters looked far more agitated than sullen, at least from those who she could see from her seat in the dining hall. It also seemed that Noel hadn't yet returned from wherever he'd gone off to, and Fang almost found herself searching the crowd for Tipur himself, for they were never very far from each other during a phase of planning, before she realized how futile that was.

He'd likely bled out right where they left him, she knew that much, and even if the servants there were willing to try and revive him, there was still the matter of the guardsmen. And that wasn't to mention the actual deadliness of such a wound, a strike straight through the chest, so close to the heart itself. She knew that it had to be somewhat personal then, a stab in the back, more of a twisted public display than the mere removal of a threat, for the old man had left everyone else alive, likely intending for them to tell the tale.

And Fang knew very well that the air of doubt and fear could spread just as quickly as any disease, even among the steady minds of Etro's followers. The younger children in particular seemed so very confused, and they were glancing all around with hushed whispers and nervous fidgeting, as if something could happen at any moment.

Fang slowly closed her eyes, inwardly bracing herself for the rest of the day, but she looked out again when a gentle touch brushed against the bare skin of her hand.

 _You feel it too, don't you?_ Lightning looked straight ahead, but her inner voice spoke clearly between them. _I think we all do._

Fang let her eyes slip shut again. _Do you have a plan?_

Lightning's fingertips tightened slightly, squeezing the top of Fang's hand. _Not yet... Maybe. We talked strategy a few days ago, but the situation's changed a lot since then._

Fang nodded at nothing in particular. _The priority is that artifact, isn't it?_

 _Yes._ Lightning's grip tightened even further. _We might have to make this up as we go along, but we still have a few tricks up our sleeves.  
_  
Fang opened her eyes once more, and the very slightest of smiles crossed her lips.

* * *

Noel proved to be just as elusive as his title suggested, but they finally found him back out in the gardens during midday, resting beside the humble grave.

Lightning knelt down as well, and she waited in silence for a while. Fang moved to sit on a nearby bench, where she listened to the soft sounds of the leaves, to the sway of the tropical trees, even the gentle flutter of insects and hummingbirds, still so very active and alive.

"I met him in a village overseas." Noel was kneeling beside the stone marker, one that had been placed there later on, after they had all buried the mask. "He was right, you know... He was a coward, not even a real hunter, really, just someone who brought back game for his village." Noel leaned away, gazing up at the sky from between the fronds of the trees. "He seemed to be in it for the thrill, but the danger wasn't part of it."

Lightning nodded to herself. "There's a difference between those who hunt monsters and simple game."

"Yeah." Noel peered up at the flowering trees. "In that region, there was a pretty notorious wyvern known as 'Faeryl', a real firebrand of a wyrm... Caius brought me there with him to take it out, and that's when we met Tipur."

Lightning looked back down at the grave. "Did he have a change of heart?"

Noel nodded. "Some of his close friends had been killed by it... You could tell that he was fed up with the whole thing, and he insisted on following us out there to kill it." The cool ocean breeze made his short hair sweep gently to the side. "I guess Caius was impressed... We booked the trip back with Tipur, and had him initiated before we even hit shore again."

Lightning knew from Noel's tone that the two of them had grown rather close, and from her own memories of their teamwork, she knew it was likely a very strong friendship.

"When-" Noel tried to steel himself. "When Caius was gone, it was a lot like this." He gestured at the entire compound, from the housing spaces to the tall stone walls, to the training grounds and the sprawling gardens, but his meaning extended into the sudden silence that had spread itself out into almost everything. "We work with death... We live with death, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with."

Lightning waited for a long moment, before she began to speak in the most gentle voice she could muster. "You know we need to move past it... He said to make them pay."

"Oh, they're gonna pay." Noel's tone barely changed, but there was a certain spark in his eyes, gleaming beneath the sunlight. "I didn't avenge Caius for his own sake, but now that they have the artifact-" He suddenly rose to his feet. "...Teleportation is impossible."

Fang spoke up from where she was sitting nearby. "Sure is."

Noel's eyes narrowed at nothing in particular, as if he was scrutinizing something off in the distance. "Impossible... Galenth Dysley achieved the impossible." His hands slowly tightened into fists. "Then he's already figured it out."

Lightning stood up as well. "You think the crown can let him teleport?"

Noel's gaze slowly began to focus on his surroundings again, and he waved for them both to follow. "I can only hope that's all it can do..." He strode off towards the front buildings, the offices, still gesturing for them to walk with him. "We're talking about a relic of the gods, an artifact of untold capabilities." Noel soon approached the doorway of the tall clay building. "I think it's time to look further into what Caius left behind."

* * *

They found themselves within what looked like a small library, a room with many desks and public sitting areas. It was where Noel brought out a wide array of textbooks and scientific journals, some of which looked to be bound in rather unusual leather.

Lightning peered down at what seemed like the scales of a wyrm, and she nearly gave Fang an apologetic look, but she soon just opened up the book instead. There was little to be said about the introductory material, by which there was almost none of it; it was clearly a personal recollection of various artifacts and legends, even a few fabled creatures that were said to have once been crafted by the gods themselves.

A few of the other high-ranking infiltration specialists joined in with the research, many of which Fang recognized from back before they had donned their masks, searching the palaces with them on the previous day. She peered at how gloomy their eyes and faces appeared, somewhat sullen and drained, yet most of them moved right into the reading material without pause, clearly more than ready to avenge their fallen brother.

Lightning kept reading over the texts and gazing at various sketches, but it was only when she reached a relevant passage that she paused to read it over twice.

 _Our brothers to the north report that they've found a promising site, one that has no traces of the Order's presence. It's an ancient place, one that spans far beneath the earth, so deep that the walls are said to feel warm from the pressure of the earth, and what I can only assume is molten rock. It is impossible to tell at this point if such a site could truly hold one of Mwynn's crowns, but every other lead that we've tracked points to them being stored in a place of the gods themselves, perhaps even right under our noses, in the Temple of Etro... But that's merely speculation, and if such an artifact was truly so close, I daresay that our own eyes would have spotted it already._

 _The old texts are rather tedious and difficult to translate, but I believe that my work will be of some worth to whoever decides to read what I've written; the crowns must be secured, and if possible, destroyed, such is the will of the goddess herself, long decreed by the mandated balance._

Lightning glanced back up from the pages of the book, for she noticed that Noel was carrying in even more research materials to the library.

"Alright." Noel knelt down to set a stack of tomes and various scrolls against one of the low tables. "If Caius left anything useful in these... We're going to need every advantage we can get." He sat down on one of the nearby chairs, slowly leafing through one of the leather-bound books. "Let's see what we can find."

Lightning looked back at the pages of her own tome, and she soon found more information on the pursuits that Caius underwent to secure the crown.

 _My independent contact in the north, a local woman who I will henceforth refer to as 'Frost', in order to protect her identity, she has reported much push-back from the other locals of the territory, namely bandits and tribal nomads, and perhaps the various forms of wildlife. I've sent another missive to our brothers, but the last letter that I received from them brought grim tidings. It seems as if a certain section of the tunnel collapsed after their last venture, and the reliability of the structure itself has come into question._

 _Frost writes to me that she isn't fearful of the old caverns, but that they display unusual architecture, namely in the lower chambers. She claims that a local folktale tells of the crown being buried there, a heavenly shard of sunlight beneath the deep snow, but we are both aware that such things are often heavy with conjecture._

Lightning turned the page, and she noticed that there was a much later date at the top of the new paragraph.

 _We've found it, if such reports are to be taken at face value. A perfect ring of unworldly light, sighted from the depths of an ancient cavern, beneath the untapped rock and seemingly endless slopes of ice, if I might allow myself a moment to be poetic... Sadly, we have little time for trivialities. But I pray that we will soon be rid of this entire affair, goddess be willing._

 _I received another letter from Frost, one that she claims will be her last message to me. My brothers write that she disappeared into the north itself with an object from the ruins, not the crown, of course, but equally as troubling. They say that it was a bit of rubble from within the main room, a piece of unusual metal, something that should not have been disturbed, and that it was gone just as soon as she left without a word. There will be time later to concern ourselves with such things, and she likely won't stray far from her homeland, provided that she wasn't deceitful on such matters as well. She seemed knowledgeable when we first wrote to each other, merely a scholar at the right time and place, but it appears as if our trust was taken advantage of._

 _No matter. The crown will be carefully excavated and then eventually, perhaps over the years, or even as few as many months, transported here in utter secrecy; our cipher code is virtually unbreakable, and again, goddess willing, we will soon have this affair over and done with._

Lightning slowly turned the page, but she almost frowned when the next one was utterly blank, as well as the next, and then even the next. It would have been around the time when he stopped writing, she knew it from what Noel had said, yet it still made her mind feel just as empty as the page, no longer in the presence of recorded thought.

It was a brief while before Fang spoke up from the book she was reading. "I've heard of this expression, it's one of my favorites, but it's been a while..." She almost looked disappointed with herself for not fully remembering it. "Where did 'cutting the knot' come from, exactly?"

Noel smiled sadly at such a phrase. "There's an old legend, many variations on the same theme... But the basic tale is that there was once a massive length of rope, a cord that was tied down in such a way that it was seemingly impossible to untie." He held up his hands to show the looping design that it might have once had. "It held a great chariot in its grasp, and there were many who tried to claim such a prize, but none of them could figure out how to untie it." Noel's smile seemed to grow a bit warmer as he continued with the tale. "Surely you've heard of the great hero Alexander?"

Lightning thought back to the first horse that she had ever owned, the steed she was planning to officially give to Hope once he was older, perhaps when he became a bit more proficient with riding.

"Yeah." Fang leaned forward in her seat. "I think I can guess what he did."

Noel mimicked the strike of a sword with his fingertips. "He decided to just... Cut the knot."

Fang smiled at such cleverness. "Cheating, isn't it?"

Noel shrugged. "Is it cheating if there are no rules in the first place?"

Lightning spoke up. "Is that how you broke the cipher?" She tapped at the page of the book where Caius mentioned it. "Sounds like the only way to crack something like that is to translate it directly."

Noel glanced off into the distance again, before he slowly began to nod. "Caius left a lot of his belongings behind, for all of us... But the cipher itself was well-hidden."

Lightning reached out to place the book back down on one of the low tables. "If we're looking for information on the crown itself... Do you think Caius really would have written something like that down?"

One of the other hunters began to speak. "Perhaps, but Caius himself was a descendant of the Paddran lineage of monster slayers, a more secretive group than our own."

Noel nodded again. "Caius used to talk about their stories... The great culling of beasts." He reached out for another of the books. "He'd say that his heritage wasn't important anymore, but you could always tell just how different he really was... It's a diverse culture, for sure."

Fang turned back to her own book. "Looks like we have some digging to do."

"Yup." Noel slowly opened the tome that he had reached for. "Helps the urge to go running in there again, killing every damn Order solider you see..."

The response was quiet, a brief moment of somewhat understanding laughter, but the gathered hunters still remained somewhat silent.

"Busy work." Noel closed his eyes for just a moment or two. "Caius was always a big fan of busy work... He said it kept us all in balance."

* * *

It was only later on in the afternoon that they found something of greater promise, after a quick midday meal, of course. They had eaten it in the front offices, where a bit of a commotion actually occurred; one of the scouting parties returned with news for Noel's ears alone, and he left the compound shortly after, donning his mask with the promise that he would return as soon as he could. And what they found within those mountains of weight books and endless scrolls, it was a plain little historical document, though the contents themselves were anything but mundane. After Fang had read it twice to herself, she started to read the passage aloud.

 _Artifacts of the early ages are often quite misunderstood, and are easily taken at face value to be a source of great power, or even divine right, but most assumptions of that caliber lead only to misfortune. There is indeed a mighty strength within this world, in the lifeblood of the gods themselves, but such things can often be just as damaging to the wielder as they are to the target of influence, itself._

 _One will often hear local folktales in coastal cities and trade hubs, places of great exchange and the site of many actual historical objects, due to the great flux of currency transfer and passing hands. One such tale states that a great artifact was once given as a gift to a great king of eastern Gran Pulse, sparking a war that lasted for countless centuries, and eventually led to the destruction of the entire regional empire. It gave way to both disease and famine, to a mass exodus of millions, and to the deaths of far greater numbers._

 _It is often said that the Black Crown, that fabled gift given to the sun himself, Lord Bhunivelze, was used to manipulate the outcome of many battles and smaller skirmishes, leading to the eventual collapse of both mighty armies._

 _While there truly is no way to differentiate between historical fact and mere folklore, at least at such times, it is clear that the fall of an empire can be attributed to the influence of greed and the lust for such grand strength, even if the 'crown' itself could merely be a metaphor for the deadly power of human weaknesses._

And from her seat in the library, Fang cleared her throat, before she slowly closed the book. "So, if this thing really can change reality..."

One of the hunters spoke. "That was the Black Crown, it could be vastly different from the one we're after."

Fang nodded. "True... But if they're similar enough, then I'd bet we can assume that's about as much as what we're up against."

Lightning glanced at the sound of footsteps near the front of the library, before her eyes slightly widened at the sight of an entire regiment of robed hunters, led by none other than Noel himself.

He was still wearing his mask, the visage of the Shadow Hunter. "We have... A situation on our hands."

* * *

Lightning found herself perched atop the edge of a rooftop within the Warren outskirts. She peered down at the alleyway where her fellow hunters were standing guard, all circled around a single figure, a rather mighty man in polished armor. Noel was lingering back in the opposite street, saving his appearance for later on, for after his infiltration specialists had finished questioning the lone guardian of the Order, the esteemed Captain Aland, the very same guardsman who they had forced to retreat from the statue of Etro.

And from her own post atop the building, watching for any threats in the darkness of the evening, Lightning listened to the quiet conversation that went on from below, from the soft murmurs of the patrolling hunters to those who questioned the captain himself.

"I don't think I have to tell you that you'd be executed for this." It was someone who Lightning didn't recognize, a hunter who was quite a bit older than herself. "Why, then? What do you have to gain by telling us this? From such treason?"

The captain spoke from beneath his shining metal helm, though his words were just as clear as any other. "There is something truly rotten at the heart of this new movement... My duty is to protect Luxerion, and I am no turncoat!" He still stood so tall and proud, gazing straight into the eyes of the predatory masks. "And if Luxerion... If her own leaders have turned to witchcraft and murder, then there is a sickness here that we must all purge from the city itself."

Lightning's gaze flickered down to the way Noel approached from beyond the alley walls, and she listened to the sudden silence that filled the entire lonely street.

"Where is the crown?" Noel had his blade unsheathed, but he kept it low, a mere defensive measure, a symbol to show that his presence was no idle threat. "Tell us, and we'll help you destroy it."

"That is impossible." Captain Aland's voice grew just as sharp as the sword that Noel carried. "I myself haven't even seen it... It's too well-hidden to confiscate, and the way they speak about it, about what it can do-" He paused, gazing out at the dozens of armed hunters around him. "What it _did_ do, there is nothing of that nature that we can attempt without detection."

"Why are you here, then?" Noel circled around the captain, likely watching his every move from beneath the avian mask. "Why put yourself in danger for a futile cause?"

The captain's laugh echoed out from beneath his helmet, beneath the symbol of the 'Lion Guard', an affectionate moniker of the high guard, visible by the checkered crest beneath the thick golden plume of his helmet. "I am in little danger from you, 'Shadow Hunter'... You think that I do not understand your unwillingness to kill?"

Lightning watched the way Noel didn't even pause, still circling like a wolf beside a cornered, yet steadfast stag.

"You've mistaken our restraint for unwillingness." Noel's voice began to take on a darker quality, a tone of thinly-veiled anger and unrest. "Our goddess might not promote the death of humans... But if they were to upset the balance in such a way, we have _free-reign_."

The captain didn't budge an inch, no matter how many times Noel slowly circled him. "I came here to invoke the old covenant."

Noel's blade hovered in the air beside him. "The damn covenant was broken _years_ ago, before either of us were born... When our people were slain in the streets." His voice grew sharper and sharper. "When the Order decided their own word was worth less than sewage."

"The Order of Salvation is a collective, not an individual." Captain Aland still kept himself motionless, but he did slowly tip his chin when Noel finally paused before him, standing face to face. "I serve only Luxerion... And if the Order is a threat to Luxerion, I think you can see how that would become a conflict of interest."

Noel took a long moment to think over such things. "Then what do you suggest?"

"An alliance." The captain's armor glinted when he took a single pace forward. "The old covenant of the gods, the four houses, Lindzei and Pulse, of Etro and Bhunivelze... Forged together again by the threat to our own very city."

Noel's voice almost sounded uncertain. "Lindzei and Pulse? Their churches aren't militaristic."

"They still hold the faith." Captain Aland gestured at the city around them. "A battle may be won by soldiers, but a war... The war is won by minds and numbers, by strategy."

"It's war, then..." Noel's grip tightened against the handle of his sword. "Then I have one more question for you."

The captain waited expectantly.

"What exactly is going to happen on the solstice?" Noel slowly gestured up at the sky. "What does the old man have planned? Why did he 'invite' us there?"

And in the dusky light of the evening, within the cold air of the rolling ocean, Captain Aland slowly bowed his head.

* * *

It was hours after the meeting in the streets, far later that Lightning found herself eating a quick dinner in the dining hall, but she paused when a certain voice caught her attention, only a whisper.

"Hey."

Lightning looked back over her shoulder. "Beryl."

She stood there, still in her mask, for it seemed as if she was rather loathe to ever be without it. "Word travels fast... Have you spoken to Noel?"

Lightning glanced around at the people eating their meals at her own table, as well as Fang, who pretended not to notice that she hadn't quite been invited to the current conversation. "No, you know how things have been."

"And you don't think that this is the most perfect time?" Beryl's mask hid the fact that her gaze was darting around at the people beside them. "Ah... Just meet me in the same place in the gardens, after dinner."

Fang looked back over her shoulder with a rather nonplussed look on her face. "Am I invited to the party?"

Beryl started to wander away. "...Only if you bring refreshments."

And after a moment or two, Fang just chuckled low in her throat, before she turned back towards her own plate of dinner. "I feel so _loved_."

Lightning bit back a smile. "I think you've already got enough love to go around."

And from beneath the table, Fang moved to squeeze Lightning's hand, just for the comfort it might bring, before she slowly went back to her meal.

* * *

It was later in the evening, when Fang and Lightning were both waiting there in the gardens, it was then that Beryl appeared, though she seemed to be coaxing someone else along with her.

"Okay... You want to tell me what this is about?" Noel looked at the three of them without his mask, and he almost seemed confused by the fact that Beryl was wearing her own. "Not to be rude, I'm just a little busy with preparations..."

"You'll have something else to factor in, now." Beryl moved to sit down against one of the smooth stone benches. "We have a certain trick up our sleeves that we want to share with you."

Lightning waited for Noel to sit down as well. "Beryl's shown us a... Secret weapon."

"A secret weapon?" Noel slowly reached up to massage his forehead, as if a rather stubborn headache was bothering him. "Again, not to be blunt, but could we cut to the chase? I've been looking over what this ceremony could possibly mean-"

"Cut to the chase, I can do that." Beryl cleared her throat. "The three of us can attest to the fact that the catacombs of Luxerion hold an incredible amount of ghostly presences, the likes of which can become corporeal, just as long as the spirit of Luxerion itself can be given enough strength to manifest."

Noel blinked once, and then twice, before he slowly released a sigh, and leaned back against the bench. "You're always too fast for me, Beryl."

Lightning spoke up again. "Long story short, we have an entire army... Just as long as we can give it enough willpower to fight." She stood up from the bench that she had been resting against. "Beryl, have you spoken with the other mages?"

Beryl nodded. "We can all agree that the scientific facts are basically unknown at this day and age, but I've shown them the spirit itself... We'll be able to summon it for just as much strength as we put in." She paused for a moment, before she turned to face Lightning herself. "You've met Holly, haven't you? She was actually able to fortify it even further by means of a reinforcement spell."

Noel spoke again. "So, they're phantoms..? Even corporeally, you think they can fight for us?"

"They're _warriors_." Beryl stood up as well. "They're the ancient ones who once fought for their city, all those years ago... We can harness that power for the good of Luxerion itself."

Noel took a few more moments to think. "Alright... I believe you, Beryl, but I'll still need to see this for myself before taking it to heart."

Beryl sounded as if she was trying not to hiss in frustration. "I brought the two of them there to see it, I thought they would be enough to vouch..."

Noel shook his head. "It's not about that." He rose back up to his feet as well. "I have a responsibility to everyone here, you know that; I can't incorporate numbers into our plans unless I've seen them for myself."

"...Alright." Beryl started off into the gardens again, quietly muttering under her breath. "I'll get the incense ready again, we can go tomorrow when it's light out."

And Noel just stood there for a while, waiting beside Fang and Lightning, before he slowly turned to face them. "She's... Always been a bit eccentric, but her heart's in the right place." He glanced over at Lightning in particular. "She doesn't always hunt like us, but the charms work for her whenever she gets her hands on a material sample."

"She doesn't hunt..?" Lightning glanced down at the leather wristband with her own charms. "She seemed pretty keen on knowing if I was trustworthy or not."

"She does hunt, it's just more of a supporting role." Noel peered up at the city walls, and at the first few hints of starlight, faintly glimmering out there in the darkness. "Mages often aren't as physically resilient as those who live by the sword... I suppose that makes you an even rarer case, Fang."

Fang looked up from where she was still lounging against a garden bench. "I think it depends on physical discipline."

"That's probably true." Noel turned back to face the main offices. "And to be honest, this was a welcome break from the sort of stuff I've been dealing with... You remember the man I told you about, on cleaning day?"

Lightning thought back to the robed figure who she had seen in the front gardens, the man who'd been kneeling and praying to the small statue of Etro. "What's happened to him?"

Noel started to grit his teeth, before he motioned for them both to follow. "It's more complicated than we first thought."

* * *

The main offices were rather plain and orderly, compromised of wooden desks and cushioned chairs for various meetings, and it was in a rather small corner of the room that Noel sat down again, facing the man who held a single silver charm within his grasp.

"Are you ready to tell us what happened?" Noel spoke rather quietly, just enough for Fang and Lightning to hear from across the room. "The priory, what happened back there?"

The man began to speak in a low tone, somewhat ragged and hoarse. "Our contact... He said the deal was finished."

Noel leaned forward in his chair. "And do you know why he said that?"

"It was getting 'risky'." The robed man looked down at his feet, facing anywhere else but Noel. "I told him to grow a pair and tough it out for us... That cutting ties would only mean he was alone in there, no one to back him up."

"But he's not one of us." Noel gestured at the room around them. "The people here, they're _us_... You can't just take your frustration out on someone like that."

"He said it was _ending_ , I already told you..." The man shook his head back and forth. "They all had this look in their eyes, like they were _mad_." His fingertips tightened even further against the charm, almost to the point of activating it. "I've made my peace with Etro, and I know it was wrong, but I had to try and knock some sense into him... Before he did something he'd regret."

Noel narrowed his eyes at such a statement. "What were they going to do, exactly?"

"I don't know exactly, he just kept saying his own life wasn't important anymore, that they would all cleanse themselves 'in service of Bhunivelze'..." The hunter slowly leaned away, still gripping the charm in his hands. "That when the sun god finally rose up to the very height of the sky, and when the moon was absent from the night... They would all give up their lives and grow pure of the darkness." He suddenly peered right at Noel. "So yeah, I knocked his goddamn teeth in... Gave him something to actually _think_ about." That same fire that burned in all of them, it flared so brightly in the eyes of the disgraced hunter. "Kicked him in the ribs, tried to set his mind straight... Maybe it worked, maybe it didn't."

Noel slowly shook his head. "You should have told us this right away."

"Would you have listened?" The hunter leaned forward in his chair. "Shadow Hunter, _Shadow_ Hunter... They don't call you that because you hunt shadows." He grinned to himself, almost crazed upon the knowledge that he held on to, clutching it just as tightly as the charm. "We're all in for it, aren't we? They've got that damn thing you were hunting for, enough for you to go and do _exactly_ what I did..."

"You did so under a different context." Noel narrowed his eyes again. "You drew the blood of an innocent."

The hunter kept silent for a long moment, before he spoke in a softer, more solemn tone than before. "I doubt any of us will be so innocent for much longer."

* * *

The solstice grew even nearer on the next day, and the scouting patrols brought news of great preparations within the public quarters, of banquet tables and a mighty amount of luxurious goods, of wine casks and foreign delicacies that had been brought in by freight ships, one of which Lightning soon caught sight of, herself.

She stood there, watching the clear water of the canal as it started to ripple beneath the weight of the massive barge, and she slowly pulled at her hood, drawing it closer towards her eyes.

Fang whistled from where she was wandering out through the crowded street. "One heck of a party favor..."

Lightning tried to swallow away the apprehension that had been building itself up ever since she learned of such things, and she put on the strongest face that she could muster. "Look at the name on the crates."

"Yusnaan." Fang nodded at the massive freight ship. "Makes sense to bring it in locally... That much stuff would probably spoil overseas or cost a fortune in cooling magic."

"We should get back to the others." Lightning looked around for a familiar face in the crowd, and when she caught sight of Holly, she started to walk forward again. "If there's work to be done..."

Fang followed on after her. "How many days was it until the solstice?"

"Two." Lightning tried to steel herself again. "Including today."

Fang took a very deep breath of the ocean breeze. "Then we'd better get a move on."

Their own patrol was assigned to the process of bringing in reinforcements, and while their peers were sent out to approach the various local churches of the gods of earth and sea, Fang and Lightning found themselves traveling away from Luxerion itself, in search of help from Poltae and other such settlements.

Lightning peered out over the familiar forest path, no longer feeling the same sort of clinginess that Fang always seemed to have on horseback, though the trip itself felt much faster than before.

They approached the wide fields of wheat and tropical vegetables, following on after a few other riders, Holly included, who seemed to have taken the very forefront of intelligence operations in place of Tipur.

"Hold, there." Holly herself called out from horseback to one of the distant workers in the fields. "Do you know where the professor is?"

The farmhand waved at them all, before he gestured at the village itself.

"Good..." Holly urged her horse forward again. "We won't have to look very far; he often wanders away from home, poking around the ruins or whatever else he can find in the crags."

Fang spoke from atop her own horse, one of the calmer steeds, perfect for an inexperienced rider. "He's not in charge of the hunters here, is he?"

Holly shook her head. "No, but he organizes the day to day operations... He's the man to inform when we need reinforcements for Luxerion."

Lightning peered out at the dusty little village, still so lively and welcoming, but she soon turned her own horse towards the empty fields beside the cropland, for she knew that she was only there to help stand watch, to protect her fellows.

Fang soon approached her on the back of her own horse. They waited there in silence for a long moment, just letting the pair of steeds graze at the wild grasslands.

"You once said you wanted to take me to Yusnaan, didn't you? That it would blow my mind?" Lightning stared at the distant forest. "But we're not going there for fun."

"Maybe someday." Fang reached out to pat the shoulders of the horse she was riding. "I think we've already had enough on our minds, lately..."

"We're going to fight them." Lightning narrowed her eyes at the open air, at the way the sun was approaching the very heights of the deep blue sky. "Nobody says it out loud, but this war of ours... We should really get in some sparring practice tomorrow."

"I'm sure we can use the training equipment." Fang lowered her voice to a soft murmur. "And who knows, a thing like this could really help with the other 'war' we're waging."

Lightning let her horse walk forward to graze at a patch of wild clover. "Do you always look on the bright side of things?"

"I look on the real side." Fang's mind wandered back to the promise they had once made, the journey to rescue Vanille, and while she had harbored her own doubts about such a detour, the possibility that there was a fal'Cie in Luxerion, one who she could both eliminate and possibly _learn_ from, that was enough to erase any reluctance. "A week or so, maybe even more than that, it doesn't matter... All that matters is that we learn about this threat, or that we walk away from the place knowing more about how to get Vanille out of there."

Lightning felt a flicker of guilt cross her mind. "I wish we already had our answers for her."

"Hey, don't you worry." Fang gestured for her horse to ride up beside Lightning's own steed. "We'll have plenty of time to spoil Vanille once this is over... Maybe we can even all take a trip to Yusnaan."

Lightning tried not to let herself smile, though she knew that Fang had caught it anyway. "Sure... Just as soon as they've got monsters to slay."

* * *

Later in the afternoon, they approached the wide gates on horseback, gazing out at the sights and sounds of the city of earthly indulgence, a haven for those who sought the finer things in life. Fang pointed out the various quarters as they rode through the main promenade of Yusnaan, the places dedicated for different types of both work and play alike, from grand banquet halls to shops and entertainment centers, even towards the gladiatorial arenas, which was actually where Holly began to lead their little group.

"Now, this..." Holly squinted at the distant structure, one that looked rather like a raised amphitheater from ancient times. "It's affectionately known as the 'Slaughterhouse'."

Fang thought back to the times when she and Vanille had visited Yusnaan, and while the more violent sorts of entertainment were always a bit much for Vanille herself, neither of them couldn't deny the artful sort of grace that went into the ancient sport of combat.

"You won't find a tougher bunch of gladiators anywhere..." Holly rode up along the path that led towards the front outposts, where she began to approach a certain wide window in the main building, one that had quite a large number of people loitering outside of it. "But the thing is, this group, they're all like us."

"Really?" Lightning watched a brief scuffle between two of the raucously laughing men, those who looked a bit flushed, likely from some form of alcohol on the nearby tables. "Then they know how to fight..."

Holly dismounted and unsheathed her staff, using it as a walking stick as she approached the open window. "You louts awake in there, or what?!"

Lightning couldn't ever remember hearing a stronger chorus of voices, and she almost blinked in surprise when another woman suddenly sidled right out from the window to gently cuff at Holly's shoulder, calling out her greeting in a rather brash, rowdy sort of way.

"And where the hell have you been, girl?" The woman knocked the end of Holly's staff with her knuckles. "No fun out there in Luxerion, I've told you a million times..."

It was one of the first times that Lightning had ever seen Holly smile, and the long scar on her chin, likely from some form of hunting, was all the more prominent when she did so.

"You... Haven't heard, then?" Holly's face still flickered with the sadness of such recent events. "The solstice, something _huge_ is going down, Zoe; we're in need of all the help we can get."

The brash woman, Zoe, she immediately clapped Holly's shoulder. "Well... If we're what you need, count us in."

"Thank you." Holly turned back to glance at her fellow hunters, those who were still waiting there on horseback. "I feel as if you should hear this in person..." Her smile swiftly fell away, and she looked back at the expectant faces of her friends. "Tipur, he's been-"

The group of gladiators went absolutely silent at her words, and it almost felt like more than a few minutes had passed by, before Zoe reached out to squeeze Holly's shoulder.

"His last wish." Holly's voice went very quiet. "He wanted us to make them pay."

And as the day stretched on into the early evening, their own group of hunters joined with a small army of at least three dozen armored gladiators, all with a multitude of weapons sheathed upon their backs, riding on out towards Luxerion.

* * *

Night fell with the sounds of the distant ocean, and Fang waited long into the darkness, sitting near a window that faced the vibrant gardens. The bunkroom was much more lively with the new additions from both Poltae and the other villages of the Wildlands, along with those from Yusnaan; Holly had spoken of a missive being sent to the desert towns beyond the mountains, but it was unlikely that their allies of the Dead Dunes could arrive in time to lend their aid. And of the assembled reinforcements, the gladiators were definitely the most boisterous of the bunch, but they were still rather easy to get along with. Fang had spoken to many of them about current events on the way back towards Luxerion, as well as what had been going on within Yusnaan itself, and she wasn't quite sure whether to feel relived or not at the news that nothing much there had changed.

With a scattered mind, Fang peered up at the stars above the buildings of the compound, gazing at the shadows of the night, before she closed her eyes at a gentle touch between her shoulder blades.

"We should get some rest." Lightning moved to stand beside the window as well. "They've been talking about practice, tomorrow... We'll need all of our strength."

Fang hummed quietly in agreement.

"I don't usually feel nervous about things like this." Lightning's words were just as steady as they ever were, but she spoke very quietly, just enough for Fang to hear. "But... Suppressing fear isn't really the same as it not being there in the first place."

"Everyone has their fears." Fang slowly opened her eyes to peer at Lightning's face, at the soft curves of her chin and cheekbones, and then at her eyes, still just as fierce as always. "We're in this together, Light."

Lightning looked out at the shadows in the garden, and at the faint sliver of moonlight, growing ever more distant with each passing day. "What are you afraid of?"

Fang didn't need to think about it, but she paused for a moment, regardless. "Losing the ones I love... Failure."

Lightning slowly leaned her arms against the windowsill. "Are you ever afraid of yourself?" She watched how her own reflection looked upon the translucent glass, the pale color of her skin and the slightly darker shade of her hair, even the cool blue tone of her irises. "Of what you might be capable of?"

Fang blinked once, before she slowly closed her eyes. "All the time."

* * *

In the darkness of another dream, those hoofbeats echoed into her mind yet again, and the sounds of wind brushed up against her ears, before she took a moment to look back over her shoulder.

There it was, a village with the people who spoke of a falling star, of a meteor from far beyond the world they knew, a streak of brilliant fire in the night. When Lightning learned of such things, it was incredibly difficult to convince her into waiting around to trade their horse for a more reliable steed, but Fang managed to do so a brief amount of time, even if it cost her a bit of her own money.

And there they were, riding off in search of the blinking signal, the beacon that Lightning said would lead them to one of her friends. The horse they rode on was a bit smaller than the buckskin who'd been slain, but it was of a sturdier breed, one who could navigate harsher terrain if such things were needed.

Fang peered at the way Lightning rode in front of her, still sitting sidesaddle. The pallor of her limbs was much less noticeable from how it had looked over the past weeks, no longer so feeble from her time within the fire.

"We should reach it soon, shouldn't we?" Fang tugged at the reins to guide the horse closer towards the signal. "Does that thing say how far it is?"

Lightning looked down at the metal device in her hands. "Won't be long."

"That's good." Fang almost smiled when Lightning tried to relax, to not fidget in anticipation. "You think it's Serah, out there?"

Lightning shrugged. "Could be anyone. It doesn't track names or numbers." She tapped at the edge of the device. "We were... Tied like rope, all of the crystals." Lightning pointed at the weapon on her belt. "Invisible things, hard to translate."

Fang nodded. "Okay." She kept quiet for a long while, listening to the sound of the wind in the hills, to the way the horse's hooves climbed so high across the earthen terrain, before her heart suddenly fluttered when Lightning leaned even further against her. "You alright?"

Lightning nodded. "Just tired."

"...I know." Fang tried to make her voice sound as gentle as she could. "It's been a long trip."

"I keep thinking about home." Lightning stared at the tall grass in the rolling fields, at the color of the sky, and she slowly closed her eyes. "It's not there anymore, but I can't stop thinking."

Fang moved one of her arms in a makeshift hug, praying that Lightning wouldn't mind it, and that the gesture might bring her some form of comfort.

"We had to move when we were young." Lightning opened her eyes again, before she carefully brushed her fingertips against Fang's arm, against where it was resting beside her waist. "When we were alone..." She looked back at Fang, who was sitting just a bit taller on her part of the saddle. "We could move again."

"Well... You know what they say about home." Fang hugged Lightning for a moment longer, before she moved back to hold the reins. "It's not always a place, it's the people in it."

They both kept quiet for a while, riding across the endless plains, before a certain plume of vapor off in the distance, a streak of billowing smoke, it suddenly caught Fang's attention.

"Light..." Fang glanced down at the tracking device, still blinking as steadily as before. "You think that's it?"

But Lightning was already moving away from the saddle, even when Fang spoke out in protest; she merely stepped down towards the earth and started off into the plains, before she tossed the device up into the air, and then swiftly caught it again in her talons.

Fang urged the horse to run after her, following on after the rising falcon, beneath the wings that flapped just strongly enough to keep her aloft for a while, at least for the time being.

"Lightning!" Fang rode up in a gallop, trailing on beneath the shadow that Lightning cast, the sharp outline of a predatory bird. "You sure you can handle this?"

Those speckled wings still weren't quite as powerful as they once looked, but Lightning merely called back to Fang, still flying within the warm winds of the grassland.

"No convincing you otherwise, eh?" Fang gently pressed her heels against the horse's sides, spurring it into an even quicker pace, until a certain shape became visible on the horizon. "Not when there's something like that out there..."

Lightning soon called out again, carrying the device between her talons, before she tucked in her wings to dive down, where the wind rushed so very quickly against her feathers, so swift within the air, and it was only a matter of moments before she landed once again.

Fang reined in the horse, peering up at the humanoid figure who appeared where a falcon once stood, far up atop a massive chunk of crystal. She watched the way that Lightning summoned a brief spark of electricity, the only signal that the craft truly needed, before a hiss of compressed air began to leak out from a previously invisible hatch in the escape pod.

"Look." Lightning jumped down from the edge to point at what looked like merely a natural design within the crystal, but upon closer examination, it became clear that it was some sort of runic language, almost like the sharp lines of talon marks. "Hope."

Fang started to dismount from the saddle, and she led the horse over with her, gazing down at the marks in the crystal. "Yeah, it looks almost exactly like the one I found you in."

Lightning shook her head. "Hope... The numbers, that's who they mean."

Fang paused, before she glanced up at the slowly moving crystal, seemingly activated by the energy that Lightning had summoned. "What do you mean?"

Lightning had a rather odd look on her face for a moment, before she pointed back at Fang. "You have teeth, but you're not a fang... And I can make lightning, but that's not what I am."

Fang tried her very best not to look confused.

Lightning pointed at the marks again. "Hope, his _name_."

"Oh." Fang almost wanted to laugh at herself, but she merely watched the way that Lightning moved back up to make sure the crystal was opening properly, listening to the sharp hiss of air and the sudden glow from deep within it, before she caught sight of the sleeping form inside. Lightning gently knelt down, lifting what looked like a child into her arms, but when Fang took a closer look at him, he seemed to be somewhere more in his teens, perhaps a bit younger than Vanille.

Lightning suddenly spoke in her own language, carrying the young man down from the crystal surface, before she helped him sit up within the haze of reawakening. And he soon spoke the same language as well, a bit slurred and slightly hoarse, before his eyes suddenly widened at the sight of the world around him.

"Well then..." Fang glanced at one of the saddlebags near the upper flank of the horse. "Don't want him getting that stuff started in his lungs, do you?"

Lightning spoke again, and it sounded as if she was trying her best to sound soothing, before she stood up to retrieve the small medical box from the saddlebags. And within the realm of a dream, even if her past life didn't understand it, Fang slowly began to hear their words for what they truly were.

"No, I have no idea where it is." Lightning carried the box over to where Hope was sitting. "I think the guidance system just detected that this place had oxygen and decided to dump us here... I'll need to check if your tether was still operational at that point; I could have been sitting out there for days, maybe weeks, the awakening protocol didn't activate on its own... It's probably only a matter of time before the others start showing up."

Hope's ears, which were just as feathered and pointy as Lightning's, they slowly drooped against his pale silver hair. "Light... How long were we in stasis?"

Lightning almost seemed to pause in place, holding a small patch of gauze between her fingertips. "My craft was damaged, I couldn't check the deployment gauge."

Hope nearly winced at the sight of a syringe. "What's that for..?"

"So you won't end up like I did." Lightning copied the way that she had seen Fang take out the medicine, only she drew out a dose of the same antibiotic medication that she had first taken in the clinic, instead of any vaccine. "There are things in the air here, germs our bodies can't fight back against... I had to burn it out of me."

If Hope's eyes hadn't been quite misty before, they slowly began to well up with unshed tears, but he held them back, even when Lightning swiped the gauze that held the antibacterial liquid against his upper arm.

"It's okay." Lightning's voice went rather soft again. "Just a pinch... Be brave for me, okay?"

Hope nodded, yet he didn't make a sound when Lightning injected the first dose of medication, likely halting an infection before it could even begin.

"This is Fang." Lightning nodded at her while cleaning off the syringe. "She's... Not to be judgmental, but the place looked pretty primitive."

Hope glanced up at Fang, though he was still a bit wobbly and disoriented from being woken out of stasis, and he didn't speak again for a very long while. "She's friendly?"

"Yeah, don't mind the teeth." Lightning looked over at the items in question, the hunting trophies that dangled from the neckline of Fang's shirt, and even the jewelry at her throat. "They have some of the same words that we do, as weird as it sounds."

Hope glanced at the tiny bandage that Lightning had started to place on his upper arm. "That _is_ weird..."

"I've stopped worrying about it." Lightning looked down at Hope from where she was kneeling beside him, before she gently ruffled his hair. "We have to find the others."

"Let me just check the tether-" Hope tried to stand up, but the dizziness still made him stumble a bit, at least until Lightning caught one of his elbows, holding him upright. "Thanks, Light."

"No problem, kid... I'll check it for you." Lightning helped him over towards where Fang was sitting in the grass, before she switched over to the other language, the one that she was still learning. "Fang, this is Hope."

Fang waved at him with her fingertips, and she almost chuckled at the sheer look of apprehension on Hope's face. "Hey, kiddo."

His face went rather blank at the foreign words, but he settled there quickly enough, waiting for Lightning to inspect the inner mechanisms of the crystal spacecraft.

"Is he your brother or something?" Fang peered at the way that Lightning was clambering up towards the hatch of the craft itself. "You look a little young for kids."

Lightning paused to narrow her eyes at Fang, for even with her basic knowledge of the language, she knew what those words meant. "He's not my kid... I don't have kids."

"Just checking." Fang looked back to watch the way that Hope was staring in awe of the saddled horse. "A brother, then?"

"No." Lightning started to rummage through the inner chamber of the device, sending streaks of electricity into the various translucent mechanisms, testing for something inside. "Not exactly... Not by blood."

"Ah." Fang reached into her satchel for something that she had been saving for herself, but it seemed like the perfect time to share it. "Like me and Vanille?"

Hope looked at the object that Fang offered him, a bit of soft material that was wrapped up in wax paper, and he slowly accepted it from her hand.

"Yeah." Lightning soon moved back from the hatch of the massive crystal. "Like you and Vanille."

Hope spoke again, the same language as before. "What did she give me?"

"It's something sweet, like candy." Lightning soon sat down beside the two of them, resting there in the grass. "To be honest, I usually only understand about half of what she says... She's been very helpful, though."

"Okay." Hope sounded more than a little winded, but he started to open the wrapper and take a taste, just to be polite. "It all just feels so distant..."

"I know." Lightning spoke very softly again. "But you're not alone, okay?"

Hope tried to keep his eyes from going misty again, and he silently nodded at her.

"Just wait until you fly here." Lightning reached over to briefly hug Hope's shoulders. "It's like nothing back home... This place is incredible."

And Fang remembered the slow retreat from the fallen crystal, how Hope walked along at Lightning's side, not quite acclimated enough to try riding horseback, but it took only a few hours for him to try flying, as Lightning had suggested. And as Fang watched them both climb into the afternoon sky, she felt a familiar weight settling upon her shoulder, the presence of her own feathered companion.

Hope's birdlike form was far smaller than Lightning's, and his features were more reminiscent of a sparrowhawk than any type of falcon. While his own flight was still unsteady, it was just stable enough to keep up with Lightning, following her off into the air.

As Fang watched them dance through the sky, waiting with Bahamut on her shoulder, she gradually started to smile. Lightning still flapped a bit slower than she had once done those many days ago, likely not strong enough to beat her wings quite as rapidly, and she soon returned to the earth again, though not without a bright air of satisfaction about her.

"Had a good time?" Fang rode on up from the back of the horse, and she smiled again when Lightning changed forms, reappearing as a human again. "We should find somewhere to rest until that little tracker of yours starts blinking again."

Lightning nodded, and she glanced back up at Hope, who quickly copied her descent. "We're going to find them, aren't we?"

Fang gently tugged on the reins, before she felt Bahamut flap away from her with a flurry of sound. "I think so."

A strange sort of look crossed Lightning's gaze, and she turned to gesture towards Hope, signaling for him to stay in flight. "Then let's go."

Fang reached down to help Lightning climb up towards the saddle, before she gently urged the horse forward again, riding off beneath the shadows of a flying pair.

Lightning leaned her cheek against Fang's shoulder again. "Thank you."

"It's no problem." Fang looked up at Bahamut, who had almost as large a wingspan as Hope's, but not by much. "It's my job back at home to keep people safe... I guess you'd fall into that category, crashing on our land, and all."

Lightning watched as the shadows drifted all around them, and even though she knew that Hope had the sense to follow them, she couldn't help but signal at him again.

"And we'll both keep kiddo safe, okay?" Fang guided the horse back down across the rocky plains, through the wild fields of grass and faintly scattered flowers. "We've got more than enough here to keep him from getting sick."

Lightning nodded. "He's tougher than he looks... And I don't usually like kids." She closed her eyes for a while. "But he's almost like a little brother."

"You're getting good at this, Light." Fang peered out over the horizon, at the first few hints of a distant road. "You know how much those books have helped?"

Lightning opened her eyes again, trying to keep herself from looking too tired due to flying around. "You're a good teacher."

"Hey, don't make me blush..." Fang smirked to herself. "But it might get tougher from here on out; not everyone here speaks this language."

Lightning fought back a sigh. "I think I'll stick with this one."

Fang smiled again, grinning against the gentle wind. "You do that, Light... I'll translate for you."

They rode on throughout the daylight hours, across the plains, but it was after a short time that Hope tried to land upon the saddle of the horse, and he soon managed to perch himself there atop the cantle, the part that rose up behind the main seat.

Lightning looked back at him, speaking in a soft tone again. "Are you feeling okay?"

Hope nodded, still in the form of a rather large hawk, before he slowly closed his eyes to rest.

* * *

She could feel it blooming around her like the steady tap of raindrops, silent and yet so loud at all the same time. It was a storm without such rain or thunder, whirling and moving around without pause, like a whirlwind of formless waves.

There were others, so many that she had never seen before, so many minds, all called there by something that waited in the darkness, within a realm unseen. She walked beside those who moved near to her, a lone solider in the line, yet they still moved more like the droplets of falling water than any true procession.

Maybe it was all just in her head, a mind bearing the weight of so many things, too many for her to properly take in. Perhaps it had grown to be so much that she had to deflect them, to let them wash off of her skin like the rain, like the flecks of seawater that shone brightly beneath the moonlight. She could see those eyes in the dark, glittering there beside her own, fellow hunters, her faithful kin. For what felt like the first time that night, she slowly felt herself start to grow at ease, trusting in the bonds of her brethren.

It felt like a second heartbeat inside of her own, such a thrumming, stable rhythm. The waves of the ocean kept lapping there at the shore, at the sandy expanse of the dream, and she opened her eyes just in time to see the algae begin to glimmer.

A white circle appeared there within the darkness, directly above, and Lightning felt herself look up with so many others at her side, gazing back at it without fear.

* * *

The morning dawned without more than a slight twinge of excitement, but when the breakfast hours drew to a close, the training yard became louder than it had likely ever been before.

There were those of the forest settlements, firing arrows with pinpoint precision at the targets of the archery range, while over in the sparring pits, gladiators of all kinds began to test their mettle against their siblings of Luxerion and the wilderness alike, bringing just a bit of levity to the fog of anticipation within the compound.

Lightning found herself focusing a certain match, a duel between the woman who seemed to be a leader of sorts among the gladiators, Zoe, and a tall figure in full armor, wielding a rather massive, yet padded hammer, meant for non-lethal practice. And as it progressed with graceful leaps and the crash of blunted weapons, she knew it was truly a dance of sorts, a balance between each savage strike and parry, of each clashing sound of the training weapons, nearly as loud as steel itself.

But then, a certain voice piped up from somewhere behind her. "Are you gonna get in the ring, too?"

Lightning looked back over her shoulder, and she quickly recognized the young girl from a few days before, Sibyl. "Yeah, just as soon as there's an open spot."

Sibyl soon knelt down next to the sparring arena. "I wish they'd let me try it." She watched the mighty swings of the padded hammer, and her eyes widened when the swift blow of a blunted glaive sent the strike off course, but only by mere inches. "I only get to train with wooden weapons, and that's whenever someone can put up with a kid like me."

"Just be patient." Lightning glanced over at where Fang was examining some of the training equipment. "Combat is nothing to rush right into... You have to start with the basics."

Sibyl tried to keep herself from fidgeting. "I already know the basics; they just say I'm too young to do any more."

Lightning took a very deep breath, for she knew that the effects of impatient children always grew much too tiresome upon her nerves, but a certain idea crossed her mind, something that likely wouldn't get either of them in trouble. "Then you can show me the basics."

Sibyl's eyes widened slightly. "Really..? You're just teasing me."

"I don't tease." Lightning turned away from the sparring ring. "Get two of those swords, the wrapped wooden ones."

Sibyl scurried off without delay, and she soon followed after Lightning towards one of the empty parts of the training yard, where she offered her one of the blunt wooden swords.

"Better balanced than I'd expect..." Lightning tested the way the weapon weighed against her wrist, and she slowly eased herself down into the basic motions of combat, the stance of her legs and waist, the way she moved her arms to anticipate whatever the next approaching action would be. "Alright, take your best shot."

Sibyl went a little bit pale. "Serious?"

Lightning nodded without saying a word.

"Um..." Sibyl tried not let out a nervous laugh. "You sure?"

"Don't hesitate." Lightning's eyes went a bit sharper than before. "You hesitate in a real fight, and you die... Simple as that."

"Okay." Sibyl adjusted her grip on the wooden sword, before she also lowered herself into a combat stance, readying herself to find an opening in Lightning's own form of standing. "They said you're a master."

Lightning suddenly leaned to the side from a forward swipe by her opponent, gazing out with a bright glint in her eyes. "Only because I was taught by a master." And she struck true to her namesake, crashing back against the wooden sword with her own training blade, a steady blow that brought the handle right out from Sibyl's grip. "Pick it up."

Sibyl tried not to let herself look too embarrassed, and she knelt down to retrieve her sword from the ground. "That's never happened before..."

"Because they've gone easy on you." Lightning circled back around, keeping her weapon at the ready. "To tell you the truth, I don't agree with every method they use here... If you want to learn how to defend yourself, a real threat isn't going to hold back." She paused, waiting there with her sword held towards the front. "Do it again."

Sibyl took a very deep breath, steadying herself, before she lunged back out with her practice sword, briefly striking at the exposed part of Lightning's stance, but it was swiftly parried yet again, though not enough to fully knock it out of her hands.

"Good." Lightning stepped on towards the side, blocking yet another strike. "Adapt to failure and it won't happen again... Learn from it." She brought her sword down to knock against the padded blade, before she swiped out with one of her legs, tripping her opponent to the ground. "They won't fight cleanly in real combat."

Sibyl quickly righted herself, and though she almost started to protest at such an unfair attack, she kept silent, for it was exactly the sort of training she'd been hoping for in the first place.

"The world isn't fair." Lightning watched that faint spark of life in the eyes of her opponent, something she herself had once mirrored at such an age. "Better to learn that early."

And Sibyl leapt forward again, lashing at Lightning's shoulder, but another block met her blade just as quickly as any other strike, pushing her away, before she lashed again, and then dodged a sharp kick of Lightning's leg.

"There it is..." Lightning's eyes went steely, yet somehow warm. "Don't stop to complain about things, just learn to avoid them in the first place." She swung her sword back around to block yet another blow, before she swept forward without warning, grazing the edge of Sibyl's arm with the padded blade. "But don't get so wrapped up in it that you forget to protect yourself..."

Sibyl nodded, and she readied her sword again.

"I'm going to do that again, and I want you to block it." Lightning gave Sibyl a stern, yet expectant look. "Put your weight into the parry, but not so much that your opponent can use it to their advantage."

And just like that, she lunged out again, demonstrating the sheer speed that a sword could cover in just a short amount of time, and Lightning nearly smiled when Sibyl blocked both that attack and the ensuing one, even though the parries weren't quite up to the highest standard.

Yet when they moved into the next form, and then the next, a familiar voice suddenly called out from nearby. "If you're teaching her how to block, Light..." Fang soon strolled up with a long practice spear resting against one of her shoulders, almost casual in stance. "Swords are for close quarters, right?"

Lightning held up her hand to pause their spar, before she turned to face Fang directly. "They're for close quarters and swift maneuvers... You can't usually roll to the side with a spear."

"But they're much better for blocking." Fang flashed a clever grin. "How about it, Light? We could show her what a real defensive stance looks like."

Lightning tried her best to look unimpressed, and she merely nodded, waving Fang into the training yard.

"Just following up on your little challenge, sweetheart." Fang spoke just quietly enough that Sibyl wouldn't hear it from the sidelines. "And I think we'd be hard-pressed to find a better time for practice."

Lightning glanced at the blunt spear that Fang was carrying. "Alright... Settle down."

Fang's smiled only widened, and they could both feel the carefully hidden flame, merely resting there behind such ironclad control. "But we haven't even started..."

Lightning held her sword off to the side, slowly circling out towards the opposite edge of the rectangular yard. She tried to ignore the fact that a few of her fellow hunters had walked over to watch the pair of them, two strangers among those who fought with such passion, eager to see if their combat styles were any different from the local fare.

"You ready, Light?" Fang stood tall and proud, wielding the long spear with a grip that looked strong enough to break the ground apart. "Round two, eh?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes beside just the smallest smirk she could muster. "Round two."

The silence fell upon their ears, before the keening cry of blades struck out into the very air of the compound, two forces locked in sudden battle, the strain of muscle against muscle. Fang breathed out an almost silent, whispering laugh, before she swung right around to strike yet again. Lightning moved just as fluidly, so spontaneous, enough to whip back and clash against the other end of the spear, a weapon that could likely force her to fight at long range, to Fang's advantage, but she was wise enough not to let her have it.

"Oh, I knew there was a reason you got to me..." Fang swung with every ounce of her human strength, bashing against the padded sword in Lightning's hands, forcing her back a single pace, before she was hit by a sudden counterattack to the middle of her spear. "Look at you, just as strong as me."

Lightning swung her blade to try and catch Fang unaware, a swift feint to the side, but the range of that spear was just too great, quickly blocking her away.

"And I mean it." Fang's voice hissed with the impact of the next blow, a strike to the center of her spear, where she braced back against the steady edge of Lightning's padded sword. "It'd be a lie to call us equals... But you're still a perfect match to me."

Lightning narrowed her eyes, still glinting with such subtle fire, before she kicked back against both of Fang's knees, trying to topple her, but the force merely sent her away from the reach of that spear, before she rolled off to the side to avoid another merciless blow.

"Fancy." Fang whistled through her teeth, feeling the roaring rush in her ears, the blood in her veins, the hot sweat that began to drip down across her forehead. "Keep that up and you might not get hit at all..." She lifted the long spear to fend off yet another attack, before Fang leaned in to whisper close to Lightning's ear. "But you also won't land a hit on me."

"You sure about that?" Lightning whirled away again, another step in the dance, another beat of her rapidly racing heart. "Maybe you're underestimating me."

The small crowd that had gathered began to murmur in approval at the way Lightning paced to the side, circling Fang like a true predator, so watchful and keen.

"It's just the facts, Light." Fang turned in place, all while she held her spear at the ready. "Fancy won't win you any points in a real fight... I think you're just putting on a show, here." Her eyes glinted with untold strength. "Show me what you can really do."

Lightning slowly tipped her head to the side. "You want a real duel?"

"We're perfectly capable." Fang nodded at the sheathed sword on Lightning's belt. "Let's give your Overture a chance to _really_ shine..."

Lightning felt her heart twinge at the way Fang spoke of such things, and she leaned away to signal a brief truce, before she walked over to place the practice sword outside of the training yard boundaries. Fang did the same with her spear, before she held her hands together with just the slightest spark of heat, and then drew her fiery lance out of seemingly nothing.

"You ready?" Lightning's blade began to gleam beneath the sunlight, clean of all the blood it had ever drawn, and she had little intention for it to taste any more than it needed to. "No going easy on me."

"Wouldn't dream of it..." Fang watched the way that the hunters around her peered at the bright magic of her spear; some spoke out loud of it, some merely watched in hushed silence, but she could see the many eyes that followed the crackling line of magic, perhaps in awe of a mage who preferred solid weaponry over fleeting bursts of energy. "You first, Light."

Lightning broke into a run, and she leapt up with her blade out to the side, fending off the inevitable strike of fire, of the inferno that rippled down against her steel, not enough to damage it, but it still struck with the force of any solid material.

"That's it..." Fang swung back around to block the very next strike, before she lashed out on her own, thrusting off into the space where Lightning had been mere milliseconds ago. "I've never seen anyone quicker."

Lightning darted back around, feeling the sheer heat of that brilliant weapon, but she still leapt out towards the space it wasn't occupying, at least until Fang reacted. They struck each other again, and the sparks of such fire flew right out from Fang's lance, screeching and hissing and _resisting_ the pressure of such deadly steel, a duel of both metal and flame, of the fluid muscles behind the strike, strong as the swift crash of a roaring waterfall.

And they both moved, swinging out into the next step, the next cry of whistling blades, a dance of their thrumming hearts and the look upon both of their faces. It joined in each breath that they took, the blood rushing within their limbs, and in that moment, that perfect moment when Lightning's sword brushed so soundlessly against the haft of the blazing spear, aimed at the very center of Fang's chest, it was all they could both do just to make everything go perfectly still once again.

Overture hovered there, a mere hairsbreadth away from drawing blood, the scarlet life force of Fang's very being, yet it was both the love Lightning held and the honored rules of any duel that stayed the blade itself.

"Look at you, Light..." Fang's eyes grew as warm as the flame of her spear, and her smile spoke of a gentleness far greater than her own sheer strength. "Just as strong as I knew you were."

Lightning felt a thin droplet of sweat trickling down her cheek, and she could tell that the very same thing was happening upon her arms, beneath the silver garb, the protection that Fang herself had insisted upon. And she slowly withdrew her blade, sheathing it back against her belt, before she tugged her hood down to reveal her whole face again.

Fang did the same with her spear, tossing it aside into nothingness, not even a spark. "How about that, eh?"

Lightning gently bit at her bottom lip, and she leaned away again. "A good demonstration."

Fang smirked at the way Lightning walked towards the edge of the yard, likely to retrieve the practice weapon again, as well as to speak with Sibyl. The girl looked more excited than Fang had ever seen her, almost like a far younger child who had just seen one of her favorite stories unfold, or perhaps something rare enough to fill her eyes with such excitement. Yet when Fang herself began to approach them, when she was just about to speak, a different voice called out from the sidelines.

"A beautiful duel... We'll need such strength tomorrow." It was a kindly tone, one that Lightning immediately recognized, even if it was slightly muffled beneath the thick metal surface of a helmet. "The two of you will be joining us, won't you?"

Lightning's gaze softened when she caught sight of the warrior who carried that mighty hammer, the one who opened her helmet to reveal the gentle face of Heloise.

"It's good to see you can both protect yourself with a blade." Heloise approached the low fence of the training yard, before she gestured for them both to walk a bit closer. "But there's always the chance in open battle of a strike you can't anticipate... And for that, we use _armor_."

* * *

Later in the day, within the low candlelight of the evening, Lightning found herself trying on a set of thick chainmail that stood beneath a slender metal breastplate, making sure that it could rest comfortably under her normal garb.

"You'll want something for your waist, too." Heloise carried over a set of lightweight metal faulds, along with a different hauberk, as well as a padded arming doublet, or gambeson, that would rest beneath. "Call me overprotective, but these days..."

Fang spoke up from the opposite side of the armory. "It's not overprotective."

"Ah, but not everyone sees it that way." Heloise sat down beside Lightning with the other pieces of armor. "Pride is integral to most hunters... They often see plated armor as unnatural, in a sense, a disrespectful aspect of the hunt." She slowly shook her head. "But this is no hunt, this is _war_."

Lightning accepted the different bits of metal garb. "You think more bloodshed is inevitable, then?"

Heloise glanced over at where she had since taken off her own set of full platemail, which was resting on a stand near the doors of the armory. "I believe that what happened to Tipur was only a taste of what's to come." She closed her eyes to keep herself from seeming out of ease. "And Noel knows what a lure looks like... He know whenever we're being baited into a full fight, but I also know that he thinks the battle he's leading us into is unavoidable." Heloise sighed again, before she slowly rose back up to her feet. "And I can't say that I disagree... What this artifact can do-" She paused and shook her head. "We have a duty to retrieve it, or at least do whatever we can to make sure that it never harms any others."

Lightning pulled her sleeker garb on over the armor, somewhat satisfied with how it didn't fully reveal what was beneath it. "I'm glad you'll be there with us."

Heloise gave her a worn, almost weary smile. "I only wish we didn't have to."

* * *

Fang felt it running in her veins, moving all throughout her mind, all while she waited there within the darkness, resting beside the rest of the night patrol. The plaza grounds beneath them were utterly aglow with lanterns and mighty festival preparations, the goods that would soon be used to celebrate the solstice in style and lofty grace. By morning, the luxurious streets would be filled with the performers and dancers alike, firebreathers and those who carried instruments of their own design, those who still practiced their music long into the midnight hours, preparing for the day to come.

Lightning peered down as well, hidden there in the shadows. She looked back over to her brothers, to her sisters, to those who were there on patrol just to take a rough count of the guardsmen on the ground.

One of the hunters spoke in a faint, almost voiceless whisper. "You think we can trust what the turncoat said?"

"He hasn't really turned." Another of them hissed silently into the night. "But I can't say it won't be interesting to see what he has in mind..."

Lightning leaned in slightly to gaze down at the ground below, for she herself was so high upon the roof of the spire. "What else would he have to gain by reaching out to us?"

The first hunter who had spoken, he began to speak again. "Nothing, really... But you were there, weren't you? The old man just likes screwing with us; he could be sending out the captain to line us up all nice for the taking."

"Then we won't go down quietly." Lightning narrowed her eyes at the brilliantly lit streets. "No matter what happens, we'll do whatever we possibly can." She soon slipped away from the edge of the roof, silently walking back towards the height of the spire, before she dropped down to a lower platform.

A single set of footsteps followed after her, and Lightning glanced back to see Fang, who was wearing the dark blue shawl against her hair again.

"You know that I feel it too." Fang lowered her voice, whispering just beneath the faint roar of the ocean winds. "It's here, Light... Just have to wait for the sunrise."

Lightning closed her eyes to stifle that instinctual swell of fear, the natural reaction to such a looming threat. She slowly held out her hand, not in the least bit surprised when Fang took a firm hold of it.

"We'll have our answers soon enough." Fang leaned in to gently kiss Lightning's cheek, brief and chaste. "Let's just try to rest until then."

* * *

Within the deep, dark night, Lightning dreamt of the verdant woodlands, of her home back in Sunleth, yet when she looked out from the speckled panes of her window, she realized that it was awash in a deep storm of flickering dust. And out there, in the midst of it, there was the carpenter's family; she could see them struggling to find shelter, anything to keep the storm away. She couldn't even stop herself from rushing out through the hall, over towards the door, reaching for the metal handle, and it was only the voice that called to her that made her suddenly pause.

"Light." A gentle hand touched her shoulder. "You don't have to."

Lightning's voice nearly broke in her throat. "Serah?"

"We're safe here." Serah's hand drifted away, moving to trace against the edge of the doorframe. "You know you put your life at risk every time you go out and hunt... Are we not enough for you?"

Lightning felt her heart freeze right there within her chest. " _Serah..?_ "

"Who do you _really_ care about, Light?" Serah's voice drifted in from somewhere that she just couldn't see. "You really love a bunch of people you've only met more than yourself? More than your own family?"

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "They __are__ my family."

"Not by blood." Serah's voice grew more and more distant, choked by the swirling, roaring rust. "What good is your faith if you'll only die for a lost cause? You think that the gods care about us any more than what we can do for them?"

"That's... Not true." Lightning felt her grip tighten against the door handle. "Etro cares, I've felt it; she might not be omnipotent, but she cares."

"She cares for your death." The voice grew so distorted, crackling like brittle bones beneath the pressure of such mighty jaws. "How you spend your life isn't important to her... Only the fact that you are doomed to die."

Lightning slowly turned to face the darkness, that storm of rust and such sharply bladed metal, before she realized that Serah hadn't ever been there at all.

"But you've cheated that too, haven't you..?" It was as thick and as coarse as burning sand, yet just as soft as silk at the very same time. "You've slipped the clutches of death, all due to that cursed heart of yours."

Lightning felt herself grow transfixed within the rhythm of the dancing voice, the claws that grew closer and closer to the bounds of her own body, threatening the very same death that it spoke of, but for some reason, a reason that she couldn't even think of, her legs just wouldn't start to move.

"But there are worse fates than death, are there not?" The voice rumbled beneath the whirling rust. "There is suffering... There is unending pain, life tethered to the bonds of immortality, forgotten by those 'great' creators." Golden eyes burned into her like boiling fire. "There is so much to the capability, to the intricacies of flesh, and yet so _very_ , very little..."

And Lightning felt those claws brushing against her arms, against the very boundaries of her soul, but when the coiling metal suddenly tensed up to strike, her own vision flashed with a sheer streak of steely blue, of golden horns tipped in pure molten silver, before she was roughly pushed aside, out of reach from those massive, deadly claws.

"Steady, hunter!" There was a new voice, Lightning realized, a voice that sounded so very desperate and emotionless all at once, fending off the talons that grasped out for both of them. "Go to them!"

Lightning staggered back up to her feet, reaching for a blade that wasn't there, before she backed herself up toward the doorway, and then she pushed her way out into the raging storm. Yet when she finally looked back, gazing out at the small figure who stood so steadfast against the creature of jagged blades and rust, the only sight she could catch was the mask of a barn owl, gazing back at her from within a barrier of burning energy.

And she moved, racing out to those who struggled to reach their own homes, and Lightning found herself dragging them all away from the thick smog of weightlessly drifting metal, from the rot and the decay that plagued the very air, back into the shelter of their own little house. She nearly joined them, for they called for her to find safety as well, yet she just couldn't help but turn her head towards another sound, before she moved off to try and find it, deep within the blinding haze.

"Where are you?!" Lightning squinted as much as she could, covering her eyes with her fingertips, but it all still stung like wildfire, and her heart began to race even faster than before. "Hello?!"

Another call, so much fainter than before, and Lightning fell to her knees within the shards of metal that chipped against her skin, made it bleed without pause, and she let her head fall back to gaze at the distant eye of the storm, mocking her from so very high above.

"Where are you..?" Lightning lowered her arms down, holding them against herself, until the blood began to seep from there as well. She squeezed her eyes shut, caught between her own stubborn will and the need to call out for help, for something far more resilient than herself, yet as the moments passed by in both pain and the deafening howls of the storm, she found only that a single name left her lips. "Odin..."

Within the darkest depths of the dream, Lightning sagged against the cold, bitter surface of the ground, and her eyes didn't even flicker when the distant beat of four limbs echoed out into the void. Yet before long, a pair of mighty arms suddenly lifted her to stand upright, prompting her to walk again.

Lightning's face still bled with a thousand scratches, but she forced herself to step forward, one foot after another, no matter how great the pain. When she finally looked back over her shoulder, she knew for certain that she was dreaming; the face there was far paler than her own, so very unearthly, a tall phantom within the murky dream. It was a face that somehow reminded her of her own father, yet it was far too different for such things to be true.

"I need to find them." Lightning felt her fingertips tighten against the strong hands beside her wrists, supporting her from below. "My friends... I heard them calling."

He didn't speak. After a moment, he merely moved his grip away, before the visage of a horse with countless eyes appeared, glowing like the pale petals of a rose, he knelt down to take Lightning upon his back, carrying her throughout the storm.

"Thank you." Lightning spoke in a soft slur, still bleeding, still alive, still strong enough to keep on speaking. "This is just a dream, isn't it? Odin's still back at home... Probably warm and safe in the stables."

The horse moved on within the swirl of rust and endless decay, yet his own metal limbs didn't even show the slightest hint of such afflictions.

"I miss him." Lightning let her eyes slip shut for a moment, before she forced them to drift back open again. "And I miss Serah... I miss them all." She grit her teeth and exhaled, shivering beneath the deep chill of the darkened dream. "What if I can't come home to them?"

Her steed quickened his pace, tossing his proud head up against the raging elements, carrying her on towards their destination, before he let his eyes shine even brighter, just to point out the way.

Lightning lowered her voice to a breathless whisper. "What if I die out there? In the real world?" Yet she was brought back towards the ground again, and then sheltered by a blade that ended in feathered edges, deceptively soft. "You want me to keep going?"

He peered at her from far above, so tall, a gentle giant, and he began to move his sword along once she started to walk ahead, keeping the whirling shards of rust from touching most of her skin. She could hear the subtle hiss and creaks of his long metal limbs, and while they were lithe enough to move like real bones and muscles, she could tell by the sound of his clockwork heartbeat that he was anything but organically alive.

"You're not actually Odin, are you?" Lightning tried to keep moving, to push on throughout the stormy dream. "Or _are_ you..? It's hard to tell what's real and what isn't." She paused when she felt him touch the top of her head, gently ruffling her hair, before he lifted his hand back up to point at something off in the distance, far from the realm of her own little village.

And she saw it, slowly moving through the mist, the one she had found in the wilderness itself, had brought back from the very brink of despair, a sibling of bonds far different than blood, a kinship forged in both patience and mutual respect.

"Light?" He spoke in an odd tone she had never heard from him before, somehow so knowing of the world around him. "You've got to trust yourself, Light... Just wake up."

Lightning found herself speaking without even thinking of the words. "But how will you find your way home?"

"I'll just have to do it on my own." Hope smiled softly, before he turned to gaze up at Odin. "Come on, Light, you yourself taught me that... You've got your own battles to fight, now."

Lightning felt the blood on her skin start to trickle less and less, clotting up, but her wounds still stood where they were.

"You know you're just talking to yourself." Hope peered out at the aura of light that swirled all around them, cutting right through the haze of rot and rust. "Your mind is just trying to work out what's happening right now in the way of a dream... I'm just what you think of Hope."

Lightning felt her own thought process rebel against such things, even if she knew deep down that it was true.

"You always think of yourself as a wolf, even if you don't want to be one... Not really." Hope's pale hair kept drifting on beneath the mighty winds. "Be brave for us, okay? Remember who you're fighting for... You've got the heart of a lion, and you know it."

Lightning closed her eyes to block out a sudden swell of emotion, and she nodded silently, kneeling there against the ground.

Hope knelt down beside her. "You're remembering your other pasts, now... You remember what you once told me?"

Lightning slowly shook her head, even if was just another lie.

"Your subconscious always knows, your heart knows." Hope's voice drifted off into the distance, into the silence left in the wake of the storm. "It's right _there_... You just have to remember it."

Lightning felt herself start to sink, yet she didn't struggle, not even when she felt a gentle touch upon one of her hands. The cool, smooth metal felt so very familiar, even if she had never felt such a thing before. She opened her eyes, gazing up at Odin, though she didn't move, not even when he drew away from her, fading out into the dream.

"You aren't alone, Light."

Lightning closed her eyes again, gripping to that faith she held so tight within her heart, to the hopes that drove her onward.

"You're never alone."

* * *

They moved swiftly in the morning light, so many hunters in the guise of civilians, thinking and plotting over the plans that they'd been assigned, the routes to cover in the festival streets. Lightning walked closely at Fang's side, traveling throughout the din of so much sound and motion, of faces lit by the heavy sunlight and the fires that burned away into the late morning air, by the colorful banners and bright strips of ribbon that celebrated the solstice itself.

Fang glanced up at the sound of such jovial music, at the beat of drums and the rhythm of a metallic instrument, before she turned to face Lightning again.

"No better time for a party, right?" Lightning's tone was even dryer than usual. "But when do you think the main event is starting?"

Fang fought the urge to narrow her eyes in understanding, in recognition of the code they'd been issued, a way to keep them concealed within the crowds. "I'd think the afternoon... When the sun is highest."

"Then we have time to kill." Lightning watched the sudden flash of color from a person up on stilts, a costumed street performer with ribbons of every shade and hue. "Time to kill."

Fang walked on through the bustling crowds, and she locked eyes with another face in the masses, one who she recognized, but she didn't let her gaze linger for long. They were on the move, predators in wait, and she knew better than to engage with any of them before the time was right, before their plans could be set into motion, before the old man finally made his grand appearance. Fang tried not to grit her teeth in frustration, for as much as she _knew_ that there was something eluding her, she just couldn't seem to fully catch it.

It was only when the day drew later into the noon, further and further with the steadily rising sun, only then did the two of them pause before the grandest of the decorated plazas, a stage with both skilled performers and monks in ceremonial robes, along with more priestly figures than they could ever possibly count.

"Well..." Fang felt her breath quicken at the sight of the brilliant sun, almost directly above them. "You think this is it?"

Lightning didn't even move when a drifting ribbon floated on within the flurry of paper confetti, a single strip of fabric with a distinct silver hue, but when it disappeared into the crowd, she slowly turned her head towards the stage. "You think they'll put on a show?"

Fang peered out into the masses, at people with eyes that once seemed so hollow, yet the very same emptiness had suddenly been filled with such fire, excitement for the approaching event, and it was enough to make her blood prickle beneath her skin. "Definitely."

And there he was, right on cue, not Galenth Dysley himself, but the head of the city watchmen, the high guard of the Order of Salvation, saluting the crowd from his place upon the stage.

"Here we go..." Fang felt as her breath grew even more shallow and faint, though she knew better than anyone that it was more than ready to roar and burn again. "Time to see if we've been duped."

Lightning slowly reached down to grip at the hilt of her sword.

"Luxerion!" Captain Aland led a group of at least a dozen armored guardsmen, and at the very end of the procession, there he was, Galenth Dysley, but the captain just kept calling out to the raucous masses. "People of Luxerion, your loyal servants call for your attention!"

It wasn't very easy for a crowd of that size to grow silent, but within the passing minutes, in the time that approached the true height of noon, the people grew more and more quiet, until those upon the stage could be heard above any other.

"Your high guard, and the Order of Salvation itself, salutes you." The captain stood there within his armor, with his shield held out to the side, symbolic of a trusting stance. "We gather upon this day to salute the sun itself, the god of life and fire... The same fire that burns inside the hearts of each and every one of you."

Within the crowd, Fang listened to the murmurs that followed, but she only had ears for what was being spoken upon the stage.

"And the very regent of the Order of Salvation, our newly named _Primarch_..." The captain stepped aside with a flash of his pale white cape, signaling for his charge to approach the center of the stage. "I beg that you welcome him with open arms."

Lightning felt a sudden swell of bitterness within her stomach, gazing up at those docile little eyes, the perfect visage of a gentle old man, the softened skin of a viper, mere moments from shedding away.

Galenth Dysley stood upon the very height of the stage, beneath the thin veil of translucent cloth, within the same ceremonial garb that the others all wore, pure white with a pale purple sash. "We devote ourselves in the service of the almighty..." His voice echoed out, still so strong at such a great age. "We give our very lives to the divine, to the one who has given us such gifts long before we ever realized them!"

It was only then that Lightning's eyes widened, when her lips moved with a sharp intake of air, noticing the long coil of cloth that was being passed between each of the gathered clerics, shimmering with the pungent oil of the ceremony.

"We give ourselves to the fire." Dysley knelt down at the tallest point of the stage, upon the high platform, and he took the last two ends of the cloth into his own wrinkled hands. "We offer ourselves-"

Yet as a single flame was lit, a lone candle within the hands of a young attendant, Captain Aland suddenly lunged from his post, knocking it away to be snuffed against the ground, before he unsheathed his sword along with his fellow guards, swiftly circling the single figure at the end of the cloth, all to the sudden sheer panic of the crowd.

"You would inflict your own death in service to the god of life?!" The captain's voice grew to a veritable roar. "What demon of a man would do such a thing?! What could possess each of you, the _purity_ of our house of light..."

Yet in a single gleam of motion, the Primarch stood, raising his voice even louder than the one with a sword drawn before his chest. "What _demon_ would turn his blade upon his own?! On those he has sworn to protect?!"

The crowd grew even more frantic, no longer keeping to such hushed tones, clamoring to escape the confines of the grand plaza, and both Fang and Lightning lurched into motion as well, running towards the silent signal that suddenly flickered there, off in the distance.

"You fool..." Dysley's rage suddenly morphed to a wide, twisted smile, and his arm leapt out, gripping at the very sharpest point of the sword, even when his flesh swiftly bled. "Do you not realize what you have strolled right _into?_ "

Captain Aland's eyes went so very wide, and he let out a ragged cry when Dysley kept clawing at the blade, yet it wasn't for that reason that he screamed. No, it was the deep, crackling burn that suddenly boiled beneath his own flesh, starting right there upon his arm, where the sword was swiftly sinking down into the flesh of Dysley himself.

"You fool of a man." Dysley's mouth dripped with scarlet blood, and he turned his gaze towards the empty eyes of the gathered clerics, before a single, glimmering spark flickered down from the end of his tongue with only a whisper of sound. "Fool of a _human_."

There was the great clap of rushing air, the crack of flesh beneath an armored surface, the crystalline spines that suddenly jutted out in great waves of scarlet blood, within the roaring flame, among the screams and wailing pain of those within the crowd, before those who lingered there, once merely human... A single, red eye flickered to life beneath where a shining helmet still stood, though it was ripped apart by twisted rock and the shimmer of fresh blood, a beast of crystal and gradually writhing flesh.

And at the sight of it, a different voice whispered out from beneath the burning sun. "What the _hell_..?" Noel's eyes widened beneath his mask, within the whirling crowds of screeching panic, and he swiftly drew his sword. "Cie'th?!"

"How is this possible?" Holly's breath caught when she blocked the sudden savage blow of a freshly transformed creature, and she swiftly began to cast out a brief barrier spell around them, just to keep the Cie'th from advancing. "Without a brand..?! How could anyone not notice it beforehand?"

"I'm afraid we don't have time for this!" It was a voice from beneath the mask of a bay owl, from Beryl herself, who rode up upon one of the swiftest horses that the hunters possessed. "You want ours, Noel?" She tried not to curse at the Cie'th who began to crawl up towards the steed she was riding upon, and she reined her horse away from it. "This sure looks like an army to me..."

Noel was already swinging his sword down to halt the anguished cries of a crystal monstrosity, and he shouted back at Beryl through the fearful din. "Ride _fast!_ Bring them here!"

So Beryl rode, galloping out on upon the back of her horse, leaping above the twisted piles of deformed Cie'th, which began to grow more and more numerous with each and every passing second.

"Lightning!" Noel called out to where he spotted that same silver sword hacking down into a bubbling hide of molten crystal. "Light, Fang, with us! Don't go off alone!"

Fang peered out above the frenzied din of fleeing civilians and the hordes of shambling Cie'th, before she swiftly yanked back at the haft of her fiery spear, dragging it out from one of the monstrous forms, one who still wore the remains of his polished armor. "Yeah, but if you want to keep breathing, these need to go!"

Noel gestured in between strikes of his sword, and he narrowly dodged a clumsy, yet massive strike of a nearby Cie'th, one that thundered against the ground beside him. "Safety in numbers!"

"Well, yeah..." Fang ran over with her spear in hand, glancing back to make sure that Lightning had followed. "But I think they've got the very same idea!"

And Noel's stance went so very rigid at the sight of the advancing guards, the full brunt of the Order's main battalion, yet when most of them caught wind of the crystalline monstrosities, one of which was still shambling and bellowing from the height of the stage, burning within an endless plume of fire, they either turned to retreat or forged on ahead, yet not before they slowly fell to their knees as well.

"How is this happening?!" Holly struck one of the Cie'th on the strange brand it bore, a single circle of red, not even showing the small white pupil of an eye. "They're just turning and _turning_... No brand, not really, just the mark inside!"

"Holly, we need to focus!" Noel kept swinging his blade out to crash against the gathering crystals, and he started to thrust his bladed shield out to deflect a blow away from his own group. "We've got to find the others... Figure out what the hell we're supposed to do; this blew the damn plan right out of the water!"

Through the din of voices and deafening screams, between strike after strike of her sword, Lightning herself kept utterly silent. Her eyes quickly honed in upon the fiery stage, at the rampant inferno that burned beneath the howls of the Cie'th. And from within the crackling flame, the embers that drifted down beneath the glow of the sun, she caught sight of those slowly rotating irises, along with a wrinkled, blooded hand, the one that lifted itself up so far above the fire, holding an impossible ring of light.

* * *

"We're on!" Beryl skidded to a halt at the end of the catacombs, praying that her horse had the sense to remain still within the entrance of the crypt. "Everyone, _now!_ "

The mages swiftly gathered around the recently prepared incense, and with hands all aglow in the light of such magic, the prayers of hope that they brought on into the circle of flame, they slowly began to bow their heads.

And it began in a swift crackle of dust and embers, where the beast rose up again, roaring out from the sheer pain that he felt within the hearts of those in Luxerion itself. He clawed his way out from mere nothingness, off into the dark depths of the catacombs.

The phantoms rose up as well, following on behind the bellow of the mighty beast, so much more frenzied then before, the lion who crashed out towards the winding stairs of the catacombs, intent on ending the pain.

Beryl clambered to her own feet, racing out within the crowd, where she soon found her horse panicking at the sheer sight of so many ghosts. "Easy!" She reached up in one swift motion to hold the steed still, before she swung herself atop and kicked beneath the saddle, spurring the horse along with the army of rushing phantoms. "We're coming, Noel... Just hold on."

* * *

The wails of the Cie'th bore down on them from every possible angle, upon the gathering of hunters that stood within the city streets, those who lashed out and fought against onslaught of such monstrosities, against the crystal shards that cut so deeply, the red brands that burned so very brightly beneath the high heat of the sun.

"Together!" Noel shouted above the utter clamor, shielding his fellows as best as he could, but the Cie'th grew more and more resilient the longer their glimmering hides stayed untouched, enough to harden out into solid crystal. "Stay together!"

Lightning struck her blade down against the reddened eye of a cursed brand, standing back to back with Fang, who swiftly jutted her spear to crack open the spiked shell of a Cie'th with the sheer power of her fire, attempting to keep the monsters away from the rest of their motley group, despite the growing numbers.

"Damn it all..." Noel swung strike after strike, bringing down Cie'th after Cie'th, but it almost seemed as if the creatures were unending. "Been played right into it again, haven't we?!"

Yet one of the Yusnaan gladiators suddenly burst out from within a shambling pile of the creatures, and he called out with an almost drunken roar of his own, before he struck his twin blades back down against the crystal spikes of the nearby Cie'th.

"Light..." Fang tried to call above the clamor of shouting and bellowing beasts. "Stand back for a second, Light!"

Lightning shook her head, standing even closer, still fighting back to back.

"Lightning..!" Fang sighed, and she thrust her spear down against one of the rapidly twitching Cie'th. "You stubborn girl!"

"Would you have it any other way?" Lightning dodged a fierce swipe from the side, before she quickly swung her blade up into the bleeding torso of yet another monster. "Just keep fighting... Keep going, and don't ever stop!"

Fang felt the way that her arms felt heavier and heavier with each thrust of her spear, and she tried to keep her head up and above the haze of blood and clouded dust, gazing out at the Cie'th that were bordering upon hundreds, if not thousands in numbers. " _Light!_ " Yet her voice was lost to the sudden sounds off in the distance, the thunderous din within the hordes of writhing, clacking Cie'th, before Fang's eyes went so very, _very_ wide.

It was a brilliant lance that suddenly cut straight through the masses, a weapon tipped with bright golden filigree, a lone rider who carried a pale helmet atop his head, one which bore the checkered symbol, the pale lion of Luxerion, one of the mounted guardsmen of the Order itself.

Noel called out again above the din. "Just our luck..!"

They rode in like the crashing waves of the sea, upon massive armored horses who squealed and lifted their heads at the sight of the Cie'th, awash with the cries of the beasts that they began to trod upon. It was a rush of gold and shimmering white, bearing the very teeth of ivory that gleamed just as sharply as the steel of any blade, mammoth tusks that had been carved down to a point, enough to topple over the massive mountains of Cie'th.

And the hunters moved closer upon their own ranks, still fighting on as well, but they watched the mounted soldiers with a sense of deep wariness, for their own allies within the Order had all since morphed into the very Cie'th they fought, all that was left of the higher guard. Yet the pale helms merely turned to face the monsters in the streets, and their horses galloped on out to crush the crystalline threats beneath their heavy hooves, purging them beneath the light of the sun.

Darkness melded in with the pale golden glow, masks upon both sides, slowly joining together to eliminate the threat of such monstrosities, yet neither group regarded one another for more than a mere moment of time.

"Why haven't they turned, too?" Holly only spoke when the masses of Cie'th grew small enough for them to rest for a moment, if only a brief instant. "The other guards..."

"Questions for later!" Noel kept striding forward, and he thrust his blade yet again into the bleeding wounds of a Cie'th. "Right now we need to take advantage of the moment and go after the crown-" But as soon as the words left his lips, as soon as he lifted his sword up towards the glaring sun, he narrowed his eyes at the sudden flash of movement, at the screeching, instantaneous strike of a sharp blade against his own. And in that moment, he locked eyes with the mighty mask that peered down at him, fixed in the moment when the horse galloped on beside him, an enemy rider, just a glancing blow, before the mounted guardsman rushed back out into the fray.

Noel stood there, almost expecting the soldier to race back around and engage him in further combat, but the rider merely disappeared along a different street, off in search of more Cie'th to slay.

Fang walked up with her spear braced against the ground, panting slightly. "A warning, you think?"

Noel shrugged. "We don't have the time to think... It's time to act." He moved on between the piles of twitching Cie'th, gazing down at the sheer horror of the twisted flesh, the mutations of bone and brittle crystal, before he stepped up towards the fractured stairwells of the stage. "Holly... The fire."

Holly moved up as well, and a quick barrier spell began to smother out the crackling flame, but even that was not enough to extinguish all of it.

The captain still stood there with a gleaming sword in his blistered hand, swollen and cracked by the crystal, yet his armor had been scattered all around him, shards of scorched metal and the glassy remnants of his shield.

"I'm sorry." Noel peered out into the unseeing eye of the wounded Cie'th. "You... You were true to your word." He lifted his own blade within the embers, and in a sharp single stroke, the broken creature slumped down to the floor of the stage, a blooded heap of crystal. "May you return to Etro's arms... May the goddess watch over your soul."

Fang watched the flames flicker on from against hardened skin of the corpse, and she felt her own stomach twist with what felt like an unknown sadness.

"Noel, they're different from the others." Holly knelt down to examine the smaller Cie'th, those of the high guard, already deceased by the flame. "They look more... Human."

Noel turned his gaze towards where he had last seen Galenth Dysley himself, standing there at the very top of the stage. "I wish we had the time to figure it out." He slowly approached the source of the fire itself, long since barren of any life, not even the remains of the Primarch. "I saw him grab the sword..."

Lightning spoke from where she was standing on the stairs. "I saw him after that." She narrowed her eyes at where it had been shining from, that place within the fire, at the very front of the entire spectacle, seemingly immune to the flames. "He had it... A ring of light."

Noel's voice grew even more urgent than before. "And where did he go?" He approached the edge of the stairs. "Lightning, where did he take it?"

Lightning stared out into those gleaming eyes, into the sight of the wild mask, the owl who still laughed on despite the utter tragedy all around them. "I didn't see it, there were too many Cie'th to fend off... But if you're willing to trust a gut instinct-"

Noel stood up straighter, taller. "What sort of instinct?"

Lightning felt it even then, the subtle tug in her heart that felt much too sharp for comfort. "A dream about the fal'Cie."

* * *

The lion leapt into the sheer walls of writhing crystal, and his own sudden roar echoed out beyond the heights of the city, fueled by the desperate prayers of the survivors, those with enough of a spark left in their hearts to hide themselves away, not to succumb to the curse that plagued the very lifeblood of Luxerion. And the phantoms rushed on to meet the beasts as well, ignoring the civilians that ran for their lives; they only had eyes for the threat itself, not for those who merely fled.

Beryl peered out from beneath her mask, and she began to cast spell after spell into the streets, halting and pushing the Cie'th out of her way, before she urged her horse to ride on towards where she had last left Noel's side, yet it was only moments before she spotted him.

"Beryl!" Noel turned from where Lightning was leading their group into the city. "You came through for us, did you?"

Beryl nodded, but her next few words were rather breathless. "I'll try to keep the numbers down... What's the plan?"

Noel kept very silent for what felt far longer than it actually was. "To trust in the words of our seeress... To follow the newcomer wherever she leads."

Lightning's gaze moved to peer at Noel, right above where her mask still covered her mouth and nose.

"A better plan than nothing at all." Beryl tried to keep her horse calm, despite the wailing shrieks of the Cie'th. "I'll keep an eye on the spirit."

Noel nodded. "You do that, try to find the others, too; Heloise, Zoe, all the rest... Godspeed, Beryl." He turned back to his own group, a dozen or so local hunters, along with a few of their kin from the Wildlands, as well as those of Yusnaan. "Come on... We've got an artifact to get back."

* * *

She still remembered her first dream of Luxerion, of the tall, noble buildings and the shadows that seemed to cling against them, a thick shade of darkness between the lines of black and white. Lightning scarcely even knew what she had been looking at, those sprawling gardens and the deep blue sky, then the sudden flicker of something that made her tense up from the threat of danger, of a beast beneath the splendor of the city.

Was it fate, she wondered, that her path had led her on to meet those of her fellow faith, those who sought to slay the monsters in the world, to destroy those who threatened to unleash such utter havoc? Was it fate that she'd caught those eyes again, deep within a metal structure at the very heart of the Order's grand gardens?

Lightning could see the Hall of Devotion looming so far above, and she remembered that sudden crash of a blade against her own, the brief friendship forged from the heat of bloodshed, and then the life taken away in the pursuit of their own safety. She might have lingered there to think on such things, if only her friends weren't waiting for her to reveal what she had once dreamed about, to show them the way towards the crown.

There were eyes there, between the leaves, a mural of welded metal and so many faded gemstones. Lightning knelt down against the soft soil of the garden, before she lifted her hand to trace over the very sigil of the beast.

And after a long moment of silence, Noel spoke again. "What is this?"

"...I saw a fal'Cie when I was here in a dream." Lightning peered at the rusted hatch near the bottom of the statue. "This leads to something."

Noel tried not to sigh, but he knelt down beside Lightning, regardless. "You know how crazy this sounds?"

Lightning moved to touch one of the hidden handles near the lower base of metal structure. "Do you have a better idea?"

Noel was likely frowning from beneath his mask, but he only shrugged, reaching to pull at the handle on the opposite side.

It was grueling work, the combined effort of every hunter, every tracker, every fighter and bloodstained gladiator, but they soon hauled the entire tall monolith away, revealing a pitch black tunnel that ran right down beneath the waiting earth.

Lightning blinked at the sight of it, and she slowly leaned in to peer at the darkness. "This feels like an ambush... I don't want to lead you into something like that."

Noel looked back at his fellows, those of Etro's faith, still just as brave as they ever were, whether it was a mere man they were facing, or even the monstrous Cie'th. "Do we have any better ideas?"

Lightning shared a glance with Fang, a long, lingering look, a look that told of more than they could ever possibly speak within such a brief time. It was after mere moments that they followed on after their assembled companions, slowly descending into the deep, silent darkness, moving on without a trace of fear.


	35. A Logical Fal'Cie

As much as Lightning tried to keep her vision clear within the tunnels, she could only see further than her own hands because of the flickering fire on Fang's fingertips. And even then, she couldn't see anything but darkness off in the distance. Even as she tried to focus upon the goal, on the destination her fellow hunters were tracking, Lightning felt how her mind started to wander itself right back to the stone surface in the garden, to the very eyes of the beast. It wasn't easy to explain why it felt so _solid_ within her memories, like a permanent fixture, something she couldn't even forget if she tried.

While Lightning kept walking on through the dusty hallways of the underground, a certain thought crossed her mind, yet it wasn't a normal notion, not by a long shot. It was the sort of memory that almost made her nose tingle with the scent of the ocean breeze, with the smell of pines, a living image of the place where she'd first gained insight into seeing the past visions of an object. And when she realized that, it all became so clear.

Lightning could already see the first few outlines on her gloved hands, the almost invisible representation of the statue. She felt her own thoughts get swept away with visions of the past, of the people who had once toiled to drag it there, propping it upright against the soil, but not before they had excavated the tunnel itself. But where did it _lead?_ She could sense that same feeling of anticipation, the cold prickle in her spine, the feeling under her fingertips that something else was watching her, plotting her every step, so much that it was only up to her to fight off the bonds of fate, to carve out her own destiny into the path she walked upon...

But how in the world was she supposed to do _that_ when she found herself completely and utterly alone?

* * *

"Light?" Fang quickly narrowed her eyes against the darkness, yet when she honed her vision in upon the shadows themselves, coiling and twisting against the walls, she knew that it was no mere illusion that stood between her and all of her friends. "Lightning!"

But there was no answer in the cavernous tunnels, not even a whisper of sound.

"Damn it..." Fang tried not to hiss or grit her teeth, but with every step she took, her own fire seemed to illuminate less and less of the path around her. "Light? Anyone?!"

The dusty halls stood in silence, chiseled there with that signature chessboard design, the lifeblood of Luxerion's aesthetic. The very sight of it made Fang want to rend her claws right into it to reach whatever waited beyond, but that was a secret she still needed to keep locked tight. There could be no dragon who would knock the tunnels walls down just to save the day, to fly Lightning far from whatever had placed them apart. Fang knew that to solve such an irritating conundrum, she would need to rely on her own wits instead.

She had left her satchel back in the sleeping quarters, as she was not quite willing to possibly lose her belongings in the heat of battle, even if she held no earthly idea that Cie'th would be that they encountered, not those of the Order. Fang began to narrow her eyes again, and she reached down into the pockets of her new clothes, the fabrics that looked just as green as foam of the sea and as blue as the afternoon sky, where she began to rummage through whatever she'd forgotten to leave behind.

There were a few packages of crackers and dried food, the small snacks that she had brought along over the past couple of days, just in case she and Lightning missed lunch while away from the compound, or even dinner. There was also the scrap of an interesting flower petal that she'd found out in the Wildlands, which was shriveled up slightly from the exposure and a lack of liquid. But there was also something that Fang had nearly forgotten about, the little metal compass that she'd once exchanged for her own freedom, as well as a bit of current information.

Fang peered at the stars that were engraved upon the tiny device, before she used the nail of her thumb to push open the lid, revealing the thin, shiny glass that held a slim magnetic pointer. "Think you can help me out?" Her own voice barely even reached her ears, for the sight of the rapidly spinning pointer, the magnetism that was clearly quite defective, it brought a frown to her lips. "Not likely..." She turned to look out at the tunnels, before she took a few paces forward. "Not when you can't even point north."

But it was in that very moment when she moved, when the device suddenly snapped back to attention, facing a single, unwavering direction, when she peered out into the shadows to see a distant, glimmering set of eyes, it was in that moment when Fang's grip tightened further than it had ever reached before.

* * *

Lightning moved on through the darkness as quickly as she could. She felt her way around the tunnels by touching the walls beside her, even though it proved rather difficult to navigate when she reached a set of stairs. They weren't very steep, but it surprised her enough to trip her right out from beneath her boots.

The sudden blur of motion and the pain in her spine forced out a sharp gasp from her throat, but she quickly realized that the full brunt of the impact was likely taken by the thin metal armor beneath her clothes. She swore to herself to thank Heloise for it.

And before long, slowly rising up into a sitting position, Lightning merely waited there for a moment, staring out into the utter darkness, before she swore that she saw something moving off in the distance.

"I just don't see why we can't leave the whole damn thing behind us... All of this paperwork, who needs it?"

Lightning's eyes widened, before she swiftly rose up to her feet again. "Fang?" But with another pace forward, she suddenly froze, gazing out at the image of her own impassive face.

"Because you've been trapped in there for years? Because we need to finish what we started in the first place?" It was her own voice, yet it was slightly deeper than how it usually sounded, perhaps strained by some sort of residual effort. "You... Could you even _hear_ me in there? Do you even realize what I had to do?"

And there was Fang, standing in the image of a great blanket wrapped around herself, with shards of broken, flickering crystals at her feet. "I heard... We heard whispers."

Lightning's image looked away, and her current self nearly tensed up at how those eyes went so cold, so solid again, utterly impassable barriers that held her emotions so tightly within herself, hiding the person she truly was.

"Light?" Fang's image took a slow step forward. "What happened to you, Light?"

And Lightning, that woman of another world, another time, hardened by so many years of solitude, by the bitterness of seeing that her fond companion seemed so very nonchalant, able to brush the time aside like it was nothing, she took an identical pace away. "You don't want to know... You really don't want to know."

Lightning herself, her present life, she watched the way her past self began to retreat, even when the image of Fang followed after her. The sight of it was enough to make her look away from both of them, to silently pray that their lives would see something far happier than that single moment in time.

And as she wandered back into the darkness, still wondering how she had been able to see such a thing, she began to think of the way that Fang had once opened the other worlds to her, how she'd created an image within both of their minds, something she could touch and feel, from that primordial forest near the beginning of time, to Lightning's own memory, the fire that consumed the world from all around her. Was _that_ the sort of thing that her latest vision had been?

But before she could think on it further, she felt the soft pressure of grass beneath her boots, before her eyes came alive with the sight of a house on the very height of a hill, a place where two figures sat very close to each other, gazing down at the sea.

"You know I can't refuse something like this." Lightning recognized her own voice again. "They need everyone they can get."

And Fang spoke in a soft tone, yet it soon became clear that she wasn't quite as calm. "You'd leave home for it?"

Lightning's image turned, bearing the scars of many previous battles, yet she almost seemed to shiver when Fang reached out to touch them, slowly caressing the smooth skin of her face. "Just for a while."

"No... They won't have you." Fang's voice grew darker and darker. "They won't _hurt_ you again... Won't claim this damn war is for honor; you _know_ what this is."

Lightning's image, her eyes went very distant. "It wasn't for honor?"

"Shh." Fang drew in a very deep breath, and she tugged Lightning close, holding her there in her arms, all while they felt the cool air of the sea brushing down against their skin. "I didn't say that... You might've been honorable, but they weren't."

Yet even as the days passed by, when the ocean sky grew dark beneath the shadow of flying ships, when a certain animal looked down at the strange objects that were crossing the sea, he couldn't help but snarl at the sight of them. And it was far from there, later on, upon the reddened shores of a distant coast that Fang suddenly fell to her knees, dragging a single figure away from all the rest, even when the woman in her arms sputtered and choked with blood, falling limp when she was brought against the great tracts of dirt that led towards the ocean waves.

" _Stupid_..." Fang's eyes welled up with unwelcome tears. "I _told_ you."

And Lightning, resting there within Fang's grasp, her eyes were merely facing the distant clouds, at the gulls circling far above the battlefield. "Are we going home?"

"Yeah..." Fang's fingertips trembled with each small scrap of cloth that she pressed to Lightning's wounds, feeling the path that every bullet took, even when she realized that Lightning's body hadn't really moved while she dragged it away, that those words hadn't truly reached her ears, that they hadn't ever been said in the first place, and that there was no heartbeat beneath her touch, no warmth to the blood that seeped down against the earth. "We're... We're going home."

"Wait!" Yet Lightning's own present self, even when she lurched out towards them, reaching for the pair upon that ocean slope, her fingertips closed against nothing, only darkness. "That's not... I wouldn't die like that, not so recklessly!"

" _Would_ you?"

Lightning felt her blood freeze at the sounds, at the swirling collection of such incredibly different voices, so many that they sounded utterly unnatural, and almost grating in a way, _mechanical_.

"And what difference would a mere memory make? Your fate is immutable, no matter how much you attempt to deviate from it." Those eyes pierced right through the shadows, sharp with a golden hue. "You still draw breath, and you still walk upon this earth with your life intact... No matter how little time you may have left."

And in a single motion, a single whistle of sound, Lightning drew her blade to face those voices, the eyes that shimmered as if they were the last fading rays of sunlight, so many thousands in degree.

"Oh, child, you are no match for me." The voice grew louder and louder, so much closer and closer, until Lightning swore that she could feel the humming sensation right within herself, the rumbling of a great machine, something that simply couldn't exist in her world without an immense amount of magic. "You are... Only human."

Lightning's grip didn't waver as she charged, and she still held her sword aloft.

"You've brought them here when you should have fled to live another day... But such strange outcomes have already been calculated." Those great golden eyes swirled with the inner pulsing of the grand device. "There is nothing that you can inflict upon me that I have not yet seen... That I have not _prepared_ for."

Lightning felt her eyes sting when the darkness was swiftly swept away, when she realized that she wasn't even in any sort of tunnel at all, merely a massive, domed structure beneath the earth, a cavern so impossibly bright that she could scarcely see the ends of it.

"But there is one reason... An exception, if you will." Those eyes shifted to such a gentle gaze, a poisonous gaze, seething within the sharp light of the sun. "A reason why you have not already been disposed of."

* * *

And as Fang chased it, stashing the compass back into her pocket, right beside her racing heartbeat, she felt herself run faster than she could ever remember, swifter than she had ever moved before, all up until she nearly crashed right into another wandering figure from around a sharp corner, another soul within the labyrinth.

"What?!" The mask of a great gray owl suddenly peered out from within the darkness, before a certain someone held up a bit of luminous magic on her fingertips. "Fang..."

"Holly?" Fang took a very deep breath, before she gestured at the opposite corridor of the tunnel. "Come on, we've got to find the others."

"What's happening here?" Holly stood up to follow after Fang, running right in her footsteps. "Everyone just-"

"Smoke and mirrors." Fang turned past another corner, racing off into the darkness. "The bastard's keeping us separated, messing with us... Physical illusions, fake magic tricks, just think of it like that."

"Physical illusions..." Holly almost skidded to a halt at the sight of a much larger room, one that was still so cloaked in darkness. "This would be so much easier if it wasn't impossible to imagine existing."

"Just keep at it, pretend it's fake." Fang slowed her pace within the strange room as well, gazing around at the hazy outlines of metallic shards and broken fixtures, an abandoned scrapyard right within the very depths of the earth. "Just keep moving..."

Holly glanced at all of the unusual things that stood upon the walls and ceiling, the objects that were still hidden in the shadows, but she quickly drew to a halt at the sight of a certain outline. "Fang, look at this!"

Fang turned back to peer at what looked like something _standing_ against the ceiling, bereft of gravity, and she slowly narrowed her eyes. "Like I said... Smoke and mirrors."

It was only when a sharp clacking echoed out into the haze, when the suddenly creature dropped down from so far above, landing with merely a whisper of sound, only then did Fang draw out her spear from the fire of her soul.

"Cie'th!" Holly quickly slammed the end of her staff against the brand of the beast, and she ducked away when it reached out to claw and howl at her, even when Fang struck one of its back limbs, stabbing it against the floor. "How many of these are we going to have to kill?!"

Fang summoned a swift gout of fire from her other hand, burning the monster away as it writhed and screeched and bellowed at her, twisting beneath its own hardened crystal hide.

"You're... You're self-taught, aren't you?" Holly readied her staff again, just in case any more Cie'th were to appear. "You cast magic like... Like it's _natural_ , not out of a book."

Fang slowly let the fire wane from between her fingertips, watching as the Cie'th crumpled down into a pile of scattered rocks and crystalline ash. "I've actually been reading a book about spells, but yeah... Basically self-taught." She glanced at Holly again, wishing that she could see beneath the surface of that avian mask. "What..? Never seen a self-taught mage?" But she knew it was futile to say anything else, even when Holly herself didn't seem quite the same as before, perhaps a bit more wary.

"You're right... We should find the others." Holly reached down to activate one of the charms on her wristband, before she started to move off in a certain direction. "Who knows how many Cie'th are down here... I'm glad you're here to help me."

Yet Fang could hear the hesitation in that voice, the slight fear from being in such a situation with her, alone in the darkness with only illusions and Cie'th for company.

The minutes stretched on within the twisted halls of metal, and Holly finally spoke again when the silence became too much to bear. "What kind of magic have you been learning?"

Fang felt her teeth tighten against each other, and she nearly wanted to just tell Holly to focus on wherever they were going, but she merely looked down at herself, and sighed. "Thaumaturgy."

"Ah." Holly used her staff to test the strength of the stairwell ahead. "Sounds, colors and lights... Basic influences." She slowly started to descend, gazing down at the stairway. "Let me know once you're ready to learn the greater powers."

Fang bit back a smile. "I'll probably be long gone from the city by then."

Holly kept very quiet for a while, just traveling down the stairs, until she reactivated one of her charms. "Oh... We're not alone."

Fang narrowed her eyes at the darkened staircase. "Who else is it?"

" _Friendly_ , thank Etro!" Holly quickened her pace down the stairwell. "Noel and the others, unless it's just another illusion..."

Fang breathed out a soft sigh of relief, even though it felt as if the walls were slowly closing in around her, choking the very air from her lungs, yet none such thing was truly happening.

* * *

Lightning felt her vision swirl with a flash of light and the glint of her blade, the frenzied dance that erupted from an utter lack of movement, a lack of motion, but for every drop of blood she drew, for every clash of her sword against that glimmering, unearthly staff, it seemed as if her opponent hadn't lost even a mere scrap of his power. She felt her boots scrape against the metal floor, the shimmering tiles that were entirely pale, so very dizzying to look upon, and she forced herself to try and hone in upon her opponent, even when he moved too quickly for her to touch.

A single press of a charm, the blood of a mighty serpent, and she was just as fast, striking just as swiftly, and she felt a roaring sensation in her own veins, in her chest and ears, until she lashed out with a sharp battle cry.

"No amount of strength..." Galenth Dysley lifted his arms with a mighty strike, pushing something invisible into existence, which forced Lightning to stumble away. "You may fight well, but your attempts are simply futile."

Lightning felt the sweat dripping down from her hair, disheveled and tousled from beneath her silver hood, and her breath seemed so warm against the cloth of her mask, enough that her lungs began to ache with it.

"You must know that I could _end_ you just as easily as your friend..." Dysley stepped across the glimmering floor, even when streams of blood dripped from his skin into great pools, slowly corroding the metal surface beneath his feet. "Why do you insist on testing my generosity?"

Lightning hissed beneath her mask, and she let her sword flash out with a promise of further bloodshed. " _Generosity?_ You... These dreams, they've led me to whatever the _hell_ you are... And you're not even trying to fight back!"

"Why destroy something before it has proved its usefulness?" His voice dripped like the blood of his wounds. "Flesh is simple... It breaks, and it heals." He tightened his fingertips into a fist, and his scattered injuries slowly began to fade. "The power of a God."

"You're no god..." Lightning kept her blade at the ready. "You're in league with a _fal'Cie_."

"Clever, child... But not quite." Dysley stood beneath the swirling light, a sun directly overhead, even when it was so very clear that they were still so far beneath the earth. "The people of this city are _empty_... Easy to change, to inspire such a transformation."

"Cie'th?" Lightning felt the urge to charge at him with her blade again, even when it was clear that the damage did no harm. "Why do you need Cie'th? What possible reason-"

"I fear that such a conversation is pointless... Mere wasted breath." Dysley's eyes darkened from beneath the silken veil, but his mouth twitched into an almost gleeful grin. "Your friends are searching for you... We shouldn't disappoint them."

Lightning didn't hesitate to lurch back into a run, to press the charm that she knew could summon such fire, perhaps enough to actually harm the man who taunted her, to strike at his flesh and render it as lifeless as it could be. She leapt, nearly weightless, a bird on the wind, talons outstretched, sword at the ready to stab at him, even as the steely point was swiftly wreathed in fire.

Yet when her blade struck true, when it pierced down into the very heart of the murderous Primarch, there it was, echoing off in the distance, the voice that called her away from her utter concentration for only a mere moment in time, made her gaze turn to see if it was truly Fang.

"Lightning!"

Lightning's eyes went so very bright within that instant, but then, when a sudden snap of magic swiftly tore in retaliation at her body, an attack she couldn't possibly anticipate, her gaze became utterly anguished, and then blank.

* * *

The blood of the Cie'th still poured without pause, thick and dark, tinged with clotted crystals, but the sudden crack of a warhammer shattered the glassy shards, scattering them out into the reddened cobblestone streets.

And within the boulevard itself, a woman in colorful robes slashed back at the swiftly encroaching monsters, and she called out with a war cry that rallied all of her fellow gladiators, those who fought nearby to her, while the rooftop archers worked so silently from above. They nocked their arrows swiftly, loosing them down upon the shambling hordes of Cie'th, ignoring the rabid screeches that came with the breaking of crystal.

A lone warhorse screamed into the heavy sunlight, a riderless steed, but a strong armored grip caught the reins before they could flutter out of control, and a gentle voice spoke out above the furious din of the Cie'th. "Easy, there." She peered at the wary beast from beneath her helmet. "Where is your rider? Another one, lost..?"

"Oi, city girl! We don't have time for this!" The rough-spoken leader of the gladiators kept slashing her blades into the fractured hides of the Cie'th. "Either let him go or put him to use, we need that hammer of yours to keep swinging!"

Heloise glanced back at the gladiator who had spoken, the one she remembered held the name of Zoe. "Right, but I'm less of a 'city girl' than you might think." She swiftly lifted herself with a boot to the stirrup, rising atop the back of the warhorse, before she spurred it into action. "And my hammer hasn't yet lost its touch..." Heloise held it aloft, charging out at the stumbling Cie'th, before she brought down the head of her maul against the shimmering brand of the nearest monstrosity, shattering it before it could even react.

"Not bad, ma'am!" Zoe laughed, breathing roughly to keep up with the frenzied pace of combat. "Just keep hitting them where it hurts!"

The eager warhorse screeched into the air again, fueled by the confidence of his rider, and he galloped back out into the fray, carrying her on into the clamorous din of battle.

* * *

 _"Lightning!"_

Beside the frenzied storm of light and magic, Noel rushed on without words, drawing a great spray blood from beneath his sword, and he slammed his bladed shield at the flickering foe, all while he called out for his fellows to advance, until he realized what he was looking back upon.

In a world of utter sound, an uproar of energy and swirling fire, Fang felt her own teeth sharpen and extend, even when her arms clutched at the one who had fallen so very swiftly, had been thrown back against the walls of the illusion and shattered it, the one had gone so very silent and still.

"Lightning!" Fang felt her voice grow so very hoarse, yet the world around her just went louder and louder. She fought to keep the wild magic away, the energy that tore down at her own soul, yet when she caught sight of her enemy, Dysley himself, readying yet another burst of that terrible rending energy, she knew there was no possible way for her own two arms to block such a thing. " _Lightning_..."

Noel's eyes went so very wide from beneath the shelter of his mask, as did the eyes of the other hunters, still rushing out to attack their foe, yet they just couldn't help but suddenly, silently pause.

Beneath the onslaught of magic, desperately forcing it away, Fang curled her massive wing claws beneath Lightning's fallen form, the body that scarcely drew more than a whisper of breath. She wasn't bleeding much, but Fang could sense the sea of pain, the wound that cried out from within Lightning's very soul, linked back to her flesh in a way that made every moment an unending agony. It was so much that Fang herself began to stiffen and snarl, rising up to her hind talons as she covered Lightning's body in both of her wings.

There were no words to be said, not even a sound, just the eyes of the hunters that suddenly witnessed a fabled beast protecting one of their own, the sheer love in her eyes, shielding their fellow hunter from that feral snap of energy, the magic that darted around the cavern like wildfire.

Fang bore her teeth at anyone who looked at her, holding Lightning so very close, sheltering her within the strength of her wings and scales. "Not her... You won't take her!"

And the voice that echoed throughout the mighty tunnel was anything but displeased. "Finally..!"

Fang's great green eyes widened further than she thought possible, while her pupils narrowed down into mere slits, before she felt herself suddenly disappear within a single whisper of light.

* * *

In a blur of motion and sound, she felt herself start to fall away, toppling on down into nothingness. A flicker of panic crossed her heart when she realized that Lightning was no longer there with her. "Light..." Fang called out into the darkness, beating her wings against the air, while her tail thrashed back and forth beside her grasping talons. " _Lightning!_ "

She felt as though an eternity passed within that empty realm, and her voice grew so raw and ragged from calling, before she finally managed to right herself and catch the very air beneath her wings, but not before the world around her suddenly erupted into a deep, velvet blue.

The stars glimmered in an endless swirl of illumination, and a spark of ethereal light began to shine from atop a certain staff, the chosen weapon of Galenth Dysley.

Fang felt it when her hind limbs hit the ground, or whatever stood beneath her. It didn't look much like any patch of ground she had ever seen, more like a solid, yet translucent layer of light, a world of soft colors and pastel starlight, all beneath the brilliant glow of the sun.

"I was rather surprised, you know." His voice drifted in from all angles, an utter master of that realm, a dimension forged from the sheer power of the endlessly shimmering crown. "To detect the presence of a cousin in Luxerion."

Fang slowly rose up to her hind feet, bracing her wing claws against the clear surface of the strange, glimmering dimension. "A... _Cousin?_ " She narrowed her keen eyes, and the scales on her body grew hot with rage. "What the hell are you?! A fal'Cie? If you really are, then I hate to break it to you..." Fang's words grew even sharper with the sheer fury of her soul. "We're not cousins... You're just _filth_."

"Such arrogance, and from a fellow orphan, as well." Dysley smiled, bracing both of his hands against his walking staff, while the thin veil that once draped over his eyes slowly fluttered away in the unearthly wind. "Cast aside, perhaps an early experiment... Unpredictable, so immune to fate; I can see why your temper flares so swiftly." His teeth flashed with a sharper grin. "We may be the forgotten ones... Buy _y_ _ _ou__ are the abandoned."

Fang bore her teeth as well, standing so very tall above the human figure beneath her. "Big talk for someone so shriveled... Someone who hides behind the work of the gods." And she caught that faint flicker of anger in his eyes, letting it fuel her own, before she laughed at him, long and loud, flaring her wings out with a flash of that deep violet color. "What do you want, then? You can't show your face out there again; your own people must've seen what you did."

"Oh, the masses are already drunk upon their own fear of such a death... Of Etro's faithful." And at his voice, the starlight faded off beneath the brilliant sun, within that realm of swirling clouds and perpetual sky, boundless and unending. "Did you not see their own loyal captain turn to such heresy? Did you not see the crowds cry out in fear at his unspeakable witchcraft, at his pact with the very beasts?" He laughed louder than a strike of iron. "Galenth is dead, perhaps not by Etro's hands, this much is true... But his memory lives on in the heart of uncertainty, and they will blame _her_ for such a tragedy."

"Galenth Dysley..." Fang's tail thrashed against the strange force of energy beneath her feet. "Why do I _know_ that name?" She lowered her head to stare him right in the eye, gazing at the sight of a human, merely _human_ , even with such powerful energy radiating from his presence. "What are you, really?"

"I am... Not Galenth." He smiled at the sight of her massive teeth. "Not anymore, not _anymore_."

And Fang swiftly released her next breath, the roaring fire that struck down with her own fueled emotions, the fury that she had seen Lightning get caught so unaware, cast aside to strike the illusion itself, the magic that had made her soul cry out in such terrible ways. Fang let her fire run wild, harnessing her own anger, that inner rage, the truth of the words that the old man had said, that she was merely a lost, abandoned soul.

Yet from the ashes, the pale crown glinted once, then twice, before that perfect ring of light, a shard of the gods, it all disappeared within an instant.

Fang only leapt ahead, running within the clouds of the sky, and she steadily flapped her wings to bring her aloft, far above the sudden spikes of metal that thrust right forth through the thick layer of vapor, the golden spokes of something far more massive than herself. And as she flew, soaring far above the shining back of a titanic serpent, the mighty coils that rose up from beneath the clouds, Fang realized what she was really gazing upon.

It truly was godlike, a beast too large to exist, more immense than any whale or mammoth she had ever seen. It was a titan in the sky, a creature of sheer boundless white and shining gold, with claws that pierced the heavenly realm, teeth that whistled from beyond the clouds and sang throughout the air, eyes that burned more brilliantly than any single ray of sun, nearly blinding Fang from where she flew.

"I... I am not Galenth Dysley." It was more than a thousand voices at once, so many thousands of eyes, peering out from beneath the metallic surface of the heavenly beast, a living god with that single, simple crown atop his head. "I am... _Barthandelus_." He coiled himself against the surface of the twisting realm, the clouds that faded off beneath the sheer heat of the sun, the rays of light that shone in the wake of his mighty crown. "Lord-Sovereign of this world... The very wyrm to unseat God!"

Fang flapped her wings to keep herself away from those mighty limbs, spokes of gold and rhythmic metal, an utterly angelic machine, so far from what she had ever seen and heard of the fal'Cie.

"An you... A _dragon_." His eyes, those glassy, rotating circles that betrayed his inner nature, the instruments of a mechanical design, mixed in so perfectly with the glossy flesh of his pale scales. "Your soul is that of fire... Not of flesh." His tremendous claws gripped the surface of the sky, and he slowly carried his colossal form even further above the clouds. "Flesh... I can read the flesh as easily as any human word, as any spoken language... But such _fire_ is unceasingly elusive!" Barthandelus laughed in a thousand tones, from agony to sheer splendor. "The crown... It is fire, and it is light, but it is not the soul of a dragon!"

Fang forced herself to dive through the sky, trying to dodge a swipe from that enormous form, the scales that split the sky as if it was mere shimmering water, and she let her lungs roar out with another gout of flame, but even that wasn't enough to keep those massive claws from crashing down against her.

"A gift... From the Gods!" A thousand eyes peered down upon the very signature of that fire, the soul that burned beneath the barrier of scales and flesh. "She could not hide her own soul from the reach of my vision, much less the nature yours!"

And as she tried to stand back up again, Fang felt that same deep pain flaring through her body, and she slowly staggered to her feet, breathing with a slow mix of fire and sound. "Lightning..."

"A useful novelty." Barthandelus coiled himself up within the higher clouds, a thunderous serpent within the endless realm of the sky. "But such things, they soon grow out of their purpose... They are no longer needed."

Fang bore her teeth again, bristling, and both her wings and her deadly claws began to flare with an inner color, a deep violet, a fiery orange, while her eyes welled up with numerous bitter tears.

* * *

"Noel?" A lone voice called out from amid the rubble and whirling magic. "Noel!"

"Here..." Noel struggled to drag his sword out from beneath a crumbling block of stone, but with a hard kick of his boot, he managed to do so, before he rose up to his feet, peering out into the darkness. "One hell of a magic trick."

From where she was slumped against one of the tunnel walls, no longer residing within the mighty, glowing room, Lightning tried to stand up as well, but a thick swell of pain wracked her body from head to toe, and she just couldn't help but gasp from it.

"Lightning?" Noel called out at the sound. "Hell... Someone deal with the darkness, please!"

It was a moment or two before Holly's staff came aglow, illuminating the narrow tunnel that led on towards what was likely the room they'd been in before, but it was slowly starting to collapse beneath the swirl of wild, raging magic.

"Light?" Noel clambered over the fallen rocks and the wooden debris, the support beams that were creaking and falling down all around them. "Don't you dare die on me."

Lightning tried her very best to laugh wryly, despite the pain, and her grip on Overture tightened even further, before she felt her next few words fade out against her tongue.

"Reality... It _changed_." Noel looked back at the crumbling room as he tried to help hoist Lightning to her feet. "There's only one tunnel, look at it! He changed it to look like a maze..."

Lightning's eyes flashed with the pain from her entire body, and she nodded mutely, before she almost stumbled back towards the ground.

"Noel, hold on!" Holly rushed over, over the chunks of rock and fallen dust. "It's... A soul wound."

Lightning felt herself shiver from where Noel was helping her sit upright, but the words her companions were speaking, the calls of the other hunters, those who hadn't yet been crushed beneath the falling stones, it all began to blur together within her mind.

" _Soul_ wound?" Noel started to grit his teeth, and he gently tried to help Lightning stand back up to her feet again. "What did the bastard hit her with?!"

"You can feel it." Holly's hands were glowing with her own magic, slowly tracing over the point where the first bolt of energy had struck Lightning in the center of her chest. "Noel... This much is fatal if left untreated."

And from beneath his mask, Noel's eyes went very dark. "How? How do we fix it?" He swore sharply under his breath. "And where the hell is Fang..? Lost like the others?! If that bastard-"

Holly knelt down to help lift Lightning to her feet. "You don't think that was natural?"

"You _do?_ " Noel moved to hoist up Lightning's other shoulder, using his own arm to keep her upright. "You think he didn't make her look like... Like a _wyrm,_ to fool us?"

"I... I don't know." Holly breathed a sigh of relief when one of the Yusnaan gladiators moved over to lift Lightning up in his arms. "But we've got a life on the line, and no sign of the crown... And this tunnel isn't going to stay intact for much longer."

Noel swore under his breath again, and he turned to stare at the massive swirl of magic, the energy that was growing stronger and stronger with every passing moment, before he signaled for an immediate retreat.

And from the arms of a fellow hunter, within the depths of her own mind, Lightning felt her soul slowly start to detach.

* * *

Fang knew it was merely a game of cat and mouse, a deadly duel of claws and fire, talons and burning flame, even if her own heated breath did little else than to keep herself flying, just to keep evading those massive limbs of the flying serpent, digits that looked far longer than even her own pair of wings.

There was no possible way that Barthandelus could be keeping himself aloft, and yet he _did_ , even with a wingspan that looked far too minuscule for such a massive beast to fly with. Fang knew it was impossible, and even so, she couldn't deny that such an illusion was truly influencing the realm around her, for she could feel the rush of mighty air and the unceasing heat of such a machine, so smooth and lithe, like flesh itself.

She twisted back in midair to send out her own mighty spray of fire, but it was almost as if she was merely breathing at him, just _air._ Perhaps nothing could touch such a beast, not when he himself held the very bounds of reality within his grasp, the power to influence whatever he could possibly reach. She could not let him reach her.

"Barthandelus!" Fang's voice roared into the air, and she kept flaring her own wings to bring her higher and higher, before she whirled back around to strike at that mighty forehead, curved like the dome of a building, and she felt her hind talons scrape against those massive scales, and then finally, against the crown itself. "You're nothing but a trick, not even _real_... Nothing but what you've made up in your own mind!"

His own bellow pierced the sky, and perhaps the heavens beyond, and Fang felt it rattling in her bones, in her own fire, though no matter how much she herself tried scorch that glimmering crown, the ring did little more than tilt from where it hovered. And then, when she flapped away again, she felt it hit her like a mountainside, like she had flown right into the face of solid rock or steel, enough that she toppled limply in midair, watching the world spin around and around. She struck the surface of the realm, the edge of the illusion, bleeding and gasping from such exertion, watching as the mighty wyrm coiled to travel down from up above.

"It's..." Fang's teeth clicked together when she tasted the thick blood on her own tongue, hot as molten steel. "It's not ending like this!" She struggled to stand upright, even when one of her own wings sagged and buckled beneath her, aching and tender from the fall. "Won't let it end like this..."

Yet that heavenly beast merely swirled off in the distance, a titan in the air, perhaps toying with her for just a moment longer, enough that Fang chose to squeeze her eyes shut in defiance. There had been a time, she remembered, when it felt like the entire world was bearing down on her, a time when another wyrm had taught her how to survive.

 _Whenever I'm afraid..._ She'd once blinked with that inquisitive gaze of hers, a fellow dragon from atop the mountainsides. _Whenever it hurts too much for me to bear, I just close my eyes and think of happier times... Times when all of us were around._

And within a haze of blood and hopelessness, when her tail began to curl itself against one of her bleeding feet, Fang squeezed her eyes shut even tighter. She let her mind drift back to the image of them all, a life when Vanille had once tried to make Lightning smile by braiding her hair with flowers, when Serah and Snow joined them there in such a happy place, and then even when Hope let Vanille try to weave flowers into his own hair. Fang remembered it, she remembered the fatherly touch at her shoulder, the pride in Sazh's eyes, how he spoke to her of such things, of her own cleverness and wit.

So Fang opened her eyes, gazing up at the beast who threatened to take such a future away, to crush it down between those mighty jaws, the teeth that glimmered among such fire, and she let the memories take her away. It was on instinct, she would realize later, just a single breath with the intent of flame, yet she'd unknowingly channeled it into something else, a long, keening sound, a war cry for her entire family, the love she kept close for those who she held so dearly, enough to echo all across that impossible, unearthly realm.

It was _sound_ , waves of invisible force that struck like battering claws, forcing the fire of her foe even deeper into himself, to grow far hotter than he had ever intended, keeping it there until it began to flare up with sheer heat and crushing air, to suddenly fracture the inner mechanisms of the machine. Perhaps Barthandelus never anticipated such a thing, believing that Fang could never even breach the outer hide of glimmering scales, or perhaps his perfect design wasn't all that it appeared to be.

With a sly, yet weary look in her eyes, she could see it flickering beneath the seams as Barthandelus coiled and slammed back down towards the surface, within the cracks of the illusion, even as the wounds started to mend themselves with the sheer power of the crown.

" _Clever_... That Etro, the clever one... Found herself a clever wyrm!" Barthandelus sneered at her with his mighty teeth and his thousand eyes, rearing up from where he had fallen, standing with tall arms that flared out with smaller golden wings, seraphic and utterly intricate. "She... Waits for our deaths, plays with the very strands of fate... Cowardly."

Fang stood there, gazing up at the pale, shining artifact. "Then why do you have _her_ crown?"

Barthandelus seethed again, bristling and bellowing from the very depths of his mighty, yet fractured form. "A _mistake!_ The creator... She _knew_ what she did, and yet still committed such a sin!" He clawed at the translucent surface of the realm, forcing himself upright again, breathing such fire from his unending jaws. "Impure... You are a beast of darkness, yet _you_ command the fire... Such things are opposite to what they should be!"

Fang felt one of her limbs cry out protest when she launched herself up yet again, kicking off into the sky with a great flap of her wings, but she merely flew onward, barely dodging another gout of that molten flame.

"I am _fal'Cie_..." His voice rumbled with the strength of a thousand fires. "A child of the gods, the very being to correct the wrongs that they have made... Bhunivelze himself seeks to placate me!" Barthandelus laughed, and his voice shook the very foundation of his own dimensional state. "He believes we seek the same... The _same_ , the same goals... But we are more different than he can ever imagine!"

Fang snarled through the roar of her own flame. "So, _what?_ You think there's something wrong with the universe, so you decide to start killing Etro's followers?!" She called out again, bellowing that same focused sound within the force of her bright burning fire. "You nearly killed her... Not directly, but your Order... You almost killed them all!"

Barthandelus shuddered with the power of that second gust of sound, buckling, burning, _melting_ his inner mechanisms, before he howled in rage, and perhaps what scarcely sounded like agony.

"You're just a sad, broken machine, making everyone else _suffer_ around you..." Fang flew higher and higher, closer and closer, trying to chase down the whirling crown upon his head, mercilessly hunting it with her talons. "Your own pain isn't an excuse!"

And the beast bellowed, a long, trumpeting call, enough that Fang felt sorely numb of it, gripping down at the ring of light with her own claws, scratching and tearing at those pale white scales with the strength of her frenzied wings, and she roared out as well, calling with every inch of her lungs.

It was only when they both fell, toppling from the very height of such heavens, a beast of black and a beast of white, with a single pale crown tumbling between them, only then did Fang flare her wings out to soften her fall. She heard the crash, the resounding echo of the shattered ground, the shards of a translucent illusion that jutted out into the air like mighty icebergs, and she simply lingered there, bleeding from atop the flat surface of a broken shard.

Barthandelus tried to beat his wings against the air, to lift his colossal form again, but when his mighty golden eyes caught sight of the crown itself, it was no longer resting atop his head.

And Fang laughed, a breathless, gasping laugh, moving to rest there in her human form, a form that wasn't in such terrible pain.

"You..." Barthandelus could scarcely summon the strength to move his massive jaws. "...No."

Fang rose up, standing there on her own two limbs, a mere speck beside such a enormous presence, a fallen titan of a wyrm.

"My _birthright_..." Barthandelus reached out with one of his twisted, draconic limbs. "It is not for any other!"

Fang could hear the illusion creaking all around her, and she slowly moved to walk across the jagged shards, gazing down at her own blood, the liquid that glimmered beneath the soles of her shoes. "Time to finish this." She approached the fallen crown, all while changing back into her dragon form, no matter how much it ached and bled. "Nobody else gets hurt... You won't kill anyone else."

Barthandelus bellowed yet again, and his scales began to sharpen, shedding off a great deal of his mighty form, perhaps in an attempt to move without the power of the crown. But Fang was far swifter, and when she hooked one of her wing claws right through the center of that heavenly ring, the crown of endless white, she scarcely had to leap out of the way to avoid another gout of fire.

"I don't take kindly to fal'Cie." Fang lowered her to voice to a deep, chilling rumble. "You could even say it's personal..." She approached those massive eyes, still rotating like the spokes of an immense machine. "Tell me this, and I'll make the pain end... How does one go about getting a l'Cie out of crystal stasis?"

Yet it was almost as if a flicker of confusion crossed those massive eyes, before they went so very dull.

Fang felt a low growl echoing in her throat, and she slowly cursed through her teeth. "You're smarter than any of them... Not just a mindless waste of space." Her words began to snap like a snarling wolf. "You're not dead... Not yet."

It began in a great rumble of that mechanical hide, in metal scales and the loss of glowing blood, oily and slick. In the time it took for Fang to back away, to grip the crown even tighter with her wing claw, she could only watch as the inner workings of the fal'Cie detached themselves, grotesque and primitive, a smaller beast, yet still so powerful and fierce. And there was the fire, Fang felt it on her scales, trying to rip at her soul, but she lashed back at it with every inch of her strength, every muscle in her limbs, every spark of rippling flame in her breath, every strike of her own talons against such a resilient, mechanical beast.

And yet she fell again, gripping at the crown, even when it tumbled from her grasp, spinning and whistling in the open air. She fell beneath the shards of reality, watching the outline of a fal'Cie fall above her, before she lunged out to catch the artifact between her teeth.

It was only later, perhaps beyond another eternity, only then did they fall within another world of endless starlight, within the shimmering darkness, crashing against the outer layer of such a realm, an utterly impossible space. There was still no ground other than that strange translucent energy, and Fang felt the pain as it throbbed through every muscle in her body, so much that she swiftly changed forms to escape it again. She watched him fall, watched Barthandelus crash to the ground in such a smaller form, yet still larger than a dragon. But when he seemed to recover from the sudden shock, he slowly began to rise up, before he started to creep towards her yet again, snarling and spitting that same molten fire from between his slavering teeth.

Fang gripped it in her hands, the ring of light that was no larger than a dinner plate, and she felt her own fear start to swell again. Her foe was simply too resilient, and her own strength was fading fast, enough that when she tried to stand, she nearly staggered right back down to her feet.

"No..." His thousands of voices all called out as one. "No! It is _mine_ -"

Fang could still feel the pain of her dragon form, and she cursed so quietly under her breath. "Damn it all..." She watched those claws as they scratched the glassy surface of the night, watched them scrape against the stars, before she closed her eyes as tightly as she could, and let the first thought that came to mind consume her.

It was a memory she felt, the feeling of soft feathers and a small smile, the warmth of friendship, eventually love, even if it wasn't yet fully realized. There she was, the image of the who one Fang had searched so many years for, the woman of another life, another world... A bird of pale, speckled white.

" _No!_ "

Fang's eyes snapped open despite the pain, and when her gaze caught on what was standing there before her, she nearly felt her breath seize up within her throat.

And there, within that realm of impossible space, a rift in the very fabric of reality, stood a single, confused phoenix.

* * *

"Gods..." Noel tried to shield his eyes from the crackling energy, the swell of magic that was rapidly seeping up from beneath the ground, all throughout the gardens of the churchyard. "That stuff isn't stopping!"

The one who was carrying Lightning, he turned his gaze towards the rest of the city. "Where are we taking her?"

Noel lifted his fingertips to his mouth, and he whistled with a keening call, a signal to any other hunters who were near to their own little group. "Somewhere safe, somewhere we can try to treat this..." He turned to look at Holly. "How _do_ you heal a soul would?"

And from beneath her mask, Holly's gaze flickered to the ground. "I... I'm not a physician, I can only tell you what I've read-"

" _How_ , Holly?" Noel tried to keep his voice calm, signaling for the rest of his group to move away from the gathering magic. "We can't let a sister die on us."

Holly took a very deep breath. "We'll need the clerics."

* * *

Fang peered at the glimmering shades of black and white, the way those long feathers reflected the lights of the stars, and she felt her breath catch in her throat again.

Lightning, another _Lightning_ , one from another world, still standing there in the darkness, she slowly began to back away from the approaching fal'Cie.

"Light!" Fang struggled to try and stand up, and she gripped the crown even tighter than before. "What... What happened?"

Lightning simply tilted her head at the sight of the massive, bleeding wyrm, the fal'Cie that was trying to reach them, before she spoke in a language that Fang couldn't even begin to understand.

"No..." Fang reached up to pull Lightning even further away from the advancing beast. "Why are you _here?_ You can't... You don't _exist_ here."

And almost as if she wasn't aware of such a reality, Lightning suddenly turned to look down at Fang with more than a hint of fondness in her gaze. "Fang..." Her feathers were longer, and she stood a bit taller, clearly quite older than what Fang's memories had shown.

Fang swallowed back a small glimmer of fear. "That's right, guess you're from later on in that life, eh?" She glanced at the clear muscular strength of Lightning's arms. "You'd better fly away; he's not in the mood to play around."

Lightning almost seemed to jump when Barthandelus bellowed again, charging out at them with every ounce of his remaining strength, yet in a gleam of color and motion, it wasn't a woman who took to the air, it was a mighty, flapping falcon.

"What did I _do_..?" Fang almost hissed at the crown in her hands, and she hurried to stumble away from the enraged fal'Cie, even when it felt as if her own strength was starting to wane even further. "Was it-" She barely even realized her own next action, an instinctual sort of test, just the mere notion of another life. It was a person she hadn't thought of in many, many years, yet it was a world that held someone who could surely aid her in such a situation.

And there, as soon as she felt the memory grow strong, there stood a proud, mighty figure on horseback, a dark knight clad in the gleaming armor of warfare.

"Holy hell..." Fang wasn't sure whether to laugh out loud or to sink even further against her knees. " _I_ did this, the _crown_..."

The warhorse suddenly squealed at the sight of the massive monster, and without hesitation, the knight called out as well, though she did seem a bit confused at the sight of her apparent doppelganger on the ground, crouching there without much armor at all. She spoke in yet another language, something that sounded like a sharp, definitive order, before she shouted out loud and spurred her massive horse, calling for him to charge at the fal'Cie.

Fang reached out with another instinct, trying to warn her past life of the flame, but the mounted knight simply galloped on without pause, lifting her shield up to ward off as much of the fire as she possibly could. And with that, and with the phoenix who suddenly screeched out into the air and began to claw at Barthandelus as well, Fang herself lifted crown up before herself, thinking of those who could fight such beast, those could aid her in breaking the bounds of the illusory realm.

A woman with a strange weapon stepped forth, looking around in slight confusion, before another moved forward with such pale wings at her back, one who didn't even hesitate to launch herself into the air, a version of Lightning who swiftly summoned a gleaming sword to slash at the metallic scales of the fal'Cie, even when he roared and reared up to strike at her.

And from where Fang knelt within that starry realm, wondering if there was a way to heal herself, to fight back alongside them, she found herself thinking of even more, of a version of herself who wielded a dark spear, and then one who once hunted the wilds as a shapeshifting beast, as if the woods were her own home, and she thought of the Lightning who once fought as a solider in the sprawling forces of an empire, a woman with sharp instincts and an even sharper glaive, before Fang thought of one final life.

From the surface of the heavenly realm, dark spines rose in sheer agitation, while an unmoving mouth parted to reveal such deadly teeth, before those eyes, those deep green eyes, they shone with twin rings of fiery orange.

And with the crown, the relic that could rend apart reality itself, Fang willed for one final thing, just the strength to stand up and fight again, to heal her wounds away, magic that had never even existed in her own world, but with the power of an utterly godlike relic...

She rose as a dragon, a legend of that world, with teeth that snapped the very promise of death and the roaring blood of a fire, she flew on with the pale crown hovering between her silver horns, flanked by those she had summoned to fight alongside her. Her wings flared violet, and her claws burned with the orange hue of flame, rending and clashing at the twisted scales of the fal'Cie, before she flapped away to avoid a fearsome gout of fire.

A lycanthrope roared into the night, howling as it clawed down against those metal scales, finding the unearthly flesh beneath, while the phoenix veiled herself in crackling magic, within the brilliance of electricity, yet below, far below, a mighty knight struck true against the limbs of the fal'Cie, atop the back of her bravely galloping horse.

Yet the dragon, Fang herself, gazing down from so far above, she summoned her own fire into the shape of sound once more, calling out to reassure them all, to tell them that she was no threat.

Pointed ears pricked at the sound of such things, and the wary beast, a figure of hard carapace and watchful eyes, of spikes that kept bristling at the sight of a strange realm, she started to click back at the sound of the song, before she leapt out right into the fray.

Fang felt the cold wind on her scales, the air against her eyes, and she dove back down like a falling star, wreathed in fire and song, facing the very visage of her foe, the vicious beast who snarled right back at her with teeth of bladed metal and a breath of fiery rust. She could see them, her past lives, Lightning's past lives, and she swiftly tucked her wings in and struck.

Beneath the howling din of the beast, a figure from below, a past life of Fang with a rather advanced weapon, she fired upon the softer material beneath the scales of the fal'Cie, though she stepped aside when the massive lycanthrope came barreling forward again, leaping up to bite at the exposed flesh. Yet the other beast, a creature without fur, she turned to rip at the metal itself, even when a clawed limb struck down at her own carapace, rending deep enough beneath it to draw blood, so much that she dropped away without a sound.

From her desperate grapple with the very face of the fal'Cie, the lionlike visage that bore such deadly teeth, flaring those wide metallic wings, Fang channeled her own soul into the strength of her fire, struggling to burn the metal away. She saw the spiny beast fall from the corner of her vision, but there was little she could do to help her, not when Barthandelus swiftly sank his own front claws into the scales of Fang's chest, drawing such blood, the waves of crimson that dripped down across the heavenly metal of his own hide.

Yet below, the beast slowly righted herself from the ground, and in the low, rumbling clicks that almost sounded like laughter, she forced her carapace to jut right out again from where it had been torn away, regenerating it back into existence.

"You're still-" Fang's teeth snapped together when a desperate blow rattled the edge of her jaw. "Still not dying easily, are you?!"

"This is _my_ realm!" Barthandelus roared back into the force of Fang's fire, summoning his own crackling flame, before he kicked out with his hind limbs, still so very serpentine, struggling to keep his ground against her. "That is _my_ crown, you defiler..."

And Fang knew in that moment that she was at a disadvantage; no matter how much influence she held over the crown itself, the realm of the sky was still not her own, and without the knowledge of how to properly use the artifact, what possible way could she win against him?

 _Smoke and mirrors._ Fang narrowed her eyes at the massive foe she grappled against. _That's all you are... This place isn't even real._

Perhaps the realization came too quickly, for just as soon as the carapace creature had leapt back up to strike at the fal'Cie, both the ground beneath their feet and the upper realm of so many glittering stars, it all suddenly ceased to be.

Fang felt her eyes sting with the sudden sunlight, the blaze that was still directly overhead, the day of the solstice, almost akin to the crown above her horns, which suddenly fell away with the absence of impossible gravity.

And they were falling, dragon and fal'Cie, yet when Fang looked back at him, gazing at the sheer horror of Barthandelus himself, she realized what else the crown had done. She'd seen it once, of course, the way the fal'Cie were chained to their earthly prisons, a monster that spanned an entire vestige itself, but she never expected to see him so... Tattered.

Blood scattered out in the sky, dark and oily, a creature who had torn himself out from the very depths of the earth, wheezing flesh mixed with the terrible fixtures of a mechanical beast, scarcely even a wyrm. It was his true form, Fang realized, not the celestial creature that she had seen before, one who was merely a product of his imagination made reality... And this beast, this fal'Cie, the very thing that put him apart from his cousins up above, it was his simple lack of wings.

Fang let her claws detach from the pallid hide, the flesh that looked so sickly, hidden from sunlight for so many years, a forgotten beast. The sight of it was enough to make her feel the slightest shred of pity, even if the realization that she was swiftly falling as well, that the realm had truly been somewhere up in the sky, it all suddenly took the forefront of her mind. But even as Barthandelus fell, wheezing and wailing into the light of the sun, blinded, ripped away from his illusions, bereft of the crown, he simply fell further and further, until the ground so far below, the city of Luxerion itself, the buildings became close enough to count.

And Fang realized, while she flapped her wings against the rushing air, she realized that the crown was still whistling down through the sky, as well as the ones she had summoned.

The phoenix of course, she was flying, as was the winged seraphim, but the others were growing close to the verge of panic, fighting against the air itself as they toppled down, even when Fang herself dove in to try and catch them. With a dawning sort of panic, she realized that she couldn't possibly hold them all, and without the crown... She felt her talons close around the most resilient of the group, the creature she had once been, but Fang knew that to spare the pain of the others crashing down to earth, that she needed to send them back to wherever they'd came from in the first place, back into her own memories.

The crown kept spinning in the air, twirling and singing there beneath the steady sunlight, and when Fang dove down to catch it between her claws, she realized that they were all nearly upon the ground of the city. So with a single thought, a mere glimmer in her mind, she willed most of them away, the ones who could not save themselves.

It was in that moment that a howl pierced the very air of Luxerion, when a blooded beast suddenly crashed straight into the height of the chapel spire, impaled at the very top of the hall, far above the crackling magic that threatened to erupt from underneath.

Fang felt the swell of pain as she less than gracefully dropped against the edge of a rooftop, still clutching her past life in her talons, yet she couldn't help but drag herself upright to gaze at the sight of the Hall of Devotion itself. There was something far below, something so _strong_ , enough that she quickly released her grip on the carapace creature to let her see as well. Yet the beast simply hissed and clicked at the sight of it, backing away along the rooftop, even when a certain falcon landed there as well.

"Damn..." Fang tightened her grip against the shimmering crown. "This place is set to go, isn't it?" She looked up at the sight of the fallen fal'Cie, the one who had once named himself Barthandelus, one had somehow ripped himself from the depths of a forgotten vestige, and Fang narrowed her eyes when a certain black and white creature began to run right through the crackling magic. "Not a smart move." She watched it for a moment, before she turned her gaze towards the phantoms, towards the thunderous sounds of the battles within the streets, the Cie'th that wailed on without pause. "He'd better not get himself killed..."

Yet the mighty lion leapt high atop the hall, larger and swifter by the gathered strength of his city, nearly as large as the Fal'Cie, for he was seeking out the source of the pain, the corruption, until his eyes looked upon the very monster itself.

Barthandelus simply waited, perhaps resigned to his own fate, already bleeding so quickly without the power of the heavenly crown. Yet as soon as the lion roared out in victory, there was a deep, deafening rumble, an eruption from far below.

Had the fal'Cie truly succeeded, then, Fang wondered, had Barthandelus sundered the very house of the sun god himself? She watched the rubble fly, the fire that rose so swiftly from the earth in great clouds of sparkling ash, magically fueled by something so deep beneath the ground itself. The tunnels, she remembered, perhaps they were simply a fail-safe, just in case those 'impervious' plans were to fail, to cut off at least one of his creators from his greatest source of prayer.

The rippling blast razed the closest buildings, crumpling them to the ground like mere twigs or scattered paper, and the hot air that roared up through the streets broke the glass of a thousand windows and blew open every door that wasn't bolted down, and a certain shudder echoed out from the wandering hordes of Cie'th, before they slowly started to fall.

Yet even amid the destruction, Fang looked away, far more concerned with the location of her own people, and of Lightning herself, but she paused when she realized that all but one of her summoned companions was gone.

The phoenix was steadily fading away, though she still had the strength to fly up and perch herself between Fang's shoulders, seeking shelter there. Fang closed her eyes for a moment, and she prayed that her own Lightning was somewhere close, somewhere that stood far enough away from the explosion, but when she felt that familiar stirring sensation in her blood... She was off in a single leap, for it _was_ close, likely not far from the ruins of the hall itself, yet when she suddenly caught sight of the fallen Cie'th on the ground below, within a street that faced the fallen chapel itself, and at the masked figures who had likely witnessed the full eruption, she suddenly realized her own mistake.

Lightning, who was touching a charm from her leather wristband, holding Fang's own fire within her fingertips, she was protected by none other than the hunters of Etro's faith, sworn to the deaths of the creatures who stood beyond the balance, to those who posed a threat towards mankind.

Fang lowered her head slightly, still perched atop the edge of the roof. She held the crown between her teeth, yet it clattered down to the tiles when she moved to call out with her remaining strength. "Lightning!"

The hunters watched her, and they waited, circled all around their injured kin, but not even Noel drew his sword upon the wyrm who stood so far above.

"Lightning..." Fang felt her voice grow softer, almost desperate. "Please."

Lightning's gaze slowly turned, and she stared blearily up at Fang, still touching that single charm upon her wrist.

"I'm sorry." Fang leaned over from the rooftop, even when one of the hunters gripped at the hilt of his blade. "Don't _die_ , Light... I'm sorry."

"Fang." Lightning's voice was just as soft, just as weary. "I can... Deal with a little pain." She closed her eyes when a figure on horseback approached, likely to carry her somewhere safer. "I won't die on you, I'm tougher than that..." Lightning tried not to gasp on her own ragged breath. "And you know it."

Fang glanced at the crown that stood between her wing claws, and then at the faces of the city itself, those who had wandered out in the wake of the fallen Cie'th, into the silent, winding streets, gazing up at the dragon who perched there upon a rooftop. And the phoenix, the massive bird on her back, her pointed ears perked at the very sounds of pain, before she fluttered down, landing right beside where a few of the hunters were helping Lightning back to her feet.

"Huh..." Lightning tried to smile wryly. "You're one weird-looking falcon."

The phoenix said nothing, still slowly fading away, yet she leapt up and disappeared straight into Lightning herself, even though a ragged swear crossed her lips when it was over with.

" _What_..?" Lightning shivered, gripping at herself as if a phantom itself had entered her body, though it almost felt as if nothing had changed, only something warm, something that dulled the pain, enough that she felt comforted enough to close her eyes, to allow herself to be carried up on horseback.

And when Fang moved to step across the roof, even with the wary gazes of the hunters, she suddenly paused when she felt her wing touch against the fallen crown. "Oh." She let her gaze drift towards Noel, who stood bereft of the avian mask, before she swiftly tensed at the sound of rushing air.

Yet it wasn't even a shade of the threat she had faced, not a vengeful phantom out for her very soul; it was something far different that suddenly landed upon the opposite rooftop, someone who stared right back at her with a rather majestic set of eyes.

"There is work to be done." She spoke without much more than a hint of emotion, only wistfulness. "Bring the crown... We must see that it never inflicts such terror again."

Fang took one last glance at the rider on horseback, the armored figure and the tall warhorse, and at the way Lightning looked so weakened from the magical wound, yet when they rode off into the city streets, the urge to follow them grew even greater.

"Please." The beast of steel blue, so much smaller than Fang, she leaned forward from her rooftop perch. "There is nothing we can do for her now... We are not beasts of nurture." She watched the way that Fang slowly picked up the crown once again. "At least... Not naturally."

Fang felt her gaze travel back again towards those on the ground, to the way Noel stared at the second dragon, perhaps trying to hide that little hint of affection in his gaze... But Fang's eyes were keen enough to catch it.

* * *

She could still feel the same sense of detachment in her soul, the sensation of floating away, even when the thrum of heavy hoofbeats echoed in her ears, within the streets that stretched on beneath mountains of dead Cie'th, no longer actively plaguing the city.

"Hold on, Lightning." She recognized the voice as Heloise's, even if it was rather muffled. "That sort of wound... I won't lie to you, you're in for a rough time."

Lightning felt her eyes slip shut of their own accord. "Where are you taking me?"

"To Poltae... To the healers." Heloise spurred the horse on into an even faster gallop. "Just be glad there aren't any more Cie'th here to crush."

Lightning could smell the sharp tang of blood from that warhammer, though she could barely find the strength to open her eyes again. "Healers?"

"Medicine, the clerics." Heloise's armor creaked and jingled with every swift step the warhorse took. "A soul wound... That's work for the clerics."

And Lightning closed her eyes once more, resting back against the surface of that armor, almost solid enough to remind her of dragon scales. Would the other hunters try to hurt Fang if she returned? The thought of it made Lightning's stomach turn, and she felt those deep pains swell up again, even with the lingering effects of that strange, ghostly presence, the speckled white bird that Fang had brought with her...

Lightning's mind drifted away from the sounds of mourning in the streets, far from the embers that floated on from the explosion, far from the feeling of wind on her face. She knew that her eyes were still closed, but for some reason, it didn't seem to stop the world around her from turning utterly white.

 _I must offer my concessions._

Lightning almost wanted to jump at the sound of that inner voice, or even just open her eyes again, but all she could see was an endless realm of brightness, along with a single, glowing focal point.

 _Your wound is that of the sun... Inflicted by a force who spun so fatefully out of control. Such things are unforgivable._ His voice, if it was even a 'he', echoed out into the swirling realm of light. _But as we are formal combatants... You have earned a certain degree of my respect._

Lightning felt her soul moving through the distant place, through the light that burned so brightly. _You..._

 _Your people call me by many names._ He descended in the visage of twin burning eyes, of a face that was far too unworldly to be real. _I am merely here to offer... As I said, concessions. You fought well for a mortal soul._

Lightning could scarcely muster up the strength to reply. _It doesn't feel like I did._

 _As humble as you are strong..._ His smile twitched with the swirling rays of the sun. _Such fire, and not even of this world... Your friend has given you a great gift on this day._

 _What are you talking about..?_ Lightning tried not to make her inner voice sound too irritated or snappy. _Are you really the god of fire, or am I just hallucinating?_

His gaze turned to the upper heights of the brilliant realm. _Ah._ _To put it simple terms, your soul was struck by the power of the sun... And I can sense that you've traveled to the earthen realms._ Bhunivelze smiled at her with that toothy, almost draconic grin. _Fire, daylight... Electricity, perhaps, all are within my domain... It does not matter which patron you might settle with, you, like the dragons, are_ _ **mine**_ _by your very nature._

Lightning would have sworn that she felt a chill in her soul if the realm wasn't so arid and warm. _Yours..._

 _A woman of light, in service of darkness._ His inner voice grew a bit less pleased. _A shame that Etro's claws have hooked themselves so very deeply... But that is of no matter, and neither is that of my crown._

Lightning's mind flashed back to the way Fang had held such an ethereal thing between her teeth. _The White Crown..? Etro's crown._

His tone rose even further, almost to the point of inflicting pain. _No... A mistake in the ways of our creator._ Bhunivelze's form suddenly extended into that of brilliant wings, and of a bright, heavenly light that shone within his watchful eyes. _The fal'Cie may be fools, rather gullible fools... But their logic is occasionally on point._ He leaned in, gazing deep into Lightning's soul. _You see, I could not have my crown,_ _ **my**_ _crown falling into the wrong hands... Even my own followers could have learned to gain such power._

Lightning felt a glimmer of faint, weary amusement cross her mind. _And what would they have done? Usurp you?_

 _You jest, but such things..._ Bhunivelze sank his talons down into the pale depths of the sunlight realm. _This is my solstice, my holy day... Not a day of men, but of a God!_ He rose up with those shimmering wings, sharply metallic, utterly without flaw. _You may already know that our powers wane... That Etro's cursed influence keeps us far within those bounds, that we can never achieve pure perfection with such a blemish._ He peered straight at Lightning again. _The White Crown is_ _ **mine**_ _... It was destined to be mine, it is a piece of myself! Such things... It is a blessing and a chain upon me, drawing on my power in order to keep me from my right as God, ruler of the very sun, of life itself!_ His eyes seethed with scarcely contained rage. _But now... The dragons will either destroy it, or it will slip away into the world again... The fal'Cie was far too arrogant to deliver it to me, too bloated with greed to destroy it himself; he held my very power at his command, you see._

Lightning didn't reply for a very long while, waiting for that great anger to fade. _And is that why we're speaking right now?_

 _I believe you might have already gathered what it takes to commune with a god._ Bhunivelze's voice grew softer again, a pleased, almost crooning tone. _As I said, I sense that you've been to the earthen realms... And I assume that you used the earth itself to do so._

Lightning wanted to nod, but her soul had no such features. _So, to meet with the god of light... I had to get hit with his magic?_

 _Those are not the exact words I would use, but they are suitable enough..._ Bhunivelze lowered himself, gazing even deeper into her soul. _And you, a woman of both fire and light... It is even more strange to me that you would choose death over life as your guide._

 _My parents were hunters..._ Lightning wanted to shrug. _And don't you think it balances itself out?_ She almost recoiled when a deep, rumbling hiss echoed deep into the brightness of the realm, enough to cause her further pain. _Without contrast... Without it, we'd be-_

 _You merely limit yourself!_ Bhunivelze rose up again, flaring his mighty wings. _You deny power itself... You, so much like the others, so promising, yet so... So disappointing, you deny your own brilliance in lieu of stability!_ His metallic wings bristled with the sheer furor of his unearthly voice. _What is fire without shadow? It is perfect! Perfection incarnate! Yet for every step it takes, every surface it strikes upon... There is always that cursed darkness._ He turned away to reveal his second, darker face, still seething with the power of a thousand smoldering stars. _My crown... My White Crown, with it, I was perfect._

Lightning watched fire swell all around her, and she swore that no earthly heat could ever burn so brightly.

 _The world is changing... Our powers may yet grow again._ Bhunivelze's gaze turned towards the sky of his realm. _I sense you have questions to ask._

Lightning wanted to nod again. _Were the dragons truly abandoned?_

 _No... No._ Bhunivelze's claws scraped the realm again. _My gift to them, their fire, their wings... Their burning souls._ His voice almost grew mournful. _They were nearly perfect! Even Etro, dear sister, cursed sister... Her gift almost truly perfected them._

Lightning's soul wandered further into the realm of light, a drifting, injured wisp. _What if perfection can't exist for us?_

Bhunivelze almost seemed to ponder such a thing. _No... That cannot be true, all things may exist if they are given enough will to do so._

 _But the dragons, they're still human underneath._ Lightning paused when she felt a slight call from her own body, a further source of pain, but her soul was still detached enough to ignore it. _Humans are flawed by nature._

 _You do not have to be._ Bhunivelze's voice grew rather fond again, almost jesting. _Such a shame that you are one of Etro's path... I rather enjoy your sense of wit._ He turned to directly address her again. _Do not die today, or any other day, or I shall be rather disappointed._

Lightning almost wanted to scoff at him. _It's not like I asked to get hit with the power of a magical artifact... If you really want me to stick around, how about fixing what happened?_

 _Alas, such influence is lost..._ Bhunivelze's visage peered at her from afar, yet his presence remained rather close. _And the art of healing does not quite exist as it once did, so many world ago._ His eyes, scarcely 'eyes' in the traditional sense, more akin to spheres of light, they peered right into her soul, and they soon moved to linger beside her. _Though, the power of the crown..._

 _No, no one on earth should wield it._ Lightning wanted to sigh. _Even if it would save me from one royal headache..._

His chuckle shook the realm to its very depths. _As I said, do not die... And I will expect an even more sporting duel should our blades ever cross again, perhaps as fated by past events._

Lightning wanted to narrow her eyes at him, or at least convey that thought. _What are you talking about? Dysley attacked me, not you._

 _Indeed, he was simply a rogue pawn, but there are still two sides upon the board._ Bhunivelze's gaze glimmered with the promise of sunlight. _Perhaps you might find yourself better suited to a coat of your own colors... Or perhaps your usefulness will prove to be a hindrance towards me._ His mighty wings almost seemed to shrug, before his presence faded into the world of light itself. _Either case, do not linger here; your soul will find little healing in my realm, and likely no respite._

And Lightning soon moved away, retreating back into her own place of being, the home of her own soul, even when it felt like a bit of the flickering fire still lingered on inside her.

* * *

Despite the circumstances, despite the solid fact that she could still see the smoke of the city from so far above, despite everything else, Fang knew that it was _so_ good to truly fly again. She had the air beneath her wings, blustering against her scales, and her lungs felt absolutely free to breathe again, drawing on the fresh winds of the sunlit ocean.

Though there was still the question of the unusual stranger, the dragon who looked even more diminutive than Vanille; how exactly could she fit into the events that had occurred? Fang knew it was futile to ponder such things while they were flying so very high above the city, so far from the rubble and the fallen Cie'th, from both sides of the conflict, yet she couldn't help but wish that she was still back at Lightning's side. What sort of wound could make her looked so pained, even without the threat of bloodshed? It tugged at Fang's heartstrings, making her want to simply dive back down and find her again, but the crown between her teeth held much greater urgency for the world itself, she knew that much for a fact.

And as the day drew further and further into afternoon, beyond the height of the solstice, when the chill air of the mountain nipped at Fang's open wounds, she realized exactly where the strange dragon was leading her.

A light layer of snowfall drifted down around the mountainside, coating it beneath a soft, frigid white. It was only a matter of minutes before the wyrm of such steely blue color landed atop one of the stone peaks, perched there with her head held high. Fang flared her wings to land as well, a speck of darkness within the mighty fields of white, and she felt her talons sink down against the snow.

"It's finally drawn to this." The other wyrm gazed up at the sky, and her golden horns almost seemed to glint in the heavy sunlight, while the snowfall slowly melted against her scales. "The outcome was always uncertain, that much was clear... But to have killed him so swiftly-" Her green eyes caught upon Fang's gaze. "You used it, did you not?"

Fang dropped the crown against a patch of rocky snow. "Yeah, he would've whooped my sorry ass if I didn't."

"I suppose the deed was necessary..." She lowered her gaze towards the crown itself, to the swirls of gold and silver, the inner facets of that glinting shard of sun. "Now, our work may truly begin... My name is Yeul."

Fang's eyes suddenly widened in recognition, but she didn't comment on such things, not when Yeul herself seemed so very at peace with their place upon the mountainside, steeped in some other form of inner balance, the kind that radiated as thickly as the heat of a fire.

"What do your keen eyes see, my friend?" Yeul slowly stepped down from the peak of the mountainside, moving out into the steady snowfall. "As dragons, we are quite gifted with the power of sight."

Fang tried not to snort at that. "Feels like my gifts haven't ever helped... I've never 'seen' as much as everyone else."

"Perhaps you must only learn how to look." Yeul stood beside the crown, directly opposite to Fang. She gazed back into those dark eyes, almost a mirror to her own shade of green. "But it is not always as simple as it sounds."

Fang paused to sniff at one of the wounds on her wings, one that wasn't quite healed by the power of the crown, and she started to lick the blood away. "So, we've got work to do?"

"Indeed." Yeul's gaze turned to the crown itself. "Do you see why it cannot fall into any hands, not even those with the best intentions? The chaos... Even the kindest heart can inflict great devastation."

Fang winced at the pain in her wing. "Yeah, I get it, kiddo." She caught a subtle flash of indignation in Yeul's eyes, but Fang merely chuckled at it, leaning off to the side. "Sorry, you just remind of a friend... You're little, like her."

Yeul looked at Fang's wings. "You're injured."

"Oh, _really?_ " Fang smirked right through the twisting aches in her body, the twinges that began to grow even stronger as the adrenaline faded. "Hadn't noticed it through the whole 'getting tossed around like a rag doll' thing..."

"Are you well enough to help me?" Yeul moved one of her own wing claws to gesture at the crown. "We must see this through to the end."

Fang slowly stood upright, despite the pain in her limbs. "Just as long as you tell me exactly what stake you have in this... And why you want it destroyed."

Yeul began to move to the side, circling around the fallen crown. "I suppose my presence has proved rather elusive lately." She watched as Fang copied the motion, easily walking throughout the heavy snowdrifts. "I do not often interfere in such things... Not unless there is no other option."

Fang watched the snowflakes melt against the heat of her scaly hide. "Who are you, Yeul? Why did the Shadow Hunter look so happy to see you?"

Yeul almost seemed to smile. "Noel is one who can keep a secret... Why do you think Caius chose him as a successor?" Her voice, no matter how emotionless it was, it almost started to sound wistful again. "The love of a dragon spreads as a rift, uncontrollable... There is a reason he is the only one who knows." Yeul held her head up high again. "Etro's faith requires the eyes of a seer... And what better eyes could they possess than a dragon's?"

Fang kept walking through the snow, pacing around the crown. "You work for Etro?"

"She he;d just as much of an influence in our creation as any other." Yeul stared at the slight confusion in Fang's eyes. "We are children of the gods... We have a duty to uphold that same balance between the four." She rose up again, slowly flaring her wings, readying the fire within her soul. "And an object like this... I've seen much of the sheer terror it can unleash."

Fang stood on her hind limbs as well, curling her wings aloft, before she joined in with the deep rumble of gathering fire, readying her own flame, and it was only moments before twin gouts burned off into the deep whirl of the snow, into the silvery shine of the crown, down into the golden core of the heavenly ring itself.

"No..." Yeul spoke between breaths, between bursts of her blazing fire. "Not even a fracture..."

"Keep at it." Fang readied another bout of her own flame. "If you're a seeress, can't you see how this'll turn out? If we can break it or not?"

Yeul slowly shook her head. "This object is... Not of the material world." She released another roaring blaze, a fire that burned so brightly, before her mouth grew very empty again. "If the old legends are correct, it is a shard taken from Bhunivelze himself... Given to Etro to keep the balance between them."

Fang stared at the glimmering crown. "And Bhunivelze got a piece of Etro?"

"The Black Crown." Yeul nodded, before she started to gather up another burst of flame. "They have always existed... Drifting between worlds without regard for whether or not they should even exist." She breathed out yet again, sending her fire to scorch the heavenly shard, but it still would not react. "They are beyond everything that we are, much like the gods, and the fal'Cie themselves... I can scarcely see them in the flow of time, even now, other than what they could inflict."

Fang paused again, gazing out at the horizon, at the sun above Luxerion, before she moved to peer at the world below. "It could destroy everything, couldn't it?" She gripped her wing claws against the mountain rocks, trying to solidify her hold upon the world. "Something like that... Noel was right, nobody can have it, not the Order, not Etro's faith." Fang peered out over the Wildlands, towards Yusnaan, glimmering on beside the sea. "Nobody..." She turned around on the mountain peak, so high above the world, enough that she could see the entire expanse the lush forests and the sprawling wastelands that loomed beyond the mountain itself, the Dead Dunes, and then the deep, shimmering ocean that stretched to the south, the palest of any sea. "Nova Chrysalia... A _new chrysalis_ , the land of new beginnings."

Yeul moved to gaze down at the island as well. "Now home to a force of destruction, unless we can break it."

"I don't think that's possible." Fang felt her tail sweep slowly against the mountainside, and she sank her hind talons been deeper into the rocky snow. "It's like trying to break a god, you can't do it without something just as strong." She suddenly turned, still perched atop the peaks. "Just as _strong_..."

"What is it?" Yeul visibly straightened her stance at the gleam of hope in Fang's tone. "What do you have in mind?"

"Something crazy... From a crazy bunch of people." Fang moved across the snow, stepping just as softly as a sheet of silk. "But there's nobody else who knows how to win better than they do, nobody knows better than the hunters."

Yeul's eyes went very wide when Fang reached for the crown. "You know what it can-"

"Relax, I've used it before... I think I can do this without causing anything catastrophic." Fang felt as her claws touched the ethereal surface, something that she knew could never have occurred naturally, a shard from the very heart of a god, sheer power incarnate. "If you can't solve a problem in the way you're supposed to solve it..."

Fang could sense the deep warmth of the fire itself, a brother to her own soul, the scorching heat of the dragons, the White Crown, prized to the greater wyrm. And Yeul merely watched, gazing down at the way the lines of light suddenly unraveled between Fang's pair of wing claws, the magic of a god undone by its very own strength.

"It's... Over." Fang soon sank her folded wings back down against the snow, and she watched as the light began to fade out from existence, slowly dimming itself against the dark scales of her wings and chest. "It's gone."

Yeul's voice sounded so much softer than before. "How did you know?"

Fang closed her eyes to try and dull the pain, before she walked off towards the peak of the mountain again, where she slowly spread her wings beneath the light of the sun. "It's simple... We just had to cut the knot."

* * *

Hushed voices echoed out into her ears. "Where did her soul go? What happened, exactly?"

"I... I don't know, but you can _feel_ the damage; something strange flew right into her after it, like a ghost." The voice paused. "Gods..."

Lightning could tell that her own eyes were open, but beneath the haze of blurry lights and faded colors, the faint outlines of faces and distant shapes, she could scarcely even tell where she was, much less who was holding her.

"What _did_ this?" It was a voice she had never heard before. "Magic of the soul, it's nearly non-existent..."

"That's not important now." The kindly voice of Heloise spoke yet again, though her tone was completely tinged with urgency. "I could see her fading off on horseback; she needs medical attention, _now_."

Lightning tried to move or to speak, but when she shakily lifted herself up into a sitting position, a strong set of arms kept her from toppling over.

"Lightning?" The voice was so soft and gentle. "Please, stay still."

"Where-" Lightning felt her senses fill with the aroma of stone dust and medical salve, and she forced herself to stay upright, even though her entire body was shivering without control. "What's happening?"

"Do you remember what happened?" Heloise held Lightning steady while one of the clerics took hold of those shaking hands, trying to stabilize the wounds in her soul. "I wasn't there, too many Cie'th to fend off in the streets... But they all fell when that monster died."

Lightning felt her eyes well up when the pain increased tenfold, rippling right through her soul. "I was... Bloodying the old man."

"They said you fought well." Heloise kept holding Lightning from where she was sitting behind her, keeping her still. "But when you were struck down..."

Lightning's mind flickered back to the image of Fang, to the feeling of those dark wings holding her close, keeping the wild magic at bay.

"Perhaps we should focus on mending." Heloise glanced down at her helmet, which was resting on the floor of the little stone outpost. "Just breathe, Lightning... Let the clerics work."

Lightning tried not to hiss in pain or tug her hands away, for the attempts of the clerics seemed almost rudimentary, simple probing of her soul, not in any way comfortable or soothing, but she knew better than to spurn their help. The minutes passed by with that same sort of pain, deep within the rending of her soul, even with the way they tried to mend the damage there, but it felt like almost nothing had changed by the time a knock echoed from the door.

One of the clerics rose up to his feet, yet when he moved to see who was standing outside, he quickly made room for them to pass.

"Professor?" Heloise glanced up from where she was sitting on the floor. "Professor Lathom, please, we're tending to the wounds of-"

"A _soul_ wound, they said? Most interesting." Lathom knelt down beside Lightning. "You won't find the power to mend that here, no... I've read of such things, you know, the art of manipulating the human soul, a rather lost technique, in fact-"

Heloise took a deep breath. " _Professor_."

"Yes, yes, time is of the essence..." Professor Lathom rose back up to his feet. "Such a wound requires a great source of energy, enough to mend her ills away."

"And where would we find that?" Heloise kept Lightning steady for the clerics. "I swear to Etro, _professor_ , if you drag us on another wild chase at the cost of-"

"No, no! No wild chases." Lathom held up his hands and shook his head. "It's not a golden goose we're after, just the power to mend such wounds... We're lucky to be so close to the temple."

* * *

Far atop the mountainside, Fang nearly turned to face Luxerion again, but a few soft words from Yeul made her pause.

"What?" Fang gripped at the rocks with her talons, gazing down upon the mighty plumes of smoke that rose up from the distant city. "Then where is she?"

"The village of Poltae." Yeul almost seemed to be peering at something even further away, a look that suddenly made Fang remember the visions that Vanille herself would often suffer from, images of the past, present and future. "They've taken her to the temple for healing."

But Fang was off before Yeul could even utter another word, flying on down across the mountainside, yet when she looked over her shoulder, it became clear that she would be traveling alone. Yeul stood vigil over the peak, over the frigid grave of a mighty crown, and her golden horns, tipped with silver, they almost seemed invisible within the sunlight.

Fang dove down into the cold, misty air, a dragon on the wing, a wyrm with a purpose in her heart, seeking the little village out in the Wildlands, one that was sheltered by so many jungle trees. She could see the fields off in the distance, the wild grass that stretched on beneath the mountains, and when she looked back up into the full width of the great blue sky, seemingly endless, an entire, swirling world...

They would be flying again soon, she knew it for a fact; Lightning had that strength, the sheer resilience to pull through, even without Fang at her side, such things wouldn't stop her from trying. There had been great power at Fang's whims, enough to inflict her own will upon the world, to mend Lightning's wounds, or perhaps enough to take Vanille out of stasis, or maybe even enough to make sure they were never harmed again... But it was a trap that Fang had no intention of falling into. She narrowed her eyes against the wind, thinking of the sheer power that had been unleashed upon Luxerion, the crazed madness of a fal'Cie. Such things came from immense hatred, from being locked in such a state, far too strong to exist without pain and suffering, so much that they had been sealed away from the world.

Fang drifted down through the sky, tucking her wings against herself, free to use her own strength. It was that choice, she realized, the gift that the gods had once given her, the boon of a caring soul... It was the knowledge to spurn the simpler choice of an easy way out, to instead seek the hardship and pain of a more daunting journey, the natural balance of the world.

The temple loomed off in the distance, beneath the shadows of the craggy mountainside. As she soared down from far above the rocky cliffs, Fang realized that she didn't quite care if her own secret had been revealed. Since the crown had been destroyed by her own hands, her own wings, there was no reason to linger there, even if their own answers were still only half-realized.

She landed with a dull thump, and the sounds of her talons touching against the stony crags echoed out into the afternoon, until she made her way down into the familiar canyon beside the temple itself. Fang could see the way that it stretched up into the mountainside, but she only had eyes for the entrance. She slipped down into the darkness like yet another whispering sheet of silk, intent on searching for the one who stood so very close to her heart.

It wasn't long before she caught the sound of voices, the echoing noise of those massive halls, the tunnels that wound deep beneath the earth, yet Fang didn't even pause when a few humans rose in alarm, brandishing weapons that could likely rend the softer parts of her hide.

"Lightning!" Fang rushed on into the main chambers, the altars with so many winged figures, and she quickly knelt there, nudging at one of Lightning's arms with the end of her snout. "Light, come on."

And Lightning, scarcely mended of the great wound within her soul, yet stabilized enough to keep her alive, she slowly reached up to caress the elegant curve of Fang's face.

"There you are." Fang's tail twitched back and forth despite the weapons aimed in her direction. "It's over, Light... We can leave."

Lightning tried to sit up from beside the stone altars, beside the glowing incense that had been lit to soothe her pains, and she gradually began to rest herself against the edge of Fang's dragon face, near her left eye, still dozing off throughout those waking moments.

"She... Needs rest." Professor Lathom was standing behind a few of the armed hunters. "Such a wound affects the body as well as the soul."

Fang closed her eyes, letting Lightning sleep against her cheek.

"Hmm." It was Heloise who spoke, and she slowly lowered her warhammer back down against the stony ground. "Some of your questions make more sense now."

Fang opened her left eye again, gazing out in the form of a wyrm, one of the very last dragons in the world, before she slowly closed it again.

"What a secret." Heloise leaned some of her weight against the pommel of her hammer, clearly a bit winded from the whole ordeal. "I've got a question for you, then."

Fang almost purred at the way Lightning's heartbeat grew a bit more steady than before. "Shoot."

"How does a wyrm hide herself as a human?" Heloise slowly knelt down beside them. "How does she come to befriend... A hunter, of all things?"

Fang listened to the sounds of the ancient temple, from the quietly falling dust to the scrabbling little footsteps of the canyon lizards, and to the sound of Lightning's own weary breathing, still so worn from the abuse she'd been put through. "That's... A very long story."

* * *

The rubble still smoldered on beneath the magical aftereffects, even when Noel kicked at a bit of it with the toe of his boot.

A rider on horseback trotted up among the ruins, within the smoke that still filled the streets, amid the scattered refugees. "What of the crown?"

Noel slowly shook his head, where his face was masked again beneath the visage of the Shadow Hunter. "It's already in good hands... It's over." He looked to the survivors, the people of the city who spoke in such hushed tones about the dragons, and of those they had seen falling from the sky. "But we're far from done here."

Another rider approached from afar, and when she drew near enough, she spoke in a very soft tone. "The phantoms are gone... Like the lion." Beryl turned her gaze towards the massive pit that loomed where the chapel had once been, those crumbling remains of the Hall of Devotion. "But the spirit's not dead... Far from it."

Noel looked out at the eyes of those who approached, at the curious apprehension that flickered there, no longer as hollow as before. No, even while the people were filled with such fear, with the loss of the day, the sheer tragedy, there was a low flame left in the wake of the void. The spirit of the city itself, the heart of the people, it was rekindled in the fires of death. As the ruins of a razed forest would someday grow within the nutrients of the ash, even with the loss of their homes, crushed and broken by the utter blast, the sacrifice of their very people... Perhaps the absence would bring even greater meaning to the act of mending.

"They'll need help to rebuild." Noel sheathed his weapons against his belt and back. "And we've got our own answers to find."

No sooner had the words left his mouth that yet another rider made himself known within the ashen haze, though it was more than a single horseman who approached. They bore the golden armor of the Order itself, the faithful guardsmen of Luxerion.

Yet Noel merely stood there, gazing up from beneath the mask of mirth, and his arms didn't even twitch towards his weapons.

"Shadow Hunter!" The one who rode ahead wore a similar crested helmet to those of the lost Lion Guard. "It was only last night that I called my own brother a madman... He confessed to seeking out those of Etro's faith."

Noel turned to address the rider, who swiftly dismounted from his horse. "You mean Captain Aland?"

The soldier nodded. "I was... Deceived, I see that now." He slowly gestured at the ruins of the grand hall. "The beast who fell from the very heavens, his presence... Do you know the anecdote of the gradually boiling frog?" The soldier slowly leaned his weight against his ivory spear, gazing out at the rubble from beneath his polished metal helmet. "The priests spoke of the corruption as if it was the influence of Etro herself, but this... This was not the work of Etro."

Noel almost smirked from beneath his mask, imagining the humbled lion pride who stood there before a pack of ragged wolves, both blooded and seeking respite. "It already feels easier to breathe... But the smoke isn't helping much."

The guardsman allowed himself a low laugh. "Perhaps you should bring your people back to your Warren... Our own home is suddenly inhospitable." He turned to the side, gazing up at his fellow soldiers of the mounted guard. "Our people... Betrayed by the ones we trusted most; the clerics may not yet see it, but we of the blade, our minds are sharp enough."

"Right... Who holds command, now?" Noel glanced at his own fellow hunters, those who were approaching from the shadows of the rubble. "We're only out for answers; I'd like to know how this whole thing started in the first place."

The solder swiftly mounted his proud steed again, urging the warhorse to turn aside. "I can only hope our ranks will remain as they were before; this 'Primarch' was the only king to try and rule in this day and age, and one can see how that ended." His helmet glinted beneath the sunlight, the glow that peered in through the ashen fog. "As for answers, I doubt the bureaucrats will have themselves in order before a certain... Group, could sift through the rubble." He urged his horse to walk ahead. "Perhaps you'll find your answers elsewhere."

Noel watched that sudden flash of movement, the charge of the mounted guard, yet they were of no threat to the assembled hunters, merely a display of power and force, riding off into the city to establish order once again.

"The palaces..." Holly spoke from where she was tending to the wounds of a fellow hunter. "We should search the palaces, see if Tipur received a proper burial."

Noel moved to stand just a single pace away from the ruins of the hall. "While the guards are away from it? They'll be out in full damage-control... We'll have time to really delve into those documents."

Beryl spoke up from horseback. "If the place isn't already destroyed... Just look what happened here." She gestured at the mighty pit in the earth, still crackling and hissing with the force of residual magic. "Imagine the knowledge that's been lost! It might have been the very reason he left no trace."

"We still have to try." Noel looked back at his assembled kin, at his wolf pack, his band of owls in the darkness. "For those we've lost... For those who've flocked to Etro's side, we have to try and make sense of this."

Holly helped the injured hunter up into a standing position, and she walked with her towards one of the riderless horses. "For the fallen."

"For the dead." Noel took another step, leading his people out into the world that stood beyond the crumbling ruins, the toppled house of prayer. "It's time to act."

* * *

There was a murmuring sound in her ears, and a pair of footsteps brushed lightly against the floor.

Lightning's mind was quite awash with fuzzy memories, with the same feeling that had swept over her once the clerics tended to her wounds with the power of the temple. She knew, in the back of her mind, that she once considered such a position to be rather useless, though a part of her always knew that the pursuit of knowledge and practical magic could certainly find its time to shine.

Yet from back there in the temple, within a room that smelled of dust and an ancient atmosphere, a time when priests gathered there to pay homage to the goddess of death, she just couldn't remember what else had happened once they began to mend her soul. Fang had been there, she remembered that much, but the rest of it was merely a blur.

And the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes, it was the curtain drawn around a solitary bed, and then the tiny cabinet off in the corner, one that held several different bottles of medicinal salves. Lightning's eyes traveled rather slowly, and her breath scarcely brushed against her lips, but when she caught sight of a single flower resting there upon the sheets beside her, she soon found the strength to reach out and pick it up.

A bit of sunlight was drifting down from over the curtains, and Lightning watched the way it danced and played against the red petals of the hibiscus flower, or whatever subspecies it was. Her eyes drifted shut for a while, and she began to truly feel the aches in her limbs, where the armor had taken the full force of several blows, especially on her spine.

She wondered for a moment if she had truly made it out that place alive, if she had really lived throughout the utter pain of that first burst of magic. If she was to be perfectly honest with herself, it almost felt like she'd been dying; it was as if her strength was simply sapped away, burned by the force of that crackling energy, but ever since it faded down to a much duller roar, she could feel her very soul as it gradually tried to heal.

The stem of the lone flower felt pleasant between her fingertips. Lightning thought back to her own little garden beside the house, those vines and flowers that she used for incense, even the little herb garden out in that cave in the woods, so perfect for mushrooms and plants that needed the moisture and shade. She felt her mouth grow dry at the very thought of it, and she suddenly realized just how thirsty she was. The pangs were twinging in her throat and stomach, calling out for water, and it took her more than a moment to reach over and find a small canteen.

"Hello?" A familiar voice drifted in from beyond the curtain. "Lightning?"

Lightning took a tiny sip of water, before she hummed in affirmation.

"They don't know I'm here." Something was quickly pushed beneath the curtains, before a certain person crawled her way under as well. "They don't really guard this place, you know! Not like anywhere fun."

Lightning nearly rolled her eyes at the sight of the young teen, the very same girl who seemed rather determined about something, perhaps further knowledge of sparring. "Sure... Where are we?"

Sibyl lifted up the box that she had pushed through the curtain, and she set it down on the edge of the bed. "The infirmary, don't you remember?"

"I think I was unconscious." Lightning took another small sip of water. "I was... Hurt pretty badly."

"You look really pale." Sibyl sat down upon the bedside, dangling her feet over the edge. "Paler than usual."

Lightning glanced down at her own hands. "It feels strange to be awake."

"Better than asleep!" Sibyl smiled brightly, and she tapped at the box beside her. "Like I said, they don't ever notice when I sneak in here... You hungry?"

Lightning shrugged. "I'm not sure if I should eat."

"But that's boring." Sibyl opened the box, and the thick scent of cinnamon wafted out. "These are better than medicine... It's bitter and gross, and it doesn't make you feel any better at all."

Lightning fought back the smallest of smiles. "Sometimes pain brings better healing than comfort."

Sibyl gave her a rather disparaging look. "It's no wonder you're so cranky." Though even as she said it, a smile of her own went wide across her face. "You give my big sister a run for her money in that department."

Lightning's gaze drifted back into focus. "What happened after..? Did she make it out okay? What about the others?"

"Yeah, and I heard it from here!" Sibyl's eyes went very wide at the memory. "They say the church just... _Sank_ into the earth! All I heard was a big explosion, but I wasn't afraid." She sat up straight, putting on the fiercest face she could muster, before she reached for a cookie from the box. "Most of the other girls are huge sissies... I had to keep telling them not to cry, that we're safe here, but they act like a bunch of chickens whenever something scares them!"

Lightning glanced at the box of cookies. "Some people just don't handle fear in the same way... But that doesn't make them any less of a person."

"I know." Sibyl tried not to sigh. "But girls have to be as tough as anyone else to be hunters, we can't be afraid."

Lightning slowly shook her head. "No... We're always afraid." She watched the way Sibyl's eyes looked so inquisitive again. "You can't really be brave without being scared first, you just have to learn to control it." Lightning closed her own eyes, thinking back to those words she'd said so many times before, in countess different ways. "There are some things you just _have_ to do, even when you're scared... Witless."

Sibyl bit back a giggle at that. "You were going to say something dirty instead..."

Lightning opened her eyes to roll them at her young companion, before she reached out for one of the cookies. "Clever little demon, aren't you?"

* * *

Fang knew that it was rather pointless to act as if her secret was still in place, for word traveled around the compound far faster than wildfire. Yet even with such a thing out in the open, with those wary glances and the occasional open stare, none of the hunters seemed to question the fact that she had indeed slain a great danger within the city, and it seemed as if it was enough for her to remain welcome within their home.

And as the dust settled, before she left to help with a salvaging mission, she'd approached the infirmary again, only to find that Lightning was still asleep. With a soft, brief kiss against her forehead and a flower left on the sheets, Fang left her there to rest beside the safety of her fellow hunters, along with those who had been gravely injured in the battle against so many raging Cie'th.

It was on the same day that Noel asked for her to help aid his search party, leaving the compound in an attempt to finally find their answers, it was only then that Fang came across the wealth of information that was hidden there within the palaces, in a room that held so many towering bookshelves.

There were runic circles carved into what looked like every available surface of the walls and floor, even a few on the ceiling, transmutation symbols and sigils of power, yet it was only when Fang found a certain journal that she learned what they were truly for.

Beneath Galenth Dysley's own name, there was a date at the top of the first page, which she assumed was likely false. It stated that the very first entry had been written at least a few hundred years ago from the current day, far too long for any human lifespan, but perhaps that had only been an illusion as well.

 _As my first duty in service to the Order of Salvation, they have put me in charge of preparations for the summer solstice, which is the very reason that I've deigned it worthwhile to keep such a journal in the first place._

 _It is a simple task, not one that I was particularly interested in, but the celebrations should prove a welcome respite from my travels... And I'm not nearly as young as I once was. I pray that Luxerion can become my home during these final years, and that my soul will be enriched in the ways of Bhunivelze, in our promotion of the path of the sun._

The next entry was dated several weeks later.

 _The life and joy of this city is infectious! So many youthful spirits all gathered in honor of our Lord, dancing and praying to their God, drinking and feasting upon the gifts that the Order has brought to them. Such a beautiful old city, richly tended to by the people here... It's enough to make even a weary heart feel so young again._

 _I do hope that next year's solstice is just as enlightening._

Fang turned the page, wondering if the old man was merely taunting her from beyond the grave, posing as such a gentle soul... She narrowed her eyes at the next journal page, before she began to read it again.

 _It's proved far more difficult than I first believed to spread the word of our Lord... We are compelled to respect the wishes of those who do not wish to be taught in His ways, but the people here are just as fickle as they are lively. They care not for sermons or prayer, only for the debauchery of grand celebration... Should they not go to Yusnaan for such indulgence? This is the city of Gods, not of base whims and desires! My peers tell me to be patient, that such youthfulness is merely a branch in the wind, ignorant of the entire tree beneath it, but I cannot help but think that there must be a better way to spread His word than to merely preach the ways of the sun._

Fang glanced away from the journal, and she looked up at the jars of alchemical ingredients that lined the shelves of the walls, as well as the books there on higher magics. She felt her nose twitch at the scent of such things, but she slowly looked back down at the journal in her hands.

The next entry was dated a year later than the last.

 _There was a terrible accident in the industrial quarter; a faulty silo of grain collapsed beneath the water-weight of a storm. I was sent there to tend to the wounded and the frightened, the families of the deceased, to ease their pains in prayer, but what I did not expect... It was, for lack of a better word,_ _astounding_ _. We sat there within the candlelight vigil, praying for those who had departed from the living realm, those lost to the world, and the sheer numbers of those who attended, it was far greater than any weekend sermon I have ever seen. Such a tragedy... The people here truly unite in times of loss and hardship._

Fang could feel a twinge of uncertainty in her heart. She slowly turned the page, and she found that there was only half of a year between the previous entry and the next one.

 _My friends speak of an expedition into something that the seers have seen... I cannot say this venture strikes me as anything other than pointless, but if it pleases the head priest, then I will accompany him overseas. Such a journey at my age! I daresay whoever reads this journal might not take my words as truth, but with God as my witness, this old man may just see one more adventure yet._

Fang felt her lip curl with something that felt quite like bitterness. She looked down at the next dated entry, which was dated only a few months forward in time.

 _The unworthy have been purged from this holy soil. The child of the Lord speaks to me._

 _Barthandelus. He says his name is Barthandelus._

* * *

Lightning closed her eyes while her young friend chattered on throughout the day. As much as she felt fond of such company, children always became so very _tiring_ after a while, even with the best of intentions.

"And they say we won't get in fights anymore, but I don't believe that at all." Sibyl swung her legs back and forth against the edge of the bed. "You can't just make friends like that, not with jerks like the Order."

Lightning mumbled something under her breath, before she rolled over to rest on her side.

"Hey, don't tell me you're going to sleep again!" Sibyl almost started to pout. "They were saying you slept all day yesterday..."

"Sibyl." Lightning tried her best to keep her voice calm and soft. "Do you know where the nearest bathroom is?"

Sibyl's face went very blank for a moment. "Oh." She suddenly skipped away from the bedside, pointing at the front hall of the infirmary, beyond the curtains. "Over there, you must need to pee real bad!"

Lightning nearly covered her face in her hands, before she slowly moved to sit up against the bedside. "Thank you, Sibyl..."

"No problem!" Sibyl watched the way Lightning kept herself upright, bracing one arm against the bed to balance herself. "I'm supposed to be in classes, you know... Thanks for talking with me."

Lightning almost wanted to respond with the fact that Sibyl herself had done nearly all of the talking, but she simply nodded, walking off into the clinic hallway. She soon found the door that was labeled as such, a smaller room near the front of the infirmary, and she slowly closed the door behind her, just taking a mere moment to breathe.

The washing basin waited near the door. After a few seconds of silence, Lightning moved to draw out a bit of water from the metal pump, before she lifted an entire handful of the clear liquid against her face. Just the feeling of the cool water, the way it calmed her nerves again, she almost wanted to stay there for far longer than she needed to.

There was a bar of solid soap on the counter, and Lightning began to wash her skin even further, before she leaned away to rinse it off, gazing out at her face within the mirror. She could see the darkness beneath her eyes, shadows from a lack of restful sleep, plagued with so many dreams that she couldn't quite remember. They were fearful, she knew that much, chipping away at the hold she placed over her own emotions, the control she held so tightly.

She moved to grip the lever beside the pump, caught between letting the water drain away or simply washing her face all over again, just to try and feel cleansed of it all. Lightning slowly squeezed her eyes shut, but she still felt the pain same hovering there in her inner vision.

And later, after she was finished with the bathroom, Lightning slowly made her way back into the infirmary. She glanced around to see if her young acquaintance was still waiting there for her, but it was a pair of people who she suddenly looked upon.

"I told you to quit bugging people..."

"I'm not bugging anyone! Lightning's just as cool as you are, and she doesn't have anyone here to keep her company right now!"

Lightning almost felt a smile tug at her lips, yet she simply walked past the sisters without a word, even when they finally noticed her presence through the noisy squabble.

"Is she bothering you?" Beryl still didn't quite meet Lightning's gaze, preferring to glance at the wall, or even to glare at her little sister. "Kids... They can never tell when someone wants them to buzz off."

"I'm not a kid!" Sibyl seemed to be fighting the urge to stamp her feet at the ground, and she struggled to keep her voice down in respect for the clinic patients. "And I didn't even get the chance to ask her about the dragons yet!"

Lightning slowly settled herself back on the edge of the bed, sitting there with a rather conflicted look on her face. "...What do you want to know about that?"

Yet Beryl intervened, gently shoving her sister back through the open curtain while pointing at the clinic doors. "Back to class."

Sibyl opened her mouth to protest, but Beryl merely yanked the curtain shut, before the sounds of scuffled stomping echoed quietly from beyond.

"She just doesn't know what _not_ to ask." Beryl slowly shook her head as the footsteps faded off into the distance. "You want to be alone? I'll leave too."

Lightning glanced at the avian mask on Beryl's belt, hooked there with a small length of colorful string. "I'm sorry for keeping her from class."

"Not your fault, she's just too adventurous for her own good." Beryl sighed, before she took a seat on the chair near the curtain. "Kids that age... They just don't understand certain things."

Lightning looked down at the stray flower on the bed sheets. "She will, just give it time."

Beryl quirked an eyebrow at that, still gazing at anything else but her face. "You sound like you say it from experience; I saw you showing her how to spar, you know, Noel and I hadn't left for the crypt by then."

Lightning moved to sit down on the center of the bed. "I taught her the same way I taught Serah... My sister."

"I figured you had one." Beryl crossed her legs, lounging on the chair. "More into swordplay than magic, are you?"

"Not unless I can use it with charms." Lightning glanced over at where her clothes and the leather bracer were resting against the counter, likely removed to check beneath her armor for injuries. Even so, she was wearing a rather lengthy nightgown, and she had little worry of the physicians doing anything uncouth, especially under Fang's watchful gaze. Yet that very thought made her wonder where exactly Fang had gone off to...

"I've never been very good with a blade." Beryl glanced down at her hands. "Magic is... It's simple, it just _happens_."

"You and Fang almost sound alike." Lightning glanced at where her charms were resting within the leather bracer. "Her magic-"

Beryl scoffed very quietly. " _Dragon_ fire is hardly the same." She ignored the look in Lightning's eyes. "Yeah, be sure to tell her she's not great at keeping that a secret; magic is different between everyone, sure, but I had her pegged as something _special_... Maybe not a dragon, but not a damn human, that's for sure."

Lightning tried not to let her eyes widen at that. "You _knew?_ And you didn't say anything."

"Not my business to say." Beryl seemed to be biting back a rather smug smirk; perhaps that was why she finally seemed less formal than before, for if she was to hold such leverage over someone, even in good nature, perhaps it made her feel as if she could speak easily. "You trust her, and Noel trusts you... It was good enough for me."

Lightning slowly moved to lean against the wall beside the bed. "She's human, though... She was human before, and she still is."

"Maybe so, but her magic sure isn't." Beryl looked back at the curtains again. "I think even Holly got a little freaked out by it... Don't get me wrong, there's nobody better than her at what she does, but she's never been good at reading her own people."

Lightning kept quiet for a long while, feeling that same lingering pain within her body, the wounds deep inside her soul. "But it's over now, isn't it? Fang found the crown."

"And killed a fal'Cie to boot..." Beryl rose back up to her feet. "You should think about getting those dreams of yours checked out, they could truly be prophetic."

"No, it was Fang." Lightning glanced at the deep red flower again. "She has this influence around her, dreams, visions, feelings." She slowly picked it up by the stem. "I get them whenever I'm around her... Almost like a gift."

* * *

The pages were stained with dark, speckled ink, and the date at the top of the paragraph stated that it occurred two decades beyond Dysley's last entry.

 _I have been given a boon for my service. At the moment in which I am writing this, my one hundredth and twenty fifth day of birth has just come and gone. The child of God is more than generous, and promises even greater miracles for Luxerion and for our own Lord above. We speak through the process of dreaming, as from such a distance, he is still cursed by the chains of those who bound him there, within the vestige... There must be conflict, he says, before the dawn can truly rise above the city, above the very world, and that great bloodshed will befall those without such unerring faith. They've had their chance... They will submit to the glory of our people, of our great God, or they may find themselves in the company of the defiler herself, lost within the realm of death._

Fang fought the urge to set the pages alight, or to just rend it apart in one swift motion, yet she needed the truth, needed the answers that she had worked so very hard for, and the sound of gentle footsteps helped to calm such an impulse.

"Found anything?" Noel was wearing his mask again, and he carried an armful of various documents. "We've been going over all of those trade deals, the paperwork."

"Yeah, this one looks promising." Fang looked up at the stairwell the led up from the underground room, where Noel was stepping down from. "He kept a journal."

Noel soon set the documents against on a nearby counter, before he moved to glance at the book in Fang's grip. "Think you can summarize?"

"Sure... The fal'Cie are bad news, and have always been bad news." Fang leaned back against the wooden chair at the desk. "Galenth Dysley found a fal'Cie called Barthandelus and promptly went nuts from it, probably harming Etro's people in favor of Bhunivelze; I haven't gotten past that, but I think I can guess what happened next."

"Just keep at it..." Noel walked over to examine some of the alchemical equipment. "We're bound to get to the bottom of this thing before long."

"Right." After a moment or two, Fang glanced over to see what Noel was doing. "You don't seem weird about this."

Noel didn't look away from the various bottles and pouches of strange powder. "About what?"

Fang nearly rolled her eyes. "Don't play dumb with me."

Noel slowly braced his hands against the countertop. "Why would it be weird?"

"Because your people hunt monsters for a living?" Fang leaned back in her chair again, resting her feet against the wall beneath the desk. "And strictly speaking, by definition, dragons..."

Noel's voice sounded a bit more strained than before. "I know you've met Yeul."

"Friends, are you?" Fang tried her best not to smirk. "You know, I never asked how old you were, Noel."

Noel took a very deep breath. "Twenty three... But Caius was somewhere around three hundred years old when he was killed."

"Interesting." Fang thought back to the elderly dragon she had met within the seaside cave, Aubergine. "It really does work like that..."

Noel looked away, still leaning against the alchemy counter. "The Shadow Hunter never existed before Yeul approached Etro's people." His voice almost sounded distant. "The first... It was after the great purges, the very first Shadow Hunter made a pact with her, an exchange of foresight for her own protection, and she's been with us ever since."

Fang kept gazing at the walls of so many bottles and jars. "I'd never sensed her here before it all happened."

"For good reason." Noel lowered his voice again. "She keeps to herself, only ever meets with me... She _can't_ know anyone else, and none of my people can know about her, even the other seers." He turned to face Fang directly. "It's immortality, a living legend... Caius would have lived indefinitely if he hadn't been killed, and I never would've become the Shadow Hunter."

Fang took a moment to think that over. "And you didn't know Yeul before then?"

Noel shook his head. "It's customary for us to meet on the night that I take the vows, at least from what she's told me... There's nothing written about this kind of arrangement, I can tell you that much."

"So it's one big secret." Fang glanced down at herself. "And someone like me... They don't even know they've already got another dragon among them."

"We'd be out of balance if we did, out of line." Noel slowly walked towards the other bookshelves. "Imagine that, a group of immortal hunters... That's pushing it too far."

Fang shrugged, before she looked back down at the journal. "I suppose Caius picked you for your steady temperament."

"Suppose so..." Noel's voice drifted out from behind the bookshelves. "Didn't go on a rampage, did I? The Order's still intact."

And as much as Fang wanted to smile at that, when she looked back at the words on the page, they brought a certain darkness back to her mind, realizations that she almost wished she hadn't found.

 _I have overstepped my boundaries. I have not yet succeed in our plans. The child is displeased, but He has ordered me to retreat for the time being, to wait for many years, to wait for such an... 'Incident' to be forgotten within the hearts and minds of Luxerion's people. I merely intended to test the process we spoke of, the alchemical bond of two souls, to free my master from His chains, but such things have drawn far too much attention, to the point where I must flee. The people must not have a single trace of doubt in me when the final dawn approaches, and I fear that it will take many long years._

 _But I am nothing if not patient... The time will come when our Lord rises up from His slumber, when the crown is well within our capable hands, when my own soul will be given as tribute to the child of God. We need only to wait._

The next entry, which was written in what looked like far fresher ink, not quite as aged and cracked as the rest, it was dated several dozen years beyond the last one.

 _That fool of a hunter thinks the master cannot see him... Thinks his own plans are beyond my grasp. His tricks and barriers only delay the inevitable; I shall have the crown from his own grasp, he will find it for me. I will pry it from his own bleeding hands if I have to. I have waited far too long for this moment for such things to be foiled by Etro's ilk._

The next entry was dated less than a year beyond that.

 _IT IS HERE._

And the next one, it was only days after.

 _The bonding agent has proved just as fickle as the power within the artifact... As the sermons fluctuate, so does the power of the crown. I can only assume that it feeds upon Bhunivelze's own power, the strength of the prayers, so we may need to stir up such terror again. The fools are utterly blind, intoxicated on the word of death itself, and they come in droves to escape Etro's influence. And the hunters... They play right along with that narrative, for their own tools are that of fear and manipulation. I need only to spark the flame._

 _We will be one and the same, before long... I have been chosen since the day I stepped foot in that holy place, so deep beneath the sea, and the transmutation process, along with the crown, it is all nearly complete. We will begin soon._

Fang tried not to curse under her breath. "The bastard was playing us from the beginning..."

Noel looked up from the book he was reading, but he didn't reply.

The next date was only weeks, perhaps a month before Fang herself had arrived to Luxerion.

 _We are... One. Galenth, Barthandelus, the very power of the crown has brought Him, brought_ _me_ _here, to the very depths of the hall... The child of God has returned to the house of His birthright._

 _My predecessors will loathe the day he ever abandoned me in that cursed tomb. The others may cry out for pity, but I will commit no such groveling... He will perish for what he has done. I will become God._

 _The Shadow Hunter chose another to lead on in his stead, it seems, and his mind is just as elusive to reach, even from the power of dream searching. No matter, he will serve me just the same as his predecessor. They are almost disappointingly easy to provoke, and the fear that they spread... The crown has never felt more powerful._

 _The Cie'th experiments have proved rather fruitful, but it seems as if I can no longer inflict a true focus upon the mortals. The process is instantaneous, a Cie'th of deadly strength, but when it is attempted upon the more stalwart of the test subjects... At least they can be used as untouched fodder for other such experimentation._

 _I will soon take my true form, no longer lost within the depths as a forgotten one... Bleeding and broken, imperfect in every way, yet still the bearer of such potential. I feel the power coursing through my veins, through this capable human form, and we will soon begin anew._

The next entry made Fang's grip tighten against the journal.

 _A dragon, in_ _Luxerion_ _! What fortune, what fate... The one the human described was surprisingly easy to seek out, and her mind, as stubborn as it was, it could not hold its secrets for long, including that of the wyrm! The memories call to me, my own whispers of the past... Revenge will be sought, and I will have even greater strength, further power, all for the life of a dragon._

Fang slowly turned the page, gazing upon the very last entry, before a quiet sigh left her lungs.

 _And so the day dawns, the final step of this very first dance... My tools are in place, and the Cie'th, no matter if my branding cannot reach those without such influence in their hearts, the Cie'th will be born of the hopeless, the lost, the blundering fools of this city, those who cannot comprehend the greatness of our new Lord._

 _Primarch... That title, it will suit me within the coming centuries. My Godly reign begins._

And Fang grit her teeth together, closing the book just as slowly as her tensing hands would allow. "Not likely."

* * *

Lightning slept long into the hours of the day. The voices of those in the infirmary grew quieter and quieter as the sun slipped closer to the city walls, and by the time when she finally woke again, the room was nearly silent. She could see the faint sunlight on the opposite side of the curtain, and she guessed that it meant the hour was nearly evening.

Steady sounds brushed against the floor from somewhere near the front of the clinic, and a few muffled voices began to speak, before Lightning heard a single set of footsteps approach. While she didn't feel much of anything for whoever was there, she knew that she was in no state for a formal visit, though at the sudden sight of who it was...

"Light!" Fang slowly moved in from beyond the curtain, stepping over to rest upon the bedside chair. "You're awake."

Lightning hummed under her breath. "Barely."

Fang smiled at that, though the gesture wasn't quite as confident as it often was, tinged with the worries of the entire ordeal. "How are you feeling?"

"Just peachy..." Lightning reached out to rest one of her hands near the edge of the bed. "You want the truth?"

Fang nodded, and she slowly twined their fingertips together.

Lightning closed her eyes again. _It's awful._

 _Light..._ Fang tried to keep her rage from prickling. _I'm sorry, I shouldn't have called out back there._

 _It's not your fault._ Lightning gently squeezed Fang's hand. _You did everything you could do... You kept it from getting worse; I would have died if you didn't._

 _You're still hurt... It feels like I broke my promise._ Fang closed her eyes as well. _Do you really think you can travel like this? No offense, but you don't look like you're up for it._

 _None taken._ Lightning tried to smile at the warmth of Fang's fingertips, resting so softly beside her own. _I can heal up for a while... Try to get back into shape._

It was a long moment before Fang spoke with her inner voice again. _Can I try something?_ She was already taking the first few steps into peering within Lightning's soul. _You remember when I altered your signature? So you'd be immune to my fire._

Lightning nodded. _I remember._

 _I can try to heal it, maybe even better than the clerics._ Fang slowly began to breathe deeper. _Will you let me try?_

 _Of course._ Lightning let herself relax again, easing into the same sense of darkness and utter detachment. _Fang, you know I trust you... We've trusted each other in so many lives, it feels like a second nature now._

Fang nearly felt her mind wander back towards the image of the realm in the sky, to those she had summoned beside her. _Just relax as much as you can... I'm sorry if it hurts._

Lightning felt those first few tears prickling at her eyelids, though the pain was that of her own, the sudden swell of those wounds inside herself, within her very being. The familiar touch of Fang's soul, no matter how gentle it was, it was akin to opening up an injury to examine it.

Fang's mind was soon flooded with the same pain, sensing exactly what Lightning felt, yet she still bridged the gap between their souls, into the realm of Lightning's being, where the wounds became all the more apparent. _Light..._

Lightning didn't even try to respond; she was far too busy with keeping her own composure at its strongest, just to keep the pain at bay.

 _I'll try to heal it._ Fang could feel the terrible rends within Lightning's soul, the work that the crown's magic had done, yet she also felt the makeshift bonds that the clerics had tried to establish, though such things seemed nearly as futile as pressing thin cloth against a gaping wound. _Just hold on, Lightning._

And it began with a measure of her own power, with an attempt to close up those tattered shreds and make them stop crying out in pain. Fang worked with what Vanille had once taught her, the art of manipulating a soul for the better. She remembered the time when she herself had been subject to such things, to the grief of loss and utter abandonment, and how Vanille had tried to mend such ills, altering the pain in her soul to feel relief from the years it had persisted. It wasn't the same as Lightning's condition, which seemed almost more like a physical type of affliction rather than an ache, but the process was similar enough. The damage had been done, and nothing could speed up the growth of healing, but Fang could soothe the process by closing the gaps, and she could leave an imprint of herself against the wounds, enough to make it much more bearable.

 _Fang?_ Lightning's inner voice finally spoke. _What happened when you disappeared? Was it really a fal'Cie? They all say it was._

 _It's a little hard to explain._ Fang kept trying to seal up those wounds, working to chase the aches away. _It'd take a while to say out loud... But I could show you, if you really wanted._

Lightning's soul drifted back against Fang's own presence, caressing it, bridging the distance between them, and the signature of her own inner heart became all the more clear and prominent. _Please show me._

Fang almost hesitated, but from the warmth beside her own soul, from the lines that swirled on between her and Lightning, she slowly began to think, and to share the memory between them.

* * *

The day dawned with a soft, hushing whisper from the ocean breeze. And in the daylight, after she woke up from her slumber, Lightning found herself able to walk far enough towards the dining hall, just enough to spend at least one last breakfast there. And that same kindly face that she saw near the kitchen counters, she sought it out more than any other.

"Up and about so soon..?" Heloise looked up from a bit of bread dough that she'd been kneading. "Don't push yourself now, Lightning."

Lightning walked up towards the kitchen counters. "Call me Light."

"Light..." Heloise gave her a warm smile. "Such a pretty name."

"It... It was Claire, once." Lightning moved to wash her hands in a nearby water basin. "But she was killed by a dragon; Lightning took her place to avenge it."

"A dragon?" Heloise started to knead the bread dough again. "Then it seems rather strange that she'd make friends with another one..."

Lightning walked over to pick up her own portion of the spare bread dough. "Yeah, it didn't make much sense to her, either." She glanced around to make sure that they were out of earshot from the other women, those who were preparing breakfast within the kitchens. "Especially when the dragon turned out to be more human than she'd ever thought possible... And it was even more confusing when it started to feel like they were in love."

"The heart works in unusual ways." Heloise dusted off a bit of flour from her apron. "I assume this dragon was rather kind to her, to earn her affections..?"

"She was." Lightning kept kneading the bread, trying to ignore the residual pain in her limbs, though it was much easier to endure than before. "She even asked for her help to save her sister... Her sister was cursed by a fal'Cie."

Heloise hummed in thought. "I do hope her sister didn't turn into a Cie'th."

"She didn't." Lightning slowly rolled the bread into a rather unusual shape, just as flat and pointed as the scale of a mighty dragon. "She completed her focus... She turned to crystal."

"Far better than the fate of a Cie'th." Heloise's eyes went quite distant at the thought of such a battle. "But how do they plan to save her sister?"

Lightning felt that sudden doubt, the same kind she could only stifle with her own source of confidence. "They plan to kill the fal'Cie who branded her in the first place."

"Ah." Heloise soon lifted the loaf of raw dough in her hands, gesturing for Lightning to follow suit with her own. "I can only hope that works... But I don't doubt that they can do it." She used a long wooden peel to push the unbaked loaf into the heat of the brick oven. "We've all seen that a fal'Cie can be slain, after all."

Lightning felt that same memory as it flickered in her mind again, the mighty beast within the clouds, the fight that Fang had endured, and she slowly held up her own loaf of bread dough.

"You're a good sort, Lightning." Heloise helped move the raw bread beside the flames, within the gentle roar of the fire. "You've got a _good_ heart, I could tell right when I met you."

Lightning peered deep into the heat of the furnace, the energy she knew so very well. "Thank you."

"You've got my faith." Heloise smiled, and the silver pendant at her neck glimmered slightly in the light of the flame. "Just don't push yourself, now... A wound of the soul is nothing to scoff at."

Lightning knew the that physicians would soon realize that she'd wandered off, and that either one of them would come to fetch her back, or they would send Fang out to do it. She'd been ordered quite a bit of bed rest, but just sitting there while Fang slept in the bedside chair wasn't quite her idea of a productive morning, even if she had to admit that Fang looked rather cute whenever she was sleeping so soundly.

"Light..." Heloise smiled at the way Lightning already looked halfway there to dozing off again. "Are you supposed to be out of the infirmary?"

Lightning swallowed back the dry feeling from her throat, and she slowly glanced away. "Would you be offended if I said you reminded me of my mother?"

And Heloise smiled, before she laughed so quietly, and yet so deeply, mirth that shook her from head to toe. "No... No, dear, that's perfectly fine."

"I lost her when I was younger." Lightning leaned one of her arms against the kitchen counters. "My sister and I were alone, so I had to step up, I had to take that role... It's almost strange to meet someone who feels the same." Her gaze drifted off to the side when she caught right of a familiar face near the kitchen doorway. "But I guess you can find family even in the strangest places."

* * *

" _Sleep_."

Lightning just rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Wounds heal much better when you sleep." Fang sat there on the edge of the bed, gazing out at the gap between the curtains. "The same should work for your soul, right?"

Lightning tried to close her eyes, to relax, for it had indeed been a rather sleepless night, but her mind just wouldn't stop racing, forcibly thinking of so many things.

"Hey." Fang leaned over to brush a gentle hand across Lightning's nearest shoulder. "The sooner you heal up, the sooner we'll get going again."

Lightning turned to look at Fang, and she slowly moved to rest a bit closer to where she was sitting. "How far away is the vestige?"

Fang glanced over at the open windows again, beyond where the curtains fluttered within the ocean breeze. "Not far... Less than a week if the wind is still on our side."

Lightning sat up to rest her chin against Fang's shoulder. "And then we'll go home."

"Yeah." Fang reached over to hold Lightning's hand. "It's weird, I've gotten so used to this place..."

"I know what you mean." Lightning closed her eyes again, breathing deep. "It almost reminds me of Bodhum."

"Your old village?" Fang slowly twined their fingertips together. "I bet it was pretty great."

"It was." Lightning's voice grew softer and softer, and she leaned more of her weight against Fang's shoulder, gently resting there. "But everything has to end."

Fang felt a strange sensation in her heart, one that wasn't quite as welcoming as she might have liked, if only for the truth of such a statement. "I don't want this to end."

"I know." Lightning held Fang's hand a bit tighter than before. "But we'll be alright... I have faith in it."

* * *

The days passed within a blur of soft conversations and rest, and Lightning soon felt more than well enough to walk around the compound without much fear of pain. Fang had already brought all of their belongings out to the clinic, and due to their lack of any personal foods besides crackers and a bit of nearly stale chocolate, Lightning suggested that they should venture out to buy supplies for the rest of their journey.

"You think it's safe enough out there?" Fang peered up at the high walls of the compound. "Those Cie'th really did a number on the place..."

Lightning shrugged. She was wearing her silvery clothes again, the garb of dark leather and silky fabric, yet she wore her hood down beside her shoulders. "We could ask what the scouting parties saw."

And with that, they soon found their way towards the other end of the compound, near the mounted training yards, where none other than Noel spotted them from atop horseback.

"Hey, look at you." Noel soon approached the edge of the paddock, and he dismounted from the back of the huge horse. "I was just thinking, Sarga's probably missed you..."

Lightning held out her hand to let the normally ferocious warhorse sniff at her scent, and she almost smiled when he nuzzled at her wrist.

"Already up and about..." Noel slowly leaned against the paddock fence. "I suppose you'll be off to finish what you started out for?"

Lightning glanced over at Fang. "We have another fal'Cie to hunt."

Fang nodded, leaning one arm against the fence as well. "We wanted to ask if you think it's safe enough to go out and buy supplies."

Noel almost seemed a bit taken aback at such a statement. "We have more than we need in supply reserves... Poltae and the other farms supply the majority of the food here, you can always take what you need."

"Serious?" Fang almost grimaced when Sarga leaned over to sniff at her hair. "There goes our day of shopping..."

Lightning gently elbowed Fang in the ribs. "Be polite."

Fang only smirked, still leaning away from the curious warhorse.

"Also, uh..." Noel's gaze turned towards the narrow tower that stood higher than even the walls of the city, a vantage point over the sea. "Our seeress wanted to speak with you."

Fang's expression quickly sobered. "What for?"

"I'm not sure." Noel adjusted his grip on Sarga's reins. "But before you leave... Have a word with her, if you will."

"We will." Lightning had her own curiosity of the woman that Fang had shown her in a memory, one who held a tone of voice that she swore she recognized. "Thank you, Noel... We'll say goodbye again before we go."

"You'd better." Noel quickly winked at them both, leading Sarga back out into the training grounds. "Not to ruin the surprise, but... Stick around for dinner, Heloise has something planned."

And with that, both Fang and Lightning approached the seaside tower, making their up way to meet with the seeress herself.

* * *

Sunlight spilled down throughout the rounded room, and a few sticks of incense burned faintly into the daylight hours. A trio of figures rested there upon the cushioned floor, speaking in low tones.

"It is a difficult outcome to see." Yeul's face, without her mask, it revealed that her features were rather youthful, yet still very wise. "I sensed one of my own kind... But my own presence is cloaked out of necessity."

Fang spoke up from where she was sitting. "I'm guessing you don't intervene much in whatever the hunters decide to do."

"Never... Ah, hardly ever." Yeul's gaze flickered back to Fang. "The crown was enough to require more than mere advice."

Lightning began to speak. "And you can communicate in dreams, like Fang can?"

"You are not one of this place." Yeul looked over at Lightning. "I knew you were a hunter, as they are, but your fate is more akin to that of a wanderer... I knew if my secret was to be revealed, you were the one to share it with."

Lightning took a moment to peer at the golden circlet atop Yeul's head, likely a ceremonial piece. "So none of them know you're a dragon?"

"None but the Shadow Hunter." Yeul sat shorter than either of them, a rather diminutive figure. "And now, the two of you... But I trust we can keep such a secret to ourselves?" She looked back into the depths of Fang's eyes. "I am loyal to those of Etro's faith, and to the goddess Etro herself."

Fang paused, almost as if she wasn't sure of what to say. "You're... Really one of Etro's?"

"Our blood is different." Yeul slowly reached up to lower her headdress, revealing the twin silver circles on either side of the decorative horns. "We are beings of life and fire, not of death and shadow... But she welcomes those who are willing to protect her way of being."

Fang nodded to herself. "The balance, you mean."

"Yes... We can overcome our base natures." Yeul looked at Fang with a memory in her eyes, visions of the great purges, of those who once slayed so many dragons, and of her own pact with the goddess of death. "We can learn to live as they do."

Fang kept her tone to a low murmur. "Yeah, and I'm glad of that... It's just hard to turn back to the gods after everything that's happened."

"It is understandable." Yeul lifted her headdress again. "The pain of their departure, the loss of the voices inside... They simply cannot reach us, not unless we meet them at least half of the way."

Lightning spoke up. "When I was taken from the city-" She almost seemed to doubt herself for a split second, before that steely sense of confidence forced itself back into her words. "I was either hallucinating, or I spoke with Bhunivelze."

Yeul's gaze seemed to drift off into the distance again, far away from the room they were in. "Our world is changing... We will all have our parts to play." She slowly rose to her feet, stepping silently towards the small windows of the tower. "The ocean once rose upon this very shore... The walls kept it at bay."

"The Pale Sea." Lightning felt her own voice darken at the memory. "You think it means something?"

Yeul slowly turned back to face them. "It all means something... We need only to try and reach it."


	36. Moonlight

The tower of the seers was home to more than a single seeress, though one wouldn't know such by speaking to any of the others, if one even had the chance to actually speak to them at all. Yeul seemed to be somewhat of an enigma, for when both Fang and Lightning made their way down the spiraling staircase, the other seers seemed rather ignorant that there was even a higher floor of the tower. One of them, a woman with very soft eyes, she looked up when Lightning walked past, but she did not utter a word. And the rest of the seers, it seemed, were all far more focused on what they could see than what they could speak, though there was soon one exception.

"A tower, is it?" A rather shaky voice spoke from somewhere below, and a pair of footfalls echoed quietly throughout the stairwell. "Might be just as cold up here as it is back home..."

"Home?" Noel's voice was instantly recognizable. "You don't really want to go back down there, do you?"

"Live in one spot for long enough and it starts to feel like home." In a moment or two, a rather elderly little man appeared from the lower staircase of the tower. "Oh, so many of them..." He paused to peer around at all of the silent seers, before he glanced back at where Noel was carrying a large rucksack of various personal belongings, likely from deep beneath the canals. "Perhaps I'll see more from such a high vantage point, it does get so gloomy down there below the earth..." The old man slowly walked over to peer down from one of the windows. "I... I have not seen the ocean in years."

"You'll be able to see it every day now." Noel stepped up to place the rucksack down near a small wooden bench. "And you just let anyone know if you need help settling in... Remember, they won't find you here; nobody's been able breach the walls for longer than either of us have been alive."

"Hmm." The old man watched the waves of the sea as they touched the soft white sands of the beachfront, and he slowly nodded to himself. "No, they will not find me... Not when they're too troubled with finding themselves." His frown creased the many wrinkles on his cheeks. "Not when we may yet see the blood of war."

Noel looked back at the rest of the room, and his gaze soon settled on both Fang and Lightning. "You didn't have any trouble, did you?"

"No trouble." Lightning stepped towards the lower staircase. "We're going to leave before nightfall."

Noel nodded, and he began to walk down the stairs as well. "I should warn you, if you're going out into Luxerion again..." He lowered his voice a bit, just to keep his words out of earshot from some of the more sensitive seers. "You know what happens after a power vacuum, right?"

Fang smirked wryly to herself. "Pretty self-evident, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Noel led the way down the long, spiraling staircase. "The scouting groups are all back for this afternoon... We've already gotten several reports of violence, local sects of the Order all turning against each other over this." He took a very deep breath, and his exhale almost echoed against the narrow walls. "You can't just erase so many years of _hate_... You can't reveal the very heart of the Order to have been tangled up with a fal'Cie, and then just expect them to take it quietly." Noel looked over his shoulder at Lightning. "So, if you guys do venture on out there... Just watch your backs, okay? Better not to get involved in anything until they settle this stuff among themselves."

"Don't worry, we've got other places to be." Fang glanced at one of the tall windows that stood beside the tower staircase, and as she walked past it, she watched a pale seabird sailing in the wind, flapping every so often above the ocean waves. "We've got our own fal'Cie to deal with... Our own matters to settle."

Lightning spoke up as well. "We came here for answers, like I told you before." She glanced down at her belt, at Overture, remembering how the poor blade had been tossed away from her as she crashed against something utterly solid, that physical illusion, before she'd felt Fang press the hilt back into her grasp, but that was all before her secret had been revealed. "To be honest, I didn't really care at first if we figured out the source of the aggression, but if we just could have just found something to get a l'Cie out of stasis-"

"The bastard wouldn't talk." Fang spoke with only a hint of anger, for it was reigned in by the relief that she'd made it out of the ordeal intact. "And those documents... He couldn't even brand his own l'Cie, could he? Just a bunch of mindless Cie'th..."

Noel slowly nodded. "We've had more reconnaissance teams in there for days, and I think l'Cie were the last thing on his mind; it was all just for power, Fang, and l'Cie couldn't get him that."

Fang tried not to frown. "So, you haven't found anything? Nothing on l'Cie?"

"I wish I had." Noel soon paused near the base of the stairwell, at the ground floor of the tower. "His mind was... It seemed so twisted, at least from the other documents we recovered; he'd just write on and on about his 'fallen empire', how Eden had been lost..."

Lightning almost felt her eyes widen in recognition, but inwardly, she wasn't even quite sure if she had recognized that phrase.

" _Eden_... He just kept repeating and repeating it over and over again." Noel tried not to frown at such a thing, and he slowly gestured at the tower doors. "And I'm not sure if it was really anything more than fantasy, but he wrote of the city that once worshiped fal'Cie as gods, sacrificing their own to become l'Cie; the empire, as it was known, Eden... He claimed that it angered the higher gods of the world, and that they rose up to strike at their own children, eventually locking the fal'Cie away to suffer for what they had done."

Fang listened to the creak of the doors, and she lifted her hand to shelter her eyes from the midday sunlight. "I don't think most of those old stories have very happy endings." She began to walk outside, making sure that Lightning was keeping up with her. "I've said it a thousand times... The fal'Cie are bad news, and it's up to us to deal with them."

Noel began to walk slowly through the compound paths, leading them towards the central walkway. "Just promise me that the two of you will be careful; I know I have no real authority over anyone here, but I'm supposed to guide everyone as best as I can." He paused beside one of the gardens, before he looked back over at Fang. "Fal'Cie are no normal monsters; I know you're strong enough, but getting branded as a l'Cie is a fate worse than death."

Fang slowly shook her head. "There are even worse fates than that."

"I wish I didn't believe it." Noel's pale white robes fluttered in the calming wind, and the fabric of his unworn hood, it drifted softly beside his shoulders. "But I've seen too much... There's an evil in this world, you can see it right in front of your eyes sometimes." He looked out over the walls of the city, up at the deep blue sky. "It's not order, it's not even chaos... It's something that festers inside the hearts of monsters, they just can't mesh with Etro's balance." Noel slowly looked back into Fang's eyes. "But you... You're not one of them." He crossed one of his arms against his chest, over his heart, symbolic of a promise. "You won't see any trouble from us, but if you do, I want you to tell me."

Fang gave him a smirk. "Appreciated, but I've already got my bodyguard right here." She slung her arm around Lightning's shoulders. "We'll be out of here soon enough... But I'm not sure when you'll see us next; we're headed back to Gran Pulse once we've dealt with our own fal'Cie."

Noel nodded. "I'll have someone show you to the supply rooms... But Lightning, I have something for you from Yeul herself, a gift."

Lightning quirked an eyebrow at that. "What sort of something?"

"It'll be easier to show you than to describe it." Noel gestured for her to follow again. "It's not far."

* * *

It wasn't long before Fang was off to fill her satchel with supplies, while Lightning and Noel made their way into the armory, right between the stacks of crates and mannequins inside the lofty storage rooms.

"Yeul works with the old prophecies, you see." Noel dusted off a certain door handle, before he pushed it open, trying not to sneeze at the musty air. "I didn't want to tell this to either of you when you first showed up here, things like that can have a negative influence on everyone... You might've started chasing after something that you thought was right, only to miss what you were fated to find in the first place." He paused within the next room, gazing up at an iron-wrought wall. "And since your dreams led us to the heart of the issue, I think I was right to keep my mouth shut."

"A fragile prophecy?" Lightning lifted her cloth mask above her nose to keep herself from breathing in the little dust motes. "What sort of prophecy was it, anyway?"

"The kind that spoke of someone new, a visitor to our little corner of the world." Noel picked out a key from one of his pockets, and he slowly approached the gate that led towards the next room. "I have a feeling that Yeul sensed it long ago... The fal'Cie, I mean; I think she _knew_ there was something wrong, but she couldn't go after it without revealing herself, or worse."

Lightning thought back to one of the memories that Fang had shared with her, one with a rather diminutive little dragon, not likely much of a threat against the power of a cunning fal'Cie.

"She said that I should give you this if you turned out to be the one who the prophecy meant." Noel slowly pushed open the door, ignoring the steady creaking that echoed from the iron hinges. "You brought Fang to us... Then you led Fang to find the danger, and Fang took care of it." He walked into the circular room, and he turned to look at the thin shafts of sunlight, the glowing beams that filtered down through the stained glass patterns upon the roof. "Sounds just like our prophecy to me."

Lightning peered around at the actual contents of the room, at the marble blocks that held glimmering bits of silver, and all of the different masks carved with avian features, some of which looked as lifelike as an actual bird. But what caught her gaze was the weapons, the old tools that still gleamed like they'd been polished days ago, hunting spears and sharp swords for closer combat, and knives that looked sharp enough to even cut right through dragon hide.

"This is Moonlight." Noel soon held the unusual contraption in both hands, and it was only when he slipped it over one of his wrists, securing it there by the leather straps, only then did it become clear what it was for. "Also known as 'Etro's Talon'..."

Lightning watched the sudden flash of metal, the dance of two twin blades at the very height of Noel's wrist, and she realized that they were indeed akin to long, deadly talons.

"It's been in here ever since the ancient monster purges, just gathering dust." Noel flicked his wrist to sheathe the blades again, before he began to unstrap the weapon from his wrist. "But a thing like this, made by the old bladesmiths... I'd say it's probably just as sturdy as it ever was." He took the weapon into both hands again, before he turned to face Lightning directly. "You're going to need all of the help you can get against a fal'Cie, one that won't have the disadvantage of being on the wrong end of gravity... What better tool than a weapon from the old monster slayers?"

Lightning tried not to show any hints of awe at the very sight of the beautiful gauntlet, at the dark leather that looked to be from some type of vicious monster, long since slain, perhaps a chimera or some form of scaled wyrm. The silver itself, threaded throughout the more clothlike part of the gauntlet, it made each knuckle and curve seem like a strand of moonlight itself, while those massive steel blades rested well within the upper contraption, above the top of the hand.

"It's a gift, Light, don't think about it too hard." Noel smirked as he held the weapon out, offering it to her. "You've done a lot for us, you know? That dream of yours, whatever led us to where he was hiding-"

Lightning shook her head. "It was Fang's influence... I never even had prophetic dreams before she tried to find me."

"But it was _your_ dream, wasn't it? It came to you, not her." Noel still held Moonlight out, waiting until Lightning finally took it into her hands. "Don't sell yourself short, Light... If the old man hadn't cheated with the crown, he would've been well and dead by the time we caught up with you." He smiled softly, watching how Lightning examined the bladed device. "I knew you were something special when Tipur came back here with his tail between his legs, but you know what? He seemed more keen on apologizing than feeling any sense of shame."

"He didn't know what I was." Lightning glanced down at Overture, and then back at Moonlight, but she still didn't move to place it on her own arm. "I just felt better having my charm on my neck... I always hate hiding it, but sometimes you just have to."

"Maybe not for long." Noel turned to look at one of the windows, gazing out at the compound. "The Order's influence all spreads from here... If we can get the other faiths to convene with us, maybe get Bhunivelze's people to cooperate, we could see peace again." He moved to lean against the windowsill, and an almost wistful look crossed his gaze, but Lightning could see only a hint of it through his reflection. "Caius would... He'd talk about those days, after he told me about the situation with Yeul."

"I'd imagine you see a lot of things through immortality." Lightning slowly moved to slip her fingertips beneath Moonlight's fingerless glove straps, with didn't interfere with her own gloves, as the cloth and leather merely rested on top. "Immortal... Not truly immortal, but unending."

"All it really does is stop old age." Noel watched as a group of children ran past the window, likely on their way to play in the gardens, and he smiled softly in their wake. "You and I, Light, we're in the same exact thing, the same situation... We both have our dragons to protect." He turned back to look at the way that Moonlight was strapped right there against Lightning's wrist, and how it gleamed when she activated the bladed mechanism. "They're not like the stories say, are they?"

"They aren't." Lightning pressed her fingertips against her palm, activating the coiled tension of the wires to make them string themselves back, drawing away the blades into their inner resting place. "I killed a dragon, once... It killed the place I lived in, burned it all to embers." She pressed her palm again, and her talons whispered through the air. "It killed who I was, who I used to be, but when I killed it years later, it felt like something else died." Lightning tried not to grit her teeth. "I've never told anyone but Fang, but it felt like... It might not have even been real, but it felt like someone was there, even though the dragon was dead and I was all alone." She looked away, gazing into the tall beams of light, into the depths of the colorful glass. "When I started to let the anger take over, my charms stopped working for years... But then, when I woke up, when I stepped out of the ocean... I could feel the pact again."

To Lightning's own surprise, Noel didn't even look the least bit shocked by such a thing. He merely looked back at her, and then smiled slightly. "We all lose sight of things along the way, Light... No shame in that." He began to step away from the window. "Listen, we get all kinds of people here, charitable folks, those seeking honor, even the blowhards, braggarts and everything in between, but there's really no difference in any of us when it comes to doubt." Noel slowly moved through the armory room, gazing around at the enshrined masks, once owned to hunters of the ages long lost to time itself. "Doubt is natural, it's instinctive to us, keeps us alive... Etro's teachings, her clerical mandates say that we should always embrace what we are inside, even if it can hinder us for a while, at least until we sort ourselves out."

"Good and bad... The balance." Lightning closed her eyes, feeling the strength of the weapon in her hands, a gift worth more than she could ever truly express. "Do you think that she really spoke to the clerics, back then? I usually only follow the tenets, not any sort of mandate."

"Well... I usually think of it as further material on the same subject, not quite necessary, but it can be helpful sometimes." Noel soon moved to stand near the gate again, ready to seal away those artifacts from so many long ages ago. "Really though, Light, you've earned those talons of yours, so wear them with pride, alright?"

Lightning tried her best not to smile, but a small one soon crept over her face. "I will." She stepped out into the main armory as well, gazing around at the racks of weaponry and steely garbs, all kept in a rather neat and orderly fashion, despite the dust. "It's just a shame about Luxerion."

"Which part?" Noel locked the iron gate behind him. "The corruption? Those we lost?"

Lightning nodded. "I was... Planning to get my sister a birthday present; I've been gone longer than I thought I would, and I've meaning to buy her something from the city, but it feels like it would be in bad taste after all that's happened."

"Your sister?" Noel had a bit more curiosity in his gaze. "Is she one of us, like you?"

Lightning nodded again. "I just wouldn't want to give her any more ammunition to use against me; I'm more than a little late getting back home." She looked down at the sheathed blades above her left wrist, before she looked over at her other arm. "Although..."

Noel smiled, before he strolled over towards a small wooden crate near the very front of the armory. "Does she wear a certain type of armor? Or have a favorite color? We can usually do anything in the practical range for leather."

Lightning glanced at the dark black hue of her gloves, and at the way it matched her charm brace perfectly. "She might like a lighter color."

"Come take a look at these." Noel soon held up one of the spare charm braces. "Maybe we can save you from a stern lecture about curfew, eh?"

Lightning fought back a tiny laugh. "I might just have to sneak my way into the village... She could be waiting up there in the trees with an arrow nocked, one with my name on it."

"An arrow..." Noel held up another charm brace, and he waited for Lightning to inspect it. "Archery is a noble calling, but not when you try to punish your sister with it."

Lightning watched the way that the sunlight played upon the pale leather brace, and she slowly turned it over in her hands. She briefly examined the small pockets of stretchy fabric, perhaps where Serah's charms would soon be placed. "This looks like it would fit her wrist... Is there anything I can do in return for it?"

Noel waved off her concerns immediately. "Besides helping us save the city from a fal'Cie, of all things? Light, you could ask for anything in this place and I'd be hard-pressed not to give it to you." He moved to close up the crate, before he rose back to his feet. "Seriously, you need anything? Arrows, whetstones? We've got some spare thread if any of your clothes got nicked or torn."

Lightning glanced down at herself, but aside from a few places where a stray blow from the Cie'th had grazed her, she hadn't been physically injured, not by anything other than that wild magical impact. "I think I'll be alright." She looked down at the bracer in her hands, and then at the bladed gauntlet on her own wrist. "As long as Fang has enough food to keep us going for when she has bad luck with fishing, I don't think I need anything else."

"Alright, just tell me if you change your mind." Noel began to make his way towards the armory door. "We look after our own, Light, and you're no different from anyone here."

"I will... And thank you for this." Lightning followed after him, walking quietly against the polished wooden floors, even though so much dust still drifted through the air, likely from the bustle on the day of the battle itself, when armor was needed in bulk. "If you ever find your way to northern Gran Pulse, anywhere near Bresha... Just ask someone in charge for me, and I'll do whatever I can to help."

"I might just take you up on that, but it might be a while before I get the chance to really hunt again." Noel began to walk down the path that led towards the main road of the compound, between the lush tropical gardens. "We have a lot to rebuild here, lots of old tensions to soothe, maybe even a war to fend off... But with friends like ours, we might just stumble across each other again."

Lightning looked back up at the narrow tower of the seers, and she almost smiled when the warm ocean winds caressed her face. Her hair slowly fluttered in the breeze, and as she walked along with Noel, she reached up to tug the pale fabric away from her nose and mouth, and her hood drifted down along with it.

"You know why we wear our masks, Light?" Noel was gazing up at the tower as well. "Why we cover our eyes, why everyone was surprised that you didn't?"

"No." Lightning paused near the edge of the path, still peering up at the walls of the city. "Why is that?"

"There's an old saying in the mandates; I suppose that's why you wouldn't know." Beneath the hood of his robes, Noel's hair almost seemed to flutter as well, and it almost seemed to take on a lighter tone beneath the sun. "'Our eyes are the windows to our souls... And we look upon our fellows with the very eyes of Etro; we are her arms and ears, her talons in the darkness, her outward presence in the world'." He tipped his gaze towards the sky above, and his thin hood slowly drifted down to rest upon his shoulders. "All my life, I've hidden from the world, just like everyone else here, letting Etro's visage be my shield." Noel glanced down at where Overture was sheathed to Lightning's belt. "You don't wear a mask over your eyes... And you don't wear a shield."

"I'm not sure if it has any deeper meaning." Lightning tried to ignore the fact that her own words seemed untrue to her own ears. "I just protect myself by moving, dodging anything that tries to hit me; a shield would only weigh me down."

Noel watched as the clouds rolled across the midday sky, and he slowly smiled, perhaps contented with what Lightning had said.

* * *

Their farewell dinner was less of a commotion than Fang had expected, but it suited her just fine. She smiled softly over a slim glass of something incredibly sweet, some sort of concoction that was supposedly saved for holiday celebrations or times of victory over a great foe. The dark liquid was somewhat fruity, and she could taste the spices swirling all around on her tongue, though it didn't quite seem to have even the slightest buzz of alcohol, for many of the children were drinking it as well. Fang smiled at the slightly more cheerful air; the times when she had ventured out into the dining hall to fetch a bit of food for herself and Lightning, there had always seemed to been a fog of unease over the people there, perhaps due to the recent upset in the city itself.

But ever since the world around them had settled back down, at least within the compound walls, Fang could see that some of the heaviness had lifted away from their hearts; they drank and spoke among each other, eating their meals in a more cheerful mood than before. And Lightning herself, while she didn't speak very often, likely due to the residual pain, she tried to smile whenever one of her fellow hunters spoke to her, and she answered their questions and joined in with the conversation as best as she could.

"It's a shame we didn't get to take it to the real Order." One of the gladiators, one who Fang didn't know the same of, she spoke loud enough for the entire table to hear. "Just a bunch of poor Cie'th... They had to take the blows while better men were busy cleaning the damn things up, while the Order came out of it smelling just like a rose."

"Don't speak of them like that." Heloise spoke in a tone that Fang had never heard before, something sharp and almost cold. "You'd like to have crossed blades with the Order? To spill the blood of braying clerics and coinpinchers? Or do you wish the guardsmen had turned upon us?" The hall around them fell utterly silent, and it spread out like a rippling wave, even to those far from earshot. "What we did... They were soldiers, alright, but they were civilians too, mothers and fathers and _children_." Heloise had her hands upon the table, sitting so she that rose high above a normal height. "Children, sister... The fal'Cie took any who were weak enough to turn." Her eyes softened slightly, but they still held the chill from before. "We... We're the ones who take the harder path to keep the balance intact... The Cie'th were human once, our bloodshed was more than a small mercy."

It was long before anyone spoke, and when they did, they sounded much quieter than before. Fang knew it was in her own best interest to stay quiet as well, for even though the general air seemed friendly enough, the people all around her were mostly hunters, after all. They had no possible inkling that their own higher ranks held a dragon, of all things. While Fang didn't care to say it out loud, she felt more than grateful that they were leaving before sunset, free to travel as just a lone pair again. But there was a tasty meal to finish, conversations to hear, and a glass of something quite lovely to drink, and that was enough to distract her for a while, at least until Noel appeared from wherever he had been before.

There was a sense of silence that fell upon the dining hall, and all eyes turned towards the thin sash of ribbon that held a small pin of silver at the very end, almost like a necklace. Noel held it with a solemn gaze, but there was still warmth in his eyes, almost familiarity, and his movements were slow and precise. He lifted the fabric up high enough for all to see, before he slowly lowered the deep green sash, gently placing it into one of Fang's hands.

Lightning would later find the chance to brush her hand against Fang's wrist, long after the voices grew loud again and the dinner meal moved right back into full swing. That one simple touch, skin upon skin, it was just enough to create a telepathic link. _Green... It means shelter and safety._

* * *

The moon rose high into the evening sky, just a pale sliver of light within the clouds. Plumes of ashen air still drifted far above the heights of the city, but there was a certain stillness in the early hours of the night, and silence reigned almost without challenge.

"You take care of yourself, now." Heloise held a basket of bread in her arms, one piece of which looked far too much like the scale of a dragon to have been coincidental. "No use making it out of a battle like that and then pushing your luck..."

Fang accepted the basket, and she tried her best to grin. "We'll take it easy for a while."

Lightning leaned over to peer at the familiar loaf of bread, and she smiled as well. "Fang's going to be doing the hard work for now, at least until we get there."

"That's good enough for me." Heloise briefly ruffled Lightning's hair, just long enough not to test her own luck. "Write us a letter sometime, will you?"

"I will." Lightning lifted her backpack onto her shoulders, and she looked over at Fang's satchel. "Best of luck."

And from where he was standing beside the gates, Noel leaned away from the mighty stone walls, before he held out his hand towards Lightning. "It's good to have met you, sister."

"Same to you." Lightning accepted a firm, solid handshake, before she gently clapped Noel's shoulder. "Best of luck with everything here."

"I just hope the worst is already over." Noel signaled for the watchmen by the gate controls to let them through. "But be cautious out there, okay?"

Fang nodded at him. "You've got my word, we'll play it safe." She soon walked down beneath the portcullis, and she looked towards the nearby sea, far beyond the dunes of Luxerion's sprawling beachfront. "Good to feel the ocean again..."

Lightning savored it as well, feeling the cool winds as they brushed against her skin, and she began to walk out into the sand. It gave way beneath her boots, but it still stood solidly, enough that she started to wander a bit, further away from the towering walls of the city, from the shelter of so many hunters.

The moon rose above the sea, standing watch over the earthly world, a silent guardian in the early night. Lightning watched how the wind chased the clouds in front of the pale light, though the setting sun kept the sky from fully darkening. If she had ever put much stock into superstitions, to the old tales that her mother would tell her behind quiet laughs, if she really believed in such things, she would call the celestial alignment a good omen.

The sun was steadily sinking behind the trees, off to the west, and Lightning reached up to tug her hood above her head, just to ward off the nighttime chill. Something behind her, a soft, yet heavy sound, something gently settled itself against the sand.

"How are you feeling?" The words were mostly the same as the times that Fang had spoken them in the infirmary, perhaps too many to count. Yet her voice was a bit lower, spoken between so many sharp teeth, so much that it always sounded a bit different. "Is the pain bothering you?"

Lightning almost wanted to wince at the memory, but the wound itself had calmed to a dull ache. Whenever she moved, it began to hurt much further, yet just standing there, gazing up into the moonlight, it did little to make her feel ill. Something warm suddenly pressed itself against her back, and Lightning felt a deep breath of air billowing against her waist. She turned to look at the snout of a legend, the elegant face of her companion, and it was all she could do not to hug Fang's face to comfort her.

That gaze, such a deep green, it spoke of the city they'd found, of the people they'd met, even the dangers that they were forced to confront. Fang closed her eyes when Lightning knelt down to touch her forehead, smoothing over the long, dark scales of her face.

"I'm doing alright." Lightning still held the basket of bread in one arm, while she stroked Fang's slender cheek with her other. "I've dealt with pain before, you know that."

"It still makes me-" Fang tried not to purr or twitch when Lightning gently scratched at just the right place beneath one of her eyes, often an itchy spot that was a bit difficult to scratch with her wing claws. "It pisses me off that you've gotta handle it all on your own."

"I'll be fine... And I'm not on my own." Lightning looked up at the city walls, and she pretended not to notice those who had since ventured there to see what hadn't been glimpsed in so many years, one of the very last dragons to ever walk the earth, much less fly through the air. "We've gained more here than we've lost."

"...Yeah." Fang suddenly abandoned the battle within herself when Lightning scratched her chin, for a soft, rumbling purr shook the sand beneath her chest. "You just like making me act like a cat, don't you?"

"It's cute." Lightning's voice was still just as dry as the sand beneath her feet, but a tiny smile tugged at her lips. "A big 'dragon kitty'... They'll all be wanting to pet you instead of sticking you with pitchforks."

Fang tried her best to summon up a growl, but it could scarcely rise above the constant rumbles of her own purring. "Then we should get out of here before I get smothered to death."

Lightning lowered her hand away, already feeling the loss of warmth from being apart from Fang's scales. "Can you open your satchel for me?"

"Yeah." Fang craned her neck back to grab at the satchel flap, and she tugged it open, before she reached over to gently take the handle of the breadbasket between her teeth. "Nice of them to give us this stuff..." Her voice was slightly muffled, but it was normal again once she'd placed the basket beside all of her other supplies. "Shows you what pest control can get you."

"I've heard some hunters call themselves 'glorified exterminators'..." Lightning moved to clamber up one of Fang's wings, and she felt rather grateful when Fang helped her up with just a gentle nudge of her snout. "They're usually not of Etro's faith, though."

"Exterminators." Fang looked out over the sea, waiting for Lightning to settle there between her shoulders. "Wish we didn't do such a good job of it out here." She tried not to look up at the plumes of smoke that still drifted there within the sky. "But the Cie'th... That wasn't our fault."

"Of course it wasn't." Lightning reached for the satchel strap, where she felt the familiar smoothness of Fang's own scales again. "They were in pain, Fang, and we ended it for them."

"I know." Fang slowly began to walk off along the sand, but she almost winced at the pain in her limbs, still not fully healed from her desperate battle. "Doesn't make it feel any better."

"Someone had to do it." Lightning tightened her grip on the satchel strap, for she could feel those first few jaunty steps that always meant Fang was about to take off and fly. "People die... They die every day; we can't stop every atrocity."

Fang's talons kicked at the sand, and the thin frills on her neck flattened down at that first running leap, before her wings billowed out on either side, catching the wind and pushing herself off into the air. She was gliding for a just moment, sailing down above the ocean waves, before she keened into the evening winds, flapping to bring herself higher.

Lightning watched the stars swirling in her eyes from so far above, all mixed in with the tropical hues of the sunset, and she almost swore that she heard them calling from atop the city walls, her newfound kindred of Etro's faith. She slowly pulled off one of her gloves, before she pressed her hand against Fang's smooth shoulders, feeling how the muscles worked to keep herself aloft. _Fang, do you see them there?_

 _Yeah._ Fang keened again, and a short plume of fire filled the air beside her nostrils, before she flapped her wings to rise even higher, circling around the tower of the seers. _They're waving at you._

Lightning suddenly caught full sight of them, those in pale white robes, those in hunting garb, and even those who stood no taller than children, gazing up at the sight of a massive wyrm. One in particular, one who had her mouth agape while she tugged at her sister's sleeve, a sister who still looked rather disinterested in the whole ordeal, Lightning recognized them, and she waved back at the youngest of the pair.

 _I think they're waving at you, too._ Lightning kept watching them, even as Fang turned towards the west, flying out over the outer walls, over the pastures and lush orchard groves, above the mighty trees of the jungle, and off towards the rocky foothills of the mountainside. _I won't lie, I'm gonna miss it._

 _We'll visit again someday._ Fang opened her mouth to taste the wind, and when she turned those sharp dragon eyes to gaze at the city itself, at the plumes of smoke and magic embers, even the distant piles of crumbling Cie'th, she realized that the cavern where the chapel once stood, it was already heavily guarded. _Once things settle down, of course._

Lightning kept very quiet for a long while, even when the aches swelled up again inside, though they were easy enough to stifle. She looked down at the plumed smoke that rose up from the great collapse in the earth, and she remembered the spirit who had once leapt there to his demise, incinerated beneath the sudden explosion of magic... Or had he truly died at all? From what Fang said, the people she'd seen in the streets seemed to have that same glimmer in their eyes, perhaps a mark of the grand lion himself. Had his death, in a sense, if a spirit could even die, could it have been a boon for those who survived?

Fang flew further and further from the sight of the city, enough that the mark of the great eruption began to look more like a mere pinprick than a scar on the land.

Lightning drew in a very deep breath, before she focused upon her inner voice once more. _So... We're headed south?_

 _That's right._ Fang flapped against the rising air of the jungle, savoring how warm it felt against her wings. _We'll head right through the mountains here, off past the desert... And then it's mostly ocean again._

Lightning slowly leaned forward to rest against the back of Fang's neck, for they were flying without jostling around very much, as Fang had evened out her wingbeats to take advantage of the steady tropical thermals.

 _We'll be there before you know it._ Fang yawned against the breezy evening air. _But you know, there's something I could take care of in the dunes, if we have time..._

Lightning opened her eyes from where she'd pressed her cheek up against Fang's scales. _What is it?_

 _Just some finances, boring stuff._ Fang blinked at the sight of the snowy mountain peak, but she turned her flight path to approach the lower crags of the midlands, somewhere nice and warm to spend the rest of the evening and night. _I wasn't kidding around when I said I used to play the stocks... And I've been playing them for a very long time._

 _You're an odd dragon._ Lightning slowly closed her eyes again, relaxing against gentle rhythm of Fang's wings, not to mention the soft thrum of her heartbeat. _Or should I say, an 'odd duck'?_

 _I thought you were the odd duck..._ Fang flicked her tail against the wind, which helped to steer her towards a nice patch of flat crags, full of grassy patches and sparse wildflowers. _I don't have webbed feet, you know._

 _Neither do I._ Lightning listened to the sounds of the wind, loud enough to drown out anything else that might have sounded off into the evening air, other than if Fang were to call out or roar. _You think we were ever reincarnated into ducks?_

Fang nearly swerved a bit in midair, but she caught herself before she could fly off balance. _No... I don't think we were._ She suddenly laughed a little, rumbling quietly as she flew. _Honestly, I don't think I'd ever want to be a duck._

Lightning would have rolled her eyes if she wasn't too tired to open them. _Eagles might be interesting._

 _Yeah... Or a falcon._ Fang looked back over her shoulders. _I'm pretty sure you were a phoenix in the one I've been dreaming about._

 _A phoenix?_ Lightning slowly opened her eyes again. _I was a bird?_

 _You remember that memory I showed you from when I got the crown to work?_ Fang slowly began to descend, circling down across the craggy patch of land. _The white bird with the electricity, that was the one._

 _An electric phoenix?_ Lightning gripped on tighter to the satchel strap, and she tried not to let herself feel queasy from the gradual drop in altitude. _This whole thing just gets weirder and weirder._

Fang lifted her talons to slow herself in the air, and she flared her wings out to catch the wind, slowly descending towards the nearest patch of grass. The area was rather rocky indeed, but the greenery looked to be dense enough to settle in, and the dry area would likely be a good place to build a fire. She felt the wind against her scales, the rush of air as her talons suddenly touched the ground, and Fang soon folded her wings to support the front half of her weight.

Lightning slowly sat up again, and she looked out into the evening light. "I missed this, you know."

Fang slowly began to lay down in the flowering grass. "Traveling?" She yawned silently, and her teeth almost seemed to glimmer beneath the sunset. "Or flying?"

"Traveling." Lightning moved to step down from Fang's wing, and she soon felt her boots touch against the ground. "It feels to be in motion again."

"Hmm." Fang settled her head in the grass, before she slowly closed her eyes. "You travel a lot on hunts, don't you?"

Lightning knelt down beside her. "It does take me far from home, sometimes." She reached out to scratch Fang's cheek again. "I once booked a long passage up to the northeastern isles... Have you ever been there?"

Fang hummed to herself to try and stifle the fact that she was purring again, and she thought for a moment of all of her own travels, of the places that Vanille had wanted to go to. "Northeastern... Yeah, I've been around there." She closed her eyes at the soft little touches upon her forehead, and she gently leaned against Lightning's touch. "That feels nice, you know."

"I can tell by the purring." Lightning felt those tiny vibrations, the little rumbles from Fang's throat. "Just don't expect me to scratch your chin once you're human again."

Fang opened her eyes just to narrow them, and they also looked rather catlike, with the narrow slits of her pupils. "Really, you wouldn't do that for me?" Her voice almost seemed to purr as well, thoroughly amused by the stern look on Lightning's face. "What about me is so different like this?"

"You have scales and wings." Lightning rose up to her feet to walk over towards one of Fang's wing claws, which she tried to lift, even though it was around the size of her forearm. "Can you even reach your chin with these?"

Fang gently tugged her wing out of Lightning's grip, before she lifted it to demonstrate that she could in fact reach and scratch at her face, but with only one claw, one that was somewhat reminiscent of a thumb, she couldn't quite reach every bit without becoming uncomfortable.

"Why don't you have front legs, anyway?" Lightning moved to sit down in the grass. "I've seen paintings of dragons with front legs."

"Paintings, sure." Fang placed her wing back down beside her, and she looked at the shape of the overall limb, rather like that of a bat, much more mammalian than otherwise, except for the claws and the scales. "Anyone can paint anything, doesn't matter if it's real or not... But my wings are already my front legs, they've just got the wing parts as well."

Lightning tried to imagine what it would look like if Fang had two pairs of regular limbs, simple appendages with short finger digits and long talons, but she knew that Fang's front limbs were already quite like hands, only they were stretched out to support the webbing in between each long digit.

"It's like asking where the extra arms are on you." Fang smiled that crooked grin, and her teeth flickered in the fading sunlight. "But you know, I do get... Snippets, sometimes, of that life where you could summon wings."

"You told me about that one." Lightning moved to sit closer beside Fang's chin. "That there was a planet with a neighbor..."

"That's the one." Fang slowly rolled over on her back, and she curled her neck to rest near where Lightning was sitting. "Seraphim... I called her to help me too, you know."

"Seraphim?" Lightning spoke the word again in a whisper, testing how it sounded against her tongue. "I guess I did help you kill a fal'Cie after all."

"Of course you did." Fang stretched out her wings against the grass, even when a few of her wounds twinged and started to ache. "You and some of my own past lives... I wasn't thinking too clearly, I just didn't want to be alone out there." She curled one of her wingtips near Lightning's shoulders, almost a hug of sorts. "It was a rough fight, Lightning, and I'm a little glad that you weren't there for the worst of it."

"I would have helped if I could." Lightning tried to remember the moments of utter confusion, of the swirling, crackling magic and the burst of energy that was left in the wake of such sudden teleportation, when Fang was gone and Lightning herself fell toppling towards the ground, amid the rubble of the uprooted tunnel. "You said that he was after your soul..."

"Hey, don't you worry about that." Fang used her other wing to tap at her own chest, right above her heart. "My soul's right here, all intact... He didn't get any of it." She closed her eyes again, fighting the urge to curse. "Heartless bastards... They don't have their own souls, so they try to make everyone else miserable to make up for it." Fang began to grit her teeth together to keep herself from snarling. "They make people like Vanille-"

Lightning sat down beside Fang's chin again, and with a slow stroke of her hand, she tried to soothe those stifled growls away. "Just relax."

"Sorry." Fang opened her eyes to peer up at Lightning's face. "Just gets to me... They use people like fodder, just a means to an end." She slowly began to glow within that flickering fire, before her draconic form was gone, replaced by a woman who was merely sprawled there in the grass, still gazing up at Lightning. "Some questions don't have answers."

"But we found an answer here." Lightning traced her fingertips against a few of Fang's tousled locks, smoothing them down against her palm. "We won, Fang."

Fang hummed quietly, and she reached up to touch the hand that was stroking her hair. "I know, Light... I'm glad we're both okay."

A small fire snapped and popped into the evening air, among the scents of the wind. Something about the locale, Lightning mused, perhaps the tropical flora or the ocean itself, something always made the breeze smell so clean.

Fang busied herself with reading a bit more of the Thaumaturgy book, while Lightning took that time to rest right beside her, dozing silently against the blankets that they'd both placed upon the grass.

"I think I remember something." Lightning's voice was tinged with exhaustion; while she hadn't exerted herself over the past few days, it still felt as if every ounce of her energy was being used to help heal the wound in her soul. "Do you ever remember things when you aren't dreaming? Not future visions, but memories."

"All the time." Fang turned to another page of the book. "But it might be different; I've had thousands of years to remember things."

"I guess so." Lightning tugged one of the blankets a bit closer around herself. "Do you still think it's a bad idea to tell me things about our other lives?"

"Well, I've already shown you a bit." Fang slowly set the book down against the other side of the blankets, and she turned to face Lightning again. "But yeah, if I give you a bunch of my own memories, they might just influence your perception of what really happened back then." She reached out to play with a stray strand of Lightning's hair. "I want you to know the truth, Light, your own truth... You know I can get pretty angry about things, and a lot of those old memories, I was pretty pissed off at one thing or another."

"And you think that affects your perception?" Lightning watched as the firelight danced over the red streaks in Fang's dark mane of hair. "It makes sense, I'd just... I'd really like to know who else we were back then."

Fang didn't respond for a long while, and she only spoke when Lightning had almost drifted back into a dozing state. "I could show you what I've been dreaming about... The world where that bird came from."

"The big falcon?" Lightning's voice was tinged with sleepiness. "I was having dreams... I don't think they were memories, but there was a falcon in them."

"You could be remembering it, too." Fang looked at the way that Lightning was curled up in the blankets, at how they were both snuggled up against each other. "I'll show you, then."

Lightning almost tensed when she felt those first few hints of change, of the earth shuddering beneath her, of the wind picking up in her ears, even of her own blood, how it stirred and prickled within the memory itself. She felt herself stiffen, and the world went utterly dark.

 _Oh... Whoops._ Fang's inner voice echoed through what sounded like something solid. _Let me just skip ahead, here._

And with a soft rustle of air, Lightning slowly opened her eyes to see the bright sunlight and the thick plumes of smoke that rose above the plains.

"There we go." Fang spoke out loud, though she looked rather different from where she was kneeling in the dirt. She wore clothes made of animal hide, and she had a hood with what looked like the ears of a lynx, along with many teeth and shards of obsidian that decorated both the hem of her shirt and a necklace near her throat. "And with the first breath you took here... Hate to say it, but it was a pretty rough time after that."

Lightning could feel some sort of dizziness within herself, and her ears rang without pause. "Wait... Where were we?"

"Somewhere near my village." Fang stood up again. "The memory's strong, isn't it? You look a little disoriented."

"Wait, what happened before this?" Lightning slowly rose to her feet, but she paused when she caught sight of what was resting there on her ankles. "...Feathers?"

"Like I said, I think you were a phoenix." Fang smiled, and she gently poked at one of Lightning's pointy ears. "These were adorable..."

Lightning felt her ears twitch of their own accord, and she slowly reached up to touch them as well. "I wasn't human?"

"You looked pretty human to me." Fang walked over to examine the charred remains of the fractured crystal, where patches of fire still burned on beneath the sunlight. "We even shared some of the same words... You want to know my guess? The gods of this universe, they made both planets, and their influence extended to language itself."

Lightning took a moment to get her bearings in such a state, still rather dizzy and out of place. "There was more than one inhabited planet?"

"Yeah." Fang gently kicked at one of the fallen crystals. "We managed to teach you some of our language, and you told me that your old home was destroyed by the sun in that galaxy." She moved to walk towards the edge of the crater, gazing out at the wide, golden grasslands. "The memory... I was out here because I saw something fall through the sky, and I wanted to check out what it was."

Lightning looked up at the massive crystal, before she looked down at herself, at the scratches and bleeding cuts that littered her skin. "Was I hurt like this when it happened?"

"No, it sounded like you got attacked when your first escape plan didn't work out all the way." Fang turned to look at Lightning's injuries, before she focused her mental influence over the memory, making the cuts fade away. "I think your own people turned on you... These looked like talon scratches."

Lightning glanced down at her hands, and then her bare feet, but they both seemed almost exactly like her human body. She took a moment to turn and look at her own reflection upon the crystal, at the way her face looked a bit younger, perhaps in her late teens, or even a very young twenty. "Do you know how old I was?"

"Nope." Fang walked up to look at the crystal as well. "I think I was somewhere around nineteen... Still lived with dad, but I had my own work to do around the village." She traced her fingertips against the glimmering surface of the stone. "If I could just ask how you got out of stasis, how you got in that state in the first place.."

"I was in stasis..." Lightning tried not to shiver at the recent memory of that cold, silent feeling. "But I wasn't a l'Cie?"

"I don't think you were." Fang sighed, before she leaned away from the crystal surface, wandering back around the dark, craterous earth. "I mean, I'd have to get a look under your shirt there to tell for sure, but I don't think my memories work the same when I'm the one in control of them."

Lightning couldn't help but glance at the garment in question. "What do you mean?"

"Well, for instance..." With a swift flash of fire and sound, Fang stood there in her dragon form again. "I wasn't a dragon in that life, but I can do anything I want in a waking memory world." She turned her gaze to the sky, at the clouds that rolled on through those wide blue hues. "So even if it doesn't look like you have a brand now, this realm only exists from my memory of a dream, not an actual dream, where the memories are real."

Lightning took a moment to think that over. "Were you lucid in these dreams?"

"That's the weird thing." Fang leaned over to set her chin against the ground, gazing at all of the scattered crystal shards. "Usually I have control over myself, which doesn't much affect the reality of the dream, but in this one..." She sighed, and a few small embers left her breath within her next exhale. "It always feels like I'm really in another world."

Lightning knelt down beside where Fang was resting. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Well, I can't just ask your past life if she knew how to get someone out of crystal stasis, can I?" Fang closed her eyes and sighed again. "No control, no influence... Nothing I can do."

Lightning kept very quiet for a while, just trying to think of something she could say, some solution to the conundrum, but she couldn't quite muster up anything of use.

"Don't worry about it, Light." Fang opened her eyes again, and a slight smile crossed her toothy face. "Climb up again, I'll show you something cool."

Lightning moved to approach one of Fang's wings, where she slowly made her way up to sit between Fang's shoulders. "What is it?"

"I want you to try and remember what that bird in my memory looked like, back in Luxerion." Fang rose to her hind limbs and wings, and she began to walk towards the steeper end of the smoldering crater. "Try to imagine those feathers of yours... Try to turn into something like that."

Lightning glanced down at the soft white plumes on her ankles. "You want me to _what?_ "

"It looked real easy when you did it before." Fang clambered up the edge of the scorched earth, where she hauled herself out upon the grass. "Just a blink of time, and you were this big white falcon."

"I think I'd rather stay myself." Lightning reached up to touch her ears again. "Even if I'm a little more feathery than before..."

Fang chuckled quietly, listening to the soft rustle of the grass beneath her folded wings. "You don't want to fly?"

Lightning looked around at the sprawling plains, and she turned her gaze towards the distant mountain peaks, far beyond a world of forested land and rocky hills. "You know I can't fly."

"You could if you turned into a bird." Fang flicked her tail back and forth. "And in a waking dream, anything's possible."

Lightning tried not to protest, or let her uncertainties be known, for no matter how much she tried to rationalize that it wasn't real, that she was only just sharing a mind realm with Fang, it still made her stomach feel queasy to think of changing shapes or flying up on her own two wings. "I think I'll pass."

Fang kept silent for a while, just wandering out into the plains, before she craned her neck back to look Lightning in the eye. "Would it be easier if I helped you?"

Lightning swallowed her next few words, and she took a moment to steady herself, before she nodded.

"Don't worry about this, okay?" The world went dark around Fang's voice, but it was still so clear in Lightning's ears. "I've got you, Light."

She felt the sudden presence as it swirled all around her, but Lightning could do little but steel herself against the changing realm, against the gentle grip that took hold within her own body, changing herself as well.

"Just breathe." Fang's eyes glimmered there in the darkness. "And when you feel ready... Look at yourself."

Lightning tried to flex her fingers, but it was as if her entire hand had fused into one limb, and she couldn't do much but move it around beside her.

"That's it." Fang smiled with those numerous teeth, and she gently nuzzled her snout against the top of Lightning's head. "I think I got everything right..."

Lightning tried to speak, but her voice simply clicked and whistled against the strange thing where her mouth used to be. She narrowed her eyes for a moment, before she spoke with her inner voice. _You really turned me into a bird, didn't you?_

"I did." Fang's warm breath made Lightning's feathers drift back and forth. "But only in this little daydream, here... I can't transform anything but myself in the real world."

Lightning slowly leaned away, and she looked down at the dark talons on her feet. The digits themselves were a light gray, bordered by the white plumage on her legs.

"Fly with me?" Fang nuzzled Lightning's feathers again. "Just for a while."

Lightning tried to speak again, but her voice was only a whisper. "I don't know how to fly."

"Then I'll teach you." Fang moved to step across the waking dream, and she began to change the very fabric of the realm with each step. "It just takes a bit of flapping, you'll see."

Lightning did her best not to stumble on such strange limbs, and she realized that she felt like a gangly little novice in such a form, awkward and unsteady on her feet. "I can barely even walk like this, and you want me to _fly?_ "

"Just trust me." Fang turned to lower her head down, offering for Lightning to rest there. "It's like running, only in the air."

Lightning fought the urge to hesitate, and while it was rather difficult to clamber up between Fang's silver horns with only a pair of taloned feet and feathery wings, she managed it within moments. And with that, and with the way Fang slowly lifted her head again, gazing off into what looked like a world of endless, swirling color, Lightning found that even the slightest bit of fear was starting to drift away.

"Take a deep breath." Fang slowly spread her wings into the realm of waking dreams. "I won't let anything hurt you in here."

Lightning tried her best to do as Fang said, though even her lungs felt very different within her chest. At the first hint of movement, she closed her eyes, but when it merely brought on a slow, fluttering wind against her feathers, she let her eyes drift open again.

"We can do anything here." Fang didn't even have to flap her wings, she was simply gliding in that realm of soft clouds and wispy winds, floating along at a gradual, easy pace. "I meant it when I called it a daydream."

"But it's not real... Like any other dream?" Lightning looked all around at the floating clouds, at the soft blue hues of the realm beyond them. "Just like the memories you showed me?"

"Exactly." Fang let her wings stretch out on either side of herself. "I've just had a lot of time to figure out what dragons can do... I used to pass the time with it, even if it feels much longer in a dream than what actually happens in reality." Her gaze drifted off for a moment, distant and wistful. "I'd think about all of us whenever it felt like too much to handle... I'd think about our other lives."

Lightning glanced down at Fang's face, at the look in her eyes, somewhere much further away than either of them could reach.

"I'm scared sometimes, Light." Fang kept floating against the gentle realm, and her words sounded even more distant than her eyes. "I know it's not exactly what I try to make myself seem like... But we're supposed to be scared for our family, aren't we?"

"Fear is natural." Lightning wished that she had hands instead of wings to stoke at Fang's face again. "It's what you do when you're afraid that really matters... You know how scared I was when we went down into that tunnel?"

"You didn't look afraid." Fang flapped her wings just a bit faster against the wind. "You looked as brave as I've ever seen you."

"Because I looked my own fear in the eye and decided I still had to do it." Lightning instinctively tried to tighten her talons against Fang's scales, for the air was picking up all around her, swirling so quickly within her pale white feathers. "I _had_ to do it... There was too much at stake to let myself be afraid."

"But you _were_ afraid?" Fang dipped her head against the pastel clouds, slowly twirling herself into the cool vapor of the hazy dream realm. "It makes sense... There's not much reason to be brave unless something really scares you."

"I'm glad you were with me." Lightning tried to grip at Fang's horns with her wings, but it was growing increasingly difficult to keep hold of them, much less grab on with her talons. "I just wish I could have been there with you, when you had to fight it-" Her words ended with a sharp, keening call, for Fang had suddenly flipped herself quite lazily within that cloudy realm, and Lightning, with wings of pale white, was cast off into the air.

Fang's voice was rich with mirth, and her wings kept her right in line with Lightning's descent, diving on down beside her. "That's where you're wrong, Light... You _were_ there with me."

If a falcon could glare, Lightning was shooting the sharpest of daggers at Fang, even though she knew that the rush of wind and the utterly gripping feeling in her wings, even if she was falling down without pause, desperately fluttering against whatever air her wings could catch, even then, she knew that it was only a daydream.

"I summoned you from it, remember?" Fang's toothy smile almost seemed wider than the open sky. "Lightning... Just breathe, and flap your wings."

"You _tossed_ me!" Lightning sounded far too cross to even consider attempting what Fang had said. "You said you wouldn't let me fall!"

"But you're _not_ falling..." Fang tucked her wings in tighter to speed her own descent, but her voice still echoed out in her wake. "Whatever happened to 'doing what you have to do'?"

Lightning wanted so dearly just to hiss at her or to claw Fang's eyes right out with her talons, though she realized that such a thing would be much more of a shame in the long run, considering how pretty they were. It was almost a sobering thought, and she realized that to be able to knock Fang over the head, she'd have to catch up with her first.

"Just fly, Light." A long black tail flickered out from far beneath the clouds. "Breathe in, and fly."

Yet the air was whistling so loudly in her ears, beneath her feathers, and Lightning could scarcely even catch more than a snippet of breath through the roaring clouds, much less a flap of her wings. But Lightning knew, deep down, she knew that Fang told the truth of what she once was, that some part of her, something deep within her mind, that it knew exactly how to fly.

"You know why I keep coming back, Light?" Fang's voice echoed all around her, as if it was part of the waking dream itself. "There's something about you that nobody can ever take away... There's something in you that I can't get enough of."

Lightning felt a sudden tug in her heart, something far further than she thought she could ever sense. She was falling, even then, but the fear began to trickle away like drops of water at the very tips of her wings.

"There's something... Just like me." Fang's eyes shone as if they were illuminated, gazing up at her from within the clouds. "Something untouchable, something _wild_." Her breath sharpened at the sight of that first desperate flap in midair. "Something worth searching the ends of the earth for..."

Lightning felt her heartbeat sing, thudding so swiftly in her chest. Even though she could still scarcely breathe, the way that she was suddenly holding the air beneath her wings, it felt divine enough to die for. She'd caught the roar of the wind in her feathers, a mere bird on the wind, whistling down through the clouds, and her wings beat more strongly than Fang had ever seen them flap before.

"There she is..." Fang rose up, lifting herself into the sky, a wyrm in the clouds, twisting with great grace and ease, until her wings broke through the surface. "There's my Light."

Lightning would have smiled if she could, but she merely dipped her own wings in response, wanting nothing more than to call out to her companion, to reach where she was flying.

"I want to be yours again." Fang's wings beat silently against the air, and she slowly curled herself, stilling the wind once more. "Can I be that? Will you let me..?"

Lightning felt that same sudden shift within the daydream, no longer so fast or desperate, and she realized that she was hovering, sheltered there beneath the dark wings of a floating wyrm. It felt as if her heart was tightening, almost in apprehension of the words Fang spoke, and the pain began to seep right back into her consciousness again.

"I know it happened so fast, and you had every right to think of me as an enemy..." Fang's tail drifted back and forth in the gentle wind, and she curled her wings closer to herself, closer to where Lightning floated beside her. "You didn't remember it, you couldn't have possibly known what we had." She almost wanted to laugh. "You know how scared I was when you finally showed up on that damn mountain? I would have blabbered myself stupid if I hadn't gone without speaking for so many years."

"I'm sorry." Lightning watched the way her feathers floated in the gentle breeze. "If I could go back and stop myself-"

"You don't need to apologize." Fang traced one of her smaller wingtip claws against Lightning's feathery neck. "Really, Light... I'm just glad we worked it out." She smiled that toothy grin again. "We made a pretty good team back there, eh? Took Luxerion by storm, kicked some stupid fal'Cie ass right back to that Etro of yours..."

Lightning almost wanted to smile as well. "I just hope they can settle the tensions there." She closed her eyes, and she felt Fang's presence swirling all around her. "It's not our fight, but I can't help but think about what else we could have done for them." When she opened her eyes again, it wasn't the image of a dragon that she looked upon, only the moonlit face of Fang, settled there in her human form. "We'll go back someday, won't we? I think Serah would be more than happy to meet them."

"Someday." Fang reached out to tuck a lock of Lightning's hair behind her ear, before she set her own hand down against the blanket. "We have time... I just don't know if time is what we need these days."

Lightning slowly reached out to hold Fang's hand. "You said you couldn't control yourself in that dream... But what about a different dream?" Her eyes took on a rather thoughtful air, pondering over the possibilities. "One of your memories has to know about crystal stasis, right?"

"I don't know." Fang shook her head against the blanket. "I just don't know... It might not even be the same process between each time we've lived, each universe." She slowly closed her eyes. "But I'll try. I can usually reach one again if I focus on it, or find a particular thing, just as long as it's clear enough."

Lightning reached up to stroke Fang's forehead, petting through those wild locks of hair. "I know you can do it."

"Thanks, Light..." Fang gently squeezed Lightning's hand, and she closed her eyes to try and sleep. "Just wake me up if you need me."

* * *

And from the effort of searching her own subconscious mind, from calling out for whatever possible answers she could reach, Fang's dream began with the sharp whinny of a steed and the distant calls of the crows, before a frigid howl of wind suddenly brought forth the world around her. A figure wrapped in blankets was resting on the saddle, laying against her chest, and Fang only had to listen to the soft rasp of her breath to know it could only be Vanille.

"Don't you give up on me..." Fang's past life spoke in a feverish whisper. "We're nearly there, you hear?"

Vanille said nothing, though a pale, shivering hand slowly touched against Fang's wrist, right above where she was gripping the reins of a mighty black destrier. The steed moved quickly through the snow, but he often snorted at the sheer chill of the falling frost, and he would shake away the little white flakes from his mane with every passing minute.

"Easy, now..." Fang tightened her grip on the braided leather reins. "No wolves out tonight, let's hope... But they'd think twice about chasing a beast like you."

The horse merely blinked against the flurry of snow, trudging on throughout the narrow forest path.

"It won't be long now." Fang wrapped one of her arms around Vanille. "Stay awake, okay? Can't fall asleep in this cold..."

"Fang?" Vanille's grip tightened slightly against Fang's wrist, yet her voice sounded far softer than the falling snow. "It's... It's getting worse."

"Shh." Fang hugged Vanille against herself. "We'll get help for it soon, I promise." She peered around at the shadowed trees, barely lit by the pale light of the moon, and she felt a shiver try to creep its way down her spine, though she swiftly resisted it. "We'll even laugh about this someday... Just an errant curse. Almost silly, isn't it?" Fang still kept her eyes on the darkness of the forest floor, on the deep snow that could hide any number of dangers. "But I won't let it hurt you any more."

"Where... Where are we?" Vanille's voice almost sounded like a slurry of frost, and her breath felt just as cold, even while she was sheltered beneath so many thick blankets of fur. "It smells like... Pine trees?"

"That's right." Fang grit her teeth at the low sound of distant howling, perhaps too far away to worry over, but it still made her glance around in search of any watchful eyes. "Just rest, now... I'm bringing you to someone who can help."

And with that, Vanille moved to rest the edge of her cheek against Fang's shoulder, breathing just as raggedly as the winter winds. Her skin was both pale and flushed all at one, fluctuating with the grip of the fever, though the whims of the curse itself ranged from mild discomfort to utterly unbearable aches.

"They'd better have been telling the truth..." Fang's mind, the mind of her past life, she suddenly thought back to a village that stood on the very edge of the woodlands, in a valley known to be the home of many wild magics. "Or we'll have words to share with them before we head back to the mountain pass."

"Fang?" Vanille reached out again, and her eyes looked so hazy when she opened them. "I don't feel-" She paused, shivering rapidly, before she squeezed her eyes shut once more. "It's so _cold_."

"I know." Fang barely whispered her words against the howling wind. "Just hang on for me... We'll be there soon."

The pointed trees creaked within the strong winter gales, and the snow fell in sharper shards, while those distant crows squawked with greater urgency, almost as if the forest itself had deigned to work against them. Fang began to grit her teeth again, and she urged the horse onward with her heels, turning the reins to have him walk away from the forest path, beneath a gnarled tree that had once been carved to look like a standing rabbit. It was the very same landmark that the villagers spoke of in hushed whispers, the sign that they said would lead her to the one who could handle curses, one who lived far within the very depths of the forest. A rabbit path, they'd said, a trail that twisted around the thick briars and the tangled undergrowth, hidden deep within the natural tracks of the woods.

Fang led her horse down through the dense trail of frozen thickets, past the snowy inclines that led deeper and deeper into the forest, until after what felt like hours, she finally caught sight of something in the distance.

"What is that?" Vanille lifted her head to peer at the faint glow of what looked like candlelight, though it seemed to be flickering from far beyond the winding stretch of forest. "Where are we going, Fang?"

"Just trust me." Fang urged her horse forward again, approaching the distant light. "We're nearly there..."

The walk through the prickly bushes left the horse with a few complaints of his own, but Fang could only lead him towards the copse of snowy trees, before she turned him around to face one with a low, sturdy branch.

"Hang on to me." Fang moved to sit sidesaddle, and she wrapped both arms around Vanille. "We're here."

Vanille soon held on around Fang's neck and shoulders, but she almost shivered loose when she felt the impact of Fang's boots against the snow, and then the swaying sensation of being carried. She tried not to tremble in fear, Fang knew it from how her eyes wavered, glistening with such fiercely restrained tears.

"I've got you." After Fang had tied the horse's reins against the tree branch, she held one of her hands against the back of Vanille's head, trying to soothe the pain away. "Here we are..."

The door stood silently, a solid block of intricate wood, likely taken from a tree in the nearby forest. Little carvings wound themselves all around the surface of the fixture, and Fang swore that their tiny eyes were watching her, though none of them made even the slightest reaction when she knocked at the center of the door. The candlelight kept flickering, but no sounds echoed from within the hidden house, which stood right within the side of a small forested hill.

A burrow, Fang thought to herself, all while waiting for any response to arrive. It was almost akin to the den of a beast, only she could see quite a bit of furniture from beyond the nearby window.

"Fang..." Vanille tried to lean away to see what was inside the house. "Am I dreaming?"

"No." Fang's current self realized that her past life's response held more than a hint of irony, though she was much too curious about how the memory would go without her intervention than to actually make her thoughts known. "Just gonna take a while... It's the middle of the night, after all." She soon reached up to knock again. "Hello? We really need some help out here!"

Silence again, only the silence and a soft howl of the wind. The trees almost seemed to tremble and groan, but Fang knew that it was merely the bending of the wood. She waited there throughout the passing moments, standing deep within the snow, before she lifted her hand to knock at the door again. Yet before her gloved knuckles could even touch the wood, a small slot near the center of the door swept open with a click, and the coldest eyes that Fang had ever seen glared out at her from beyond it.

"What do you want?" Her voice was even sharper than her gaze. "This isn't an inn."

"We're not looking for an inn." Fang tried to keep Vanille from shivering, and she hugged her even closer. "I was told someone lives in these woods, someone who can tend to curses."

Those sharp blue eyes didn't waver for more than a second. "I can't help you."

Fang tried not to let herself show any hints of shock or disbelief. "...But you _are_ the witch they spoke of?"

She merely glanced down at Vanille, before the door hatch clicked shut without another word on the matter.

"Hey!" Fang leaned over to look through the window, but she couldn't see any signs of the woman who stood within. "Listen, we need someone who can help us! They said you could cure curses!"

The voice that replied was rather muffled from behind the door. "They said wrong."

"Are you serious?" Fang tried to keep her own voice down, but the sharp keening of the wind made her raise it to a higher octave. "Hello? Are you just messing around, here?!"

Another stretch of silence drifted by with the wind, before that dry voice spoke rather quietly again. "Get off of my doorstep."

Fang almost had to smirk at the absurdity of the situation. "I'll get off your doorstep if you open the door and let us in... My friend here needs help, _urgently_." She waited for a moment or two, before she knocked right on the little hatch of the door itself, until it clattered with the motion. "Hello?!"

"What part of 'I can't help you' do you not understand?!" The voice grew even colder, and a gust of wind suddenly shook the trees again, blustering all around the underground house. "Go find a healer... I don't mess with curses if I don't have to."

"We've been to a dozen healers." Fang frowned when she caught sight of Vanille's eyes, which looked even more hazy than before. "Look, you're... You're the only person we could even find this time of year; we can't keep moving at this pace until the winter ends." She sighed, and she leaned her forehead down against the frigid surface of the door, mumbling under her breath. "Please... Just take a look? See if you can cure it?"

After a moment or two, beneath the quiet sound of footsteps, the door hatch slid open again. "You can't _cure_ a curse, you can only unbind it."

Fang looked back up into those sharp blue eyes, but she didn't move her cheek away from where it was resting against the door. "Can you unbind one?"

"Do you even know the risk of what you're asking?" Those eyes flicked away to look at anything else but the two of them, those who were still standing out there in the cold. "Curses jump from wielder to wielder... And if you can't figure out the counter-curse, it'll keep jumping around without an end."

Fang tried not to shiver when Vanille's eyes slipped shut again. "Could you... Just do whatever you can? Please." She stared up into that piercing gaze, despite the deep chill that ran down her spine from doing so. "Please... She's family to me." Fang's voice fell to a whisper, a fast, nearly desperate whisper. "Please, I can't lose her... I _can't_."

Perhaps it was a trick of the candlelight, or merely the exhaustion of riding out through the wilderness without pause, but after a moment or two, those sharp eyes almost seemed to soften. "Swear on your life that you aren't here to harm me."

"I swear." Fang almost wanted to hate the way that her voice cracked, but she just couldn't muster it within herself. "I swear... I won't do anything, even if you can't heal her."

Another moment of silence drifted by, though it was much shorter than the last. "You do know what swearing an oath to a witch means?"

Fang tried not to sigh, and she slowly leaned away from the door. "Something magically binding, right..? I'll turn into a toad if I break it?"

The door hatch clicked shut once again, but Fang could suddenly hear a variety of locking mechanisms being worked away beyond the surface of the door, and before long, it creaked open to reveal none other than the witch who had just spoken to her.

"Thank you..." Fang hugged Vanille even tighter against herself. "You're doing a good thing, here."

The witch didn't seem phased by Fang's words, and she merely gestured for them to enter through the doorway, before she herself moved to lock up the panoply of mechanisms again. Fang almost thought to comment on such a thing, but the privacy of a stranger wasn't something to openly question. The room itself, a little parlor with many tall bookcases and sturdy workbenches, it was rather colorful in comparison to the world beyond the earthen walls. The hearth burned with a low crackle of flame, illuminating the bookshelves and the furniture, and it cast a deep warmth over the entirety of the little room. Glittering sigils dangled from above by beaded wire, shaped like the planets and the distant stars, and the image of the moon had been painted at the very center of the ceiling itself, while that little gray rabbit waited silently upon the surface.

"I'll take a look at this curse, but I can't promise anything more than that." She stood there in rather thin garb for the season, though the fur lining spoke of the warmth that her clothes would bring, not to mention the wispy little scarf that was draped against her shoulders and her back. "Carry her over there."

Fang looked at where the witch had pointed, which was a rather low bench in the corner of the room, between several bookshelves filled with all manner of thick tomes and unusual glass jars. "Alright..." Fang soon knelt down beside the small cushioned bench, and she gently helped Vanille down into a sitting position. "You awake, kiddo?"

Vanille mumbled a bit in her hazy state. "I'm not a kid anymore..."

Fang couldn't help but smile at that. "That's a whole different kind of curse, Vanille, one you might never grow out of." She reached up to check the temperature of Vanille's forehead, and Fang frowned at the feverish heat. "Just relax, okay? Our friend here is gonna have a look at you."

The witch waited until Fang moved away to kneel down beside the bench. "You can lay down if you want." She helped Vanille settle against the cushioned seat. "Can you tell me how this happened, in detail? I can't get an accurate picture of this by just examining it."

Fang cleared her throat and fluffed her jacket against herself, for she still felt a bit chilled from the harsh winter winds. "We earn our keep by tracking criminals down, basic bounty hunting... A rogue warlock turned out to be almost too much to handle." She watched those tiny beads of sweat as they trickled down across Vanille's forehead. "Vanille got him in the end, but he cast something on her that didn't fade away like other spells."

The witch almost seemed to bristle from where she was kneeling, and her hands froze right above Vanille's body, still sensing the curse that lingered there. "You give an oath not to harm me, yet you call yourself a bounty hunter?"

Fang drew in a sharp breath between her teeth, and she tried her very best not to look sheepish. "Look, it's nothing personal, it just gets coin in our pockets, enough to put food on the table, you know? We aren't in it for any moral reasons... Though getting a murderer back into their shackles isn't half bad for the conscience." Fang frowned at the way the witch didn't move an inch to keep examining Vanille. "I gave you my word, I won't do anything to hurt you."

"You had better not..." Her voice stung like frost again. "And I don't care who this person was, or what he did to earn a bounty, I need to know what the spell looked like, how it was cast... Anything that can help me figure out the counter-curse."

"We were running ahead, Fang didn't see." Vanille's eyes kept drifting in and out of focus. "It felt like... Like little shards of something numb, like my skin was falling asleep." She squeezed her eyes shut, likely from the pain. "But then it started to hurt more and more... It was like everything felt sharp and _terrible_."

"You're shaking." The witch leaned away from Vanille. "I can't get a read on this if you're shaking... One moment." She rose back to her feet, and she quickly turned towards one of the shelves, where she picked up a handful of pouches and a small clay jar. "I could use assistance with this."

"Sure..." Fang gave Vanille one last comforting look, before she walked off towards a small table near the back of the room. "Can I ask your name?"

"I'd rather you not." The witch poured out one of the pouches into a wooden bowl, revealing that it held many fragrant dried wild flowers. "Names are important." She opened the jar, and then she reached for a small spoon from the table, before she lifted out just a bit of honey towards the bowl. "You do know where the term 'witch hunt' comes from, don't you?"

Fang tried not to sigh. "You've heard our names, though... Only seems fair that we know yours."

It was a long while before the witch was done mixing up the honey with the wildflowers, and she opened one of the pouches to retrieve a spindly wild root. "Lightning."

"Lightning?" Fang looked down at the root she'd been given. "Is that what this thing is called, or your name?"

"It's mine." Lightning handed Fang a small paring knife. "Carve out the center of that, the green part... It can dull the pain of magical infliction." She moved back to prepare her own part of the concoction. "And I would ask that you not share my name around... Or my location." Lightning muttered something else under her breath about 'careless townsfolk', but she seemed rather busy with chopping up a pile of dried herbal plant stalks. "That's called sunroot."

"Hm..." Fang started to carve out the center of the twisty root, but neither the outer surface nor the dark green center seemed to look anything remotely like the sun. "Looks like any other root."

"It's called sunroot because it grows up from the ground, seeking the sunlight." Lightning lifted the chopped herbs into the bowl, before she slowly mixed them in with the flowers and the honey. "I can make a hardened paste out of these, almost like tablets of bread... The honey is to help with the taste." She reached for a small pouch of something that looked like flour, and when she began to blend it in with a bit of water and the rest of the mixture, it started to all mesh together like moist, yet crumbly dough. "Just drop the cuttings in here."

Fang soon did as she asked, and the pale concoction began to take on a slightly darker hue, until it almost looked like clay.

Lightning mixed the herbal blend until it was a solid mass of pale material, before she lifted it up into her hands, and then she moved to spread it all out over a flat block of wood. It was indeed rather like dough, for Lightning was able to flatten it with a wooden rod and then cut small pieces from the surface, which began to dry up and solidify before Fang's very eyes.

"Now we wait." Lightning dusted off her hands against the fabric of her dresslike trousers. "The root cuttings need time to release the latent chemical properties... They won't dull the pain until then." She reached up for a bottle of something from a nearby shelf. "But if you give her one of these, it'll help the fever settle down."

Fang soon looked at a small herbal tablet, and she accepted it from Lightning's hand. "What is it?"

"White willow bark, and a few common herbs." Lightning started to clean up the rest of the table. "It's not magic, if you're wondering."

"Do you even use any magical cures?" Fang blinked when Lightning handed her a small canteen of water. "It just seems odd... I always thought herbalists use herbs and witches use magic."

"You think a witch can't be an herbalist?" Lightning soon leaned back rather casually against one of the earthen walls, watching as Fang carried the tablet and the canteen over to Vanille. "Magic is limited to the power of the user; nature's power is much more widespread."

"Right... Listen Vanille, this'll help with the pain." Fang handed the herbal tablet and the canteen to Vanille, and she watched as she slowly washed it down with a tiny swig of water. "Just hold on, kiddo."

Vanille didn't even protest, she merely kept shivering against the cushioned bench, even when Lightning suddenly draped a blanket over her body.

"I'll see what I can find about this kind of affliction." Lightning walked over towards one of the bookshelves, beneath the glimmering little mobiles and the translucent fabric that hung from the ceiling, and she picked up a rather small tome with a leather-bound cover. "Keep her calm, and make sure she drinks more water."

Fang nodded, before she looked back at Vanille. The curse seemed to have taken more of a physical influence over the previous days, tinging her skin with a pallid hue, not to mention the dark aura that almost seemed to flicker away from whoever looked upon it, as if it knew well of the forces working against it. Fang narrowed her eyes at the way Vanille's lungs shuddered with each breath, but all she could do was keep tell her to drinking a bit of water from the canteen.

Lightning had taken a seat near the hearth, and the tome was propped up in her lap, where she scanned over the pages that told of every sort of magical affliction one could imagine. Fang looked at her for a long while, and her past life seemed rather keen on observing that soft pink hair on Lightning's head. Fang's thoughts turned to old memories, the thoughts of that very same life, from someone who knew that those with magical abilities often gained a physical manifestation of that power. Pink hair, like the pale petals of a rose, she looked the very part of a witch, though much younger than Fang had imagined.

A branch snapped in the fire, and Lightning glanced up at the faint embers that rose above it, before she turned back to looking at her book. Fang noticed that she wore a small metal sigil around her neck, a shiny circular pendant.

"What sort of witch are you?" Fang leaned back against the edge of the bench, lowering herself to sit on the earthen floor. "I know there are different kinds."

Lightning didn't look up from the faded pages of the tome. "It isn't obvious?" She started to relax against her chair, propping her feet up against a small wooden stand. "I don't get many visitors, but I'm not much a slacker when it comes to decorating."

With a deep breath, Fang turned her gaze towards the mural on the ceiling, and she stared at the little rabbit pattern upon the full moon painting. "I just didn't want to presume anything."

"A moon witch." Lightning finally glanced away from the pages of the tome. "It's traditional to take the same sigil as one's mother, but there's really no limit to what else a witch can learn." She reached up to gently twirl the tiny moon pendant at her neck, brushing her fingertips against the soft engravings, before she looked back at the book on her lap.

Fang watched as the firelight danced across the floor. "So... What's different about a moon witch from any other witch?"

Lightning turned to another page of the tome. "I thought you wanted me to try and find a cure for your friend?"

Fang exhaled slightly, and she leaned her head back against the bench. She closed her eyes, listening to the sounds of the wind, which still whistled on outside, but the warmth of the hearth kept the winter chills at bay.

It was a long moment before Lightning spoke again, and her voice was rather steeped in the memory itself, echoing out into every last part of Fang's mind. "It means that my power wanes and rises with the moon... Among other things."

Time passed by without her immediate realization, a blur of voices and hushed whispers, of magic spent trying to unbind the curse, and of Vanille's fleeting heartbeat, thrumming on into the cold, dark nights. Fang remembered the task of foraging for enough food for the poor horse, who Lightning had offered a few blankets towards, just to keep away the cold. The nights were long and frigid, and the wind kept on without pause, but the tall steed seemed strong enough to weather even the harshest winter.

Lightning spent her time beside Vanille, channeling her own energy into the curse, trying to discern the inner nature of the spell. Fang would watch her, silently praying for Vanille's health to improve, even while she grew paler and paler with each passing day.

"I can't work with you looming over me." Lightning's voice seemed much more faint, and her eyes flickered with some emotion that Fang just couldn't read. "Give us some space."

And Fang tried, she honestly tried to make herself scarce and just let those primal powers work their magic, but she couldn't help the thick swell of unease in her heart. The snow was rising, deeper than they could swiftly travel in, and if Lightning couldn't unbind the curse...

It was on a day when Vanille could barely summon the strength to speak that Fang suddenly hissed through her teeth, burying her own face down in her hands. She tried not to let herself shiver or lash out, not to decry the situation in fierce tones, but her sense of self control grew increasingly more elusive.

"Here." Lightning's voice sounded even more weary than before. "You haven't slept enough... This should help."

Fang moved her hands away from her face to see those shadows beneath Lightning's eyes, as well as the cup of something warm in her hands, offered out between them.

"Chamomile." Lightning held the mug of tea out Fang to examine it. "Helps you sleep."

"You haven't slept either..." Fang tried not to cringe at the deep cracks in her own voice, clearly more exhausted than she herself had anticipated. "I can't leave her now, Lightning."

Lightning slowly knelt down on the floor as well, gazing at the soft cushion she had put down for Fang to rest on. "She's family, you said."

Fang peered up at Vanille's sleeping form, so pale beneath the twinkling little charms that dangled from the ceiling. "Not by blood... But it's stronger than blood."

Lightning looked down at the mug of tea in her hands. "Love?"

Fang blinked once, hazily, before she reached out to accept the herbal offering. "Yeah, something like love... You ever heard of the term 'platonic soul mates'? We've been partners on the job for years now, thick as thieves." She suddenly realized what the look in Lightning's eyes truly was, and Fang felt a sharp stab of guilt in her heart, one that wasn't even soothed by that first warm sip of tea.

It was the fear that a rabbit held from inviting a pair of foxes into her home, the fear of the hunted, yet even a rabbit had claws. She seemed sly enough to evade any danger that might come, swift and utterly cunning, for her eyes could not hold every secret for long. If it was truly fear in her gaze, hidden by that solid layer of ice, it was the same fear in the eyes of a cornered animal, the sense of fierce determination to see those who stood opposite to her, to see them on their way as soon as possible.

And with that realization, Fang tried her best not to frown, before she drew in a very deep breath to steady herself. "I'm sorry, Lightning."

Lightning didn't respond at first, though a slight sense of curiosity crossed her face. "What?"

"I'm sorry." Fang tried not to sound as helpless as she felt. "You didn't have to let us in here the way you did, and I've been running my mouth... It's not fair that people-" She paused, trying to think of the right words to say. "People with magic, it's not fair for things to be like this."

"People fear what they don't know." Lightning rose up to her feet again, and she turned to face one of the windows of the tiny house. "I meant it before, I'm not a healer... But it doesn't mean I can't try to heal." She peered out at the moonlit forest, at the glimmering drifts of snow. "I'm just afraid it might not be enough."

"I... I won't hold anything against you." Fang placed the mug of tea beside her, before she reached up to squeeze Vanille's hand. "It means a lot more to me that you're helping us in the first place."

And Lightning, in the pale garb of a witch, with keen eyes that could see further than most flesh would allow, she drifted on throughout the dream, through sleepless nights on the study of curses and occasional moments of slumbering against one of her worktables, at least until Fang woke her to find somewhere more comfortable to sleep.

"The mixture, it's going to need my constant attention-" Lightning's words slurred with each faint breath she took, and she almost seemed as if she wanted to protest the way Fang was guiding her along. "It'll be ruined if I'm away for long."

"I'll watch it." Fang looked around at the other rooms of the little house, trying to find wherever Lightning usually slept. "What do I need to do, just mix it?"

"Every so often, and then be sure to add a pinch of the red ivy every hour." Lightning's eyelids drooped once again, and she slowly ambled her way over to one of the rooms. "Wake me before sunrise."

"Alright." Fang took just a moment to peer into the room of dark silk and strange sigils, of metal mobiles that hung from the ceiling, swirling silently into the darkness. "Just get some sleep, now."

Something different crossed Lightning's eyes, but it was gone when she turned to face the bed. Fang almost lingered there, suddenly struck by the beauty she had overlooked, the way Lightning curled up against the blankets with a look of what almost seemed like serenity, akin to an ethereal spirit of the wilderness. Fang swallowed back the cracked, dry feeling from her throat, before she slowly turned away, stepping further into the dream, into the realm of her past life. She could hear the sounds of them both, those who spoke long into the night, even when they both thought that she was busy tending to the horse outside.

It was Lightning's voice that spoke first, low and calm. "Does she know?"

Vanille sounded hesitant, almost timid. "What? Know... What?"

"Do _you_ even know?" Lightning lowered her words to just a soft murmur. "Vanille, please tell me the truth... Do you know about this?"

"What are you talking about..?" Vanille spoke in a hushed tone as well. "Lightning, what's wrong?"

Lightning didn't speak for several long moments. "Nothing's wrong... Nothing's wrong with you besides this stupid curse."

"Okay..." Vanille paused for a brief while, until she spoke with a bit more confidence than before, yet her voice was strained by fatigue. "It's actually kind of weird meeting a witch, you know."

From where she was clipping the horse's feed bag up to the halter, Fang drew in a very deep breath, steadying herself. She listened to the sharp sounds of the winter wind, to the distant howling of animals within the forest, before she turned to enter the house again, but not until she had first shaken the snow out from her hair.

"Oh, Fang!" Vanille smiled, though her eyes still looked a bit hazy. "Lightning thinks she might be on to something, here."

And Fang listened, but the dream began to swirl again, tumbling on with dark colors and vibrant lights, the passage of night to day. She waited, watching, but it was only when a certain cure seemed to take hold, yet then suddenly took a turn for the worse...

Lightning gripped both of Vanille's hands, whispering so silently under her breath, a low prayer, perhaps a call to her own power, for Fang could sense something changing within the house itself. There was something new in the earth, something in the air, something that only made itself known when Vanille's eyes flew open, when they began to well up with tears.

"I don't know what else to do." Lightning's face spoke of the same pain, of great concentration, and her fingertips trembled with the sheer exertion. "There's nothing else _to_ do... A curse like this, it only ever expires once the goal is reached..."

Fang felt every muscle in her limbs tense up, and in those moments, those seconds of utterly deafening silence, she could only watch the way that Lightning's power suddenly lashed out to claim the curse itself, to steal it away, taking it right from Vanille. And in that moment, in the way that something within Lightning's eyes grew so very pale, when something inside her withered and died, it took everything ounce of control that Fang had not to charge out and shake her senseless.

Vanille peered out with glassy eyes, and they were steadily growing clearer, free of the curse that had plagued her body and soul. She didn't tremble, didn't cry out, but she did slowly reach up to touch at Lightning's cheek, feeling the chill that stole the very warmth away from her skin.

"I'll... I'll live." Lightning's voice was nearly silent. "Can't kill a witch with a stupid curse like that, can you?" She leaned away from the bench, rising up to her feet, though she nearly stumbled to the ground, utterly drained by the affliction itself. "It's done... You can leave."

Fang tried not to gape at the sight before her, at the way Vanille could suddenly sit there without so much as shivering, but when she saw how Lightning was still struggling just to keep herself on her feet, Fang could only rush forward to help her.

"I just need..." Lightning grit her teeth together, and she almost tried to squirm away from Fang's steady grip. "Just need to rest."

"Lightning, you _know_ that isn't-" Fang just couldn't find the words to say. "You could've died!"

"I didn't." Lightning peered at her with such shadows under her eyes, with the same hazy look of the curse. "She's fine now."

Vanille slowly sat up against the bench. "Lightning... Thank you."

"It's nothing." Lightning's voice didn't quite sting as it once did, but there was a dull quality to her tone, parched and weary. "Goodbye, Vanille."

Fang felt the a worse chill when she lost Lightning's presence, when she watched her walk away down the hall, still so unsteady on her feet. "Lightning..." She waited there, standing silently, and the dream swirled around her yet again.

It was the sight of someone sleeping, someone resting beneath the warmth of the sheets, even in daylight, while Fang knelt there beside the edge of the bed, speaking as quietly as she could.

Lightning didn't immediately wake to the sound of Fang's voice, but when she did, her eyes slipped open without much hurry at all. "...I thought you'd be gone by now."

"You think you can-" Fang almost wanted to laugh out loud at the absurdity. "You think you can give us something like _this_ and not get anything in return?" She set something down beside the pillows, a small pouch that clinked with the promise of gold. "Think again, Lightning."

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the little coin pouch. "I don't use currency."

Fang quirked an eyebrow at that, but she merely rose to her feet, leaving the payment where it stood. "Serious?"

Lightning glanced away.

"Well... If you ever change your mind, it's for my gratitude." Fang took a step away from beside the bed, and she turned to look at the doorway. "The snowfall's only gonna get deeper; we'd better be off before it gets worse."

"Right." Lightning slowly rolled over, facing away from Fang. "...Good luck out there."

Fang, not her past self, but her current life, she almost wanted to stop and ask the question that she had originally started dreaming for, but with the way that Lightning seemed so very weary and weakened from such a sacrifice, even if it was only just a memory... Fang just shook her head and whispered. "You too, Lightning."

And when her footsteps faded back into darkness, when the room itself grew nearly silent, Lightning stirred slightly beneath the blankets, before she uttered a single phrase. "Call me Light."

* * *

The sun rose above the low mountainsides, and the sound of the distant jungle felt like a whisper in her ears. Lightning had already woken to the soft trills of tropical birds flying overhead, which was enough to send her thoughts right back towards that previous daydream, to the words Fang had said so earnestly, just enough to ache.

Though there was little time to dwell on it. Lightning rose to her feet, where she felt the warm wind fluttering against her clothes. She knew that it was likely past the early morning, and with Fang still sleeping away, the task of preparing breakfast was up to herself.

Scattered bits of stray branches stood around the sparse trees, and Lightning began to gather up an armful. They seemed a bit damp from the morning dewdrops, but they weren't soaked through, so they would likely burn without trouble. She carried them over towards a sparse patch of ground, one without grass or wildflowers.

Fang mumbled softly in her sleep, and her arms twitched a bit, but she didn't wake.

"Just get some rest." Lightning thought back to all of those wounds she had seen upon Fang's dragon form, and she had a feeling that there were many deep bruises beneath her scales. "You still need to heal too." She reached out to set up the campfire, careful not to make much noise.

Fang's larger satchel was laying there near the blankets, and Lightning soon approached it to see what kinds of supplies they'd been given. A few spice pouches were resting near a wrapped package of salted meat, and Lightning also found a cushioned box of speckled bird eggs, along with a big glass bottle of what looked like the same fruit juice from the celebration. There were other things as well, but Lightning soon settled on cutting up some of the meat to cook upon the skillet, while she cracked a few of the eggs whites into a bowl, while separating the yolks, before she sprinkled out a pinch of the spices upon them.

Before long, the fire crackled almost merrily, and the slices of meat sizzled into the morning air, while Lightning swiftly whisked the eggs with one of the long spoons that they had purchased weeks ago. She almost smiled at the memory of such a time, when the space between them still felt so unknown, at least before Fang had taken a sense of initiative. Those little touches, a shared kiss, then an afternoon of wine and dancing, even the moment when Lightning felt as though she was back right there in one of her own past lives again, shivering beneath Fang's touch... A light shade of pink suddenly colored her cheeks within the morning light, and Lightning cleared her throat at nobody in particular.

She kept whisking the eggs into a fluffy consistency, almost like whipped cream, before she lifted a small dollop with the mixing spoon, and then placed it down upon the surface of a different pan. It was a recipe she knew from her own childhood, a way to make little 'nests' out of the egg whites, while cooking the yolk inside after the rest of it had solidified.

Fang mumbled again, still in the midst of dreaming, and Lightning looked over to see the slight twitch of her nose, likely sensing the nearby food.

"Not just yet." Lightning lifted the pan with the egg nests, before she placed it near the center of the campfire, letting it cook evenly in the heat. "I'll wake you up once it's done."

Fang's soft little breaths sounded even more gentle than the breeze. A low murmur of inaudible words left her lips, before she fell rather silent again.

Lightning wondered for a moment what Fang could be dreaming of. There was little way for her to know without falling asleep herself, however, and their breakfast would either overcook or grow cold without her presence. "I know that I don't say it a lot, but I'm really glad you're here with me." She watched as the egg whites cooked steadily within the heat of the fire. "And I know it's been fast, but..." Lightning forced herself to look away from the flames. "I'm sorry that I haven't been as good as you have." She remembered the sweet taste of chocolates, then the scent of perfume, even the little words whispered against her ear when the night was in its most silent hour, lulling her down to sleep. "I've never had anyone like this before... What am I supposed to do? I can't just copy your ideas."

The guilt tried to settle itself down within her heart, but Lightning knew more than a thing or two about controlling her own emotional state. Guilt was just as corrosive as anger, just as poisonous as fear, and she knew that the solution would only be to find her own path in the pursuit of such things, something to nurture their relationship. But what could she possibly do?

The campfire crackled on, and Lightning moved to check the meat slices, just to make sure that they had cooked almost all the way through. The eggs were starting to look rather toasty at the edges, so she lifted the pan out to pour the yellow yolks into each nest, before she set it back down to cook for just a bit longer. Lightning took a very deep breath, and she turned her attention away from the thought of such troublesome things, back to the task at hand.

* * *

Though the dream had ended without much in the way of her own influence, Fang knew that she could find it once again, perhaps another night. She lingered there in the state between dreaming and otherwise, just resting her mind for a while, but it was soon interrupted by a strange, yet somehow familiar presence.

The voice echoed out into her mind, unusually monotone for the intonation of an inner thought. _I have a few things left to share with you before you stray too far from the island._

So with a single thought of her own, Fang materialized a small pocket of the dream for herself, where she began appear in her own dragon form, quietly speaking out loud. "Fancy hearing from you again..."

A wyrm of steely blue soon appeared beside her. "It was unfortunate that we could not speak in greater depth, before." Yeul's eyes didn't seem quite as distant as they had looked within the tower. "But I understand that you are quite eager to be on your way."

"Yeah." Fang slowly rested her chin against the surface of the dream. "That fal'Cie isn't going anywhere, but I need to see this through to the end." She tried not to sigh in frustration. "Vanille, she's... She's been waiting so long."

"Yet only a moment of time for those of our nature." Yeul sat with her wing claws crossing each other, while her tail curled neatly beside her hind talons. "I have decided to share something from my visions... Something you may not find comfort in knowing, but it will likely be of great importance."

Fang lifted her head up again. "Yeah?"

"You must know by now that Etro's hunters are entwined with her very nature, the nature of death." Yeul bowed her head low, as if speaking a prayer. "In that way, I cannot know for certain if what I have seen is merely of that same nature, or perhaps an event in the recent past... I happened upon a dream of Lightning herself, before your true battle with the fal'Cie." She turned her gaze towards Fang again. "She is like any other of her kind, bound so tightly with the goddess of death."

"What did you see, Yeul?" Fang's tail twitched at a rather unsteady pace. "You're allowed to tell me, aren't you?"

"That is not why I hesitate to say it." Yeul's gaze became somewhat downcast, and then distant once more. "Our visions are merely possibilities... Fate is not cast in stone, even if most misunderstand it to be so." She seemed to think deeply for a long moment. "A fish within a river might escape the current and find itself within a different stream, even if all paths lead to the ocean." After another moment of silence, Yeul closed her eyes. "This may not come to pass, but I have seen the vision of death... Again, the same as I do for most of her kind."

Fang squeezed her eyes shut as well. "I'll protect her... Nothing else is hurting her on my watch."

"I warn you this because you seem to respect the balance, yourself." Yeul's voice grew a bit softer, less of a monotone. "I know that you will not let it influence your actions in a negative way... Did you know some claim that dragons are immune to fate?"

Fang opened her eyes again, gazing back at those pale blue scales. "Yeah, but how so?"

"It stems from the same misconception that fate is an unalterable force, tightly bound as a pact itself." Yeul shook her head at the very thought of it. "If a wind blows along a certain path for long enough, it is given a name for doing so... But that cannot keep it from deviating, nor the air from circulating, taking different, seemingly random pathways." She looked off into the dream, gazing out at nothing. "We ride the current, but our wings can alter the path we take... But you, Fang, I don't see an affinity for Etro within you."

Fang tilted her head, and a slightly curious look filled her gaze. "Is that why I've never been able to see much from visions?"

"I believe it might be so." Yeul reached out with one of her wing claws to trace a crescent moon into the surface of the dream. "Etro, the goddess of death and chaotic balance... Her visions guide us." She drew out a round, shining sun. "Bhunivelze is our fire, our very lifeblood, but also our affinity for destruction."

Fang tried not to grimace at the thought of so many violent dragons, slain before they could live beyond a normal lifespan.

"But you, Fang, you seem to hold neither of those as closely as most of our kind, nor the natures of their twin brethren." Yeul looked down at the etchings of the sun and the moon. "You alone broke half of the crown of the mother goddess... Fate herself."

Fang watched as Yeul took a greater influence over the dream, making the moon and the sun appear as if they were real objects, though only around the size of a small globe.

"Perhaps part of Mwynn was still present when we were forged." Yeul moved her wing claws to gently twirl the moon in place, and the sun soon followed in its path. "Fang... I believe you can break the fate I've seen for you."

Fang watched as the moon passed in front of the sun, and she felt a shadow cast itself against her scales. "And what fate is that?"

Yeul smiled for the first time that Fang had ever seen, but it lacked mirth, and it almost seemed a bit more than wistful. "I would not tell you that. It would do more harm than good." She rose up on her hind limbs, bracing her folded wings against the dream. "I've kept your attention for long enough... You have a journey to resume, is that correct?"

"Yeah..." Fang tried not to roll her eyes at such an elusive response. "I'll probably be too far away to dream with you again."

"Then I wish you the best of luck." Yeul bowed her head slightly, before she turned to gaze up into the heights of the misty dream. "Luck... I do remember Lady Luck; some say that she was once one and the same with Mwynn."

* * *

Lightning's gaze flicked to the side when Fang suddenly groaned awake, slowly rolling over against the blankets.

"Hm..." Fang didn't yet open her eyes, and she reached up to rub at her own forehead. "Light?"

"Over here." Lightning turned over a slice of meat in the skillet. "Morning."

"Morning..." Fang slowly opened her eyes to see the soft glow of sunlight, and she watched the way that it gradually moved against the crags of the mountainside. "Whatever you're making, it smells real nice."

"I was just about to wake you." Lightning soon reached over to place a plate of food beside Fang. "You've been mumbling in your sleep."

"Sorry." Fang rose up to sit against the blankets, yawning rather quietly. "Yeul just had a few things to say, that's all."

"You were dreaming together?" Lightning held her own plate of breakfast, and she started to pick up a slice of meat with her fork. "What did she say?"

"Probably just making sure I won't let a single victory get to my head." Fang smirked at the little egg nests. "How did you make these..?"

"I whisked the whites." Lightning showed Fang how to cut up the fluffy part of the egg dish, mixing it in with the soft golden yellow of the yolk. "I can teach it to you sometime, but I don't think the eggs are going to last long in this weather."

"Yeah, better use them up while we can." Fang copied the technique from Lightning, and she took a small bite of the fluffy little egg nest. "You ready to fly over that mountain?"

"We don't have much choice, do we?" Lightning peered up at the snowcapped peak, gazing at the way that it loomed so far above the island. "But you could fly around it."

"Where's the fun in that?" Fang smiled as she chewed a bit of the sliced meat from her plate. "Don't you want to see where I took care of that silly crown?"

Lightning took a small sip of the bottled fruit juice. "You didn't fly all the way up there, did you? I thought you might've been exaggerating it in your memory... For dramatic effect."

"Nah, it isn't as far up as it looks." Fang watched the way that the egg yolk began to pool near the bottom of her plate, but she chased most of it down with the edge of her fork. "Yeul probably wanted to make sure we weren't interrupted; it took both of us breathing fire on it before I figured out how to really break it."

"Dragon fire..." Lightning offered the bottle of fruit juice between them. "Even that couldn't get the job done."

"It was a sturdy little thing." Fang took a brief swig of juice, before she pointed at her own forehead. "Looked like a big ring of light when the fal'Cie was wearing it, but once I scratched it off from him, it turned right around to the size of one of these." She slowly tilted her plate back and forth. "If he could change the crown itself, change the reality of it... I had a feeling I could use that same power to destroy the thing itself."

"Clever." Lightning looked back at her own breakfast. "I just hope it's gone for good."

Fang felt something cross her mind then, something that she hadn't even considered. "You think it wasn't enough to erase it?"

"I don't know." Lightning reached for the bottle of fruit juice again, though she paused before taking a sip. "Maybe it _is_ a good idea to double check..." She looked back up at the mountain peak, and while she could still taste the tang of the juice, it was nearly lost in the sheer memory of cold, relentless snowfall. "Just as soon as we finish breakfast."

Fang nodded, and she gave Lightning a small smile. "It was sweet of you to make this." She almost felt bold enough to reach over and nudge at one of her cheeks, but Fang knew just how grumpy Lightning could be in the mornings. "Nice to have a campfire again, too."

"It wasn't much trouble." Lightning drew in a deep breath of the tropical air, letting it soothe her mind of any lingering ills. "When I was little, we used to make these in the mornings." She tapped her fork against one of the uneaten egg nests. "Serah loved watching how they baked in the oven, like little clouds."

Fang smiled again. "I wonder how a roc egg would look like that."

Lightning almost wanted to laugh at the thought of such a thing, and while she kept silent, the mirth of it shone clearly in her eyes. "Like an actual cloud? You could feed a small army with one of those."

Fang smirked at that. "Just as long as they don't go after any dragon eggs."

Lightning quirked an eyebrow at that. "I thought dragons didn't have any eggs."

"They don't." Fang's smile softened into a look of mild content, for it was something that she didn't quite like to ponder on. "But if they did, they'd be grander than anything a roc could make."

* * *

The mountain rose high into the frigid atmosphere, and Lightning felt her breath grow thin at the sheer altitude of it all. Despite that, Fang was careful not to ascend too quickly, for she knew a human couldn't adjust to the air pressure as quickly as a dragon could.

Lightning pressed one of her hands against Fang's scales, while she kept hold of the satchel strap rather tightly with her other. _I can barely see even through the clouds._

Fang turned to circle around the mountain again, slowly climbing up through the sky. _We're nearly there._

 _If you say so..._ Lightning could scarcely see the island anymore, not even the lush jungles or the huge tropical orchards beside Luxerion. _How long will it take us to fly over the desert?_

 _A bit less than a day's time; it's much bigger than the jungles are._ Fang soared on throughout the misty clouds, where she could feel the snowflakes melting against her scales. _If the wind is right, we'll reach Ruffian before sundown; I can take care of my finances there, then we can rent a room at one of the inns._

Lightning took a moment to think that over. _'Ruffian'?_

 _Oh, you'll see._ Fang smirked against the frigid wind. _You thought the Warren was exciting? It's almost nothing compared to this place..._

They flew on through the morning light, within the clouds and the scattered snowfall, and when Fang finally rose up into the open air of the mountain peak, she smiled and called out into the sky. Lightning watched the snowflakes as they melted in the heat of Fang's breath of fire, just a small taste of her true power. And in time, a soft crunch of snow brought Fang down against the height of the mountain itself, landing there with her wings curled against the scattered rocks, while Lightning still kept to the safety of Fang's back.

"This is it." Fang gestured at a patch of snow with one of her wings claws. "See? No more crown."

Lightning peered around at the snowcapped peak of the mountain, but she soon found that her gaze was drawn more towards the island around it, to the lush forests of the northern coast, to the plains that stretched on along either sides of the west and east, fading on towards the massive dunes, the barren lands that claimed the south.

"Nice and chilly up here..." Fang peered down at the desert as well. "But it's a lot hotter down there than anything in Luxerion."

Lightning still wanted to shiver from the cold, even if she knew Fang's words held the truth. "Are you ready to go?"

"Of course." Fang flicked her tail against the snow, before she started to walk towards the southern edge of the mountainside. "Just hold on tight, Light... I'll show you what it's like to ride a real thermal!"

And Lightning felt the very first leap into the air, the rush of the wind against her skin, before her stomach lurched at the sudden, whirling descent, while Fang tucked her wings in to dive right down over the rocky mountain cliffs. The air whistled as they dropped, plummeting down above the snow-covered bluffs and rocky crags, down, down, _down_ towards the rushing rivers of melted snow, the falls that roared far louder than any beast could bellow.

 _It's your own damn fault if I throw up on you, Fang!_ Lightning tried to stifle the desperate queasiness that gripped her entire body from head to toe, so much that she swore she was about to pass out right then and there. _You and your stupid daredevil tricks..._

Fang merely rumbled a laugh, before she called out once again, spitting her bright fire in a wide, spinning circle around them. She was simply too high from the thrill of diving so swiftly, from the brisk wind against her scales, so very cold and fresh, though she knew it would grow quite warm again before Lightning could come up with any further complaints. Fang was free in the air, utterly unrestrained by any earthly tethers, and it felt far too liberating to slow down.

But even so, the temperature of the desert soon did the job for her. The thermal air, piping hot and steadily rising, it was soon caught right beneath her folded wings, acting as an unseen resistance, a blanket of invisible force, which began to slow her descent. She flared her wings, catching it even further, before she took a deep breath of warm, calming air.

Lightning felt a small glimmer of shock run right through her at how quiet the world had become; without the northern winds, the sky seemed almost silent, and the heated thermals didn't make much noise at all. Fang just was gliding along, as if she was hovering atop an invisible elevator, just riding it on across the height of the desert air.

"Cool, isn't it?" Fang spoke out loud, calling back to Lightning without any need of her inner voice. "Just sit back and enjoy it... I might even take a nap."

Lightning called out as well. "You had better not!"

Fang merely smirked to herself, gazing down at the desert dunes, and at the wide, snaking river that ran down from the mountain cliffs, a lone source of fertile earth and fresh water within the wasteland. "Maybe we'll see an amphisbaena."

Lightning wrinkled her nose at the thought of that. A two headed serpent, if that sort of creature could even be called as such; they were more like massive, slithering worms than any real reptile, so far divorced from the species of wyverns that they had lost their wings, feathers and fire, instead burrowing right down into the sands of desert environments to seek refuge from the heat, and to drink the liquids locked so deep beneath the earth. One head sought out water, while the other roamed far and wide for any food that it could snap down from the desert's surface. Lightning had never seen one, and if she was to be honest, she'd never even see a desert before. She'd read about them in books of course, studying the unusual fauna that inhabited them, but her own travels mostly brought her to fertile land, farms and mountain villages, where monsters interfered with typical human livelihoods.

But a desert... Lightning peered down at the shifting sands, blown back and forth by the gusting winds, and she felt an odd sensation lurking over her heart. She was in utterly new territory, for even the outskirts of Luxerion and the tall jungles reminded her of her first home, a tropical land of lush trees and mossy earth, not the harshness of so much bleak, endless sand.

"We can stop near the water's edge around noon." Fang yawned, but she kept her eyes open, focusing on the air ahead of her. "Ruffian was built right next to the river, near the ocean, too."

Lightning looked out at the horizon, but at such a height, she could see nothing but the dunes of sand. "I'd imagine water is in short supply around here."

"Definitely." Fang angled her wings to glide down a bit, flying closer to the desert below. "Remember when you asked me what a cactus was?"

Lightning blinked once, and then twice, before she remembered what Fang was talking about. "Yes."

Fang smiled against the arid winds, and she flapped her wings to fly faster above the dunes. "Just you wait..."

* * *

And in the early afternoon, she did indeed return with a cactus, but it was long after Lightning had busied herself with boiling up a pot of water from the river. Perhaps Fang had merely plucked off the needles, or perhaps that species of cactus survived with only small prickles on the edges, but either way, Lightning was quite unimpressed at first. What could possibly be so special about such a weird, chunky plant?

But when Fang sank her long teeth into the unusual plant, revealing the hidden cache of water that was naturally locked inside, Lightning realized that it wasn't as simple as she'd first suspected. She had once read about plants that could store water inside themselves for long periods of time, and growing up, her own mother taught her about the little succulent plants that did the very same thing on their island, but she had never seen or truly heard of a cactus before Fang had spoken of it; perhaps there was simply too little information available with the sheer rarity of deserts.

"Tastes pretty awful, but it can keep you alive in the desert." Fang began to chew up her section of the cactus, before she turned to spit out a mouthful of bristly needles into the riverbed. "Not that I'd ever spend much time away from water."

"Are these the prickles?" Lightning gently brushed her fingertips over the sharper part of the cactus that Fang had dropped beside her feet. "They don't look as intimidating as I thought."

"Nah, those aren't anything like the rest of them." Fang leaned over to drink a bit of the river water, lapping it up with her tongue. "Some needles can grow as long as a human finger, and then even longer."

Lightning watched the way that Fang's wing scales shimmered beneath the desert heat. "I don't think I'd want to go very far away from the water, either."

Fang leaned back, and she slowly stretched out her hind legs against the pale white sand. "That's why Ruffian was built next to the river... And why you only see other settlements near oases or underground springs." She yawned quietly, and her teeth flashed in the hazy sunlight. "People are smart, they know almost nothing can live very long without water."

Lightning turned back towards the burbling pot of river water, where the rest of the speckled eggs were steadily cooking away. "I suppose that's why people still worship Lindzei." She stirred at the floating eggs with a long wooden spoon. "Plantations rise and fall by the whims of the rain... That's what I'd always hear the farmers say." Lightning looked back over at Fang. "I actually help more people who work in agriculture than anyone else; if a monster starts interfering with the food supply, it's harder to ignore... And easier to cough up the payment for a hunter."

Fang gave Lightning a rather sly smile. "Why do you think I torched that empty field?" She slowly brushed one of her wing claws against the soft, loose sand. "I mean, I wasn't out to ruin crops for anyone, but nothing else was gonna get the word out quicker than a threat to next year's farming."

"I just wish there'd been a different way." Lightning thought back to how her own little village had been practically invisible from up in the sky, hidden by the dark colors of the surrounding trees and the deep snow that covered the houses and crop fields. "At least it turned out like this."

Fang nodded, before she slowly curled up to rest in the sand. "And we'll be out of here soon enough... There's whole a lot of ocean to cover before we reach the vestige." She tried not to purr when Lightning reached over to scratch beneath her chin. "You're just trying to make me sound like a cat again."

Lightning bit back a smile. "Is it really so awful?"

"No." Fang closed her eyes, and she began to breathe very deep. "Not awful at all." She only opened her eyes again when something changed within the space between them, something that she could scarcely sense. "Hm?"

"I was just thinking again." Lightning had the smallest smirk on her lips. "Thinking about what you'd look like if you were reincarnated as a duck."

Fang didn't even have the will to grumble at her.

* * *

The early evening drew closer within the cool winds of the coast, and when Lightning peered out over the horizon again, she finally caught sight of the sea.

"There we are..." Fang dipped her wings down to fly back towards the river, where she swiftly landed beneath the cover of the tall palm trees and thick tropical fronds. "We'll have to walk the rest of the way; it's just too open out here for me to fly any closer."

"Alright." Lightning waited for Fang to settle against the ground, before she moved to climb down over one of her wings. "Is it a long walk?"

"Shouldn't be." Fang shook out the residual sand from her scales. "And with the sunset, it gets a lot cooler around here."

Lightning watched the way that Fang disappeared in a flash of fire and whispering sound, before her human form stood there upon the riverbank, gazing out at the distant, seaside city.

"Yeah, shouldn't be long..." Fang turned to face the desert sands, where she walked up to stand upon the nearest dune. "Ready, Light?"

Lightning nodded, and she followed after her for a while. They moved through the sand without pause, for it was easy enough to balance on the surface, even at the height of the narrow dune.

"There should still be a nice inn by the coastal walls." Fang reached up to shield her eyes from the sunlight. "I was half-kidding when I compared it to the Warren... It can be a rough place if you don't know your way around, but it's not too crazy in the long run."

"I had a feeling it wouldn't be." Lightning looked out over the pale sands, and then at the city that rose scarcely higher than the tallest dune, while the river itself practically disappeared into a maze of low stone buildings and colorful market stalls. "So... You have finances."

Fang smirked to herself. "Yup."

Lightning tried not to roll her eyes. "And why exactly would a dragon need that kind of thing?"

"Told you before, I've got to make my money somehow." Fang kicked at a stray patch of sand. "What, would you rather I'd have stolen my riches from old castles, or something? Grab a princess from her window and wait for the king to pay ransom?"

Lightning did roll her eyes that time. "I suppose you'd think that working for your money is too boring."

"Work is only ever fun if you have someone else you like doing it with you." Fang stretched out her arms beneath the hazy sunlight. "Otherwise, it's a waste of time... I can get everything I need off of the land itself." She soon pointed out at the sea. "I can hunt or fish for food, and I get my water from rivers and lakes."

"I can't say that I completely disagree." Lightning watched how the evening sunlight slowly danced across the ocean waves. "But do like having enough to buy the things I can't make for myself."

"That's exactly it." Fang moved to walk down a short incline, one that led to a long, sandy path towards the city. "Money would be useless if it wasn't for that."

"Well." Lightning paused to peer up at the wide stone walls, flecked with sand and bits of rough salt from the sea. "Lead the way, then."

* * *

Fang did lead the way. She took them far beyond the city gates and into a wide section of the market quarter, which was shaded by thatched-roof overhangs and long banners of colorful cloth. The scent of wine and rich spices permeated almost every inch of the air, and Lightning's nose often twitched at the faint aroma of incense, drifting along in every other breath she took in such a place.

Ruffian almost reminded her of the old stories of castle palaces, which made it seem all the more strange that mere commoners and those in silken robes all mingled together within the dusty streets, trading stories, news and physical goods like they were all one and the same. Long lines of painted color climbed the thin towers of the city, which rose up towards where the seabirds circled the sky, searching for any scraps of food from below. The birds didn't dare land for long, though, not under the constant watch of such slender alley cats, beasts that looked more like wild lynxes than any domestic breed, or perhaps some offshoot of caracal.

Lightning felt the aches in her soul picking up again beneath the heat of the evening sun, but she forced herself to keep moving along at Fang's side, and to not show any hints of pain. It was just her soul, she told herself, it was a pain that couldn't truly hurt her, even if her body seemed to disagree.

And in the heart of the market district, amid the lively street stalls and colorful banners of local craftsmen and traders, among shouts and laughter just as loud as the roaring sea, Lightning took a long moment to take everything in. There were wagons pulled by such strange lanky animals with humps on their backs, from carriages to caravan carts filled up to the brim with imported goods and local fare alike, probably grown from the river. They carried baskets made of reeds and big wicker boxes full of tiny wild animals, and Lightning even caught the glimmer of a massive serpent within a steely cage. That was what she quickly focused upon, the lithe old python that stared back at her with a rather unfeeling gaze. She felt almost sorry that it didn't have much room to slither around or stretch itself out in there.

"Here Light, this is the best spot to find the weirdest stuff in Nova Chrysalia." Fang didn't seem to notice the caged serpent, which quickly disappeared when the carriage of exotic goods rumbled away. "I once saw someone selling an entire collection of wyvern eggs out here... One of them even started to wobble around."

Lightning turned back to look at Fang, before she lowered her voice to a murmur. "Aren't there regulations here on illegal animal trade?"

Fang only grinned, though she lowered her voice down as well. "Ruffian doesn't have too many rules, Light, and the ones it does have are easily bent by coin." She moved to sling her right arm around Lightning's shoulders, leading her away through the bustling crowds. "Even so, I doubt I'd ever want to look after a baby wyvern."

Lightning looked up at the palm trees that grew on either sides of the street, and she watched how they swayed back and forth in the ocean breeze. "Wyverns are just too wild to tame."

Fang nodded without speaking.

"Hey... Do you think we could find somewhere to rest?" Lightning tried not to look too strained by the walk it took to venture inside the city; her body still ached from the wounds in her soul, no matter how energetic she wished she could feel. "I'm just not sure how much I've healed from it."

"Sure, Light." Fang's gaze was suddenly bright with concern. "You think you'll be alright for a minute longer? The bank should have benches to rest on."

"That's fine." Lightning took a very deep breath of the dry, salty air, tasting the strong scents of the sea. "Let's go."

* * *

It didn't take them very long to arrive at the odd little establishment, a place with a small fountain out front and many flowering vines, but it had little in the way of decoration inside. It seemed as if the building was purely for business, unlike the colorful towers and grand manors painted in gold, and Lightning had quite a bit of time to ponder over things while Fang waited in line.

There were tropical flowers growing in the small garden around the fountain, and Lightning found herself gazing out at them, all while resting on a bench near the entryway. The sound of the water felt almost soothing, and the low murmurs from the bank clientele did little to harm the feeling. Her thoughts drifted to the gardens back within the hunter's compound, to the way the wind always rustled the leaves of the fruit trees, and she let her mind wander back towards her own childhood home, deep in the heart of the tropics.

She had once ventured far into the woods to find wild fruit with Serah, when the two of them suddenly stumbled upon a cave full of subterranean plants, most of which almost looked like flowers. They hadn't touched them, for even the most unassuming of blossoms could hold a deadly toxin or sickening spores, but they had spent many long moments marveling over the incredibly luminous plants, before they journeyed on to find what they'd first set out for.

Had the water reached that place, Lightning wondered, had the waves risen up to swallow the whole island away? It seemed quite unlikely, for even in the midst of the raging sea, she remembered seeing those low green mountains peering back at them. Perhaps her mind wandered there because of a framed map on the wall of the bank, an image of trade routes and the more dangerous waters of the Pale Sea, some of which she actually recognized from her childhood. Her father had once taken both of his children to visit the crescent isle to the north, a strange place with even stranger people, but they were still friendly all the same. Islanders, Lightning remembered, they hardly ever disputed with each other over land or resources, and war was almost unspeakable in that day and age.

Fang's voice suddenly caught her attention through all of the other sounds. "Yeah, just checking in on a certain account."

Lightning tried to hear what the bank teller had to say, but she could scarcely even hear it.

"Just look something up for me, would you?" Fang's voice sounded rather sly. "Look, just tell your boss to bring up the records for 'Monoculus'... Yes, I can identify myself."

Lightning slowly leaned back against the bench, and she fought the urge to look over her shoulder at the other room of the bank. What could Fang possibly be doing in there? Perhaps she had to use a moniker for her funds, for surely _someone_ would have noticed that she hadn't aged a day over so many thousands of years.

"Thank you... Nope, I'd also like a withdrawal." Fang sounded as if she was smirking. "Can't just let grandma's cash sit there in that dusty old vault forever, can I?"

Lightning looked up at the flowering vines that dangled from the roof of the building. Perhaps Fang was just making sure that they'd have enough money to rent a nice room at an inn.

It wasn't very long before Fang spoke once more. "Thanks again." Her footsteps sounded soft against the marble floor, and she soon appeared from around a corner of the lobby. "Hey, Light."

Lightning glanced over at her. "How was it?"

Fang shrugged. "Hasn't changed much over the years, not much interest to be gained..." She sighed almost dramatically, but a clever smile soon crept over her face. "'Grandma' hasn't played the stocks out here in quite a while, now, so it's all to be expected."

"Right..." Lightning gave Fang a rather wry look. "Because you don't have an unfair advantage or anything."

"None at all." With a tiny smirk, Fang stepped out towards the entryway of the bank. "You ready to go?"

Lightning slowly rose up to her feet. "Yeah."

They walked together through the lush courtyard with the fountain, moving off towards the main streets of the business quarter within Ruffian. While the more chaotic parts of the city were rife with sounds and voices of all kinds, the orderly streets that they walked upon seemed more or less quiet and calm, though now and then, groups of people could be heard talking or even carousing among themselves. It seemed as if wine was a local favorite, as well as small glasses of a rather pungent liquid, something that shone like liquid gold.

Lightning listened to the voices, and as she walked with Fang towards a more crowded part of the city, she caught wind of something that actually sounded interesting.

A rather rough voice spoke between sips of the translucent alcohol. "I'm telling you, as soon as the moon is full again, there'll be an eclipse, that's what he said!"

"Haven't seen an eclipse in years." A tall man with a long braided beard was gazing up at the crescent moon, and he didn't look the least bit impressed by the sight. "Even if it happens, it means nothing."

Another voice piped up from somewhere that Lightning couldn't see. "That's not true, it's a good omen!"

Yet another voice spoke above the rest. "It's a bloody _bad_ omen, fool! Nothing good comes from it."

Lightning looked away from the group, and she had to hurry a little just to keep up with Fang.

"The inn's just a few blocks away." Fang stepped aside to move out of the way from a rather large wagon caravan. "You want to rest up over the evening?"

"Sounds like a good idea." Lightning kept herself close to Fang, watching out for any pickpockets in the bustling street. "You could use the rest too, with how far we still have to go."

"It shouldn't be long with a wind like this." Fang smiled at the feeling of the ocean breeze. "We'll be there before you know it."

Lightning didn't speak again for a long while, not until they'd found a rather large inn near the seaside walls. Visitors clamored in the front lobby, and merchants laughed loudly among each other, boasting of the sales and long journeys they'd made, and of the goods they had yet to sell. Fang took the initiative to book a room for the two of them, while Lightning decided to linger near one of the open windows, just to look out at the sea.

The Pale Sea, named for the pale god, but also for a distinct lack of blue coloration due to the many species of algae that thrived within the salty waters. Very pale greens and soft, wispy purples often reigned supreme, making the water seem almost mythical in nature, though none of it could compare to the sheer phenomenon of bioluminescence. It was quite rare, the islanders always said, likely a chemical reaction to certain conditions, perhaps the temperature, the time of year, for when it all aligned properly beneath the moonlight, the sea came alive with bright roiling color, tossed all around by the deep gravitational pull of that very same moon.

Lightning looked down at the dark gauntlet on her arm, and she imagined the way that it might look beneath actual moonlight. The claws were just as keen and as sharp as any blade, swift and deadly, though she knew that she would have to practice with it to learn how to use it properly. And with a slight pang of distaste, Lightning realized that her best option on that pursuit would likely be to ask Snow about his own claw weapons. Why did that man _always_ seem to barge his way right into the middle of things when she least wanted him to be there? Lightning tried her best to make her own thoughts sound as if they weren't so petulant, for she rationalized that it was not her fault that the two of them didn't get along. She could get along just fine with men of Snow's age, men like Noel who didn't have such a boisterous attitude and a penchant for headlong heroics, someone less likely to steal her sister away with the promise of grand adventures and all the wonders of the world.

She quickly realized that she was gripping the windowsill quite tightly, enough that her fingertips started to hurt. Lightning released her hold, and she tried not to let herself slump down against the window itself. She knew that it sounded more than hypocritical, for she had just seen the incredible sights of Luxerion, had she not? How could she deny her own sister the very same chance at adventure? She'd been to a city with wine and dancing, to the north where dire wolves ran wild and fearless, where towering mammoths trumpeted into the night, and then even the mysteries of the desert town, though she'd barely scraped the surface on that one. They wouldn't stay there for very long, she knew that for a fact, even if every step she took ached like yet another crack of magic to her limbs.

"Light? I've got the room for us." Fang's voice sounded a bit softer than before. "You alright?"

Lightning looked back over her shoulder, before she realized that she was gripping the windowsill so tightly again.

"Hey." Fang leaned in beside her, just close enough to speak in a low murmur. "Is it still bothering you?"

Lightning drew in a sharp breath between her teeth, and she held it tight within her lungs. "I can handle this."

Perhaps Fang could sense the truth of it, but she didn't say a word. She merely offered Lightning her arm, leading her along the brief flight of stairs that led towards the second floor rooms. Each step felt like the wild magic was right back there again, searing inside her, cleaving her soul into a million scattered pieces, as if only her flesh was strong enough to hold it all together. She knew that in reality, the wound was more of a deep fracture, something that would heal itself in due time, even if each step of the process was near agony. Lightning could hide it, she'd proven that much by defying the suggestion of further bed rest, by forcing her mind not to acknowledge the pain, to truly believe that it was not there, but she had a feeling that her own mental stamina was waning.

Maybe that was why she found herself guided into a wide, elegant room, aided by the strong arms on either side of her own, where Fang brought her into the adjacent washroom before she could even recognize the change in atmosphere.

"Just relax." Fang had such a knowing look in her eyes, perhaps due to the fact that Lightning could scarcely keep her own thoughts to herself at that point. "Some warm water will do you good."

Lightning slowly realized that she was sitting slumped against the side of a tall marble basin, and when she forced herself to look around, she could see that the walls were painted with tiny seashell patterns and leaping dolphins, and then on the ceiling, silent swirls of paint billowed up above them, utterly motionless.

Fang finally spoke when the water grew warm beneath her touch, and she moved to adjust the drain of the basin. "If you need to rest some more, Light-"

"We can leave tomorrow." Lightning stared at those shiny little shells, so pearly and soft. "It's just pain."

Fang narrowed her eyes at that, but she didn't speak again for a while, not until the water rose up to the middle of the bath. "You know pushing yourself is pointless."

"We've spent too much time resting already." Lightning knew the weariness in her voice didn't help her argument at all. "We have a fal'Cie to slay... If it were any other quarry, I wouldn't have agreed to stopping so many times in the first." She slowly turned to look at Fang. "This thing can't run from us."

"But it can fight back." Fang reached back into the water to test the temperature. "Listen, Light, you _really_ want to go up against this thing when you're feeling like this? Even if you rest on the way?" She tried her best not to frown. "Look, it didn't even try to brand me before, so I have a feeling that it didn't want a l'Cie out of me, but you, you've never been right there in front of it... Vanille was caught off guard, you know."

Lightning kept quiet for a long moment, and her words came out in a murmur when Fang helped her back up to her feet. "How exactly does branding happen?"

"It was..." Fang sighed as she guided her towards the other end of the bath. "Like a flashing ribbon of magic, reaching out to grab at her." She moved to sit down on the edge of the basin, gazing down at the tile floor. "The fal'Cie started _screeching_ , and Vanille's eyes went so wide while she was shaking, like she was more than a million miles away, and then she just... The magic disappeared, and she collapsed."

Lightning slowly began to unbutton the blouse beneath her silver garb. "That was what branded her?"

"Yeah... She talked about the visions she saw during that, and we managed to piece together that the fal'Cie wanted her to find that other vestige." Fang still stared at her feet. "It must've had a thousand chances to try and grab me... It didn't even look like it wanted to move much, so I just let my damn guard down." Her fingertips tightened against her palms. "I thought it was just sleeping... But when Vanille got too close, it just _happened_ , faster than anyone could ever react." Fang squeezed her eyes shut, as if in pain. "But why didn't it even try to brand _me_..? I mean, no offense to Vanille, but she's not exactly the most formidable dragon I've ever met, and if the fal'Cie wanted us to kill one of its own kind, why not me?"

Lightning almost felt at a loss for a moment, but when she took those first few steps into the warmth of the water, her words drifted away like the desert breeze. "Maybe it knew you would help her with it."

"Maybe." Fang crossed one leg over the other, and she looked up at the high window of the bathroom, where she could still see the seabirds flying. "I'm not saying that it's a fate I'd want, and if the choice between us was crystal sleep or waiting alone like I did... If Vanille's peaceful in there, like being asleep, then I'm glad it happened like that." She slowly shook her head. "I just wish we'd never gone down into that wreck."

Lightning closed her eyes. Within the deep water of the bath, she had to fight back a sharp shiver from the sheer feeling of it all, even if the warmth was of a comforting sort. The pain still lingered in her limbs, even when she didn't move them, and she wondered briefly if it would ever go away.

"Hey, Light." Fang's voice had grown soft and steady again. "You've been through the wringer too, haven't you? It's alright to rest for a while."

Lightning could scarcely open her eyes, but when she heard a set of footsteps, and then felt those strong hands massaging her shoulders, she tried her best to peer out at the world around her. "Are you sure she's really sleeping?"

"I hope so, Light." Fang spoke almost silently, just a soft breath on her lips. "It's probably like dreaming... The old stories all say it's like falling asleep forever." She leaned against the cool surface of the marble, trying to gently soothe the pain away. "But how would they know if nobody's ever woken up from it? We just can't tell for sure."

Lightning shivered again, and she knew that Fang would have felt it from her shoulders. Would she think less of her, Lightning wondered, for a mere moment of weakness, brought on from a wound like no other? Was it really so shameful for her guard to break, to let the pain overwhelm her, just until she could muster up her strength again? The answers seemed as untouchable as the thin mist that rose from the bathwater, and Lightning closed her eyes once more. Perhaps it only meant she was human.

"Shh..." Fang still spoke so softly. "Try to relax."

Lightning did as Fang said, and she soon felt the deft touch of hands in her hair, along with the fresh scent of liquid soap. Was it really so different from how she'd accepted such care back in Luxerion? As long as Fang knew that Lightning could still take care of herself, was there even any harm in it?

"You don't have to push yourself so far." Fang felt the way that Lightning slowly relaxed against her, soothed down into a much calmer state. "Nobody's gonna blame you for taking it easy while you heal... You know I won't think any less of you." She listened to the whisper of the distant sea, to the cries of the seagulls, then to the soft sound of Lightning's breath. "Even if we do leave tomorrow, promise me that you'll try to get as much rest as you can."

Lightning slowly opened her eyes again, gazing at the sky beyond the window, at the slim outline of the crescent moon. "Alright."

"A promise, then?" Fang smiled as she rubbed Lightning's neck. "No running off on any adventures."

"Right, right..." Lightning mumbled something else under her breath, but she scarcely realized that it was the last thing she said before she drifted off into a light sleep. The bath water was simply too lovely and warm, far too comforting for her to not doze away, even when her hair was rinsed, before she was carefully lifted and given a towel around her shoulders.

Fang sighed as she held Lightning close, gently placing another towel against her other side. "What am I gonna do with you, Light? At least this is a step in the right direction..." She cradled her there, letting Lightning rest her head against one of her shoulders, where Fang could feel the water from the bath trickling down against her own clothes. "Sometimes you're just too damn headstrong for your own good."

It was a brief walk back to the bedroom, and Fang held Lightning in both arms, supporting her weight beneath her knees with one hand while the other remained at the height of her back. The sunlight was faint in the southern windowpanes, just a few rays of light from the west. Fang carried Lightning towards the wide, patterned bedspread, and she set her down as gently as she could.

"Just rest a while, Light." Fang reached in to tuck a lock of Lightning's hair behind one of her ears, still quite damp from the bath. It would likely keep her comfortably cool in the heat of the room, where the desert warmth still lingered from the earlier hours of the day. "Just rest... I'll get us something to eat before nightfall, something nice."

Silence filled the room in the absence of her voice, and Fang soon leaned down against the empty side of the bed, gazing out at the ocean view. The city buildings still stood between the window and the walls near the sea, but she could still see every wave that rose along the surface, so tranquil and smooth.

"It's gonna be okay." Fang slowly settled herself against the sheets of the bed, staring at the fabric between them. It was stitched with so many colorful strings, though they all blended together in the evening light. "I'm not gonna let fate have the last say in this... You can count on that." She closed her eyes as well, and she wished for for all the world that she could find what she was searching for.

The cool ocean winds whispered against the panes of the window, but neither of them were awake to hear it.

* * *

A dream found her in the darkness. It began in a void of color, sheer dark, but as Fang quickly regained her senses, a lush green began to peek in from the outer edges of her vision.

Her horse whickered softly at the strong scents within the breeze, at the aroma of fresh rain and budding flowers of spring. Fang could feel the droplets of rain pattering against her shoulders, even atop her hair, though it only ever bothered her when the liquid trickled down across her skin.

The path was rather muddy and choked by low shrubs, something that had seemed nonexistent in the winter snow; perhaps it had truly been easier to navigate back then, despite the numbing cold. Fang pulled at the reins to keep her horse from stepping upon a gnarled tree root, and she urged him to trot across a small river of rainwater in the path, which splashed so quietly beneath his massive hooves.

The leaves whispered softly beneath the trickling rain, and Fang turned her ears towards the sounds of them. She knew it might be seen as foolish to look to such things for comfort, but there was just something so utterly calming about a gentle spring storm, something that touched the deepest part of her heart.

A witch lived there in the wild woodlands, that's what they'd all told her a year ago, and that's what they'd said when she asked them yet again. A witch lived among the tall trees and the lush little valleys, between the towering pines and the low oak trees with arms like gently twisting serpents, standing vigil over the mossy earth. It was an incredibly lush wood, and the villagers spoke greatly upon the influence of magic within each little branch and blade of grass; perhaps the presence of a witch made the flora grow to such a vibrant state.

A moon witch, Fang remembered, and with the knowledge that she'd gained over the following year, she felt more than equipped to encounter her yet again. She already knew the stories of the old hare witch, a cunning presence in those tales of witchcraft and sorcery; it was said that she'd often turned herself into a hare and taunt those who hunted in her woodlands, leading their hounds on bounding chases that never granted them any sort of prize, nothing but bitter regret in the end. Perhaps she had been a moon witch, too, taunting the horsemen into their own fates beneath a glowing night, leaping above a covered ditch or any such natural trap, something that would find their horses with sharply snapped limbs and their dogs with aching paws.

But Fang found it quite hard to believe that someone with such a selfless nature, no matter how coarse she had first seemed, she just couldn't believe that Lightning was like the witches in all of the old stories. She might have been rather prickly, that much was true, to the point of self-imposed solitude, but perhaps that was simply a necessity. Witches were widely considered outlaws, after all, and magic had been all but forcefully eradicated in Fang's own homeland. She'd never had much of a personal opinion on it, her own work had always been to chase down criminals, after all, but something about Lightning's sacrifice drew her back to that distant land, perhaps in search of something different than before. In a realm of lawless wilderness and settlements that seemed to ignore their kind, or even endorse those with deeper powers, Fang knew that such territory was all the more desirable to a witch.

It might have been why she didn't notice what was sitting in the overgrown path, just waiting out there in the rain; she only spotted it when the creature cared to move ever so slightly, half-hidden beneath the speckled leaves. Fang suddenly reined in her horse, gazing down at the soft, diminutive creature, and at those eyes that looked back at her without fear. A dark pink nose twitched in time with the raindrops on the leaves, while a speckled hide looked to have grown in the very same pattern as a pale brown moth wing, perfect camouflage within the undergrowth. She merely waited there, gazing up at the horse, before the little rabbit suddenly bolted far faster than anything else Fang had ever seen, gone in a mere rustle of leaves and a whisper of swift feet, leaving nothing but raindrops in her wake.

"Well..." Fang peered out at the lush flora that covered the forest floor, but she could see no signs of the little creature, nothing beyond how the rain tapped down against the low leaves. "Hello to you, too."

The path stretched on beneath tall glades of verdant green, hauntingly brightened by the sun, despite the constant rain. It was late afternoon, the sort of time when the world felt rich and somewhat sleepy, not quite ready for one last dance beneath the evening light. Fang watched as the raindrops trickled down against the tree bark, over the leaves and the twisting vines of the leafy forest, and it was only when she reached a small clearing that she spotted that wooden door again.

Lightning's home looked almost invisible in the springtime, covered by long flowering vines with leaves that looked bigger than Fang's hand. There was no chill in the air to keep the greenery away, and the earthen walls were all but invisible beneath the thick carpet of leaves. A small chimney stood rather humbly near the edge of the roof, where a thin plume of smoke curled out into the rain, drifting off towards the height of the rustling treetops.

"Well, it's now or never." Fang led her horse towards the patch of grass near the door, and she slowly dismounted from the saddle, before she moved to tie his reins in the very same spot as before. "Wish me luck, buddy."

The horse merely snorted at her, but he whickered quietly when she gave him a small sugar cube from one of her pockets. Fang moved to take a few packages out from the saddlebags, then she turned to approach the little house.

"Alright then..." Fang took a very deep breath, before she reached up to knock on the door. "We'll just see if she's in."

It was a while before any response made itself known, but before long, the latch on the door didn't even slide open to see who was standing there. Fang could hear the locking mechanisms as they clicked and rattled within the door itself, and a long moment passed before it opened up before her.

And there, in the doorway, Lightning stood without the same state of weariness that Fang had left her in. Lithe limbs were made clear by the short sleeves of the blouse she wore, and a pair of slim trousers left little to the imagination in regards to the strength of her legs. Yet it was a soft kind of strength, akin to the muscles of a wild feline, long, languid and utterly subtle. Her hair was a bit fuller than before, as if the springtime itself had brought forth a cascade of pink blossoms, yet even the longest lock wasn't quite to the point of a mane, like Fang's own head of hair.

Lightning stepped aside without a word, perhaps a welcoming gesture, and Fang took it to imply that she was granted entry into the little earthen house. She could soon hear those locks clicking back into place once Lightning had nudged the door shut, even without her having to move them again.

"No chamomile today." Lightning walked over to sit down on her favorite armchair, where she picked up a rather delicate box from the parlor table. "Do you like cherry?"

"Cherry tea?" At a gesture to sit down as well, Fang took the chair on the other side of the low table. "I've never tried it."

"It's a green tea, actually." Lightning plucked out a small cloth pouch from the box, before she set them both back down on the table, picking up a small pitcher instead. "Several health benefits."

Fang glanced over to see that there was already a small kettle hanging above the hearth, where the water sounded quite close to boiling.

"There's a grove not far from here, it's where I find tea leaves in the spring and summer." Lightning still held a certain steel to her gaze, but it was somewhat sheathed, and her voice sounded almost as warm as the sunlight. "That species isn't native here, but it doesn't die in the winter."

Fang watched as the small fire crackled merrily in the hearth. "I suppose you have some say in that."

"No plant or animal ever wants to die." Lightning turned her gaze towards a pelt that was resting on Fang's own chair, donning the arms with a sheen of silver fur. "But they don't always have a choice in the matter."

Fang closed her eyes for just a moment, listening to the soft sounds of the wind and rain, to the little popping sounds of the fire, even the low rumble of nearly boiling water. "We saved up enough money for Vanille to take lessons."

"Lessons." Lightning's gaze wavered slightly upon hearing the word 'money', but she still peered right back at Fang. "And what is she learning?" Lightning opened up the cloth pouch to examine the contents, before she stood up to lift a pair of small white teacups from a nearby shelf. "Who is she learning from?"

"I think you might already know." Fang slowly began to relax against her chair, and she looked up at the twinkling metal trinkets that slowly twirled beside the ceiling, so many little stars that glittered with reflections of the rain. "Some places aren't so keen on smothering magic from the world... She thinks that she's gone to the western isles to learn mathematics or writing, but they'll help her figure it out."

"You did know." Lightning moved to pick up the kettle from the hearth, before she sat back down to pour out the simmering water into the pitcher. "But she doesn't?"

"She does, somewhere." Fang watched as the steam rose up from the pitcher, before she saw how Lightning poured the contents of the cloth pouch inside, dark herbs and small dried cherries, down into the water itself. "She's always been real clever whenever we've been in prickly situations; she can fool anyone with those pretty little lies of hers." Fang smiled, and the gesture was full of pride. "Problem is, they're good enough for her to trick herself."

Lightning narrowed her eyes in thought. "And yet you still hunted witches?"

"It didn't matter, they broke the law." Fang could already smell the rich scents of the tea. "At least... It didn't matter at first, not when we still had it easy."

Lightning looked her right in the eye again, as if to say 'go on'.

"The next spring after we left this neck of the woods, when Vanille was feeling well enough to get back into the game..." Fang slowly twined her hands together, resting them against her lap. "There was a bounty on a fire witch, sounded like a real good challenge, something to get us both back into shape." She spoke in a tone that could have once been great eagerness, but her eyes only spoke of pain. "She... It was pathetic, way too easy to track her down, and she didn't even run." Fang narrowed her eyes with a rather perplexed look to them, even if she knew the very answer to her own quandary. "We don't get payment for a dead bounty, not unless they've broken enough laws to warrant it, so while I was waiting there for Vanille to check the perimeters, I sat down to ask the witch what she'd done to get herself in such trouble in the first place."

Lightning placed a metal strainer against the top edges of one of the teacups, and a rich, pale green soon filled the little cup to the brim. "And what did she say?"

Fang soon accepted the teacup, though she paused to watch while Lightning poured out a second share from the pitcher. "The girl set fire to the house of a low lord, one who'd been courting her." She blew a soft breath against the surface of the steaming tea. "She said she was just too nervous, that the flames had been an accident... She turned herself in to us, Lightning, no chase, no fight."

Lightning took a brief sip of her own tea. "And you brought her to justice..?" Her last word was spoken with the very same chill of the winter, one final breath of the dark, numbing cold.

"Justice?" Fang lowered her gaze, but she slowly began to smile. "Justice was turning right back the way we came and thinking long and hard about whoever the hell we wanted to be in this world... I don't think I'm cut out for hunting bounties, at least not on people like her."

Lightning didn't seem to react at first, but as the meaning of Fang's statement sunk in, her eyes almost seemed to grow warmer again, soft as the wing of a bluebird. "What will you do, then?"

Fang could only sigh. "Vanille's still off to those studies... It was all I could do just to keep myself busy for a while, make myself useful." She took a long sip of the tea, and she could taste the rich flavor of cherries, highly sweetened from being dried down. "And there's only so many rides you can take out in the countryside without feeling lonely... Horses don't make much for conversation partners."

"And is that why you're here?" Lightning eyed the packages that Fang had set down beside the armchair. "Conversation?"

"I did want to see how well you'd fared after something like that." Fang smiled softly. "You look good, Lightning."

Lightning spoke between brief sips of her tea. "I told you... Call me Light."

"Light." Fang moved to set her cup down against the low table, before she reached for one of the packages. "Have you ever tasted what they can make from the beans of a cacao tree? It's even more foreign in this sort of place than tea leaves." She handed the package over the table, and she smiled even wider when Lightning accepted it. "You said you didn't use currency, so I figured I'd pay my debts with something else."

"It smells interesting..." Lightning held the wrapped object just beneath her nose, before she lowered it to examine the writing on the side. "'Chocolate'?"

"Yeah." Fang soon held up another of the packages. "This is from a place they call the 'Isle of the Tide', if the merchant I bought it from wasn't lying through his teeth..." She watched as Lightning slowly opened the paper, revealing a soft silken scarf of such pale blue fabric, a garment with white crescent moons embroidered upon each side, two separate halves. "For my friendly moon witch."

Lightning ran her fingertips against the rippling, waterlike fabric. "This is... A gift?"

Fang smiled slightly, almost in confusion. "It's for how you healed Vanille, yeah."

"I'm not a healer." Yet Lightning's voice had long since lost the sharp winter tinge that she'd last spoken that phrase in. "Fang... Witches hold no debts, because if they do, they eventually stop being witches." She turned to look at the top of the hearth, where a certain coin pouch sat practically untouched. "Currency, payments... They all go against what we stand for, against our power." Lightning still held the scarf in her hands, as if she was rather reluctant to let it go. "But if this is a gift, I can accept it."

Fang's gaze slowly brightened in understanding. "Then it's a gift."

"Thank you." Lightning smiled then, small and soft, and she lifted the scarf up to drape it around her neck, just as blue as her eyes. "Could you please take the coins back?"

Fang tried not to frown at that, but she soon looked at where Lightning gestured above the hearth, before she returned the little coin pouch to her own pockets again.

"It's no wonder Vanille couldn't fight off that curse." Lightning took another long sip of tea, as if to settle her thoughts. "Magic can strengthen a body as much as our own natural defenses."

"You think earning money stopped her from realizing her magic?" Fang's eyes widened slightly. "That... Actually makes sense, if that's how it works."

Lightning looked down at her teacup. "Will she be gaining any currency overseas?"

"Not that I know of." Fang took a moment to drink more of her own tea, and she thought about the distant academy all the while. "They call them mages, over there."

"Mages are different from witches." Lightning looked over at the windows, watching as the rain gradually began to slow. "Witches rely on our own inner magic, most mages draw it from other sources." A look of distaste crossed her lips, but she kept sipping at her tea as well. "I haven't met more than a few mages in my life, but I'd rather not meet any more."

Fang almost smiled at that same familiar prickliness that crept all over Lightning's demeanor, like a hedgehog who'd just thought of something rather unpleasant. "Do you meet many people out here?"

Lightning took a moment to gather her thoughts. "No, mostly the local villages... Sometimes they need my magic, and they leave gifts in appreciation." She reached up to stroke her fingertips against the silken scarf. "But they almost never come here in the winter."

"I can see why, it's pretty treacherous in the snow." Fang traced over the little designs on the edge of the teacup, which was a swirling white porcelain with a border of soft, breezy blue. "But you don't have any problems with that, do you?"

Lightning quirked a single eyebrow at the insinuation, but she did not speak on it.

"Truth is, I don't have much to do these days." Fang placed her teacup down on the parlor table. "And the things you could do with herbs, last winter... It's been on my mind ever since." She tipped her chin down slightly, not quite in deference, but close. "Have you ever thought of taking an apprentice?"

Lightning almost seemed puzzled at that. "If I was to take on anyone as an apprentice, it would be Vanille; she deserves to learn magic from her own kind, not a bunch of mages." She slowly leaned back in her chair, as if to think it over. "I'm not anywhere near a master of herbalism, but I could share what I know... If you'd be willing to help with the upkeep around here."

"Of course..." Fang felt a slight sense of shakiness building up within herself, perhaps the sheer relief that she hadn't ridden all the way across the entire continent for a simple chat, or perhaps it was the same fluttering sensation she'd felt when Lightninglast spoke to her upon that cold winter day, as if they were sharing a secret. _Light_ , that was what Fang was to call her, and call her that she did. "Of course, Light."

The dream slowly swirled to a different day, a sunlit morning when the rain had scarcely disappeared upon the forest leaves, where Lightning was giving the big black horse a rather disapproving look.

"He'll need real grass to graze; you won't find much in the forest, and I don't want him going after any of my gardens." Lightning gave Fang a sidelong glance. "You could always board him in one the villages with those coins of yours."

Fang looked down at where the coin pouch still lingered within her pocket. "I suppose I could."

All around her, the dream swirled yet again, until she was walking back on that familiar path towards the forest house, only she had no horse at her side. He was safe in a local village, where the stable master had promised to exercise him every day to keep him lean and fit. But Fang, Fang only had a place upon one of the armchairs to sleep, while her own source of exercise seemed to have no end in sight.

And just like that, something suddenly whistled and knocked her right on the head from somewhere far above. Fang hissed at it; though there wasn't much pain at all, the blow had taken her by surprise, and she quickly looked down at her feet to see a tiny acorn tumbling across the path.

"You were really a bounty hunter?" Lightning merely lounged there in the crook of a mighty elm tree. "What if your quarry got the drop on you from above?"

Fang almost had half a mind to chuck the cruel little projectile right back at her. "I _told you_ , I'm not on that sort of job anymore Light, and I never will be!"

"No more quarry..." Lightning slowly looked up at the sky, as if she was searching for something there. "But what of those who might think of _you_ that way?" She peered back down at Fang, expectant.

"Nobody's coming after me, don't you worry." Fang knelt down to grab the tiny projectile. "...Where did you get an acorn in an elm tree?"

Lightning reached into her shirt pocket, where she lifted a different acorn, one that she swiftly moved to crack against the bark of the elm. "And as I 'told you', I live off of the land." She silently ate the soft center of the little oak nut, before she cracked another one against the tree. "And if you're serious about doing the same, then you'd better have your wits around you, or you won't last long out here."

Fang still didn't look very phased. "You know I've fought off dozens of wild animals in my time, right?"

"Not in these woods." Lightning held the center of the acorn between her fingertips, examining it for any hints of decay. "They might respect me for what I am... But there _is_ a reason besides me that not many people venture out here." She peered back down at Fang. "Why do you think I chose to live here? People didn't come here back then, and they certainly don't come out here now."

"Alright, alright, I get it..." Fang reached up to massage where the acorn had struck her head. "Well... What are we doing today? More cultivation lessons? Or actual herbalism?"

Lightning reached up to hide a smile beneath her pale blue scarf. "You'll see soon enough." She suddenly swung her hand back down to toss the other acorn at Fang, but they both smirked when she snatched it right out from the air. "Meet me back at the house."

And as Fang took that first bite of the soft little oak nut, she almost rolled her eyes when the image of a nimble little squirrel suddenly lurched off into the edge of her vision, blindingly fast. It leapt away into the heights of forest trees, though Fang could see that the beast had a pale brown pelt, almost light enough to seem pink.

"Witches..." Fang shook her head, and she slowly started off down the path as well. "What the hell have I gotten myself into?"

And as the dream carried on, Fang found herself with hands caked in loamy dirt and full of fresh herbs, while Lightning knelt right there beside her, digging around in the earth for roots and tubers and all manner of boons from the forest. She'd scattered her little hidden gardens within certain groves of trees, and she even tended to a few caves of fungal growth, mushrooms and lichen, even a bit of unusual aquatic fungus.

Lightning hardly ever told her lessons with only the use of speech. She almost always acted upon them, teaching while wrestling a rather stubborn plant from the ground, or even a short lecture upon the different fauna that they saw throughout the forest, something that Fang had trouble not teasing her about.

"Haven't you ever gotten chased by a hawk or something?" Fang suddenly felt quite proud of the fact that she stood a bit taller than Lightning, who gave her a rather withering look. "Really Light, it can't be so safe to run around like that..."

Yet Lightning merely glanced away, seemingly finished with the entire matter. "If you say so." Yet as she walked back towards one of the hidden gardens, she didn't even try to conceal a small smirk.

It was only a few nights later, when Fang had all but forgotten the little exchange, only then did a pair of glittering eyes suddenly appear within the darkness of the parlor. With her breath stuck right in her throat, feeling as if her own racing heart might just leap away and grow twitching little whiskers of its own, Fang held her ground upon the armchair, before she watched the massive feline form prowl away into the back of the house.

And over a rather groggy breakfast, Lightning still had that same little smirk of hers right there upon her lips, and she seemed much less prickly than she usually was at such an early hour.

"You can be pretty fuckin' scary, you know that?" Fang groaned from where she was resting her head against one of her arms, somewhat hunched over the table. "It's your fault I couldn't sleep last night..."

"What are you talking about? I slept just fine." Lightning bit down on a bit of bread with cherry marmalade. "Maybe a _hawk_ flew over the house; it's a bad omen to hear one at night."

Fang couldn't find the will to glare at her, no matter how much she tried to muster it. "You _know_ what you did."

"And what was that?" Lightning sipped at a cup of herbal tea, hiding that smirk again, though her voice grew a bit lower, still quite soft, but it was slowly teasing a much darker tone of allure. "Maybe you were just having a nightmare, Fang... I have some remedies that could help with that."

"Hmph." Fang narrowed her eyes and reached for a bit of the sliced bread. "You're a cruel little witch... A cruel little mountain lion, too."

"No, I'm a fair witch." Lightning reached over for a clay jar on the table, where she spooned out a bit of honey for her tea. "You asked if I ever get chased by hawks, and I gave you the answer to that question."

Fang grumbled again, but she went very silent to eat a bit of her bread. "Still doesn't mean you should sneak up on me like that... I think I liked you better when you were just a rabbit."

Lightning smirked again, yet expression slowly faded into something rather wistful. "That was my first sigil... And the one with the most power."

Fang gave her a look of doubt. "The _bunny_ has the most power? That's a little hard to believe."

Lightning pointed up at the ceiling mural without even looking away from her honeyed tea. "The rabbit dances on the moon, where no other animal has reached." She reached for the clay jar again, before she held out a tiny spoonful of the golden nectar. "Maybe this will chase the nightmares away."

Fang narrowed her eyes ever so slightly, before she lifted her chin to dart out a single lick against the honey spoon, without even taking it from Lightning's hand.

"Seems as if I've let a bear into my house instead of a fox." Lightning turned the spoon over ever so slightly, before she moved to set it down against a scrap of stray parchment. "Bears are too ungainly to catch a rabbit."

"Who ever said I wanted to catch you?" Fang reached for another slice of bread, which she slowly began to coat in the cherry marmalade. "You know I'm not out for any more bounties."

Lightning didn't speak for a long while, but when she did, it was nearly a whisper. "There's never been a moon witch who wasn't in love with the chase... Never a rabbit who didn't feel its heartbeat quicken at the sound of drumming footfalls." She almost sounded as if she'd practiced those words a hundred times, or heard them on many occasions before. "The day you grow quick enough to catch me is the day I'm no longer your mentor."

"Mentor? I'm older than you, and you're training me in herbalism, not chasing..." Yet even as Fang said it, she felt as though a hidden meaning was suddenly slipping away, right out from her grasp, almost as if she'd hadn't even realized it was there before. "Wait, is that why you didn't kick us out back then? You thought we'd try to turn you in to some authority that doesn't exist?" She sat up straight in her chair, trying to see what could possibly be hidden behind such passive, steady eyes. "Witches just aren't hunted in places like this, not unless the hunter has personal reasons."

"I see." Lightning spoke her next words so quietly that Fang truly wondered if she'd imagined them. "And is this not personal..?"

Fang didn't have the chance to reply, for the dream suddenly swirled again, to the point where the air grew thick with the heat of late spring, nearly moving on into summer. Lightning was still there, though she wore a much shorter pair of trousers and an even thinner blouse, yet she still kept her modesty with the thick wrap of cloth around her chest. Fang's past life seemed rather embroiled in the pursuit of prying her eyes away, of wondering if the prior loneliness had truly driven her there in search of comfort, or if Lightning's own allure had drawn her in.

The heat was somewhat cooled away by the strong winds of the grassland, and Fang wondered just how far they had wandered away from the forest itself. When she looked back towards the horizon, there it was, a sprawling sentinel of tall, lush greens and the dark trunks of the trees, steadfast and silent.

"Today, you learn how to run." Lightning stood there without her satchel for holding the things that she gathered from the forest, nor her spade for digging up roots and herbs, which was usually clipped to her belt. "I want you to try and follow me for as long as you can, in the same path that I take, or as close as you can manage." She peered up at the sun, and then at the clouds that rolled on through the boundless blue sky. "You think you can do that?"

"It's not really about if I _can_ , is it?" Fang stretched out her arms, savoring the warmth of the sunlight. "You just want to see how long I can keep up with you."

"You're a quick study." Lightning turned her gaze towards the grass ahead. "Let's see if your feet are anywhere near as quick."

A whisper of sound was all that echoed against the plains, but Fang suddenly felt her blood thrumming in her veins, and she could hear the heavy beating of her heart, how it jumped along with every swift stride she took.

Lightning may have been faster, leaping over the low shrubs with all the grace of a soaring antelope, but Fang's endurance was nothing less than legendary. With a sharp breath of air, she smirked against the early winds of summer, easing right into the sound of her feet striking the earth. Lightning ran with silence, weaving this way and that to avoid prickly plants or rocks on the ground, while Fang simply maneuvered herself above them, cutting the time needed to pursue.

The ground beneath their feet was moist with a recent rain, just enough traction to grip the ground and push off from it. Fang learned such things firsthand when Lightning reached the forest, and when she used a small ledge to leap up above a trickling stream, where not a drop of water was disturbed, at least until Fang coursed right down into shallows, stepping along the smooth rocks and slippery fallen branches. She could leap back to the shore from there, rushing back into the chase, where Lightning glanced back over her shoulder, perhaps hiding yet another smirk.

Fang didn't speak while she ran, though she could feel her breath hissing against her teeth, and she felt the sheer heat of exertion, the warmth of the sun, though it scarcely trickled down in more than a few scattered ray of light. The woods were thick and deep, tangled with the undergrowth and the gnarled branches up above, but the rich green hues of the leaves were no different than Lightning's own forest. Perhaps that was why she'd brought them there, a place where Fang didn't yet know the secrets of the terrain, where she would be forced to improvise.

A stray ledge of earth was where Lightning leapt out into midair again, striking her left boot against a branch of a lower tree, enough to propel her further, towards the opposite end of the little canyon. Fang had little time to try and do the same, she knew that much, but her momentum was simply too great to put a halt to.

With a small breath of exertion, Fang pushed off from the end of the ledge. She felt the wind in her hair, the heat against her skin, the wild blood that rushed with adrenaline, and she could see the ground so far below her. It almost seemed as if time slowed within the mighty leap, as if the leaves around her went so very still and silent, as if the birds stopped singing in their trees.

And in midair, the dream shifted.

"You could've killed yourself.,," She didn't sound entirely cross, but from where she was cleaning a small wound on Fang's knee, Lightning seemed much less than pleased. "I've never seen anyone try to jump something like that just to prove themselves."

Fang sighed, realizing that she was suddenly back in the little house, being tended to for the scrapes and scratches on her skin, though it didn't feel like much anything else had been harmed. "I thought you didn't see many people out here."

Lightning scoffed under her breath. "That's not the point... And that _wasn't_ the point of the lesson either."

Fang smiled, despite the pain. "What would you have me do, then?" She closed her eyes, forcing the dream to turn somewhere else, someplace that she wasn't so bruised of both body and pride.

"This one can treat blue fever." Lightning was sitting there in the storage room, where all of her dried herbs were both prepared and stored away. "Are you even listening?'

Fang slowly drifted to attention, for there was simply no way for her to describe the feeling of jumping time within a dream. "Yeah, sorry... I was just thinking about something." She glanced around at the underground room. "It's something I've been meaning to ask you."

Lightning reached over to place the bushel of herbs back down into a storage bin. "Go ahead."

"Let's say, hypothetically-" Fang paused to gather her thoughts. "Let's just say that there's this monster who can curse people, and that the magic itself manifests into a brand on their skin, a physical symbol of their goal, or the _'focus'_ that the curse wills them to do." She traced her fingertips against the dusty floor, drawing a rather sharp design with a small eye at the center, sheltered by the spikes beyond the inner circle. "It's said to have no cure, and if the bearer fails at their focus, when the brand progresses all the way, they'll turn into a shambling monster... But if they succeed, they turn to solid crystal."

Lightning's brow furrowed in thought. "I've never heard of a curse that can turn people to crystal."

"I just need help figuring this out, it's hypothetical." Fang leaned in a bit, and her expression sobered even further, growing utterly honed. "Let's say you had someone who succeeded in their focus, trapped in crystal slumber... Would killing the monster who cursed that person, would it nullify the curse?"

Lightning looked out over the boxes and baskets of herbs, before she looked back down at herself, perhaps thinking of the power she held. "You might not like my answer."

"Please." Fang scarcely even realized that she had reached over to grip Lightning's hand. "It's important."

Lightning's gaze almost wavered, but she kept herself steady, gazing back at the fiery look in Fang's eyes, perhaps to see if it was truly hypothetical or not. "Curses aren't linked to the caster... To remove one, you have to give the curse itself what it wants."

Fang paused for a mere moment of time, trying to ignore that it felt like her stomach had flipped upside down. "What it wants?"

Lightning nodded. "Vanille's curse was a killing curse... If she'd known her own power, she might've been able to let it kill part of herself to remove it, but without that strength, it could have been far worse." She reached up to touch beside her own heart. "You saw what happened... Part of me had to die for it, something small, a part I could heal back."

Fang's teeth slowly tightened against each other, yet she felt her breath quicken. "It's got to be different... That can't be the same for all curses."

"What's gotten into you?" Lightning reached up to check Fang's temperature on the side of her neck, but the rapid, fluttering pulse was far greater than the heat on her skin. "Fang, you're-"

She forced her hands against the ground, and the dream swiftly rippled away with only a whisper of noise, leaving her in utter darkness.

"It can't be the same." Fang shook her head back and forth, and she ran her fingertips up through her hair. "It's not a curse like that one... It didn't _kill_ Vanille." In that moment, there was nothing more that she hated than the sound of her own voice breaking. "She's not _dead_." Fang felt her fingertips tighten to the point of pricking blood, even if it was merely a dream. "She's not dead... That crystal isn't dead!"

She could see something off in the shadows, something of a past life, long lost and forgotten. Fang lowered her hands from her hair and watched it, gazing at the rabbit who stood on the moon. The silver dust swirled with each step it took, slowly loping across the surface, just a shadow against the glowing ground.

"She's not dead." Fang hugged her knees against her chest for just a moment, and her eyes began to speak of the sheer fire in her heart. "I'm sorry, Vanille... But I'm going to fix it soon, don't you worry." She slowly rose, following those faint little rabbit tracks, watching that soft white tail as it bobbed against the gray dust of the moon. "I promise, I'll get you out of there." Fang looked out into the distant realm of darkness, at the planet that loomed so far away, before she realized that she scarcely recognized the continents there. "Still a dream world, then?"

The rabbit slowly climbed atop a crater of the moon, gazing down from the edge. "You promised not to let her become what she was hunting."

Fang narrowed her eyes, for the beast spoke with Lightning's own voice.

"Some promises can't stay kept for long." The rabbit peered down into the depths of the dark pool, into something that rippled and whispered. "But the question is, will she forgive you?"

Fang tried not to grit her teeth. "She won't have to fight anymore, not after this..."

"You aren't naive enough to really think that." The rabbit tapped at the surface of the pool with a clawed foot. "She's been killing for years, longer than that if we're being honest... She can't let go of it that easily." Dewy little eyes gazed up at Fang. "You think you can tame her? You, who can't even be tamed..? She can't live without the chase."

Fang stared right back at the rabbit, before she reached out to take hold of the dream itself. "You can chase without having to kill." She held it right in her grip, the fabric of her own mind, and she suddenly closed her eyes as she felt it overwhelm her, drawing her back towards a life she lived before.

"Tell me why you came here, Fang." Lightning's voice echoed into the forest air. "Why did you seek me out?"

Fang realized that she was sitting on the opposite edge of a fallen log, and she could feel Lightning's warmth at her back. "I wanted to learn what you knew about herbalism."

"If you wanted to learn herbalism, you would have found an herbalist." Lightning leaned back slightly, until there was less than a whisper of space between them. "Why me?"

"You... You saved Vanille." Fang watched a bright green caterpillar as it crawled across a fallen twig. "And I guess I have a weakness for clever women."

"Just clever?" Lightning's voice gained a certain little lilt to it, thick with amusement. "Witches have to be clever, or we'd be dead."

Fang didn't say anything for a long while. She just watched as the sunlight drifted against the forest leaves, yet when she heard Lightning speak, she looked up at the distant sky.

"I've been having a few nightmares, myself." Lightning's voice sounded softer again. "I dreamt I was somewhere far from home, and you were there."

"Oh?" Fang turned to look over her shoulder, where a pink lock of hair was brushing against her own. "Was that why it was a nightmare?"

Lightning roughly knocked one of her elbows against Fang's back. "No. We were somewhere else entirely... Somewhere without magic."

Fang felt her gaze drift towards the forest floor. "Were you scared?"

Lightning almost seemed to stiffen. "It's natural to be afraid when you're out of your element... It's what you do with the fear that matters."

Fang slowly moved to turn atop the fallen log, and she didn't even react when Lightning leaned against her shoulder. "And what did you do with your fear?"

"I fought it." Lightning's eyes flickered to the satchel of herbs near her belt. "I turned it into courage."

"That's the Light I know." Fang smiled, for it felt as if her chest was full of warmth. "My brave little moon witch."

Lightning tried to make herself seem prickly again, but the sun felt much too pleasant on her skin, and the feeling of the summer winds set every inch of her at ease, so she merely looked away. "Yours?"

"We're friends, aren't we?" Fang moved to set her wrist against the bark of the fallen tree, where her arm was halfway wrapped around Lightning's waist. "Why else would you put up with me for so long?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Because you actually seem interested in what I'm teaching you." She slowly leaned further against Fang, just a simple touch, as if to enjoy her presence. "And to be honest with you, I didn't realize how lonely it could feel out here until we started this."

Fang closed her eyes, breathing deep. "I thought you liked your solitude."

"I do." Lightning spoke as if she held no regrets. "But I also like interesting conversation."

"Ah." Fang smiled without opening her eyes. "You sound just like someone I know."

Lightning kept silent for a very long moment. "Who?"

"Someone who likes her solitude, too." Fang opened her eyes again, gazing at those locks of drifting pink hair, slightly tousled by the wind. "She's a hunter, though... She kills monsters."

Lightning looked away once more. "Witches?"

"No." Fang watched as the dream began to swirl all around them, and she lowered her voice to a whisper. "She doesn't kill anyone, not if she doesn't have to."

The mighty forest stood in shadow. Fang took each stride with a swiftness she hadn't known before, copying every leap and step that the one before her took. Her lungs burned with the exertion, and she felt her breath hissing rapidly against her tongue, even when she forced herself to breathe in through her nose.

A pale light had risen far above the treetops. It drifted down over every leaf, every ripple of bark, every blade of grass in the wind. It carried them on through the rocky heights of the highland forest, step by step, leap by leap, until she saw Lightning jump up above a wide crevice in the ridge, where she kicked herself off from a tall stepping stone. And as she softly landed upon the opposite side, Fang didn't even hesitate to follow. She felt the wind in her hair, and she saw the darkness that swirled out beneath her, and as she sailed far beneath the light of the moon, she reached out to step against that sturdy stone pillar.

In the shadows, a distant creature called out from the height of the trees, but Lightning merely paused within the clearing, standing without fear.

As she knelt down to catch her breath, gripping her hands against her own knees, Fang slowly looked up at the garb Lightning wore, so thin and wispy, as if it reflected the pale light itself. "Lightning."

"I think... It's time." Lightning faced the very height of the sky, gazing up into the full, brilliant moon, before she slowly turned to peer at Fang. "You've learned almost everything I can teach you."

"Light..." Fang felt the smallest quiver run right through her heart, and as she rose to her feet, she took a single pace forward within such soft mossy grass. "It's been less than a year."

"I know." Lightning offered Fang her hands, and when they were accepted, she lifted one above and lowered the other to hold her waist. "But you're a quick study."

Fang turned her gaze towards the way Lightning moved, stepping back and forth, just a gentle, swaying dance, moving both of their arms against the soft whims of the wind. "Does this mean I've caught up to you?" She could feel the warmth of Lightning's hands, the strength of her fingertips, willingly given beneath the light of the stars.

Lightning didn't speak for a very long time. "I had a dream last night. It wasn't a nightmare." She moved further into the clearing, a slow, gentle dance, but each step she took, each graceful sway of her body, it all spoke of a far deeper power. "We fought side by side against something that... It just doesn't exist."

Fang's past life nearly thought to question her about how that could possibly be, but her present self, she merely nodded, stepping onward, moving in time with Lightning's pace.

"I don't know how friendships usually start." Lightning's skin seemed paler, yet somehow far richer than it had looked before, perhaps giving credence to her claim about the moon. "I've never had many friends... Would you believe that only my sister visits me anymore? The rest are just curious wanderers or locals looking for witch cures."

"Hey, Vanille will visit soon..." Fang slowly held her left arm up to help Lightning twirl, basking there in the warmth of her presence. "I've still been sending her letters from the village post."

"But will _you?_ " Lightning's hand was still resting on Fang's arm, the one that gently held her waist. "Or will the two of you visit me together?"

"To be honest, Light..." Fang watched as the distant stars still swirled in the edge of her vision, as if they were dancing too. "I'm not sure if I want to leave just yet." She smiled at the bright look on Lightning's face. "I really like this place."

Lightning's eyes fluttered shut when she felt something soft touch her forehead.

"My Light..." Fang murmured her words, feeling the warmth within herself, the glow inside her heart, all from that tender little kiss atop Lightning's head. "My Moonlight."


	37. Aspidochelone

She dreamt of the sand beneath the pale light of the stars, and of the tall palm trees swaying back and forth in the wind. There was a thick scent on the breeze, something that ranged between sharp wood smoke and the salt of the sea, and Lightning's nose almost twitched at how familiar it all seemed.

The ships were bobbing in the tide, and the gulls circled and swooped for any trace of lingering sea life, a stray crab or the mollusks with soft shells. Lightning watched as one of the birds swept down to grab at a fish from the shallows, pecking and brawling with all of the other gulls for the prize.

She could see the sunlight fading on the horizon. Lightning moved to sit down against the sand, resting there with the thin garb of an islander, one who knew the heat of the tropics too well to seek thicker clothing. There was a bracelet against her wrist, a bit of twine with clay beads that Serah had once given her as a present, and Lightning lifted her arm to look at it.

The colors almost seemed to mix and shine with the glowing sunset, bright oranges and russet browns of the riverbeds, even a streak of red or two, a rarity that was usually saved for making decorative pots or plates. The river silt would often hide the rich scarlet hue, concealing it beneath the surface of the water and more common clay, but if one was patient enough, it could be found by a bit of digging and scraping around in the muck.

There was a river nearby, one that fed out into the sea. Lightning slowly rose up to approach it, remembering the stories she would always hear about the spirits of the water. They were not to be trifled with, her father had always said, for no matter how much such things were at odds with reality, such superstitions were grounded in wisdom.

She knelt near the crashing waves, close enough to feel the spray on her clothes, against her skin, and she could taste the fresh salt on her lips. Which superstitions could keep her father from the fire? Which old fable might have kept her mother from such a fate beneath the dragon's claws, from striking her sword against the heaving throat of the furious beast?

Lightning closed her eyes at the sight of the sun, and she reached down into the sand, feeling for any hint of something other than the ground beneath her knees. Sand was earth, so was the clay on her wrist, but the very life source of their island, the blood that ran in their veins, it was the water that flowed out towards the sea.

And in the depths of her mind, inside a place she could scarcely reach without feeling a jolt of pain from her soul, there was the faintest hint of something deep beneath the ocean waves.

A soft whistle suddenly keened in her ears, yet she suddenly crumpled, twitching from the sharp roar in the back of her head, gazing at the sun that flooded the entire horizon, scarlet and burning and _furious_. She reached out as far as she could, grasping for the cool waves of the sea.

Yet the water was awash with those snapping flames, a pyre out on the ocean tide. Smoke rose in twisting curls and gouts of so many shimmering sparks, but the fire still remained in the distance, far from the one who slowly knelt down to speak. "You don't even know what pain is."

Lightning didn't look up to see whoever was there, even if the words were somehow spoken in her own voice. She could still feel the deep aches and spasms even while dreaming, for it seemed as if her soul would allow her no respite.

"You're too soft... Those tenets made you soft." That voice, just like her own, it kept whispering against both of her ears, as if it was far closer than anything else had ever been before. "You were able to kill a dragon while you were off of them, weren't you? And then you could barely even get close to ending her... That little splinter in your soul, it's poisoning you inside out."

At that, Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Etro can't control me... I control myself."

"But you do it _for_ her." The voice just kept echoing back and forth, deeper and deeper into her mind, rattling her right to the core. "She gives you a little pat on the head once you see the consequence for all the blood you've spilled, and then suddenly everything is okay again? Where was _she_ when you nearly drowned out there in the ocean? Where the hell was she when that monster brought your own family to dust?!"

Lightning felt her own temper flare, and she felt her teeth tighten and her fingertips grip down against her own palms.

"It burnt your heart to cinders." The fire bloomed away from the water then, creeping out into every inch of the dream, flickering and biting mercilessly at whatever it could reach. "But Serah, she could recover... Even if you were dead inside, you could still see her heal again." A mocking tone suddenly took control, like thin trails of ice snapping down the edge of a blooded blade. "And now that you've kept her so safe, given her a whole new home, someone else wants to just steal her away, to put her in danger again? You really should drive him off for it."

Lightning would have lashed at that if she hadn't entertained the thought many a time, often over a rather bruised sense of pride.

"Or you could deal with it differently." It was almost a laugh, and she could nearly hear the smirk that tugged against an invisible face. "But you still have those tenets... No killing, not unless you have a real reason; Etro wouldn't forgive you if you let your blade slip in a duel, would she? She'd _know_."

Lightning watched as the crackling flames grew closer and closer, flickering beneath the haze of heat and shimmering embers. "If I wanted Snow dead... I'd have made him leave Sunleth already." She wanted to close her eyes, but she just couldn't stop looking at the roaring fire. "Somewhere beneath that thick skull of his, he really means well, and Serah's old enough to make her own choices..." She hadn't meant to utter that last word with so much venom. "Siblings take different paths as they grow up... It's only natural."

"But she's all you have left of your blood." She could scarcely hear those words beneath the billowing flames. "You think that whelp is really your brother? He'd be dead in less than a year if you taught him how to hunt real quarry." The voice grew closer and closer, choking the very air from her lungs. "You think Fang really wants you? No, she just wants the pain to go away, and _you_ , you remind her of something, of some _one_ who might have had that soul of yours, but all you're good for is the pleasure of a dead memory."

Somewhere in the throbbing pain, inside that feverish nightmare, perhaps in the outlines of her heart, Lightning couldn't find it within herself to feel much of anything at those words, anything but a small trail of thought. Fang had first sought her out because of a memory, that much was true, but was the spark between them truly nothing?

"And the really sad thing? She knows exactly how to play you." The fire licked at her fingertips. "Why kill you when she could have someone new to distract her from the pain? You, a naive recluse, craving something, _anything_ to make her feel again, any bare shreds of affection, and you let a dragon drag you halfway across the planet because she's patient enough to earn your trust."

"No, I've seen what she thinks." Lightning wanted to rise away from the flames, but she found that she could scarcely move more than a single twitch. "I've seen what goes on in her mind, there's love there."

The voice almost sounded as if it was hissing. "She's in love with what she had before."

Lightning grit her teeth against it. "And why couldn't we have that again?"

"Because you're already a broken product." The voice lowered itself to another whisper. "You might think you've healed from it, but you can't hide those scars away."

Lightning felt herself sharpen inside, bristling at the thought of that.

"What, you think you can just pull off a miracle, kill a fal'Cie to cure a frozen l'Cie, and then trot on home to get your own happy ending?" The voice suddenly stopped itself from laughing, just a quick draw of breath. "You'll either die to the fal'Cie or die out in the cold when she realizes that neither of you can save her... Vanille said it herself; you should have just gone right back home."

"And how do you know we can't reverse it?!" Lightning wanted to lurch away from the fire on her skin, but the pain itself only came from those wounds within her soul, despite the sweltering heat. "Killing a fal'Cie sounds like a damn good place to start! The Cie'th in Luxerion all fell when Fang killed the one there."

"A broken fal'Cie makes broken Cie'th, wouldn't you think?" A fragment of the dream suddenly creaked, before it toppled down within the wildfire. "Cie'th, _Cie'th_... How do you think Etro feels about you cutting down so many of them? Weren't they still human? A walking, _feeling_ crystal, it's almost like killing Vanille herself."

Lightning finally tried to struggle, to break free from whatever invisible bonds kept her down. "There's no cure for Cie'th; you could tell they were in pain!"

"Couldn't you say the same about crystal stasis? No known cure." The fire roared, but the voice was still just as soft as silk. "Wouldn't it be kinder to end the pain? You'd leave her there because she can't move, can't make a sound, because she can't attack the people around her in vengeance for her fate." A blustering wind echoed out into the air, yet it only made the flames grow higher. "Because you believe she isn't already gone."

Lightning suddenly broke away from the surface of the fiery dream, and she staggered out to stand within the bellowing inferno, clutching her limbs against herself as if to stifle the flame away.

"You know why you keep chasing ghosts, Lightning?" Her own face began to smirk within the fire, gazing right back at her. "Because you already are one."

* * *

The sound of the wind brushed against the windowpanes. A seabird drifted on in the evening breeze, circling around for any hints of a late meal.

Fang opened her eyes, and she blinked at the sight of the fading sun. She groaned so quietly, before she pushed herself up from the bed sheets, resting there for just a moment of time. Fang could still hear the sounds of the ocean wind, and of Lightning's quiet slumbering, but other than that, the room was silent.

Her satchel was resting against the bedside table, right where she'd placed it before guiding Lightning towards the bathroom. Fang reached for it, and she found that there was a candlestick on the table as well, which didn't stay unlit for long.

The whisper of flame cut the silence like a swift knife. She watched as it grew against her fingertips, an extension of her inner soul, before it grabbed so hungrily at the candlewick, almost as alive as Fang herself.

"Imagine that." Fang narrowed her eyes with a rather sleepy smile on her lips. "Vanille has Bhakti, and I've got my little fires... Not quite the same." She cradled the rest of it between her fingertips, before she suddenly snuffed it out, drawing it back within herself.

Lightning stirred against the blankets, and one of the woven bath towels shifted a bit. When Fang looked over at her, the lines on her face spoke of residual pain, creased and tense even in sleep.

"It's just gonna take time, Light." Fang crept over to stroke one of Lightning's shoulders, but she almost frowned at the feverish heat of her skin. "Hm... I'll be back soon." But before she left, she stood up to approach the bathroom, where she retrieved Lightning's clothes to fold them up, stacking them neatly on the other bedside table.

Lightning slumbered on, resting there beneath the evening light. Even when the door creaked open, when Fang's footsteps faded away, she still didn't wake. A troubled mind could scarcely draw itself away from such a dream, though she began to murmur and stir again, as if she was struggling to escape it.

When Fang returned, holding a square basket from the dining hall of the inn, she began to frown at Lightning's restless state. "Hey now..." She walked over to set the basket down against the bedside table, before she knelt against the bed, reaching for Lightning. "Light?"

Lightning only woke when Fang squeezed one of her shoulders, and the look in her eyes when they flew open, it was almost too much to take in all at once.

"Light..." Fang reached out to hold Lightning's other shoulder. "A nightmare?"

Lightning's mouth creased into a thin line, and she looked away, anywhere but Fang.

"Something bad?" Fang slowly leaned back towards her own side of the bed. "...I brought some dinner."

A long silence stood just as thick as smoke, and Fang nearly thought to speak again, before she saw how Lightning's shoulders had grown so very tense.

"...All we had before this, it was just memories." Lightning turned to face the window of the room, but she only stared at the walls, searching for the most featureless place of the room. "When I started to remember... It felt like we were the same as we used to be."

Fang lowered her head gaze at the patterns of the bed sheets.

"I remembered wearing a ring of union." Lightning could feel the dampness of her hair, of her skin, but it still didn't seem as if all of the fire had truly gone away. "When I tried to hide from it, you kissed the back of my neck... Like we were really in love."

"Lightning." Fang slowly leaned herself against the headboard of the bed. "We don't have to rush into anything, not if it makes you uneasy."

"Is this what you told the others?" Lightning suddenly cursed the very sound of her voice, yet she steeled herself to keep it from breaking. "That you wanted to be mine..? How many lives did we end up together? You must've known exactly what I'd best respond to."

"Look, Light... I get it." Fang drew in a rather long, steadying breath. "I'm sorry if I pushed it the other day." She reached over to set her hand against the bed, mere inches from Lightning, almost as if she was offering something. "And yeah, I already know what you like best out of me... Sorry if it seems manipulative." Fang closed her eyes tightly. "But can you see why I didn't tell you about us when we first met? Why I didn't share my memories?"

Lightning slowly rolled over to rest against her back, gazing down at Fang's hand. "You let me figure it out by myself."

Fang nodded. "I didn't want what I'd started to feel... I didn't want it rubbing off on you, not unless you wanted it to." She tried her best to smile. "I know you were pretty pissed at me for keeping it to myself, but you see why? We've got a whole open book ahead of us, _blank_ pages; we shouldn't be writing them with the words of a past life."

Lightning slowly reached out to touch Fang's hand, just a single pinch of reprimand, before she took it against her own, holding it gently. "You're just lucky that you look like a kicked puppy whenever you're sad."

Fang tried her best to roll her eyes at that. "You go around kicking puppies often?"

Lightning pinched Fang's hand again. "No... But I once beat up someone who did."

A small smile crossed Fang's face, and she sat up to gaze down at Lightning. "Left them with a bloody nose, did you?"

"Just a black eye, a few scrapes." Lightning reached up to pull one of the towels against herself, drying the water droplets away. "One of the fishmongers bought a dog from a visiting trader, from overseas... And one day, I caught a kid around my age pulling its tail and ears, but the poor mutt was too well-trained to snarl or bite." She looked back up at Fang. "Maybe I wasn't as obedient."

Fang's smile turned so warm, and she gently moved to run her knuckles against Lightning's chin. "You did the right thing, standing up for it." She leaned away to retrieve the basket of food. "You came out unscathed?"

"A scratch or two, a bloody nose." Lightning looked over to see that her clothes had been folded up and placed against her own bedside table. "When I got home, my mother asked me what happened, but I was too stubborn to say... I wasn't allowed to go fishing or play outside for a week."

Fang picked up a big covered bowl from the flat basket, and when she lifted the lid, a bed of piping hot rice awaited within. "Why didn't you tell her?"

Lightning breathed a silent scoff. "It would've been two weeks if I had, maybe three..." She reached for her underclothes, a pair of short pants and her chest cloth, as well as a thin blouse. "I got in a fight, didn't I?"

Fang slowly poured out a bit of dark sauce against the steaming surface of the rice. "Shouldn't be a punishment if you were protecting something..." She waited for Lightning to get dressed, before she handed over the bowl of rice with a small copper spoon. "I tried a bite of this from the serving table, it already had the sauce on there; might just be the best rice dish I've ever had."

Lightning took a very small taste, before she dipped the spoon back down for more. "Do you think they grow rice in the river?"

"In the calmer parts, probably." Fang lifted up a different plate, some sort of meat dish above a layer of well-cooked herbs. "I've seen places with rice paddies a mile wide... Even longer if the marsh is big enough."

Lightning thought back to the local villages of her childhood, to one in particular that stood deep inside the misty marshlands of the island chain.

"I think this is goat..." Fang began to slice up a bit of the meat to examine it. "I didn't want to pester anyone to find out what everything was, so I just chose whatever smelled best."

Lightning took another small bite of rice. "This is one of the better hotels around here, I take it?"

Fang smiled as she took a taste of her own meal. "Couldn't rent us a room in some backwater alley, could I?"

Lightning glanced at the window again. "I wouldn't mind if it was somewhere smaller... But bed lice are never pleasant." She almost reached down to touch at the sheets, just to make sure.

"Nah, nice beds here." Fang leaned back to rest against the headboard again. "This place has a good reputation for hygiene."

"It's the small things, I guess." Lightning kept eating in silence for a while, before she slowly turned her gaze back to Fang. "I'm... Sorry for being so blunt; I say things I don't mean when I'm in pain, and it was a dream that just brought up too many troubling things."

Fang nodded. "I get them too, don't worry about it." She paused for a long moment, looking down at her plate of food. "And I'm sorry for pushing it, like I said... If you want to wait things out, that's fine with me."

"What happened to 'soulmates'?" Lightning felt just a hint of a smile on her lips. "I didn't think you'd let go of me so easily."

"You're not an object, Light." Fang frowned, and she set her plate down against her lap. "It matters to me that you feel right about this..."

Lightning kept quiet for a long time. "I've felt right, most of the time." She watched as the last few rays of sunlight drifted up against the walls. "Whenever we rest near each other, or kiss... It feels right."

"Then we'll just keep going however much you want us to." Fang reached over to touch one of Lightning's arms. "Or we could be friends with a more personal side... People do it all the time."

"Friends with past lives who loved each other?" Lightning smirked against her next bite of rice. "Friends with intimacy?"

"Yeah." Fang gently squeezed Lightning's arm, before she reached back towards her own plate. "You know... The other side is always a lot easier for me than stuff like this." She closed her eyes in memory. "It started out like that a lot, you know... We'd be best friends, then just this pure rush of intimacy, sex, the raw, base feelings, before we'd let it grow from there."

Lightning ate in silence for a while, before she slowly sat up to lean her head on Fang's shoulder, resting against that dark mane of hair. "I don't want to be just friends." She offered the rice bowl back to Fang. "Can I try a bite of the goat?"

Fang opened her eyes and smiled. "Brought it for both of us..." She picked up a small piece of the seasoned meat, and she was almost surprised when Lightning bit down on it without even taking hold of the fork. "Want to lay back while I feed you, princess?"

Lightning tried her best to give Fang a sharp look, yet she was much more interested in determining whatever the sweetened spices were on the meat; it had been glazed with something that tasted rather like oranges or some other sweet citrus fruit. "Are you sure this is goat? I think it might be lamb."

Fang shrugged. "Whatever it is, it's tasty enough..." She picked up another piece for herself. "More than enough."

Lightning moved back to lay back against the bed again, for no matter how pleasant the food was, a certain sensation still lingered in the wake of her nightmare, as if her stomach had since been tied up into knots and pulled tight.

"How is it?" Fang smoothed her free hand against one of Lightning's shoulders. "I meant what I said before, if you need to rest another night-"

"Fang, I won't lie to you." Lightning watched how the lamplights of the city slowly bloomed to life beyond the window. "It hurts worse than any other wound I've had... But there's nothing stopping me from going on."

"...As long as you take it easy." Fang ran her fingertips down into the curlier part of Lightning's hair, gently caressing each lock. "You know I'm just trying to look out for you, right?"

Lightning slowly nodded. "It's... Appreciated."

"I wouldn't get all overbearing and fussy over you for nothing, it's only 'cause of the severity." Fang took a small bite of rice. "A wound in your _soul_... That's not a wound that says: 'I want to outright kill you', nah, it says: 'I want you to _suffer_ from this'." She moved her hand to stroke the nearest side of Lightning's forehead. "So it seems to me like being comfortable is the best antidote."

Lightning turned over to rest against her other side, facing the window, where she could see the crescent moon rising high above the sea. "Comfortable."

"That's right." Fang picked up a small roll of bread from the basket. "You should eat a little more, Light; no good going to sleep on an empty stomach."

"I don't feel like eating." Lightning watched how the wispy clouds passed beneath the pale rays of the moon, and she slowly let her eyelids drift shut. "I'll have something in the morning."

"You hardly ate any lunch today." Fang leaned over to sit upright against the bed, where she slowly peered out at the moon as well. "You've got to take care of yourself, Light."

Lightning could feel the deep warmth against her skin, the heat that radiated from where Fang sat beside her. It seemed as if she wasn't hiding her true nature anymore, for even the chill of the desert night couldn't stand up against the flame of a dragon.

"Just a little more rice?" Fang picked up the bowl and stirred it, finding a patch that wasn't yet covered with the sauce. "A bite or two..."

Lightning sighed, before she rolled over to face Fang again. "You're cleaning it up if I can't keep it down."

"You feel sick?" Fang reached over to check Lightning's temperature, gently touching at her forehead. "You're still a little warm."

Lightning just waited there for a while. She could see that familiar look in Fang's eyes, a quiet sort of concern, never to the point of panic; no, the only time she'd ever seen true fear in that gaze was when Fang had dragged her back up to her feet, when the magic had shattered right through her soul and sent her flying throughout the air. Even then, the look was gone when a sudden snap of her own dragon magic brought Fang into a much more formidable form, shielding Lightning away from that wild, crackling energy.

"Fang." Lightning reached for one of Fang's hands, and she slowly let her thoughts drift out between them, showing her the true extent of the pain.

"Light..." Fang set the bowl of rice back down against the basket, before she leaned forward on the bed. "I'm sorry."

Lightning scarcely cared to pay attention to whatever else was happening, not when those strong arms were brushing against her skin and clothes, not even when they moved to wrap around her, holding her so close.

"I wasn't quick enough to stop it." Fang spoke her words against Lightning's forehead, whispering against her skin. "I'm sorry, Light..." She closed her eyes when Lightning leaned in further, just as close as they could be. "I'd heal it away if I could."

"I know you would." Lightning felt Fang's heartbeat as it thrummed, listening to each and every sound she made; it was close enough to feel like her own voice, her own soft breath of air, her own beating heart, even her own lifeblood. "Just promise me you won't act like I'm crippled... I can't be that, Fang."

Fang tried not to object, to say that there was absolutely nothing wrong with accepting one's own injuries or weakness, but she knew by the way Lightning held her, as if she truly needed to be strong enough, resilient enough... Fang knew it was likely a lost cause.

"I couldn't be weak when we left home." Lightning spoke her words against Fang's shoulder, but her eyes were fixed upon the candlelit walls. "Even before that... I had to be better."

"You're only human, Light." Fang hugged Lightning as gently as she could, but there was more than a bit of strength to the way she held her, just as secure and as solid as she could possibly be. "We're all only human when it comes to stuff like this... You think I don't have times when it feels like I'm breaking?" She held a tight smile on her lips, but her eyes swirled with too many emotions to name. "For a minute back there, I thought I was gonna die."

Lightning tightened her grip around Fang's back.

"He had me in a real bad spot, Light." Fang spoke in just a whisper. "Before I fixed it, I think one of my wings was broken... Crippled, huh? And then, when it felt like there was nothing else I could do, that I was all alone again... I thought about us." She silently, yet fiercely kissed Lightning's cheek, just beneath her ear. "I thought of you and all of our family... They wouldn't care if I was broken, would they? They'd help me piece myself back together again, no matter how long it took."

Lightning felt as if the silence between them lasted far longer than she could ever know. "Am I broken?"

"Even if you are, it doesn't _matter_." Fang spoke with such heat again, but it was the same fire that had once kept Lightning warm from the frigid chill of the mountainside, the flame that lulled her to sleep at night, the beast that roared at any darkness, chasing it away with the sheer light of her inner soul. "You're my _family_... You're human, you're flawed, but that doesn't mean you aren't one of the most incredible people I've ever met." Fang moved back to hold Lightning's face, cupping her hands against either side, tangled beneath her rosy hair. "In any life, any universe... You're _Lightning_ , and there's no other."

Lightning didn't speak for a very long while. "I feel weaker than them..." She looked down at the pendant on her neck. "I might burn as bright as fire, but then... I fade out just as soon as I've started."

"You're still young to the world." Fang stroked her thumbs against both of Lightning's cheekbones. "You were running for so long, Light... You've only just started to settle down now, to grow again." She leaned in to tuck her chin against Lightning's shoulder, reaching to hold her close. "You'll figure yourself out before long, I promise."

"Promise?" Lightning hugged Fang back as well. "How can you promise that?"

"Because you've done it a thousand times, and then a thousand times over again." Fang closed her eyes with another fierce whisper on her lips. "Because you can't make steel from water, or even a storm... It has to go through the flames."

Lightning felt the urge to bury herself inside those words, to profess she that wasn't worthy of them, that she'd already tasted the fire and lost part of herself for it, but Fang just kept holding her so tightly, like she might never let her go again, and it was enough to silence even her deepest, darkest fears.

"I've felt more than just hints, you know." Fang's voice began to soften again, a whisper in the night. "There's no doubt about it; you've got the same heart as before." Her smile seemed far louder than her words. "You know how they say life is short? They're lying, even without immortality... It can seem as long as an eternity if you feel broken inside." She spoke even softer then, resting there beneath the darkness, still holding Lightning close. "So even if it feels as long as that... I promise you, you're gonna feel whole again someday."

Lightning closed her eyes, and she let the silence take her words. "I just hope you're right."

* * *

Fang knew the shadows would part before long; they always did whenever she fell asleep. The dreams would come, and she'd live on inside another life, witnessing another story, learning from another trial. It needed only for her to watch and wait.

And there, before she even realized it, a message arrived with a call of its own, not a voice, but a low buzzing sound and the symbols of written speech. _Are we still on for Friday? I need to let them know how many of us will be there, even if it's a rough estimate._

Fang slowly looked around at the room before her; a window stood upon the wall, speckled with a late autumn rain, for it almost looked like liquid frost when it trickled down against the glass. She didn't reach for the device that stood upon the arm of her chair, at least not at first, not when there were so many unusual instruments waiting all around her. Fang recognized Highwind, standing there like a king among the rest, but there were others, several guitars of varying sizes and compositions, from steel to wood and back again, mixed and matched and blending right in with her smaller instruments, even a few percussion tools along the way.

Her phone buzzed again. _My friend's uncle has half ownership of the place, and the other owner is a very close friend. We get free drinks and dinner for playing there._

Fang picked up her phone, and she quickly tapped in a reply. _Doesn't that hurt their profits?_

Another message appeared on the screen. _You mean the profit margin they get on food? A meal for musicians and family is basically nothing if you compare it to how many people will stay and order dessert just to hear the rest of a session. And we get to keep the tips; people aren't so stingy about live music, especially improvisation._

Fang looked back up at the raindrops on the window. She wondered for a moment if her past life really wanted to venture towards such a place, so very far from home, though she didn't have to wait long to find out. Her fingertips moved to enter her next reply, and it was sent off almost immediately. _Sounds great, Light. I'll see if Vanille wants to tag along and listen. What's the place called again?_

 _We mostly just call it 'The Kat'._ A street address arrived with the next message, before Lightning sent another reply. _If Serah's finished with this week's work by then, she'll be there too._

Fang smiled at the screen of her phone. _What's she been working on? You said something about fact-checking certain documents..._

It was a moment or two before Lightning replied. _She's been working from home for a while now. Fact-checking, cataloging, searching for certain online records. The museum's been getting renovated for years now, and her old office is part of that._

Fang whistled to herself. _Sounds pretty prestigious for her age._

 _She works hard for it._ A moment passed between replies. _Sometimes it's hard to tell her just how proud I am. She even helps out the higher-ups, you know? Someday she'll be a curator, or even an exhibit manager if she keeps up the effort._

Fang smiled again, and she tapped in one more reply. _It'll be good to see you guys again. I think Vanille and Serah are gonna get along just fine._ She slowly rose up from her chair, before she peered out at the rest of her room. "Just fine..."

Highwind stood patiently upon a humble cello stand, yet Fang had a feeling that for that kind of improvisation session, it just wasn't the right type of instrument. She'd bring it along, of course, just in case they decided to play any written songs, but she needed something more versatile, something diverse enough to blend in and mingle with any other type of sound.

A guitar might work, but then she'd have carry the whole heavy thing up to Eden. Fang wrinkled her nose at the thought of it, even if she never really minded carrying Highwind around. No, she needed something to make an impression on her fellow musicians, something much less run-of-the-mill than just a simple guitar. Fang paused. _An impression?_ Why was she suddenly so worried about impressing a bunch of snobs from Eden?

The corner of the room was home to a rather fluffy bean bag chair, and that was where Fang slumped down, before she slowly reached up to touch a certain part of her cheek. They weren't _all_ snobs, she knew that much, and Lightning's own music room had housed all sorts of simple instruments, not just the electric violin. Why then, Fang wondered, why did it make her stomach tingle to think about the look on Lightning's face whenever something intrigued her? When Fang had struck the cello strings in the midst of the song, _their_ song, the way Lightning looked-

Fang slowly grew aware that she had been tracing that one part of her cheek for over a minute or two. She let her arm drop down immediately, where she felt the fluffy fabric of the chair, though she knew it wasn't nearly as sweet or as soft as Lightning's brief touch had been. Had it been just a small kiss between friends, chaste and simple? Or had that sudden feeling of magic within the air, had it spoken the real truth of the matter? Did Lightning really enjoy being with her for more than the music they shared? Fang suddenly shook her head fiercely. Of _course_ she did, why else would Lightning agree to go on a surprise day trip? She hadn't even known that it for was the movie they'd been talking about for weeks...

With a slight twitch of anticipation, Fang exhaled with all of her strength, before she let herself roll over against her back. No matter how pathetic she felt about it, crushing so hard over such a simple little thing, like she was only a teenager again, even then, the flutters that rumbled in her chest felt like they could carry her all the way back to Eden. She could handle a bunch of snobs, but she had a steady little feeling that Lightning's friends wouldn't be snobby at all. That boy with the silver hair, or young man, she should say, even up there on the conductors podium, he had seemed to be more of a real leader than the bossy type. He led the musicians, guided them, moving on with the flowing music as it filled the entire concert hall, and even after the show itself had been over, he'd been sitting there with Lightning like they were true equals, smiling and celebrating like companions.

Fang slowly closed her eyes, and she thought of the way that Lightning had looked when she caught the first note of the whistled song. While her eyes hadn't widened, there was just something to the way that her face began to shift, as if she knew on some inner level that nothing would ever be the same again. A twitch of her lips, a small quirk of her eyebrows, even the way she moved to hear it fully, both ears lending her entire attention.

No one else had looked that way. Nobody else could know what it truly was, for nobody else had ever heard it so deeply in their hearts, from beyond the first day that they were even aware of the world around them, etched so very carefully into the core of their beings, a total fingerprint of sound.

And when she opened her eyes again, gazing out at a whole different time, a different day, a day when Vanille could barely even sit still from the seat of city bus, Fang slowly began to look down at the instrument on her lap. It looked just like the case of a guitar neck, only without the larger body, just a long, narrow stick, for it was indeed called a railboard stick. Fang's past life began to think about all the memories she had of playing it, pondering upon the sheer versatility of such an instrument. It could play so many more notes than a mere guitar, so much that it was somewhat comparable to a keyboard, though it worked with long strings instead of keys. And over there, to her left, near the window of the bus, Highwind was propped up as if it deserved a whole seat of its own, waiting for the time to play once more.

"What's the place called again?" Vanille kept trying to look out from the window to see all the sights of the city. "Look, they already have all the holiday decorations up!"

Fang glanced over at the sight of a large statue with ribbons and trees propped up around it, all donned in glittering reds and greens. " _'The Brindled Kat'_... Sounds more like a old tavern than a club, but you never really know." She watched as a long banner flapped back and forth in the wind, bearing the proud symbol of Eden within a thick green holly wreath. "Think it's gonna snow soon?"

Vanille smiled as she leaned back in her seat. "I hope so, what's winter without snow?" She let her legs swing back and forth, and she began to hum something just under her breath, gazing up at the little decorations that dangled from the rails near the roof of the bus, above the straps that people could hold on to while standing. "I wonder if they celebrate the holidays any differently in Eden."

"Probably." Fang leaned back a bit, and she crossed one of her legs over the other, trying to fight the urge to tap her foot against the seat in front of her. "Remember the big carriages last year? Those horses looked like they could survive an ice age."

Vanille giggled at that. "Maybe we could visit for longer this time..."

"Maybe." Fang turned her thoughts back towards the memory of that cozy little house at the end of the street, and she let herself imagine what it might look like beneath the heavy snow. "Wonder what Light and Serah think of the holidays."

"You'll have to ask them." Vanille gave Fang a rather knowing smile. "It's been too long since you've played that one; I'll bet it goes along great with a violin!"

Fang looked down at the railboard stick. "Let's hope so."

"It will, I know it." Vanille reached up to tap Fang's shoulder. "Guitars and violins sound just fine together, right? So will this."

"It doesn't sound too much like a guitar." Fang exhaled quietly, trying to soothe her own nerves. "At least I've got my cello for backup."

"It'll be fine, Fang." Vanille patted Fang's shoulder again, just a bit more gently than before. "You've played how many concerts, hundreds?"

"More or less." Fang tried her best to smile. "And yeah, you're right... Lightning said it's just a casual lunch and dinner place, not exactly the pickiest of listeners."

"Exactly." Vanille patted the railboard case as well. "It'll be just fine."

Fang turned to peer out from the window again, and she watched as the sights of the sprawling city passed by in a blur. There were skyscrapers that loomed up above, towering over the numerous streets, so many that she counted it to be no less than a small miracle that she hadn't gotten lost before, back when she was trying to find the movie theater. But Lightning would have found the way, Fang knew that for a fact; there was something almost uncanny about just how precise she was with that cane, as if she could tell everything about the path ahead of her for as long as she kept tapping.

"Vanille." Fang kept gazing out from the foggy window. "Just remember what I told you about Lightning, okay?"

Vanille nodded. "I'll remember."

"She does like to joke about it sometimes, but..." Fang looked back at herself, and then over at Vanille. "You remember that part of the interview where it's obviously been cut?"

Vanille seemed to be trying not to frown. "Yeah?"

"It looked like it was taking everything she had not to go after the interviewer." Fang remembered the chill of that one moment, the sheer frost in Lightning's expression that spoke of a silent, tempered rage. "She doesn't seem sensitive whenever I tease her about it gently, you know? It's not much of a sore spot for her... But there's something about getting interviewed that always seems to ruffle her feathers."

Vanille took a long moment to think that over, before she nodded. "Maybe they weren't being sensitive about it? Some people, they just say the first thing that pops into their head... They don't take the time to think about it."

Fang gave Vanille a rather sly look. "But you've been thinking, haven't you?"

Vanille tilted her chin up to try and look proud, and she suddenly spoke in her most ladylike voice. "I'd just rather not hurt anyone's feelings, thank you very much..." A small smile crept along her face, no matter how much she tried to seem serious. "And if I was in her shoes, I wouldn't want to be treated like I was anything out of the ordinary."

"You, you're a good kid." Fang ruffled Vanille's hair, even when Vanille tried to ruffle her hair right back. "But there's one thing you've got wrong about that... Lightning's way beyond ordinary."

Steady silence drifted above the rumble of the bus. They both waited there, watching as Eden drifted on beside them, and it looked to be nearly evening by the time the bus finally eased to a halt. Fang soon stood out upon the city sidewalk, where the skyline was clear enough to see the sunset. A deep orange hue was swirling with the darker blues of the clouds, and Fang watched as they rolled along in the heavy winds.

"Come on, Fang!" Vanille's voice chirped out above the noise of the bustling crowds. "No time for skygazing!"

Fang drew in a very deep breath, before she turned to follow after Vanille. "No need to hurry... We're a little early, anyway."

Vanille skipped out along on the sidewalk, glancing around at all of the sights of the noisy, colorful city. "You don't think we'll get there before anyone else, do you?"

"Probably not." Fang peered back over her shoulder to make sure that her cello case was secure. "Worst comes to worst, we can just hang out there until they show up."

"Which road was it, again?" Vanille looked around the elegant little signs on the nearby street posts. "Fang, you should lead the way."

Fang stepped forward to do so. "Just relax, kiddo..." She remembered the path that she'd looked up beforehand; if there was anything to compliment Eden on, it was the accessibility and ease that one often found while navigating those tidily streamlined streets. "It's not too far from here."

When they approached a winding road that ran down near a rather placid river, Fang recognized the park that she had seen in the online map, which meant that they were indeed only moments from finding their destination. The walk brought them further away from the bustle of the city streets, until the trees began to take hold beside the sidewalks, coexisting with the various little shops and restaurants. The road stood there on the edge of the waterfront, where more than a bit of frost was already starting to freeze from the early winter chills. And there, beside a road that stood just a bit further away from the riverside, was The Brindled Kat.

The emblem that stood above the doorway, wrought in dark iron and patterned with elegant little gaps in the flat metal, it was that of a rather lazy feline, brindled as the name would imply. The cat looked to be laying flat upon its back, and it was lazily batting at a floating feather, while what looked like a small bird was perching there atop the cat's tail, which swirled above the entire logo in a rather abstract way.

Vanille giggled at the sight of it, and Fang could see the sheer mirth in her eyes from such a thing. Truth be told, they hadn't been able to venture much of anywhere just for fun in recent times, not with schedules that overlapped and held almost no room for adjustment. But on that cozy little evening, beneath the lights of the city and the fading sun, Fang and Vanille soon found themselves right in the midst of an even cozier environment.

The entryway stood beside most of the tables and the bar, almost as if to welcome them right into the middle of everything. The bar itself stood in both elegance and simplicity, polished to the point of shining beneath the sunset, for the window shutters were still opened wide; in the later evening, they would likely be closed to further accentuate the warmth of the inner atmosphere.

Fang looked at the various tables, at the plain wood with minimalist designs on the corners and the angles of each of the chairs, as if to make the place seem much more like a lounge than a restaurant. She peered at the elegant uniforms of the waitstaff, silky fabrics that complimented the tall curtains of stage in the back of the main room, both of which somewhat accentuated the class of the establishment. But what stood out the most to her was how _open_ it all seemed, as if there was more than enough room there just to breathe and relax over a meal and drink, not quite as hurried and clamorous as the rest of the inner city.

Yet even with all of that, she was only aware of such things in the back of her mind, for there wasn't much room for musing on the mood of the club when she could clearly see them up there on the stage, not when she could hear the sheer flurry of twin violins, as if they were playing a keen farewell to the sunlight itself. And in that sudden moment, Fang realized that she had been utterly wrong about the young man with such pale silver hair; he was no leader, at least not when it came to Lightning... No, he was a strategist.

He kept the pace, the rapid timing, as if to hold the song steady against the sheer ferocity Lightning played upon those strings; he kept watch over the overall picture, making sure that the field was set for her to run absolutely wild. He may have been the structure, but she was the fire that sang out to crash and tear right through it, and Fang swiftly realized that it was no wonder she had defied him so boldly up on stage, as it must have been their plan all along. When Lightning had fallen to her knees, spent of the wild flame that she had sang with, he merely went to her side to see that she had not truly fallen, that she could rise back up again to outpace him once more in the future.

But even from his place on the stage, he only smiled, striving to keep up with her, playing the strings of his own violin with the sheer finesse of an expert, if only a cautious one. While Lightning pushed herself right to the utter limit, he held himself back to keep the place for her to fall back on, to join him in the steady melody once more. It was the contradiction that truly stood out, the pleasing flurry of sharp notes and tender pitches from the masterful likes of a violin, the wildly elegant creatures of the musical world, fierce and calm, fire and ice, rampant and steady, a sense of balance incarnate.

And long before Fang wished it to, the song was slowly ending. It began to fade down into the last few notes, long stokes of the bows and the trembling vibrations within the air, before silence fell for only just a moment of time. Vanille quietly gasped, yet she clapped along with the rest of them, those who were there for an early meal or a quick drink at the bar, but the applause was still only momentary, before it faded out as well. Perhaps it was the custom there, as not to disturb the general air of peace and quiet, even if the music had since taken a sharp turn towards something more intense.

And up on stage, the young man with silver hair, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the visitors near the door, and he moved to place his violin down upon a small table. He tapped at Lightning's shoulder and spoke with her, though his words were much more than inaudible from such a distance. Lightning simply reached out to roughly tousle his hair, before she placed her own violin down and rose up to her feet.

"Still just like they used to be." A uniformed man was leaning against the bar from behind the counter, smiling at the stage. "They might play like professionals now, but I still can't see anything but the kids."

"Hard to imagine Lightning as a kid." Fang slowly stepped up beside the bar. "Name's Fang."

The man offered her a handshake. "Sazh Katzroy... I'd heard you were coming over tonight." Sazh smiled at the firm grip of her hand. "Nothing much goes on around here without me knowing about it sooner or later."

Vanille skipped up to stand beside the bar as well. "Katzroy..." She looked back over at the doorway. "Are you the 'Kat' in the name?"

Sazh glanced at the door as well. "Not my idea of a moniker, but my partner in crime thought it was catchy." Sazh smiled as he watched Lightning deftly slip down from the stage, landing square upon her feet. "Used to give me a near heart attack every time she did that... But she's never missed a step." He glanced over at one of the bartenders, a younger man, one who was chatting with one of the waitresses. "Half an hour to dinner prep, folks! Remember that."

"Hey, Light..." Fang smiled at the sight of her. "Quite a show up there."

Lightning smiled as well, and she stepped up near the bar. "I'm glad you made it." She turned to face the sound of her companion's footsteps. "Hope, this is Fang." Lightning turned back towards Fang. "Fang, Hope."

"Nice meeting you." Fang held out her hand, and she noticed that his grip wasn't nearly quite as confident as Sazh's, even if his stance was rather calm. "Another from the university, eh?"

Hope nodded, and he smiled softly. "Light talked me into it."

"Because you'd be wasting your talent on anything else." Lightning moved to sit down against one of the bar stools, feeling for the bar itself with her left hand. "What, you think you'd be having this much fun cooped away in an internship?"

Hope smiled again. "You've got me there, Light."

Fang looked back at Vanille. "Kiddo, this is Lightning... Light, this is Vanille." She watched the sudden bright smile on Vanille's face, and how she shook Lightning's hand when it was offered. "It's about time we were in the same place, yeah? Nice to meet everyone."

Vanille kept smiling, yet she looked at Fang's instruments with a rather sly look in her eyes. "You aren't gonna go put those up on the stage yet?"

Fang shrugged. "In a minute, yeah." She held the railboard case under her arm, and while it wasn't very heavy, at least not compared to her usual standards, she knew that it would look rather strange to keep carrying it around. "Is it alright to just put them up there?"

Lightning turned on her chair, facing the stage. "Yeah, I'll show you." She paused to face Hope again. "Gonna rest for a minute?"

"Yeah." Hope took his own seat at the bar. "Don't wait up for me; I've gotta give mom a call... She'll want to know that I won't be home for dinner."

"Right, tell her I said hi." Lightning moved from her chair to walk off towards the stage, moving in between the various tables and the chairs, for it seemed as if she was rather familiar with the general layout of the restaurant. "We usually do a few practice rounds before the dinner crowd gets here."

Fang followed after her, glancing around at all of the tall windows and pictures on the walls; some were photographs of the river outside, or the city itself, and then even a few portraits the owners, for Fang recognized Sazh in more than a few of them. "Cozy little place, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Serah and I used to come here every day after school." Lightning soon held her hand out to feel for the edge of the stage, which was a rather low platform with a separate room off to the side, bordering the kitchens. "It's where I met Hope; his uncle is the other owner."

Fang watched as Lightning swiftly climbed up to the stage, and she soon followed suit, up and over the low overhang that led to a couple of chairs and a small table. "A little timid, isn't he?"

Lightning frowned. "We've been working on his confidence for years, now... When he conducts on stage, he doesn't have to see how many people are watching us." She felt around to pull up a chair for herself. "He actually told me once that he wished he could trade eyes with me."

Fang slowly nodded to herself. "You do seem more like the type to take the lead." She soon set her cello down, and she took a seat on one of the stage chairs, next to where Lightning was already sitting. "I meant it, that was quite the show."

"It's just improvisation practice." Lightning leaned back in her chair. "Hope sets the pace at first, then I get to play around with it and see what he's capable of keeping up with."

"That was improvisation? Could've fooled me." Fang reached for the zipper of the railboard case, revealing that the instrument seemed to be little more than what looked like a massive guitar neck, one with ten long strings. "Glad I brought the tools for it..."

Lightning seemed to perk up at the sound of the zipper. "Highwind?"

"Yeah, and something a little different." Fang smiled as she saw the many frets beneath the strings, and she looked down at the pickup block. It was where she could hook the railboard up to an amplifier, for it was also an electric instrument. "What do you say, Light... Should we get in a little practice as well?"

A small smile played at Lightning's lips. "We should." She reached for where her violin was standing, propped up beside her chair. "The regulars here usually leave tips for us, but practice is just practice... We don't set out the tip jar until things get serious."

Fang stood up to adjust one of the amplifiers, but she didn't yet hook it to the railboard. "Serious, eh?"

Lightning just sat there for a while, but she turned slightly when she heard Fang tune the railboard stick. "What is that?"

"Can't ruin the surprise, now..." Fang smirked as she adjusted the strings to the correct pitch, listening by ear, before she moved to hook it up to the amplifier. "You want to start?"

Lightning kept very silent and still for a long moment, almost as if she was slightly annoyed from not knowing what instrument Fang was holding. "...Ready when you are." She lifted her violin beneath her chin, and she held up the bow to the strings.

Yet at first, it was just as soft as the smallest whiskers of a feline, long and quiet, setting the inner mood of the session. Those who had been chatting at tables grew a bit more attentive to the various sounds, and many of them even fell silent just to listen. Lightning played in the midst of the little tune, moving her bow back and forth against the strings as if there was less resistance there than an insect dancing across the surface of a lake. Fang suddenly wondered how such great strength could temper itself down to a gentler state, as if the whirlwind had suddenly paused, and then shifted itself down to the soft flutters of a delicate creature, skimming along in the wind without much more than a whisper.

And Fang waited, poised there to tap at the strings of her own instrument, yet she couldn't help but sate herself on a bit of silent indulgence. The sight of Lightning at her heart's work, playing something so very raw and pure, straight from the source of her inner mind, it made Fang stop and listen, truly _listen_ , as if to try and peer there inside her soul. But as all things ended, inaction gave way for the need to converse, to add her own song into the fray. Fang felt it linger beneath her fingertips, the thrumming pulse that felt almost as strong and as solid as her own heartbeat. She spoke with both hands, both melodies, rising high with one and falling low with the other, and it brought sly a smirk to her lips to see the faint shock on Lightning's face, as if she didn't truly believe that it sounded like three musicians were there instead of two.

But she never paused, never hesitated. Lightning coursed right through the gathering sound, renewed and suddenly raring for a real challenge. No matter how docile she might have seemed in conversation, when music became her voice, she was a bristling tiger wreathed deep in the sound of thunder, roaring out for all to hear. Fang kept the timing, plucking at the strings with one hand and tapping with her other, a slightly gentler side to the song, almost as if to coax Lightning down into a slower pace. And she did so, albeit reluctant, as she would often toss a few quick notes to keep the rhythm up at its highest, at least without clashing against Fang's tone.

And as she played, Fang peered out over the tables and the bar, where she saw Vanille giving her a quick wave, just something to bring a warm smile to her face. She was sitting there at the bar with Hope, and Fang suddenly started to pray that the little glass in Vanille's hand wasn't anything alcoholic, even if she was nearly old enough to drink it. But even so, there wasn't much that could bring Fang down from her own high inside the music.

It was the same rush of adrenaline that she felt whenever she went for a run or drove out along the sprawling highways, the same feeling deep in her bones that pushed her to go even faster, so much harder than before. Even if the song was gentle and quick, the strength behind it was more than restrained, just a mere practice run, not swayed by the need to sprint right into motion.

When Lightning drew out one of her stokes, a sound of near finality, Fang knew that it was time to slow herself even further. They played there in the tones of autumn, the strong winds that shook even the staunchest hearts to the core, fading so slowly from the heights of summer towards the long, frigid days of dark and cold. And there they waited, deep within the pale white frost, before a single whisper on a violin promised the fated return of verdant green.

* * *

Beneath the deep glow of the moonlight, Lightning tried her very best to take a few more bites of the dinner that Fang had brought for them. Yet something in her stomach just kept twisting around at the sight of it, even with the way the sheets felt so very soft beneath her skin, and how the sound of Fang's steady breathing soothed her nerves... Even then, Lightning just lifted the flat basket and stood up to place it away.

She had never been one to speak out about her ills, not even back when she was a child. Lightning stepped towards the windowsill, where she slumped against the back of a stray chair, watching as the moonlight slowly danced across the ocean waves.

And as she rested, Lightning remembered the fever that had once taken her in its grip. She remembered the look on her mother's face when it swiftly grew even worse, roiling and freezing there inside of her, burning her all at the very same time. She'd felt as though she had been dragged out from the sea, a wheezing little fish on the sand, lost and cold and sweating so uselessly against the world itself... But then she remembered the way her mother held her.

Serah hadn't been allowed to stay near her, for fear of contracting the illness as well. She had been a few years younger, and should she have gotten sick from it, her health would have been even more at risk, as it seemed to be a child's disease. One of the elders of their village, a woman who always smelled so strongly of mint and fish oil, she'd spoken to both of Lightning's parents about the sickness that once took away so many of the village children. She advised their entire family not to let her go a single moment unsupervised, lest something happen while they were away.

So her mother stayed there, holding her little child in her arms, waiting for so many long days and nights. Lightning remembered the soft sounds of a song, some old rhyme from the fishmongers to keep seaborne illnesses away, and she remembered the prickling tears that had dripped down into her hair from her mother's eyes. _'You mustn't leave me,'_ she'd once said, _'not so soon... You're only a child; you're not ready to join her, not yet.'_

Lightning remembered the remedies that her mother had helped her father make, the old rituals that her father's own father and grandfather had once taught to him, passed down from even older hunters than they. A poultice of rare herbs was left to rest against her throat and forehead, and there were bitter powders that she had to let dissolve beneath her tongue, then a concoction of something that her father wouldn't name, though Lightning knew deep down that it had tasted like beast blood.

And then, oddly enough, she remembered the fever dreams. In one of them, a foggy old seabird had spoken to her in riddles for many long hours, before a turtle asked for her to help it back down to the waves. The bird flew quite close above and cursed at them both, for it could not peck at the turtle's flesh or shell while Lightning was carrying it down across the sand. She remembered another dream, one that she couldn't even begin to separate from the soft, lulling sounds of her mother's voice, a dream of the daunting world that waited so far beyond their little island, half the land of her bloodline. _'It was wide and green',_ her mother once said, _'there are places where you can't even see the sea, not for many days on end.'_

Lightning remembered clutching one of the blankets that her mother had brought along from such a homeland, something made of 'wool', not from the woven fronds of a palm tree, nor even animal fur. No, it was something just as soft and fuzzy as the pelt of a seal, but her mother assured her that it came from an animal with cloven hooves, not flippers.

 _'You'll see them someday.'_ Her mother had kissed her forehead, despite the feverish heat. _'You'll be just as strong as any warrior of the mainland, as swift as the horses they ride...'_ She had hugged her so very close, slowly rocking herself back and forth against the floor, almost as if her daughter was just a mere infant again. _'You'll heal from this... You'll run and play again, then someday, when it's safe for us to travel beyond our island, I'll show you where I was born.'_

Yet in her own present day, gazing out at the very same sea she had seen when the fever finally broke, when she grew healthy and strong again, Lightning tightened her jaw to keep herself from speaking out loud. _It's not safe yet, even now..._ Her fingertips dug almost painfully against her hands. _It took a dragon to root it out from the source, the same sort of thing that stole you away._ She felt her eyes slip shut, just to try and keep herself from looking so incredulous. _What do you think of that, mom? A dragon killed it for us... It just took me to lead her there._

Lightning leaned back to open her eyes again, gazing up at the glittering stars. She slowly let her fingertips go slack, before she moved to hug her knees against herself, trying her best to settle down. There was no use in dwelling upon the past, not when she had such an empty page looming there ahead of her... Fang had said it herself, she was still so young to the world, having only focused on evading and surviving the various threats of her travels, living each day as it came to her without even considering the time to explore. She had never seen a desert before that very day, nor had she seen the mighty northern lands, nor even the tall cities that still seemed like they were so very _alive_ , bustling with far more people than she could ever possibly count.

"I'll see it for you." Lightning spoke in scarcely a whisper, holding her knees there against her chest, far beneath the gentle moonlight. "I'll see everything this world can offer... And I'll see it from the back of a dragon." She closed her eyes, before she reached up for the pendant on her neck, one that had once crossed the sea and braved just as many dangers as she had, whether it was the sharp chill of winter or the glimmer of steel in the shadows. "I'm sorry that I wasn't strong enough."

The sounds of the deep ocean winds brushed up against the window panes, and Lightning held the pendant tight, before she let it fall back against her throat. She stood up without a sound, listening, waiting there, still just a ghost in the darkness of the room. The presence of her companion was only made known by those soft, gentle breaths against the pillowcase. At least Fang seemed to be sleeping soundly, not woken by the pain of an injured soul, though Lightning still worried rather silently about those wounds on her dragon form... But her concerns would have to wait. She slowly stepped towards her own side of the bed, where she knelt down against the sheets, looking back up at the moon.

"How can someone feel so young and old... Even at the same time?" Lightning closed her eyes when another swift wave of pain coursed right through her, and she reached down to grab at the bed sheets. "I'm hardly a child anymore..." She tried not to cough at the swift feeling of her lungs tightly twisting, nor the pressure within her throat; her body knew that something was terribly wrong inside, that some injury was there that it needed to heal, but how could it even possibly begin to reach into her soul?

Fang still slept there beneath the soft sheets, and she didn't even stir when Lightning moved to curl back up against her, seeking the comfort of closeness, at least enough to try and chase away the pain with warmth.

"I'll do it for you." Lightning slowly nuzzled herself against Fang's throat, speaking into the softness of her skin. "I'll keep going, but I'll rest..." She wrapped one of her arms around Fang's waist, hugging her close. "I'll rest for you."

* * *

Within a dream of lights and sounds, Fang found herself right in the midst of Lightning's presence.

"What _is_ that?" She had already set the violin down to pay her full attention to whatever was occupying Fang's lap. "It almost sounds like you brought a whole synthesizer along..."

"Nope." Fang had to fight back a small chuckle. "This, Light, is a railboard stick." She lifted it up to tap a few of the strings. "You want to hold it?"

"I think I've heard of these..." Lightning held out her arms to accept it, and she soon reached down to strum at a few of the strings, before she tapped at it as Fang had done. "Like a guitar?"

"Almost." Fang reached out to tap at one of the strings again. "It's got ten of these, and when you move down a bit..." She tapped one of the lower strings, and an entirely different sound rang out, though it wasn't nearly as loud as when the amplifier had been hooked up. "Pretty cool, eh?"

"Very cool." Lightning kept testing each and every tap and flick of her fingertips, seeing which sounds she could make between each fret of the board itself. "I actually learned guitar before the violin, but my mom wanted me to take lessons with just one of them for a while, to focus on a single thing."

"Better not to mix them up?" With a soft smile, Fang shrugged. "I've learned a bunch of stuff at once before, didn't make much different to me."

"Different minds learn in different ways." Lightning kept tapping at the strings. "Around the same time that I was convincing her to let dad teach me how to ride a bike, I was also trying to climb the trees in the backyard... This was when I was really young, and I kept trying to reach the pedals like I was grappling with them."

Fang smiled as she leaned back in her chair. "An adventurous little kid, eh?"

Lightning smirked at that, before she lowered her voice down for only them to hear. "That was before they had to explain to me how I was different from Serah... But it didn't stop me from trying." She let her fingertips go very still against the strings. "It's always... Strange when people say that there's something else out there; it's not like I don't know what's around me, I've _always_ known, there's just something that I can't _get_ , apparently." Lightning suddenly exhaled without a sound, before she reached out to hand the railboard stick back towards Fang. "What exactly do they 'get' that I can't get? Sometimes it just feels like the whole world is all in on one big joke... And people like me are the punchline."

"...I don't want to lie to you, Light." Fang slowly placed the board back down against her own lap. "I'd say you weren't missing much, but there's just something about sight that isn't like any other sense... You know how much people like us rely on it? We'd probably be dead in the water if everyone else suddenly had to do as much as you do." She lowered her voice down as well. "I know it's... It's gotta be real tiring to hear the 'you're so strong to live with this' speech... But Light, it comes from somewhere really true." Fang set the railboard stick down against the stage table, before she stood up to squeeze Lightning's nearest shoulder, whispering beside her ear. "Never let anyone tell you that you aren't incredible."

Fang smiled to herself as she walked towards back the edge of the low stage, where she stepped down to stand on the main floor again, traveling on towards the bar. "Hey, Vanille?" She moved to approach the front of the restaurant, moving through the many tables and chairs, but before she even reached it, Vanille had darted out to hug her. "Hey, you having fun?"

"Yeah!" Vanille soon skipped backwards, grinning from ear to ear. "Both of you were really great."

"Well, I'd hope so..." Fang glanced over at the bar, where she caught sight of both Hope and Sazh, who looked to be talking about something much less jovial. "Can't play a concert or two and then botch it up on a little dinner stage, eh?"

"It's not just a concert or two..." Vanille tried not to pout. "You... You've got so much talent, Fang, it almost feels like you've been... Maybe you've wasting it on the kind of crowds back home?"

Fang almost frowned at that, but she soon just shrugged. "I make enough to pay my share of the rent."

"But don't you want to-" Vanille paused, before she smiled again, though it was just a little less bright than before. "Let's... Let's not make this gloomy, right? Come try one of these."

Fang rolled her eyes at the sight of the various drinks at the bar. "They'd better not have given you anything with booze."

Vanille wrinkled her nose at the thought of that. "No! Just non-alcoholic... You don't need booze to have fun, I'm living proof of it!" She smiled again, and she hopped back towards the bar. "Sazh said that family members of the musicians, that they don't have to pay, but it didn't sound very fair to me." Vanille plucked her wallet out from her pocket, before she took a seat beside the counter. "But I'm sure you've earned something for that song."

Fang slowly took her own seat at the bar, before she swiveled it around to get a glimpse of the stage, where Lightning was already approaching from. "I'm not really in the mood to get buzzed tonight... Maybe something without a kick."

"That's the spirit!" Vanille turned around in her chair as well, and she grinned at the sight of Lightning. "Hey, Lightning! Come sit with us."

Lightning walked over to take a seat beside Vanille. "It's still early, they won't be firing up the good stuff until later tonight." She leaned one arm against the bar, where she sat facing both Fang and Vanille. "We all usually have dinner later on at one of the tables, you're both welcome to join us."

"Sounds great..." Vanille smiled at Lightning again. "You were amazing up there."

Lightning seemed to stifle any sort of reaction to the comment, but she nodded once at Vanille. "Thank you."

"Fang's gonna have to buy two tickets for your next concert, you know." Vanille slowly swiveled back and forth on the bar stool. "I didn't know what kind of show she was going to that night, but when we watched that video..." She kept smiling at the memory of it. "It's so good to finally meet you."

"You as well." Lightning turned her head when a small glass was placed beside her hand. "Sazh?"

"Right here, kiddo." Sazh moved to lean against the counter. "Your usual. Now what can I get for your two young friends?"

Vanille giggled. "We're not that young..." She swiveled in her chair to face him. "I already tried some of the fizzy raspberry punch, it was really good."

Sazh nodded at her. "Not too many people get past the sour part, you know, but it's got that aftertaste to make up for it." He looked over at Fang. "And for you?"

Fang shrugged. "Whatever you can make without much of a buzz."

"Alright, sounds good..." Sazh glanced at one of the other bartenders, likely to make sure that he wasn't chatting up the rest of the waitstaff again. "Been running this place here for almost ten years now, and you don't see too many people looking for anything but that buzz." He kept speaking while he worked, mixing up bright liquids with finely powdered ice and other concoctions, perhaps a bit of colorful syrup or slices of fresh fruit. "Though I should say, kids at the tables with their parents, both of them _love_ a fancy drink without the alcohol in there... And some of our usual folks order it just enough to make it a standard."

Fang watched the way that Sazh stirred and prepared the various drinks, from clear liquid to much thicker blends, frothy and smooth all at the same time. She glanced back at the tables again before she spoke. "How does one get into the restaurant business in the first place?"

Lightning smirked from behind a sip of her drink. "We'll be here all night if he tells the whole story."

"Hey, no sass from you." Sazh gently tapped the counter beside Lightning. "Truth be told, I didn't have much interest in the place, not at first... I used to be pilot, you see."

"A pilot?" Vanille's eyes went wide. "What sort of planes did you fly?"

Sazh grinned. "All kinds." He slid the first drink over towards Vanille, before he moved to keep working with Fang's glass. "Cargo crafts, reconnaissance jets, even a few fighters, just to keep the peace." Sazh stirred a bit of syrup into the drink. "But when the skirmishes all started to settle down again, I knew they'd be discharging more than a few of us from the force, so I started looking into the more civilian side of things." He soon slid over a pale, frothy drink towards Fang; the liquid smelled very sweet, and it had swirls of something that looked like chocolate syrup. "Commercial aircraft, mostly; it wasn't much different from what I was used to, and I picked it up like a song."

Lightning smirked again, still hiding it behind the edge of her drink.

"Now to keep this short, the real reason I stopped..." Sazh paused with a small smile, before he suddenly sighed in a wistful way. "The wife back at home, bless her heart... She'd been watching after the boy for a few years on her own by then, and she told me right upfront one day: 'you've got to get your damn feet back on solid ground before I glue them there myself!'" He smiled again, almost sheepish. "And who was I to say any differently? One of my old friends from the command center, he'd been talking about getting into the restaurant business, so I brought the family here to Eden." Sazh turned to look out at one of the tall windows, gazing off into the distance. "Dajh was only a baby then, but he needed his father back at home, no matter where home was... So that's where we went."

Lightning set her drink down against the counter, and she spoke in a much softer tone than before. "Where is Dajh tonight, anyway?"

Sazh smiled again. "Homework gets done before he gets to hear you guys play... He'll be on over here soon enough." Sazh leaned back against the bar counter. "Just remember that you're up there on that stage for fun, alright? I swear to whatever's out there, kids like you shouldn't be having to plan around everything just to get a moment of freedom..."

A small frown tugged at Lightning's lips. "We're not kids anymore, Sazh."

"You'll _always_ be kids to me, Light." Sazh waved over at Hope, who still seemed to be waiting for someone on the phone. "Just relax a bit, maybe try to let it happen like it did back then, how it used to be... I remember when the two of you were just about ten or twelve, practicing up there without any real clue of what you were doing." He grinned again, warm and gentle. "All these university kids, you've made more friends than I can keep track of... And now even more." Sazh nodded at Fang and Vanille. "You be good to my girl here, you got that? She's got a real tough schedule to work around these days..." His tone was quite steady, but his eyes almost seemed to gleam with mirth. "Time with friends is all the more important now."

Lightning reached for her drink again. "Sazh, I wouldn't be friends with anyone who wasn't good to me." She traced her fingertips against the slight condensation on the glass. "You don't need to worry about it."

"If you say so, Light." Sazh still spoke in a slightly blithe tone. "You know I'm just looking out for you."

"I know." Lightning smiled softly as well. "And I do appreciate it."

Sazh looked back at one of the other bartenders. "Right... Now I've gotta break up these lovebirds and make sure the kitchen's all ready for tonight; see you guys in a bit." He tapped at the counter again, before he walked off to have a stern word with the staff near end of the bar.

Fang watched Sazh for a moment, but when he began to usher off the waitress and send the bartender back to work, she looked down at the drink in her hands. It did indeed taste like chocolate, yet it also held a rich blend of salty caramel and something that almost tasted like coffee, but as Sazh had promised, she didn't even feel the least bit buzzed.

"He means well." Lightning leaned away from the counter. "It's always felt like a second home here because of him."

"I can see why." Fang stirred the cup with the small plastic stick, watching the way that the milky colors mixed in with the richer hues. "Reminds me of someone who helped me and Vanille back in the day." She turned in her seat to look out at the gathering bustle of early diners and patrons of the bar, yet she had a feeling that the night was only just getting started. "But that's a story for a different place, a different time..." Fang smirked at the sight of the slowly dimming atmosphere, for the last few rays of sunset had already started to fade away, giving leave towards the waitstaff to pull down the curtains and raise the light levels inside. "Think these folks would appreciate a show?"

Lightning kept sipping her drink for a brief moment. "I need to check if Serah's going to be here later tonight." She paused to place her glass down on the counter, before she reached into her pocket for a rather slender phone. "If she is, then I'll let the desk know to hold on to our usual table."

Fang took a moment just to watch the way that Lightning tapped at the buttons on her phone, moving at a rapid pace. A quiet digital voice soon asked for conformation regarding the person she was sending a message to, stating that it was none other than Serah Farron herself.

"It just helps if I accidentally pick the wrong contact." Lightning sent off the text, before she tucked her phone back into her pocket. "I used to have two professors with similar last names; it was almost a whole comedy routine every time I needed to ask about an assignment."

Vanille giggled quietly. "I'm sure they understood what happened... Right?"

"Yeah." Lightning reached for her drink again, finishing it off without a sound, until she spoke again in just a low murmur. "Sometimes they knew enough about the subject to improvise." A small smirk crossed her face, and she soon stood up from the bar to stretch out her arms, before she turned towards the sound of footsteps. "Everything alright?"

Hope sounded as if he was trying not to mumble. "Yeah, um... Are you taking the bus home tonight?"

"If Serah doesn't make it here, yes." Lightning frowned ever so slightly. "Why?"

"I might need a ride, that's all." Hope looked down at the phone in his hand. "I can ask Sazh, or maybe find a bus that'll get me there."

Lightning spoke in a slightly sterner tone, though a certain sort of gentleness kept it tempered down. "Why, Hope?"

"It's mom… It happened to her again." Hope forced himself not to frown. "Dad said it's nothing too serious, but he has to stay there with her in case anything changes."

Lightning lowered her voice to a whisper. "Hospital?"

"Yeah." Hope nodded at nothing in particular. "I... I wouldn't even be much use over there; she felt well enough to talk for a minute, she even told me to stay here and... To have fun." He slowly raked a hand through his hair, and his gaze seemed to go entirely blank. "Have _fun?_ How am I supposed to-"

"You stay strong for her, Hope... That's how." Lightning kept quiet for just a brief moment, before she reached out to gesture in the vague direction of the stage. "You don't have to go up there with us if you don't want to, but I know it'd make her happy if you did." She turned to face the wide maze of tables and chairs, but when she slowly stepped forward again, she didn't brush against a single one. "You keep moving, no matter what."

Fang felt something shifting in her line of thought, something from the very depths of the dream, and when the world began to blur around her, she slowly closed her eyes. It was far away, yet still so close, another day, perhaps another season, a time when the two of them were utterly alone.

"I think I finally get you, Light." Fang's own voice echoed out from beneath what sounded like a veil of rain. "Did you think I ever would?"

A heartbeat thrummed so swiftly beneath her fingertips, but Lightning spoke without hesitation. "I don't think it matters either way." Her voice almost seemed to catch inside her throat, yet she just kept speaking. "What does it matter if you-" A higher sound, something almost keening, before she slowly shuddered. "What does it matter if you really know me?"

Fang's voice rumbled against the tender sound of rapid breathing. "I think you underestimate yourself."

And Fang could feel the same warmth in her chest, within her very lungs, even when she opened her eyes again. Why was the bow of her cello suddenly between her fingertips? Lightning sat beside her again, though the world was utterly quiet, utterly still. Pale blue eyes waited in the silence, unmoving, unseeing, until a voice quietly echoed into the empty air.

"Here, take it and film the stage." Lightning's voice seemed to come from somewhere very far away, not from where she truly was, just a lost memory in the depths of Fang's dreaming mind. "We'll send it to her after... She'll see him for what he really is; she'll be proud."

The faint sound of a giggle, one that could only be sweet little Vanille, for her voice soon seemed to echo throughout the dream as well. "You're a nice one, aren't you?"

"Just don't let anyone know..." A rare laugh, low and breathy, almost as if she didn't believe the notion herself. "I might lose my reputation as a royal hardass." She paused, and then she spoke in a tone of softer whispers. "He just needs a little help, that's all."

Fang knew that the dream had frozen itself down to stillness, yet she could still feel the bow against her skin, the weight of the cello between her feet, and it was all she could do not to will everything back into motion again.

"You think you really know me?" Her voice grew along with the sound of the steady rain, slowly lilting, as if she had gathered it all up into the very strings of her violin, dappling a blank page with her scattered words. "Maybe you do... You knew my song, after all."

 _Your song._ Fang felt her grip tighten against the bow. _Our song... You and me, Light, I won't ever lose you again._

She spoke above those flashing echoes, the lights that danced so far beyond the windowpanes. "Tell me how you know."

"I know you speak without using your voice." Fang whispered her call beneath the peals of thunder, the distant beckon of a gathering storm. "That you see without using your eyes... And that you love the people around you almost without ever telling them so."

A long pause, as if she might have actually felt unsure. "And do you think it should be any different?"

"No." Fang smiled beside that first keening sound, the answering note of a violin. "Because you're not crippled, Light... You never were, and you never will be."

* * *

A single gold coin fell down through the darkness, almost as if it drifted without weight, before it suddenly echoed against the cold, hard surface of the countertop, spinning once, then twice, before a set of wiry fingertips darted out to snatch at it.

"I'm looking for something... Specific."

The back of Lightning's neck nearly prickled at the sound of that voice, even if it was only a dream.

"I'm in need of something that can get me all the way to the southern harbors by the end of the week, at least." A dark green hood kept her face hidden, but that voice held the same quality as always, so accented and strong. "And I need to hire the best Shadow you've got."

Those deft fingertips had already disappeared beneath the gap in the messenger's window, though a pair of wary little eyes peered out at Fang from behind the long rows of stiff iron bars. "Not enough coin for a Shadow."

Fang began to count out a few more coins. "How much, then?" Her voice held a slightly sharper quality than mere moments before, and when the answer was murmured back in an almost mocking tone, she had to bite back a hiss. "You've gotta be _kidding_ me."

Lightning felt another prickle run down her spine, and she shifted slightly from her resting place among the rafters. Even if her past life knew exactly what a 'Shadow' was, Lightning herself had far less than an inkling of the matter; in other dreams, she'd been able to think on things while they happened, but as it was, she seemed to be little more than a silently dreaming presence.

"And how do you _expect_ us to react towards such little coin?" It was not the master who spoke, merely an underling from beneath the far grander scheme, a pawn who stood so steadfast in the face of an outside presence. "You think Shadows are worth mere gold, girl? No... No, they're not to be trusted among those who won't offer up enough for their true value."

Fang's voice echoed into the very heights of the dark, musty chapel. "I don't take kindly to gougers."

"Mayhap you'd be better off with only the steed you wish to purchase." Those teeth, like dull little daggers, they sank down to test the quality of the gold. "Or a mere sellsword could always been obtained with lesser coin..."

"I need the _best_." Fang still spoke loud enough for Lightning to hear, though a slight twinge of defeat seemed to fill the air itself with a heavy, sullen presence. "Shadows... Word from city to city says that they're the best."

A different voice cut through the fog like a solid ray of light. "Is there an issue?"

Lightning tensed, bristling, and she felt how her shadowclaws tightened against the beam of her chosen rafter.

" _No_ , no ma'am." The underling shuffled over with the coins in hand, and he pressed them firmly against a pale, flawless palm. "No, no issues, merely a... A _customer_ , perhaps in search of our Lady's great kindness? Your generosity is just as legendary, from east to west and everywhere in between."

"Perhaps." The master sent a rather cool gaze beyond the rusted iron bars, still so bright, still so _stinging_ , and Lightning just had to look away. "That would depend on what she is purchasing."

The underling loped back towards the counter. "Hiring, my lady."

"Ah, a _Shadow_?" The master's voice rose with ringing mirth. "Too long, much too long... They've not had the chance to play beyond the halls for many weeks, now." She drifted on towards those iron bars, and her gaze turned up towards the rafters, where Lightning grew very, very still. "How long would you require such services?"

"A week, maybe longer." Fang shifted her weight from one side to the other, and Lightning caught the distinct scent of apprehension. "Just enough finish up a bit of business."

"Your business is your own, my friend." The master smiled, and her gaze drifted back to Fang. "But... I trust that you will find the dancer to provide ample skill in whatever matters you have yet to settle."

 _Yes_ , Lightning thought, slowly tightening her grip; it was her turn, _finally,_ but at what cost? Would this stranger really have a true use for her? She could sense the flowing blood in Fang's veins, how it quickened and jumped at the slight stirring in the air, the awakened presence of so many numerous Shadows.

Perhaps Fang had meant to hide the sharp wariness in her voice, but it was just as clear as the sudden whispers from among the rafters. "The... Dancer?"

"Yes." The master smiled as she turned to enter the main chapel, sparing a quick glance towards the mousy little underling, who didn't dare to follow her through the iron doorway. "A mere contract, my dear, and she will be off with you for a fortnight."

And to her credit, Lightning noted, Fang didn't quite stiffen at the sight of a slim dagger, nor did she step away when the master suddenly lifted one of those perfect hands, revealing the damnable purple rock, one that was inlaid upon a curved surface of steel.

"A binding contract, you see; she will be yours until I happen to remove your signature from the surface." The master smiled so very softly, and she offered Fang the dagger, positioning it hilt first.

The underling piped up from behind the iron bars. "Surely you've heard _why_ the Shadows are so infamous?"

Fang's jaw visibly tightened, but she took the dagger into her own grasp, lifting the blade up against her lip.

"Interesting." The master didn't even blink at the sight of drawn blood. "Most choose a finger or the curve of the palm... The mouth heals quickly, does it not?"

Fang smeared a bit of the fluid against her fingertip, before she pressed it down against the surface of the stone; Lightning suddenly felt it thrumming through her veins, as did the rest of them. They stirred all around her, perhaps not in jealousy, though she wouldn't have minded much if they were.

"Is it done?" Fang's face was quite visible by then, still sheltered beneath that emerald hood. "I'd have the horse before midnight..."

The underling gestured at the door. "You'll have it immediately."

"Good." Fang slowly handed the blade back towards the woman in such pale robes. "Where will I find the Shadow?"

And the master smiled.

Lightning knew it was time, yet she still hesitated; it would simply not do to emerge so loyally, a mere hound on a chain. No, she had been ignored for too long. If she was to be summoned, it would be in the proper way. The master's smile flickered, and Lightning felt that same swell of old rebellion stirring inside her own heart, something so very fleeting, yet it felt like more than enough to have embarrassed her in front of a customer.

"To me." The master cleared her throat. "I would have the dancer to me."

Lightning stepped out along the rafters, invisible to all below; she was drawn by the words upon those lips, by the crystal locked in steel, by the blood that still flowed inside the sheer essence of life, a siren's howl from the darkness of the old chapel walls. She leapt towards the one who called for her, a mere crack of sound within the air, before she felt her feet touch the ground in a mere instant, standing there in only one of her many, _many_ guises.

"How kind of you to join us." There was a strong venom inside that silken gaze, a master spurned by the expectation of loyalty, yet in Lightning's opinion, it was her own damn fault for assuming it in the first place. "Do have fun, my dear..." The master almost sounded disappointed, robbed of the chance to have her loyal little raven perch there upon her wrist and sing to her, perhaps dance for her whims alone, but she held not the key to such things. "I'll see you again in a fortnight."

Lightning stood within the guise she had been born in. She knew that her eyes stung just as coldly as the master's, so she chose to stare at her, as if to dare her into uttering an order, though neither of them spoke a single word. It was only when she heard someone clear their throat that Lightning realized she was truly meant to leave such a place, to roam the earth again and taste the wind that rose far beyond the drafts of the rafters.

"The dancer." Fang looked Lightning up and down, before she slowly began to step back towards the hall she'd approached from; the walls of the chapel stood taller than any mere church, though no simple prayers were spoken in such a place. "Wonder why they call you that..."

Lightning did not quite care to say that Fang only had to order such knowledge for it to be given with the best of her capability. She simply followed after Fang in silence, moving out of earshot from the messenger's counter.

"You got a name?" Fang seemed to be glancing at the soft pink locks that had since spilled down from beneath Lightning's velvety cowl, just above the dark robe that drifted on beneath it. "Or... Just 'the dancer'?"

"Lightning." She knew that Fang couldn't have missed the sharp sound in the air when she'd descended. "May I ask yours?"

Fang turned to walk back through the doorway. "Fang."

And Lightning's past life, she began to wonder upon what possible reason someone could happen to have that name, but she did not speak her mind. They were both traveling beneath the wide archway of the entry hall, once so hallowed and luminous, but it had since grown home to only the dust, the stray spiders, and skittering little reptiles. It was enough to make Lightning smirk at the memory of chasing them down, of feeling such warm blood seeping out beneath her claws... But she hid her expression behind the fabric of her cowl.

"I didn't know the Shadows were... Magic." Fang had such a strange way of speaking. The end of her some of words seemed to blend right in with the rest of her speech, yet it did nothing to detract from her perceived level of intelligence. "All the better, then... Are you alright with riding the same horse?"

Lightning blinked at that, but she didn't respond. Why did Fang care to ask of her opinion on such matters? What did it matter if a Shadow wished to ride?

Fang paused at the end of the hall, far beneath the cracked, crumbling doors of the outer chapel. "Hello? I hardly have the coin for another steed..."

"I have no need to ride." Lightning could already smell the freshness of the outside world, the crisp air of a warm summer night. She nearly twitched at the gathering sensation in her blood, the sheer longing to leave the stillness of the old dusty church. "May we depart?"

Fang's brow furrowed in a rather curious way. "Right to the point, are you? Suppose it's actually a good thing..." She moved to walk beneath the shattered beams of wood, beneath the tall marble pillars that leaned somewhat precariously above the pathway. "You've got some kind of magic to keep up with a horse?"

Lightning merely nodded. She soon began to walk somewhat ahead of Fang, but she hid her excitement behind a face that looked as stony as the chunks of marble, just as cold as the nightly winds. She didn't need to wait for long, not as long as the contract was kept. Lightning clambered up over the fallen rocks and the patches of dirt and wild grass, off into the chilly air, where she suddenly paused at the sight of another underling.

The piebald... They were giving her the piebald? Lightning felt something in her heart sink down, a stone tossed inside a cold riverbed. The piebald steed, splotched like a cow, there was no doubt that the other underling had chosen it for her in jest, perhaps just to mock Fang without her even knowing so. But a steed of the _Shade_ , no matter the color of its pelt, it was nothing to look down upon... No, for it already looked down on everything else. Fang whistled at the sight of it, and she smirked at the sheer strength in each of the horse's strides, at those powerful limbs and heavy hooves that looked to be nearly the size of dinner plates.

"Already fed for the night and brushed, ma'am." The little underling had addressed Fang, but he kept staring at Lightning with those beady eyes, perhaps a tad bit jealous of her higher status, or the privilege of leaving the chapel. "A pleasant journey to you."

Lightning ignored the tinge of spite in his voice. The underlings were worth less than the rats who crawled throughout the rubble, only useful due to the fact that they could talk and count higher than fifty. They tended to forget that the master didn't mind if her Shadows left blood upon anything but the carpet or the marble floors... Perhaps there would be opportunity to instill a slight reminder upon her return.

"Thanks." Fang took hold of the reins, and she quickly looked the steed over; horses of the Shade seemed hardly different from any other beast, at least upon first glance. "We've got a long ways to go tonight before we can rest up."

Lightning merely looked out over the charred ruins of the outer churchyard. She could smell the presence of so many different humans, a mixture that wafted right through the fallen fencing, the scents of those from the city beyond.

"We'll ride west to Brookhaven, and then even further after morning breaks." Fang lifted herself up towards the saddle, and her long green cape shifted to reveal the elegant flintlock at her belt, as well as a sheathed sword, likely a curved blade, though Lightning only got a glimpse of it. "You say you can keep up without a horse of your own..."

Lightning just stared at Fang.

"Listen, I'd have walked right out of that damn place if there was any word in this whole rotten country about a better house of sellswords... Not to mention their horses." Fang narrowed her eyes with just a hint of malice, perhaps a warning, but any fear that it might have instilled was lost within the very nature of Shadow, one without the human notion of regarding such base threats. "Were they playing me for a fool, then? Are you supposed to set yourself on me just as soon as I ride out of sight from the city?"

Lightning felt herself smirk at that. "I couldn't harm you even if I wished." She lifted one of her hands, before she tugged back the moleskin glove to reveal her _mark_ , the brand of almost every Shadow in the world. "The moment I dared to spill your blood, I'll crumble down into ash and never wake again." Lightning felt a sheer thrill race right through her from the look in Fang's eyes, a gaze that had never happened upon such a mark, upon flesh that coiled there like so many glittering little serpents, branded with the darkness of her inner nature. "You bought that very right with your own contract... Or did you forget so quickly?"

Fang reined in the horse to take a step up the cobbled pathway, before she chose to lead it towards the western road. "Should've never gotten myself into this..." She urged the horse to walk, and she nearly scowled when Lightning chose to wander right up beside them. "Dark magic, blood rituals... If there was any other way-"

Lightning took that moment to stop listening and take her own initiative, for surely there were far better things to do than listen to someone complain... She hadn't waited for so many long months just to spend her time like that. The piebald steed merely snorted at the sudden display of power, though Fang immediately grew quiet, gazing at the wisp of floating darkness, a haze of floating vapor, a watchful Shadow on the wing.

As soon as the horse had been told to quicken its pace, Lightning leapt out with it, lurching far above the upturned cobblestones and the blackened earth of the pathway. A great fire had once raged there, that was what all of the other Shadows said, but nothing had ever touched the inner halls of the chapel, no, they'd simply rotted down into decay. That did not stop the faithful from lingering there, nor did it keep Lightning herself from exploring every inch of the area, darting from rafter to rafter and peering down into the very depths of the crypts below, yet even a Shadow felt a slight tinge of wariness at the sight of such an abyss. What could have been lurking down there in the darkness, deep within a realm that even the Shadows could not see? None had ever returned from it, but it was said that true freedom could never be found there, only the silence of death.

And out on the road, the piebald ran with a swiftness rivaled only by the fastest of mortal steeds. For he was one of the Shade, much like the hounds that stalked the forests at the bidding of the master, bringing back their kills so loyally and without pause. The rich scents of cooked meat often drifted up among the rafters, but the Shadows, quite like the Shades, they both held no true need of food.

Lightning remembered a time, while she kept flying so far above the cobbled path, she remembered a time when she'd once shared that form of sustenance with fellow humans, when her heart hadn't thrummed with the power beyond a mortal's grasp. She remembered one with such similar pink hair, one who always smiled whenever she returned from venturing across the land, one who would make a special dinner whenever her dear sister grew ill with that feverish sickness...

There was little from that era of time that would soothe her, Lightning told herself, and yet her thoughts kept wandering away from the thrill of the open air; they drifted back towards a time when she was merely flesh and blood and bone, a girl of so many long years ago, and beyond that forgotten time, the world had changed. Gone were the nomadic tribes, gone were the great creatures that once walked the land without challenge, and gone was the little family that once lived among the edge of the boundless plains, hunting and searching for wild grain among the tall grasses of their homeland. That world was finished, and within its stead, an empire of stone had since taken place, rising high above the golden fields and crushing them down into dust, long after Lightning had any true right to see it occur. Yet she had been alive, and in a sense, free, at least until those ancient Shades had snared her.

Lightning told herself yet again not to think upon such things. She had a contract to uphold, a soul to follow and protect, and it would not do to dwell upon the past while there might yet be bloodshed before the morning came. There, off in the distance, beyond the old walls of abandoned pastures and farmland, there was a group of riders on the road, humans with torches and weapons at their belts.

Fang reined in the piebald again, and she narrowed her eyes at the sight of such glowing fire. "Could be highwaymen... City guard wouldn't patrol this far, would they?"

Lightning alighted upon a nearby signpost, though the letters were far too faded to read. She sank her claws into the rotted wood, and she lifted her gaze towards the distant horsemen. "What do you wish of them?"

Fang gave her another pointed look. "If they're not hostile, we're not getting in any fights... You hear me?"

"I hear you." Lightning wondered if perhaps a swirling form of claws and utter darkness was something that Fang didn't prefer. "I only asked what you wish of them."

"Nothing, if I can help it..." Fang slowly brought the horse back to a walk, before she glanced at the terrain beyond the path, most of which seemed solid enough to ride upon. "Just keep close watch of them, if you would."

Lightning only murmured to herself once Fang was out of earshot. "If I _would?_ " She tensed her gleaming shadowclaws, and she swiftly took flight again. "What sort of game is she playing..?"

She could see the world so far below her, the rolling hills and fields of what was once such fertile farmland, long since left to grow tall with wild grasses and saplings. Perhaps it would someday be a forest, and perhaps the distant chapel would crumble right down to the ground... Wishful thinking, she told herself, for even if her master was to die, such a fate was even more complicated than the twisting lines of the labyrinth beneath the once-grand hallways. The stone, Lightning told herself, it all rested within that tiny little crystal.

Off in the distance, she could see the riders even more clearly than before. They wore the leathers of forest dwellers, or perhaps poachers, but it seemed to make little difference; they didn't even notice Fang, nor the piebald horse that galloped on across the abandoned fields, and Lightning's presence was next to invisible within the deep night sky.

Fang rode on across the grassland, over dips and ridges in the terrain, and it was only once the lights of the torches were far behind her that she turned her steed back towards the road. There would be no other riders in that night, only the occasional animal wandering past the road, and the horselike Shade galloped past them without pause.

It was only later, beyond the long hours of the night that stretched on like rolls of flowing ribbon, only then did the first glimmer of a city appear. Lightning caught it long before Fang did, and she moved to fly closer to the Shade, moving along in a flutter of black wings and shadowclaws, more of a raven than a simple formless shape.

"More magic?" Fang almost sighed as she peered back towards the city. "Never mind... We'll find an inn for the night, and I'll rent a spot in whatever stables they might have for our friend, here."

Lightning spared the piebald a sympathetic glance; he held no more need for rest than she did, and the words spoken by the underling, promises of being brushed and fed... Simple lies. Word traveled quick between those who lived like rats, and it seemed as if Fang didn't quite know what she had bought with those shiny gold coins.

They moved with swiftness towards the city gates, all up until Fang slowed the horse down to herald one of the guardsmen. Lightning moved to perch between the piebald's ears, hiding there in the form of a mere bird. It would not do to have Fang fall under suspicion for having hired a Shadow, so she merely ruffled up her wings when the gate rumbled open, before she nipped at one of those big splotchy ears, just enough to warn the steed into keeping his true nature concealed as well.

Before long, Lightning watched the way that Fang paid one of the stablehands in copper, not gold, yet she kept silent all the while. She'd since changed back into a human form, which made it much easier to walk about the streets unnoticed, and also for the fact that it always seemed to make Fang stiffen whenever she smirked. But what harm was there in reminding her exactly what she'd paid such a price for? And if Lightning was going to have to wait for a whole night while her companion slept, why not make the most out of it?

"You're a cruel bunch..." Fang muttered it under her breath while Lightning followed after her, walking closely among the narrow roads that wound about like coiled beasts of the city. "Always looking at me like you'd rather stick a dagger through my spine than otherwise."

"And claim my own death from the deed?" Lightning spoke in just a murmur. "I think not."

"I hired a blade." Fang kept walking at a brisk pace, traveling closer and closer to a firelit inn. "And for my coin, a blade I've been given..."

Lightning clicked her tongue against her front teeth, a gesture that she remembered from so long ago. "Make no mistake... A blade is good for several things, some of which one might not want to see." She kept following Fang, not straying for more than a few paces from her side. "Point me at one you wish to cut, and they'll be cut, but to harm the one who holds a contract... You'd find a blade snapped in two."

"I just hope you're good on your word." Fang gave her a rather weary look, before she stepped up towards the little front door of the inn. "Why the _hell_ would you ever agree to terms like that?" She'd paused with her hand against the iron handle. "Is that the price of such magic?"

Lightning stood there without speaking; it had not been a true command, she did not have to answer, though Fang seemed as if she didn't care either way. The sounds of the inn suddenly flooded out into the chill of the late summer night, and Lightning felt the sheer warmth of the hearth inside, to which she lingered in place, hesitant to cross beyond the doorway.

Fang looked back at her with another tired look, and the reddened cut on her lip was all the more visible by the firelight. "Just come on."

And Lightning, bound by the very blood that Fang had given, had no choice but to obey.

"They'll have rooms here with more than a single bed to them, so we'll rest up until morning." Fang wandered past those who were either drinking at the counter or chatting by the fireside, and she reached into one of her pockets for a small number of round silver coins. "Oi! Anything left tonight?"

Lightning looked away from the innkeeper, away from the crackling fire, and she slowly reached up to draw her cowl a bit closer to her eyes. Such things were to be expected, as humans loved the warmth and brightness, the sheer heat of a roaring fire, but she had not been familiar with such things in so many countless years. Fang would bring them away soon, she hoped, somewhere that she could find the darkness again, taking refuge from the flames, or perhaps there would be a hearth in the room that she'd paid for with so many clinking silver coins...

Time seemed to blur with the soft steps of a little old innkeeper, one who walked with a slight limp and chattered all the way up the stairs. She led them towards a room with two small cots on either side of the tiny window, and indeed, an empty fireplace loomed there at the wall, only visible by the candlelight. Lightning could smell the faint ashes, the phantom of the fire, and she fought back a feeling that she hadn't felt in quite some time, something so very swift and twisting. She began to grit her teeth together, stifling it down, before she moved to sit beside a small washing bin at the furthest side of the room.

" _Freezing_ tonight..." Fang wore a thick coat of furs beneath the outer cloak of green fabric, yet she didn't take them either of them off while she hefted a few wooden logs into the dormant hearth. "You'd think it was already autumn."

"It's always cold here." Lightning stared at her own fingertips, which peeked out from the embroidered gaps in the points of her gloves. "Even in spring."

Fang muttered something that sounded rather sour.

"I'll keep watch over the hallways, if you wish it." Lightning narrowed her eyes at how the hearth had grown full of logs and small branches, and she narrowed them even further when Fang retrieved a bit of flint from her pocket. "I'll make sure nobody comes in the room."

"What makes you think someone will?" Fang struck the flint against the steely edge of a pocketknife, but the sparks faded away right before they could hit the kindling. "Towns like this are usually safe."

"Nobody hires a blade without a reason." Lightning closed her eyes when another spark seared out into the darkness, far stronger than the light of the candle on the table. "What use is a blade without enemies?"

"Quick one, aren't you?" Fang's voice paused to let her breath draw life into the tiny embers, filling the room with the sound of fire and smoke. "Or should I say sharp..?"

Lightning didn't speak again, and she kept her eyes shut tightly. Fang's footsteps echoed throughout the tiny room, before the quiet creak of a chair stole the silence away for just a moment more. And then it was finally still again, or at least as still as it could possibly be with the presence of a gathering fire. Lightning slowly opened her eyes, waiting to see if there was anything else she might be told to do, but Fang seemed very content with polishing the flintlock from her belt.

"I thought it was strange that you hadn't asked what I hired you for." Fang was quite careful to make sure that the firearm was in working order, and the sounds of metal and the thick polishing cloth joined in with the low crackle of the hearth. "But I guess it's true, there's really no other use for hiring a blade." She soon slid the flintlock back down into its holster, before she leaned against the chair, gazing out with eyes that looked just as green as her cloak. "The coin I paid with was good, you know... You'll be able to buy yourself a pretty new spell, if that sort of thing can even be bought."

Lightning slowly narrowed her eyes, but she didn't move her gaze away from her own pale fingertips. "Shadows know no coins."

Fang paused, as if to think over such a thing. "You aren't paid in coin for your service?"

And at that, Lightning smirked yet again, though she didn't even care to see if it made Fang shiver. "'Paid'? You truly do know nothing of us."

"What?" Fang's voice grew almost softer in tone, even if she scarcely moved from her seat in the chair. "Are you a... 'Holy' order, then? Just working for some form of dark faith?"

Lightning kept silent, yet she did feel something crawling right down her spine when Fang suddenly rose up, standing so tall.

Fang's voice was still soft. "Tell me."

An order. Lightning's jaw tightened so much that her teeth ached, but she spoke her words between them. "We're not paid."

"Why?" There was suddenly something very different about Fang's voice, something Lightning had not heard from her before. "Why aren't you paid?"

"...We have no need." Lightning tried to stop herself from looking up into those deep green eyes, so keen and very bright, so much that it almost pained her, but she soon found that when she caught sight of them, that she could scarcely begin to look away. "May I watch over the halls tonight?"

Fang stood there as if at a loss, before she slowly stepped forward to kneel against the chill of the hard wooden floor, resting eye to eye with Lightning. "What do you mean, 'have no need'?"

Lightning bit back a scowl, and her voice hissed sharply with each word. "What use does a Shadow have for coin? Where would we go to spend it? What could we possibly _spend_ it on?" There was only so much clever wordplay she could employ before it was all spent, before Fang reached the bitter truth. "We... We have no need for it, and if you ask me again, I'll tell you this-" She looked Fang straight in the eyes, even if they looked just as pained as she felt. "You'll not enjoy the answer."

Fang kept very quiet again, before she spoke even softer than before. "A hard truth is a whole lot better than a sweet lie." Her smile was just as soft as her words, though it wavered slightly upon her face. "I said the same thing to someone I hold very close... Someone you'll soon meet if this all goes to plan." Fang almost looked as if she wanted to reach out towards her hired blade, even if Lightning sorely wished that she wouldn't. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Lightning felt that same sharp feeling shudder down her spine. "Then you really are a fool... You don't even know how to use me." She looked back at Fang with the hardest gaze she could muster. "Why do you think that contract was signed in your own blood?"

Yet Fang didn't seem nearly as uneasy as before. "I'm not sure. I just did what I needed to do."

"What you needed..." Lightning trailed off with a silent sigh. "It was given in blood so that I couldn't harm you... But also so I couldn't break the lending contract the master gave." She took a very deep breath, before she looked away from Fang. " _My_ master."

"No." Fang spoke her words in less than a murmur. "No... That'd mean-"

"What did you _think_ you were buying?" Lightning almost hissed her words, no matter the sudden look of shock that filled Fang's gaze. "Why do you think Shadows aren't often seen beyond those chapel walls? Why do you think I can't disobey it?"

Fang knelt there as if she had turned to stone, and her words took several long moments to muster. "...A slave?"

"That's one word for it." Lightning murmured her next few words as well. "You truly didn't know, did you?"

An odd color seemed to tinge Fang's cheeks, and Lightning wondered if perhaps she might soon turn ill at the mere thought of it.

"Not many pay for a Shadow's strength without knowing what leash they wear." Lightning drew her knees a bit closer against her chest, if only to keep them away if Fang truly did become sick. "You must be desperate for whatever reason you paid in gold; most choose other means."

"I don't... No." Fang suddenly rose to her feet, and she covered her face beneath one of her hands, steadying herself against the wall with her other. "I _won't_ own a slave, not even for this... You're free; I won't own _anyone_."

"A bit late for that." Lightning watched the way that Fang wandered back across the room. "You own my services for a fortnight, no more, no less... Unless you pay more coin."

Fang shook her head, and her hood fell back against her shoulders with a soft rustle of fabric. "This is wrong."

"It is what it is." Lightning leaned away to rest against the corner of the wall. "You've gone this far, why not the rest?"

"Because it's _wrong!_ " Fang suddenly wheeled on her, a sharp green fire, sparkling and blazing within those wary eyes, as if she too was little less than a cornered animal. "People aren't slaves, humans aren't _slaves_... How does anyone ever do this?!" She approached again, though the look in Lightning's gaze made her pause, and then kneel once more against the ground. "You're not mine, I'm freeing you."

"Words mean nothing beneath a contract." Lightning looked away from Fang again. "There's nothing either of us can do otherwise; I'm yours for a fortnight, then I belong to the chapel again. "

Fang spoke with no slight bit of venom. "To your 'master'?"

Lightning nodded. "If I break the contract... Your blood to mine, I swear it, I will _die_." She tried not to let a hint of fear cross her voice, but death had become no less of an enigma over so many endless years. "If you don't wish that, then keep me in your service."

"If..." Fang didn't speak for a long while. "If it wouldn't kill you, I'd say no." Her fingertips tightened against her palms, and Lightning soon smelled the first few hints of reddened welts. "I'd tell you to run as far as you can from here... But you really can't leave that place, can you? You can't just fly away?"

"I'd die before I left the chapel walls." Lightning closed her eyes again. "You think I haven't tried everything? The master holds my very life in that ring you kissed by your own blood... Like our own contract, if she dies, I die."

Fang didn't speak for a very long time, yet when she did, the hearth fire had given a great warmth into the little room, though it did nothing to soothe the recent pallor of her skin, as if a ghost had since leapt right through her. "Then how can you be free?"

Lightning leaned her head back against the wall. A hopeless little smirk crossed her lips, twitching beside the silent fall of her cowl, and then the quiet rustle of that soft rosy hair.

* * *

"Light."

Lightning didn't stir for a brief while, not until she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder.

"Lightning."

The ocean winds rose much stronger in the morning, and because Fang had opened up the window by a slight degree, a rather pleasant breeze was drifting in through the curtains. The residual scent of their dinner had been swept away by the warm aromas of cinnamon and salt, as well as something light and fruity. Fang glanced over at the small breakfast tray on her bedside table, yet she could only sigh when Lightning still didn't fully wake.

"I know you should rest..." Fang moved to sit near one of the pillows, where she leaned back against the headboard, gazing up at the ceiling. "You'll just be pissed at me if I let you sleep in."

Lightning mumbled something rather unintelligible in her dozing state, before she slowly began to stretch out her limbs, all while Fang had stroked a very gentle hand across her back and shoulders.

"I brought us some breakfast." Fang took a long moment just to stare at the look in Lightning's eyes. "Another bad dream?"

Lightning blinked once, gazing out into the morning sunlight, and she fought the urge to shiver. "...Yeah."

Fang reached over to pick up the breakfast tray. "You wanna talk about it?"

"I was a... A _'Shadow'_." Lightning narrowed her eyes at the ceiling, for she had since moved to lay flat against her back with the covers drawn up towards her chest. "I just wish I could say it wasn't a literal title."

"Hm." Fang bit down on a fluffy roll of bread, one that was swirled with rich spices and a rather shiny glaze of something sweet. "And what did you do as a 'Shadow'?"

Lightning closed her eyes again, and she didn't even stir when Fang's hand brushed so softly against one of her cheeks. "I don't think I want to remember."

"Have some breakfast, then." Fang held out one of the cinnamon pastries. "If we're leaving today, no use doing it on an empty stomach."

And Lightning tried to do so, even when the sugar tasted like cold coals against her tongue, while the bread felt like the gray dust inside those empty old crypts, even when her memories kept leaking off into her mind as if from an open wound. It was blood that she'd once sought, what the Shadow hungered for, waiting so very patiently to let loose her blade upon those unfortunate enough to cross the one she answered to. A _monster_ , she thought to herself, no different from the beasts she was sworn to slay in her own life; she'd been a creature far beyond the balance of life and death, somewhere in limbo between them, just a specter of a realm long lost to nothingness. It was only a memory, she kept telling herself, a life just as lost as that past world had been, but then why did the notion grate on her so sorely?

She'd already professed herself to the goddess, her sorrow for the blood that she'd spilled in the name of protecting her kin, yet her power hadn't even waned when they'd crumpled down to the ground, bleeding and lifeless. It had only faded when the anger took hold inside her heart, when she began to shun the one who hadn't answered in so many years, likely never, from what she'd once considered truth, for perhaps there was simply some strange power within the bond of blood and silver, no gods or goddesses to speak of.

Lightning slowly reached up towards her throat, lifting the pendant before her eyes, the pale bolt of electricity that stood opposite to the watchful eye. The eye, she remembered, the goddess's eye, the gateway that stood inside the realm beyond the land of the living, for Etro's hunters were her heralds, her messengers of the mortal world. If her children left the bounds of her faith, why should she continue to power them? It was the same as spurning a gift, a pact, a _contract_ , and Lightning had only realized it when a rightful kill felt like less than nothing, as if it had inflicted the very same damage towards her in turn.

 _I'm sorry._ She wanted to say it out loud, but she merely gripped the silver in her fingertips, praying for the first time in so many years, excluding the spoken rituals of the hunt. _I've killed before, haven't I? In another life... But you still took me for one of your own, even when I tried to throw it all away._ Lightning closed her eyes, and she lowered her hand back down towards her neck, still holding the charm in her grasp. _The goddess of death, you don't condone dealing death itself... But can your brother say the same?_ The way he'd spoken to her, or indeed otherwise... The way that his sly thoughts had curled around her mind like wisps of such hazy smoke, fire and floating embers, it was almost as if he _chose_ to speak with her, not mere happenstance.

A pawn, he'd said, the fal'Cie had merely been a pawn, but what pawn could come across the strength to nearly usurp a god himself? Lightning let her charm fall softly against her throat, and she soon tried again to take a bite of what Fang had brought for her. It had been Fang who truly stepped up to end that raging madness, a dragon against the sheer power of a crazed demigod, no matter how broken it might have been. Those years of hiding, the glint of knives in the dark, it almost felt unreal to imagine how it began in the first place. Did the power of the crown truly feed from Bhunivelze's prayers, like what Fang had told her was written there in the fal'Cie's journal, or was it just another scribbling of a mad lesser deity, a mere child left to rot there beneath the earth? Why had Bhunivelze even taken part in creating them? Couldn't he have foretold that his own power would someday be threatened but it? It was no small secret that the 'children of the gods' were of the god's own making, but other than that, not much was known upon them, not even in the city of the gods themselves.

Or perhaps the gods saw it differently. If Etro was supposedly omnipotent, couldn't she have seen that Lightning herself would someday forsake the oath with her? Or did the gods have just as little foresight as mere humans did? But that scarcely made sense to Lightning, for the seers of the world saw so many glimpses of the future, and how could they surpass the ability of their own creators? Even the dragons, though Fang seemed to be an exception, the dragons could see far beyond what their physical eyes allowed, gazing upon the flow of time as one would watch stray twigs bobbing around in a riverbed, enough to watch them float down within the current or wash up against the shore.

They'd gone to the city for answers, Lightning mused, yet it felt as if there were even more questions drifting around in her head than before. It was almost hard to imagine those with the diamond emblems being tricked by the influence of a fal'Cie, for the hate that had once burned in their eyes, at least until it fizzled away, extinguished by the drawing of blood... The hate had seemed to be much more than religious fervor. They looked as if they thought that Lightning herself had committed something utterly heinous, or even Serah, sweet little Serah, one who'd never killed anyone in her life, only the likes of wild monsters, as if she had committed some terrible sin. Was it all to bolster Bhunivelze, to try and slay those who took up Etro as their guardian, a goddess who held just as little true presence as the great lord of the sun and sky? The gods were gone, that was what most people said, and even Fang had seemed reluctant to pay them much heed, at least before they'd reached Luxerion.

 _Does she really want to take up her own pact?_ Lightning thought back to the strange look in Fang's eyes when they'd been baking bread together, the very symbol of home and hearth, of familial unity. _Or is it that she wants her family back, no matter the cost?_ A pact was no matter to take lightly; her parents had once spoken of it as a bond for life, a mark upon her very state of being, a promise that couldn't truly be broken. Only she'd sundered it, giving in towards the rage that swelled up like the roiling gusts of the sea, smothering away the faith that had dwindled down to one last dying flame, at least until a single breath from Etro herself had kindled it all back to life.

Flame, Lightning mused, it was a flame that Fang had given her those days before, back in Luxerion. It was a falcon summoned from the mere depths of memory, a past life brought back into a state of flesh and feathers, talons and keen eyes, a living ghost that had soared right down into her to take root inside her heart. She could feel it, no matter how much she tried to deny such a thing, nor how she'd rejected it within her subconscious state; she could feel the same steady thrum of warmth and solidity, even through the sharp cracks in her soul. Had the little bird taken up a nest in them? She herself had been a little bird once, though not of feathers, just a lone, tiny starling who sought out the blood of a wolf pack. It was only inevitable that she'd been slain by them, blooded and broken, not only to be grieved away by her partner, but later avenged. And then, another life, she'd been a wolf herself, even if she tried not to think very much about such a notion. For what were wolves if not the perfect killers, the very apex of most natural predators? Excluding humans, of course.

Lightning felt her eyes slip shut again, but she did not sleep. Why would the gods create a world in which death was so very prevalent, so _easy_ , yet condemn the act of killing? She remembered the boiling anger she'd once felt when she was just a child, when she'd bloodied her hands and gotten her own nose blooded for the sake of a gentler creature, enough to protect it from the careless child who'd sought to harm it. She remembered it as if it was happening right there before her, how she'd wished, if only for an instant, that the child would simply just drop dead right in front of her, to be washed away into the depths of the sea.

But it was only a child's thoughts, she knew that better than anything. Primal thoughts, simple reasoning, like the very beasts she sought out to kill. Even if it had been born from a righteous place, how utterly terrible would it have been for her to end the life of one who'd never been taught to do any better? She felt her throat tighten at the thought of it, at how she'd once mused of pushing a different child down against the ocean rocks for making cruel fun of Serah's hair, of the rather odd color that they'd both inherited from birth. They were seen as true kin to the islanders, that much was certain, but they were forever marked by their mother's paleness, the blood of the northern lands. It was from the world that saw something called 'winter', somewhere further away than their little rafts and sailboats could ever reach, even if Lightning herself had reached out for that very same gamble and won, if only by some utter stroke of blind, hapless luck, or perhaps sheer determination.

She remembered how her mother spoke of her homeland, of the dangers that lingered there. There was no family left there for her, all lost to the ends of their lives, even if she had worded it in much less blatant terms. They were gone, she'd said, all but Lightning's grandfather, who had used his last few savings of coin to book his daughter a safe passage over the sea, yet they had never seen each other again beyond the swell of ocean waves.

Lightning's eyes drifted open again. Without her mother's memories, there was no possible way to know where she had lived before, or where Lightning's grandfather might have been left behind. He'd likely died long before she or Serah had even been born, Lightning told herself, even if a faint wisp of hope always lingered somewhere in the back of her mind... Had he been a hunter, like her mother? It seemed rather probable if their family had been slain for their faith, as she suspected they were, even if her mother never spoke of how it occurred. Their blood was strong, her father had once told her, the blood of those who'd braved the wilderness of the continents past the southern isles, far to the north, or perhaps even beyond what their sea maps could tell them.

Fang's voice drifted in though the haze of her daydreams. "What's wrong, Light?"

Lightning suddenly realized that she was staring up at the ceiling, though she'd been envisioning something that her mother once showed her, a rudimentary map of the great oceans around their island home. "Nothing."

"You've barely even touched this..." Fang paused, just sitting there, before she reached over to pick up the abandoned pastry. "If you want, I've got some fruit here instead."

Lightning slowly shook her head. "I'm just not very hungry."

Fang gave her a rather unwavering look. "You know, you wouldn't eat anything back while you were out of it." She picked up a small fruit from the breakfast tray, something that looked as soft and as fuzzy as a peach, though it was just as red as a ruby in hue. "I had to pour a little bit of water into your mouth, then I'd touch your throat to get you to swallow it, but you wouldn't eat much of anything." Fang reached for the dagger that she kept on the nightstand, and she slowly began to cut the fruit in half.

"The mountain..." Lightning felt her eyes start to drift shut again, but she kept them open just enough to watch the way Fang sliced the fruit into smaller sections, placing them down against one of the saucers on the tray. "How long was I out back then?"

"On and off, a few hours at times, sometimes longer." Fang had a very distant look to her gaze, though she kept slicing up the fruit with almost pinpoint precision. "You woke up for a while on the first day or so... You remember that? Tried to claw my shoulders up."

Lightning thought back to the feeling of such heat beneath her fingertips, the bright blood of a dragon, even in her human form.

"I thought you might've remembered me, by then... At least enough to know who I was." Fang held up a slice of the fruit to taste it, before she placed the dagger down on the tray. "When we first found each other, Vanille couldn't even get near me at first, so she tried talking to me in dreams, and I started to remember who she was." She picked up the plate, and she leaned back to rest herself against the headboard of the bed, gazing at the stony surface of the ceiling. "I thought that if I tried to dream with you, you might remember me, even from far away... And that you might just show up somewhere in the area, not right on my doorstep."

"On your skull, you mean." Lightning nearly flinched when Fang smirked at her words. "I'd bet you're glad Overture isn't _that_ sharp..."

"Can't crack dragon bones with steel." Fang flexed a few her fingertips, before she reached down to pick up a slice of fruit, holding it out near one of Lightning's hands. "Or maybe _you_ could... If you didn't skip meals, that is."

Lightning fought the urge to roll her eyes, but she soon accepted the fruit from Fang. "I'd rather not break anything of yours." She took a moment just to taste it; the sweetened ripeness was nearly to the point where the fruit would grow soft, but there was a certain firm texture to the slice itself, almost like an apple or a pear. "And I've gone without eating much before."

Fang just muttered something wordless, before she reached over to pick up another slice of fruit. "Just because you can live without something doesn't mean you should." She watched the way that the steady beams of sunlight began to filter in against the walls, slowly drifting back and forth, almost like those distant waves of the sea. "Just try for me, Light... I want you to heal from this." Fang moved to rest her head against one of the pillows, enough to look Lightning in the eye. "Are we okay?"

Lightning slowly moved to lay on her side, gazing right back at Fang. "What do you mean?"

"The two of us." Fang's voice seemed as if it should have been muffled by the pillow, but it was still just as clear as it ever was, though a bit softer than before. "I know it happened fast... _Real_ fast, but it's only because we remembered it." She ran her fingertips against the edge of one of the blankets. "I wanted to make it special, even before anything happened, but then you were kissing me, and it..." Fang smiled, and her eyes almost seemed to drift back towards the memory. "It felt good, didn't it?"

Lightning nodded without speaking.

"And then I took you out on a date first, so it's not like we-" Fang sighed. "I don't put much stock into societal mumbo-jumbo, at least not most of it, but it's not like we were just a fling." She reached up to touch a stray strand of Lightning's hair, one of the locks that fell so softly beside her eyes. "Do most people even call a 'date' in this life? It feels like they all mix up together sometimes."

"I've heard people use the word before." Lightning nodded again. "It's... It's not uncommon for things to happen quickly; do you know how young people get wedded off in places like this?" She gestured at the window, and then all around at the room. "Our island was uncommon, no allegiances, no noble houses, we didn't have to follow that sort of union."

"Union." Fang almost seemed to smile at the word. "Yeah, that's what they call it... Marriage, it used to be." She slowly moved to lay against her back, gazing up at the ceiling once more. "Most dragons don't take partners, not like that, but I once had a few friends who spent nearly all of their time together." Fang closed her eyes for a long while, but she soon reached over for her own slice of the deep red fruit, and she kept the fact that both of those dragons were likely long dead to herself. "I'd like to see the pair of them try and convince a cleric into anointing them for it."

Lightning hid a small smile against the fabric of the pillow. "I think it would depend on the cleric..." She went quiet again when Fang held up a piece of the fruit for her, though she knew refusing it would likely concern her even more, so she reached out to accept it from the palm of her hand. "How long did we sleep?"

"Not sure." Fang looked out at the window, at the seaside view that stretched on beyond the buildings of clay and tall stone, of colorful tapestries and clothes left out to dry in the sun. "Looks like a bit past morning... Finish breakfast, and then we can get going again, or we could always take another look at the market."

Lightning tried not to sigh; no matter how well meaning Fang might have been, it didn't stop her throat from feeling just as dry and as cracked as the winding city streets, nor did it make the sensation on her tongue any less dull and tasteless. She could still taste the fruit, of course, but it was as if everything around her was held so deep beneath a thick haze of murky fog, no matter how clear the sky looked beyond the windowpanes.

"I'm kind of glad to have you all to myself again..." Fang smirked at nothing in particular, for she was still gazing up into the morning light. "Don't get me wrong, those Etro folks were all well and good, but I was getting some pretty weird looks by the end of it."

"Can we really blame them?" Lightning reached for another slice of fruit. "Most people think dragons are extinct."

"I don't blame them, no..." Fang sighed without much sound. "They're just doing what they're supposed to, being suspicious of weird critters like me." She lifted one of her hands to summon a single spark between her fingertips, watching as it flickered and danced against the heat of her skin. "That fal'Cie... He wanted a dragon soul, even though he already had the crown." Fang shook her head. "Yeul also said we're immune from fate, so he must've assumed that I was just weak enough to kill right then and there, and I nearly was." She slowly snuffed out the spark, before she lifted both of her hands to rest them beneath the back of her head, against the pillow. "When I held the crown in my claws, even my hands, it felt like there was something growing and dying there all at once... Something _inside_ it."

Lightning paused on a small bite of fruit. "Something alive?"

Fang rolled her shoulders to shrug. "Something weird, that's for sure... A piece of the gods made physical? Something like the fal'Cie, a child of the divine?" She spoke the last word as if it tasted quite sour on her tongue. "They used to call _us_ that, 'dread children of the gods'... But then the empires fell." Fang closed her eyes again, yet the look on her face seemed almost satisfied. "Everything ends, no matter how strong, and the world's often a lot better off for it."

Lightning thought back to all that she had read upon the world before the greatest known loss of life, the rapid decline of a blistering population, but it had all happened long before she'd ever even drawn her own first breath on a tiny chain of islands. "How do you mean?"

"Well, it's not like I had much of anything against them." Fang moved one of her hands to gesture at her throat. "You ever wonder why I talk funny? Part of it happened _way_ back when I started to remember how I used to talk, but the folks from old Gran Pulse had an accent just like mine, back when they were still around." She thought back to several weeks ago, to the way that Aubergine himself had spoken with a sort of twang, a more subtle tone of something artful, like a vocal melody; could it be that he had spent time in Gran Pulse as well? Fang shook the thought away, instead opting to answer Lightning's question. "Those empires, they were pretty interesting a while, but the bigger a tree grows, the heavier it gets, and the more it starts to die." She lifted one of her hands to trace an invisible branch into the air. " And if it gets rot growing inside... The whole thing has to come toppling down sooner or later."

"Rot." Lightning felt the last faint shreds of her appetite shrivel away. "Corruption, you mean."

Fang nodded. "That little worm festering in the heart of an apple..." She almost glanced back to the north, towards Luxerion. "We might've plucked out the source, Light, but I don't know how much our friends over there can heal it."

"I'm not sure if it _was_ the source." Lightning slowly curled her fingertips against her palms, as if to try and stifle that same sensation of burning, the sharp crack of fire that echoed inside her ears, the phoenix lingering inside her soul. "Tell me who made the fal'Cie, Fang."

Fang's jaw visibly tightened, and her eyes went very hard, yet not out of aggression. "That's..."

"He _hates_ her." Lightning remembered those keen eyes, the brilliant fire that snapped and roared, the coiling visage that fluttered and puffed himself up with such endless pride, a creature of heat and unyielding life. "He hates Etro... Enough to want people like me dead, you think?" Without truly realizing it, she reached up to touch at her pendant, feeling the subtle chill of the side that hadn't been touching her neck, and then the slight warmth of the side that had. "But he was speaking as if he _wanted_ me alive... But could it just be because he hates death? Why let a fal'Cie like that get as far as he did and not see what was going to happen to his own temple of worship?"

Fang shook her head. "I don't know, Light... You know I don't have much insight into the gods these days."

"It just doesn't make sense... The stories say that prayers bolster the gods, don't they?" Lightning let her voice drop to a murmur. "But if Bhunivelze's temple was destroyed-"

Something changed in Fang's eyes, something that she didn't choose to speak aloud, but as soon as it appeared, it began to wane away, almost as if a sudden tide had rushed right in yet whispered back out almost immediately. "We'll deal with it if it gets to us, okay?" She turned over to rest on her side again, and she reached out to slowly stroke her thumb against Lightning's cheek. "You've got me, Light; I've been outrunning a whole ton of stuff for ages now... So no matter what's out there, you and me, we'll stick together and kick its ass, just like we did before."

Lightning didn't speak for a very long time. "I hope you're right."

"Course I'm right..." Fang's teeth began to glint with that slight draconic grin, though there was a great warmth to her gaze, something far softer than her bite force. "What good would I be tagging along with you if I couldn't shake off bad company?" She caressed Lightning's cheek again. "You'd have to find someone better than me if I couldn't take care of you."

Lightning felt her throat tighten in protest, though she still didn't speak, for Fang hadn't said it in a patronizing tone; she truly cared, didn't she? Lightning knew whenever she was being mocked, when someone was speaking to her with condescension, but Fang seemed so painfully genuine that Lightning felt rather sorry for the way her cheekbone seemed to clench along with her jaw, as if she didn't appreciate the touch on her face. But when Fang started to pull away, Lightning brought her own hand up to keep it right there against her cheek.

"I... I was in love, in a past life." Fang looked at where her hand was resting, at the way Lightning curled her fingertips around her own, anchoring them there as if she might never let them go. "It's been less than a month, maybe a little more, I haven't kept track... But I looked for you, Light, because I wanted to be in love again." She reached out with her other hand to gently touch Lightning's forehead. "I know it's still early... We're not meant to commit so soon, but I'd like to try whenever you're ready."

Lightning's gaze flicked towards the bed sheets, before she glanced back up at those eyes, so rich with gentle green. "Why did you love my past lives?"

Fang's smile returned, but it was far softer than that of a dragon. "Because you saved my life more times than I can count... Because you always looked after Vanille." Her voice wavered ever so slightly at that, and she moved her free hand down to trace over the emblem on Lightning's pendant. "Because you always kept your promises, no matter how much they hurt, and because no matter what..." Fang touched the side of Lightning's chest that stood above her heart, which began to thrum just a bit faster than before. "No matter how badly you might think of yourself, you've just got too much _love_ in you to ever do wrong by us when it counts."

Lightning tried not to squeeze her eyes shut. "I tried to _kill_ you."

"Only because you love the world you live in." Fang traced her fingers over that rapid heart, feeling the way that it shook like a bird in her palm, her little bird, one who once lived with feathers so soft and white. "Dragons threaten the world around them... The gods made us fierce, and our own flaws saw us there to extinction."

Lightning reached away from Fang's hand to hold her other wrist, and she could feel the sheer warmth of that deep dragon fire, no matter if those flames would never hurt her. "You're not extinct."

"Not yet." Fang smiled again, somewhere between a sad little smirk and quiet adoration. "But someday... Everything dies."

* * *

It was almost difficult to tell when the awakening started, for as soon as Fang suggested they get up and make use of the bath, Lightning stirred from her nap, slowly reaching out to hold both of her hands, though she still seemed to be in quite a doze.

"It's almost noon." Fang spoke with just a soft rumble of sound, yet she quieted even further when Lightning kissed the curve of her neck, lingering there with just a hint of teeth. "Thought you wanted to get going..?"

Lightning wanted nothing more than make her become even quieter, to take Fang's mouth against her own and show her that it had been real, that there was truly something there between them that had never gone away. But a slight squeeze at her hands shushed the very thoughts from her head, and she realized that Fang had already found them there, reading her mind like an open page.

"We're only human, Light." Fang was resting her head against the pillow, with her hair fanned out against the pale white fabric. "We... It's only natural to have doubts like that, I know how hard it is."

"I don't want to doubt you." Lightning began to grit her teeth together, even when Fang slowly smoothed her fingertips against the curve of her cheek. "I don't make friends easily... And anything more than that is uncharted territory." She squeezed her eyes shut so that Fang couldn't see how they wavered, fighting back against the feeling of such damnable weakness, of inexperience and fear. "I don't know what it's like to love someone that way... I've felt it when I'm dreaming, and I like it whenever we touch each other, but-" Lightning went very silent, steeling herself again, but she tried not to let herself sound rough or frigid. "Sometimes I just feel broken."

Fang slowly leaned forward to press their foreheads together. "It's alright to feel like that."

"You've been doing so much." Lightning almost shivered at the sudden scent that lingered near Fang's throat, something she hadn't had since Luxerion. "You're wearing it again."

Fang kept quiet for a moment, until Lightning opened her eyes again. "Wearing..? Oh." She smiled softly, before she let go of one of Lightning's hands to reach for her neck, tracing over her own pulse. "You like it, right?"

Lightning closed her eyes once more, and she squeezed the hand that was still holding her own. "I want to do something for you, too."

Fang reached in to wrap her other arm around Lightning's waist, drawing her close. "What sort of something?"

"That's the problem." Lightning fought the urge to bite her tongue in frustration, and she stopped squeezing at Fang's hand. "I've only ever done nice things for family members... Or when I was a kid, giving things to friends was different." She hooked her chin against Fang's shoulder, praying that she couldn't feel the slight flush of heat on her cheeks, likely more out of pent up emotion than embarrassment. "I've never been with anyone; what am I supposed to do? Nobody's ever told me these things."

Fang tried to hold back a smile, and she slowly curled her arm around to hug Lightning's upper back, stroking her palm against each rigid shoulder blade. "You don't have to learn this sort of thing, love... Just do whatever feels right to you."

"That's just-" Lightning stiffened even further, but a gentle squeeze on one of her shoulders made her go slightly limp, surrendering towards the bond of trust that told her that Fang wouldn't laugh at her, even for slight ignorance. "You're only saying that to make me feel better."

"No." Fang moved to lean back a bit, gazing at the way Lightning had her eyes shut so tightly. "I tried using perfume because you seem to like that incense of yours so much... And I bought us some chocolates back then because you had a memory about sweets." She waited for Lightning to open her eyes again, and when their gazes met, she smiled softly. "It's all just instinct, Light... I didn't learn it from anyone, I just followed whatever you seemed to like."

Lightning slowly relaxed a bit further, but that look in her eyes held no less determination and curiosity. "What do you like?"

Fang smiled again. "That's a tough one... There's a lot of things I like." She leaned forward to brush their noses together, even when Lightning squirmed and tried to hide that tiny smirk. "I like you, I like going different places... I like flying." Fang kissed the height of Lightning's nearest cheekbone. "I like seeing new things, I like chocolate too, and I _really_ like salt, I don't like horses very much, even if my some of past lives were pretty fond of them."

Lightning scrunched her nose in slight amusement. "What's wrong with horses?"

Fang's gaze grew rather sly. "Asks the madwoman who went racing off into the city on the back of a horse with me hanging on for dear life..."

Lightning just narrowed her eyes, fighting back that same little smirk from her lips. "Says the madwoman who likes to drop down from mountainsides and leave _me_ hanging on for dear life."

Fang smiled without shame. "And why are you so worried about doing something for me? We have plenty of fun already."

Lightning suddenly paused, and the mirth slowly faded from her expression. "I'm not the most... Playful person." She almost closed her eyes when Fang stroked both of her cheeks, just beneath her eyelashes. "It's not that I don't like to have fun."

Fang nodded. "You've just got a serious side." She tapped her index finger against the pointier locks of Lightning's hair, the strands that fell beside her eyes. "But I like that about you."

Lightning tried not to let a slight bit of surprise tinge her next few words. "You're... Not even kidding, are you?"

"Why would I kid about that?" Fang wrapped her arms back around Lightning's torso, hugging her so close again. "Am I still just the mean old dragon who stole you away for no reason?" She smiled and almost purred at the way Lightning squirmed so halfheartedly, though she soon seemed to want to cuddle that much closer as well. "Or would you believe me if I told you I love what you are, Light? That there's nothing much about you I'd rather change?"

Lightning went very still again, though she soon wrapped her arms around Fang as well, hugging her tight. "You're not old."

Fang fought the urge to roll her eyes. "I'm bordering on more than several millennia, sweetheart."

Lightning tightened her grip even further. "You're not old... I had a dream where I'd lived just as long, but I wasn't really old." She tried not to hum in contentment when Fang stoked up and down her spine, soothing the last few remnants of tension away. "Old is... It's a different state of being."

"Glad you think so." Fang watched as the morning light grew higher and higher above the city horizon. "Otherwise this whole thing might feel more than a little weird."

Lightning just rolled her eyes. "You're a dragon, dragons are supposed to be old."

Fang gently trailed her fingertips against the back of Lightning's neck. "I thought I wasn't really _'old'_?"

Lightning bit her bottom lip in concentration, fighting to keep herself from revealing that such a spot was rather ticklish.

"Maybe you're just mature for your age, eh?" Fang's voice swelled with mirth, and she slowly nuzzled her face against Lightning's neck, speaking in tones muffled by such soft pink locks of hair. "But that's just fine with me... We might make an odd pair, but it's a whole hell of a lot more interesting than a normal one."

* * *

They were flying once more before the moon fully rose, but there had been many awed whispers when they first saw it back in the marketplace, far beneath the midday sun. An eclipse was said to approach, more than mere rumors at that point, for the clerics of the city had since assembled themselves among the common folk, spreading out ceremonial herbs and igniting colorful bowls of fragrant incense, enough to fill the streets and the swirling sands that stood beyond with a rather strong aroma.

Lightning watched those last few dunes of the desert disappear along the northern horizon, and she slowly turned to look forward again, gazing up at the distant moon. The wind was gusting too much for her to speak out loud, so she reached down with the arm that wasn't wielding her Moonlight claws, and she pressed her bare hand against Fang's scales to initiate telepathy. _We're way over the Pale Sea by now._

 _Yeah, probably, but Nova Chrysalia is way bigger than almost anything else around here._ Fang lifted her head against the tropical breeze of the ocean. _We'll find somewhere to stop before nightfall._

Lightning blinked against the heavy winds. _Another island?_

Fang flicked her tail back and forth, and she began to beat her wings even faster than before, carrying herself up above even the faintest spray of the sea. _We're going to fly over where a lot of the best ships won't even sail... Believe me, if I could've convinced any sailor worth his salt to help me get the vestige open again, we'd already be living it up somewhere with Vanille right now._

Lightning almost smiled at the thought of it. _I suppose I'll actually get to fight a fal'Cie this time._

Fang went very quiet at that, both inside her mind and otherwise. While beforehand she'd been rather public with the occasional thought of catching fish from the sea, or basking for a brief while beneath the piping hot sun of a beachfront, her line of thoughts had suddenly grown rather blank.

Lightning slowly stroked her palm against Fang's neck. _What's wrong?_

It was a very long time before Fang replied. _Nothing, just thinking._ She lifted her head to peer at where Lightning was perched between her shoulders, sitting right there beside her satchel. _I mean, Vanille and I took on a regular fal'Cie, and then I killed a weird fal'Cie with a god-artifact in his own hands... It'd probably be easy at this point just to light the place up from inside, no need for the trouble of two of us._

Lightning slowly narrowed her eyes, and she didn't miss the way that those narrow pupils shrank slightly in the face of her ire. _You said we were going to save Vanille together... Now you just want me to play door-opener?_

 _It's not like that..._ Fang let loose a gentle sigh, and she turned back to focus upon the sky ahead of her, even if there were no obstacles to speak of, nothing but the brisk ocean winds. _Why risk getting branded if you could just let me torch the thing?_

Lightning narrowed her eyes even further. _How do you know it'll die so easily? Was it the same as the other one you killed?_

Fang kept quiet for a long time again. I _don't know, but I don't want to lose you to something like that._

Lightning tried not to frown or to pinch at Fang's scales in reprimand, though it would likely just make her own fingertips ache. _You think I'm not strong enough? That I won't be careful enough not to let it brand me?_

 _Light, it's not..._ Fang flapped at the air just a bit more swiftly than before. _I don't think that, I really don't, but I also don't much like the thought of leading you down into something that I can't lead you back out from again_. She glanced back at Lightning with an almost pleading look, a slight shimmer to those big green eyes, nearly as rounded as dinner plates.

 _Don't you_ _ **dare**_ _give me puppy dog eyes._ Lightning kept a sharp chill to her own gaze. _We're in this together, you said... You can't leave me behind, not if you really feel like that_. She tightened her fingertips against the scales of Fang's neck, channeling the various memories between them, those soft touches of skin, the words of utter trust, the way they stood back to back beneath a sheer barrage of raging Cie'th. _I'm your match, you said... And you think I can't match you step for step against a fal'Cie?_

Fang slowly looked away again. _You're not listening to me._

Lightning began to grit her teeth together. It had always been the same story, both for monster bounties and hunting expeditions. They all saw her as somewhat diminutive, still graceful and slim, yet not fit to slash with a sword, at least not until she dragged back the head or hide of whatever quarry was in question. A reputation was _earned_ , taken with pelts and teeth and claws, claimed by her own inner strength, proving that nothing could keep her down or bar her from forging her own way in the world.

 _You showed me that you were in a whole lot of pain._ Fang's wings stilled against the air for a moment, just to glide along the blustering ocean winds. _If you're still feeling like that when we get there... Promise me you'll rest outside?_

Lightning felt her heartbeat quicken almost achingly, enough that she wanted to snap at Fang, no matter how sweet she had been only hours before. She wanted to outright demand how Fang could fight beside her in the city at one moment, and then suddenly want her aside by the next; who cared if there was danger? She'd known the risks ever since she'd agreed to help slay the fal'Cie, yet Fang suddenly just wanted her along as a solution to a simple problem? She could _handle_ the pain, she'd handled it for years, stifling it all down into something utterly bitter and concentrated, something that could lash out kill, and now Fang didn't even want her to let it loose upon their enemy?

Fang tried not to sigh again; she could feel those boiling waves of anger from Lightning's grip, even if she was hiding her thoughts away behind a rather prickly mental barrier. Such a stubborn young woman, not fit to take any small slight on her honor as a slayer of monstrosities, perhaps enough to insist on joining her there in the hollow depths of the vestige, no matter what might happen there. Did she truly not value her life? No, Fang thought, even when Lightning once had every reason to believe that she would die back on that mountainside, she'd still fought and struggled so wildly against it, stabbing at the wing that had pinned her down, just as fearsome as a trapped and desperate beast. Fang still remembered the pain of those deep wounds, even if they'd healed quickly enough, though none of her bones had been broken from that swift little sword at Lightning's belt.

They flew on in silence, through the sun slowly began to reach the height of the sky, while the moon rose even higher, almost hidden by the brilliant light. It drew quite near to the sun, so very close, yet not enough to meet it.

Fang only deemed to make her thoughts known again when the hours had passed later afternoon, into the early evening, once a speck of land shimmered in from the distance, still so very far away. _Light, you see that?_ She almost stilled at the sight of it; how long had an island been there? It wasn't unheard of for volcanic residue to bubble up from the ocean and form new islands over the centuries, but Fang was quite sure that she was still directly on course, and she had never seen such a landmass within the path they flew upon.

Perhaps her anger had somewhat cooled, for Lightning's response held little trace of the way her thoughts had felt before, like swift pinpricks of burning steel. _I see it._ No, it had grown more neutral, just an inner voice between somewhat amicable companions, though Fang could feel a slight bit of exhaustion and irritation in Lightning's presence, something rather cold. _Are we going to stop there for the night?_

 _We've got a few hours before nighttime._ Fang turned to peer at the sun, which would have looked as if it was setting if they had been much lower to the ground, though she could count more than a few wing-lengths of space between it and the horizon. _This one must be new... I've flown this way a thousand times and there's never been an island here._ She dipped her wings down to slowly descend, and she craned her neck aside to try and see through the glare of the sun.

 _There's never been islands here?_ Lightning squinted at the horizon. _What are those, then?_

Fang flared her wings to hover for just a moment in time, and her eyes widened at the sudden sight of so many distant land forms, like little droplets of dark jade against the pale green sea. _What the hell..?_

Lightning closed her eyes when Fang began to dive down again, flying closer and closer to the ocean spray, approaching the nearest of the scattered islands.

 _Maybe we're a little off course..._ Fang exhaled against the warm winds, before she rapidly flapped her wings to carry them towards the lush green shores, beside the sand that held such a pale tan color, almost white. _At least we can do a little exploring, eh?_

Lightning still hid her thoughts away, and it was only when Fang flew close enough to the island to make out the individual trees that she cared to respond. _We're already behind schedule._

 _Wasn't aware there was a schedule._ Fang tried her best to smile, but the wind felt much less warm than before. _But yeah, we'll rest up, then keep moving again._

Lightning kept silent while Fang flared her wings again, slowing their descent. When she finally touched down against the sand, it was a moment or two before Fang skidded to a full halt, and even then, the smooth surface of the beach did little to give her talons much purchase.

"I'm going to have a look around." Lightning soon stepped down towards the sand, yet she paused when a single wing claw touched the curve of her shoulder. "You've been flying all day, you should rest."

Fang looked at her with no small bit of fire, but it wasn't a hostile look, just enough to try and sway her otherwise. "Light, don't get all ornery on me..."

Lightning had to fight not to let that same feeling surge back up again, and she merely glanced at the claw that held her shoulder, one that was gentle enough just to keep her there.

"Look, we can compromise, can't we?" Fang settled herself down against the sand, and she leaned forward to see Lightning face to face. "I remember this... This other part of the vestige, where the more mechanical stuff was; it didn't look like the fal'Cie could reach out for much of anything in there."

Lightning slowly narrowed her eyes. "How can you possibly know it couldn't?"

Fang lowered her claw back down towards the sand. "Because it was the mechanical side, like I said... The part that branded Vanille, that was down in what looked like the main chamber, and that's also the part that thrashed around and made a bunch of noise." She moved to nudge Lightning's shoulder with her snout. "If you're still in pain by then, maybe you could try to take that part out while I go after the front of it? Like background work... Still just as important, but you'd be going at it more stealthily."

Lightning knew quite well when someone was trying to placate her, but she couldn't deny that the pursuit of stealth was any less involved than fighting at the very forefront of a battle. Was it truly caution that drove Fang to suggest such a ploy, or did she really think that Lightning would have any use but to be distracted by what she was suggesting?

"Don't give me that look." Fang mumbled her words against the strong winds of the beach. "I'm allowed to worry about you when you've been in this much pain... And a fal'Cie, that's something you shouldn't be ashamed of being cautious about; caution means you live long enough to fight the next battle." She almost purred when Lightning reached up to scratch beneath her chin. "Light, I meant what I said... I can't lose you."

Lightning looked into those weary eyes, even with such deep inner fire. Had that bright spirit faded since her last battle with the fal'Cie? Had Fang truly grown to fear the thought of seeing Lightning in such a perilous position? It was so hard to know when her thoughts seemed as quick and elusive as a darting fish, just enough to brush against her fingertips and let itself be known, but not enough to fully grasp.

"Look, if I can't get you to-" Fang tried to stifle the soft rumble when Lightning scratched that one sensitive spot near the base of her left silvery horn. "Light, I know what you're doing..."

"Fighting fire with fire." Lightning stared Fang right in the eye. "I am not _fragile_."

Fang paused then, growing very still, and even her heartbeat seemed to slow for just an instant. "I know you aren't."

"If you..." Lightning felt a sudden twinge of guilt from the way Fang looked at her, suddenly so very sullen and full of need. "If you really love what I am, Fang, then you'll let me _be_ what I am... I can't be standing there on the sidelines."

Fang slowly exhaled a breath of heat, just a whisper of fire that danced against Lightning's arms, warming her skin to the point of a slight glow. "Then you'll stay right beside me? You'll move up next to me if anything happens, so I can protect you from it?"

Lightning paused, inwardly reeling, for how had it _possibly_ been so easy to convince her? But she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, even if that horse was much less a horse and a lot more toothy, and Fang wouldn't have said it in such a way if she didn't really mean it, she was far too sincere for that. And Lightning, for all her flashing of proverbial teeth, she knew that Fang's plan of having her in the background, working in subterfuge, that it was a far more clever idea, one that would likely turn out much more effective than a tandem assault on the fal'Cie.

"Light?" Fang lifted one of her wings to curl it beside where Lightning was standing. "Come on now, don't give me the silent treatment..."

"Then we have a deal." Lightning curled her fingertips into a fist, and she gently tapped her knuckles against Fang's snout. "I'll fight whatever this 'mechanical' part is, and you'll fight the rest of it."

"That's not exactly-" Fang exhaled again when Lightning suddenly started off down the sand, approaching the lush green woodlands that waited beyond. "Light, I don't think that side can even fight; I'm talking about a _computer_ , not a moving machine."

Lightning just glanced back over her shoulder, still walking on up the beach. "What's a computer?"

Fang tried not to sigh in exasperation, yet she moved to follow after Lightning, even when the terrain grew much more rocky and rough. "A computer is... It's not something you can really find in this world, not unless you go up against a fal'Cie." She soon changed back into her human self with a quick gust of light and fire, hurrying to keep up with Lightning from across the dips and mighty boulders that stood near the edge of the lush jungle. "It's like a mechanical brain, I guess; it handles the thinking processes of a machine."

Lightning pondered over such an explanation for a very long moment. "Is Bhakti a computer?"

Fang suddenly smiled. "Clever one, aren't you?" She slowly shook her head. "He's a little like a computer, but not quite." Fang looked down at the saplings that were starting to take root among the older trees; how strange it was to see a place that looked as if it had always been there, yet she swore there had never been an island in that one spot of the sea. "Bhakti's more of a... He's like a magical construct that Vanille made, and his mind is a little bit like a computer, but it's a lot more human than that."

"I see." In truth, Lightning had always found such things to feel even more daunting than the concept of past lives; she had seen the huge glowing lights and strange carriages that moved without horses, not to mention the thing that Fang liked to use in that one, the metal device with moving pictures and sounds that seemingly came from nowhere... And that wasn't to mention the strange creatures from one of her first dreams, those hunks of metal and wiring that moved all on their own, even Bhakti's past self was like that. She almost felt relieved that Vanille had made him into something more organic in her current life, rather like the gentle horseshoe crabs she had often encountered in her own childhood. "So you want me to fight this computer?"

"Not exactly." Fang tried not to sound too exasperated. "Maybe just... Try to break it? Or sabotage whatever you can reach of it." She followed Lightning into the first reaches of the jungle, and she almost sighed in relief when Lightning sat down to rest inside a rather lush little clearing. "I wouldn't ask you to do this if you weren't hurting so much."

Lightning leaned back against the trunk of a tall tree, and she peered up at the thin rays of sunlight, beams that were filtering in through the dense leaves. "When I was young... I was once very sick."

Fang moved to sit down beside her, and she finally did sigh in contentment when Lightning leaned over to rest her head against her shoulder.

"It was a fever." Lightning exhaled so softly when Fang wrapped an arm around her waist. "I couldn't do anything... I couldn't go outside, I couldn't run around, I couldn't even see Serah." She closed her eyes, even when Fang brushed a gentle fingertip against the curve of her chin. "I felt weak." Lightning's voice grew tight and somewhat sharp, but she tried her best to keep it subdued. "I felt... Helpless, so I told myself it would never happen again."

"It's not weak to rest from an injury, Light." Fang met Lightning's gaze, and she could almost feel the regret and latent anger there, the need to be capable at all times, no matter her own limitations. "It's not helpless to work from the sidelines for a while."

"You gave me a charm." Lightning lifted the arm with her charm brace, where those steely claws remained sheathed beside her wrist. "You gave me blood in exchange for killing a fal'Cie."

"In exchange for being here with me." Fang moved to trace over Lightning's chin again, against the creased muscles that tensed at her touch, but they slowly relaxed when she leaned in to kiss her cheek. "In exchange for a fal'Cie getting what's coming to it... And we'll do that, Light, we'll get Vanille back together, _that's_ why I needed to find you." She felt a smile twitch over her lips when Lightning's eyes softened in understanding. "It's not about the fighting... It's about who we're trying to save."

* * *

Night fell over the whispering jungle, and Fang closed her eyes against the darkness. She was laying there against one of the blankets, but there was a mysterious lack of warmth at her side.

Fang tried not to sigh. Had it truly been wise not to object when Lightning said she'd be back before long? She'd thought it might be good to stay behind for a while, to let Lightning work off the tension on her own time, just to run free for a while, stretching out her legs from the long day of travel, but the hours had slipped by without any further sign of her.

A certain pang twinged deep in Fang's heart, something she wished would just drift away and leave her alone. It had never felt like she was pressing against an immovable force before, like Lightning was actively working against her, even when she'd relented to those words... There was just something between them, something inside of Lightning that always snapped at the thought of her inner weaknesses, a reflexive coil that lunged out swiftly and silently, a hidden serpent flashing from the dark.

"Light..." Fang reached up to rub at the growing headache in her forehead. "Come back home, love, you don't have to do this..." She exhaled, trying to ignore the dull throb in her skull. "Didn't mean to ruffle any feathers."

The jungle was almost unusually silent, save for a few insects and migratory tropical birds. The soil itself also seemed rather strange, specked with deposits of salt from the sea, but it was also home to tall rocks that jutted up like pillars, and the moss that covered them looked as if it was blooming with a hundred hues. It was almost as if the Pale Sea itself, and whatever stood within it, it was as if everything held a near rainbow of colors, but it was all quite muted in the darkness of the night.

Fang slowly rolled over against the blankets, gazing up at the starlit sky. Lightning couldn't possibly be gone for much longer, even with how bright the stars were shining. On a cloudless night, the terrain was far easier to navigate, but human eyes weren't so well-suited to the darkness, not without a source of light. Fang sighed at the thought of it; 'for good luck', Lightning had jested, before she'd held out one of the tiny candles she'd bought back in Luxerion, to which Fang could only offer a bright spark of flame and softly kiss her goodbye. Lightning had almost lingered at that, perhaps tempted to stay there and find solace beneath the blankets, but that stubborn streak of hers was running high, and she soon disappeared into the jungle with only a whisper of affection against Fang's cheek.

Yet as she stared up into the tropical sky, Fang knew that such a desire might have stemmed from a different source; Lightning had been born in such a place, and it sounded as if she hadn't been so close to the equator since she was a young teen. Perhaps she simply wanted to explore the familiar terrain, to relive the childhood that had since been lost beneath the fire and the ocean waves... Fang slowly rolled back over to rest against her side. She wanted to rip right through the bounds of time and gather up that child into her arms, the child who Lightning had once been, hugging her close and promising her that she'd keep her safe from harm, but such things would never come to pass.

There was a scar inside her, something that made Lightning act out in the way that came most naturally. That echo of a child, the one Fang had seen on the sand of that first city, beneath the towering walls, the last flicker of a girl named Claire, she'd grown wild in the wake of security and a stable place to stand on. It was truly an animal, a twisted, primal thing that had lost far too much of what she held close to ever recover from. It was the creature who would lash out and snap down relentlessly upon whatever dared to threaten her sense of identity, a bite that was utterly stubborn and unyielding. Fang knew that such a thing was still quite possibly alive inside of Lightning, a silent remnant of what she'd since abandoned in lieu of maturity... The girl who'd once killed a dragon, the sword that had plunged itself down into the mind of such sheer cruelty, a blade that struck scales, slashing into deeper flesh and until it had bathed itself in blood.

Fang closed her eyes, and she prayed that whatever Lightning was doing out there in the wilds, that it brought back a sense of peace into her heart.

* * *

She dreamt of a night within the bustle of glasses and chairs, and when she opened her eyes, she found herself peering back at a full table of people.

"I'm not sure if they're going to be done before the new year." There was Serah, instantly recognizable. "To be honest... I really miss my office."

The man who sat next to her, even if Fang had never met him in her current life, Snow was also unmistakable. "You'll get it back, right? They wouldn't move you anywhere else over renovations... Would they?"

Serah glanced over at someone else, and she smiled softly at the way Lightning seemed to be enjoying the meal before her. "I'm not sure... Light might just have to growl at them for me; she's always good at getting those things sorted out."

Lightning just smirked to herself, far too busy with a very tasty plate of food to reply. Fang soon looked down at her own plate, and she almost chuckled at the sight of a rather rare flank steak with a side of roasted vegetables; it seemed that her tastes hardly changed throughout her many lives. More often than not, a good steak was something that actually brought her and Lightning together over common ground, and the fact that she also shared Fang's opinion over the fact that even a slightly over-cooked steak was akin to incinerating fine art...

"So what have you been up to, Fang?" Serah smiled at her from across the table. "Last time you said you'd been working on that new composition..."

Fang blinked herself back to attention, letting her past life take control. "Oh, yeah." She slowly picked up her fork to taste a bit of the steak. "Might have a few concert gigs lined up near the holidays, but I always schedule time off spend with Vanille." Fang reached over to gently tap at Vanille's shoulder, even when it earned her a slight tap right back on the wrist. "Holidays are meant for family, you know? Sometimes we even head up to Eden here to see the sights; if there's one thing you guys know how to do, it's decorate."

Serah laughed quietly. "Well, we still put up the tree every year, even if we usually spend the holidays at university parties, or whatever the museum arranges." She glanced back at Lightning. "But I always have to drag Light away from her laptop... She brings it along every time."

Lightning quirked an eyebrow at that. "What else would you want me to do? Throw glitter around the room?" She tried to hide a smile beneath a brief sip of ice water. "It's not like I'd ever be caught dead playing trashy Yuletide music, much less dancing to it."

Hope almost smiled from his seat across from Fang. "It's not all trashy, Light."

Lightning just shrugged, returning to the meal before her. And as the rest of them went back to idle conversation and slight banter, Fang suddenly felt rather grateful that the topic of her own music had been seemingly forgotten. She wasn't the most private individual when it came to her compositions, but she hardly ever played them for anyone until she was up there on stage, when the world finally felt ready to hear what she had to play. Maybe Lightning was the same? The only song she'd ever shared was one that spanned between them, the beacon that led Fang towards befriending her in the first place.

Something ached inside her heart again, something she'd tried to stifle ever since Lightning had invited her to the restaurant itself. It was that same shivery feeling, though it wasn't quite as restless as any tremble she had ever known. Fang tried to suppress it with a silent sigh, but it just kept building itself up whenever a slight lull in the conversation drew close, or whenever Lightning could be coaxed into ignoring her dinner in favor of actually socializing, something that wasn't quite as difficult as it first appeared, at least not when it concerned someone she liked.

There was the matter of Snow, however, who seemed to Lightning as somewhat of a sore point, for she only spoke to him if it was truly necessary, or if Serah was active in the conversation. It wasn't so unusual to Fang, for those two usually clashed up until Serah managed to soothe Lightning's protective streak, but even then, it took quite a while for her to become anything but strictly formal with Snow.

But what stood out to Fang occurred long after their plates were clear, and also once Lightning was finished speaking with Sazh. A young boy stood nearby, Sazh's son, who busied himself with helping one of the waiters clear off a table. Perhaps Lightning's inquiry was on the matter of the music, for Sazh soon offered her an envelope, which she seemed to politely decline, before she moved to hug him for just a moment, something that he accepted immediately. His was a fatherly gesture, and it made Fang's heart twinge yet again. He'd likely taken up such a role when Lightning and Serah became alone, watching over the sisters and making sure that whatever manner of tips were given out for the nightly music ended up solely in Lightning's pocket, if only to help them without it seeming like charity.

Yet it was only a while later, when their motley little group began to disperse with rather fond goodbyes and promises to return there again, only then did Fang find a true moment alone with Lightning.

"I've been thinking about what you said last time." Fang was sitting on a bench outside the restaurant, staring out at the river while she waited for a city bus to arrive. "About what beautiful is."

Lightning slowly turned her head when she heard Vanille laugh at something Serah said, but they were all mostly out of earshot, near to where Snow's truck and Serah's car were both parked. "And what have you thought of?"

Fang stared up at the crescent moon, and at the way the lights of the city almost seemed to make the sky seem even more bright and luminous. "All the music tonight, it felt beautiful." She slowly scraped her feet against the frosty sidewalk, drawing patterns in the thin flakes of snow. "And having dinner with everyone..." Fang bit back a smile, and she leaned back against the cold metal bench. "That felt really beautiful."

Lightning's hair drifted slightly in the wind, but she kept herself very still, enough that Fang wasn't sure if she would truly react to such a thing.

"And I was just wondering, you know... When the holidays come around, maybe we could all meet up again." Fang looked at the dark red jacket that Lightning wore, likely something that Serah had given her, for the embroidery on the hood looked far too detailed to have been bought from a store, even in Eden. "When you've got the free time, of course."

Lightning didn't speak for a very long moment, and when she did, it was after she stood up with her cane in hand. "Walk with me."

Fang felt a certain sense of silence falling over her, like a sheet of weightless fabric, but she slowly rose up to her feet to follow after Lightning, moving down across the winding sidewalk.

"I've been thinking, too." Lightning's cane tapped against the cobbled walkway, feeling for any hints of ice patches or drifts of scattered snow. "I like the work I do, Fang, but everything else has been feeling... Pale, compared to what we can do."

Fang felt that same twinging flutter in her heart, but she stifled it with a rather deep breath of the frosty air.

"Do you know why I first wanted to work with music?" Lightning paused near the far end of the sidewalk, just a short distance away from the nearby streets. "There was something inside me that I just couldn't get out any other way." She adjusted her grip on her cane, before she turned to face Fang directly. "There was something there, Fang... I tried putting it into words, but you know how bad I am with those."

"You're not so bad with them..." Fang smiled to herself. "I have a lot of fun whenever we talk."

"But I can't say what my music is." Lightning's voice dropped to a whisper. "I just can't ever find what I need to say about it... It's like a big blank page." Her grip tightened against the handle of her cane. "But then I realized, I could put it into sounds; I could make it sound like what I was feeling, and you, you can make it crack like thunder... Fang, we could share this with people." She almost seemed to shiver beneath the falling snow. "Our song, our rules; we could say whatever we wanted with it."

"Or... It could stay ours." Fang reached up to idly rub a certain part of her cheek without even realizing it. "Some things, Light... Some things I just don't want to share."

For the first time that Fang had ever seen in that life, Lightning looked almost utterly crestfallen.

"Not like that-" Fang almost laughed, despite herself. "No, Light, not that I wouldn't share it with you..." She slowly reached out to hold one of Lightning's shoulders, and she felt almost surprised when she leaned right into the touch. "That's what I mean; I'd only share it with you."

Lightning's mouth twitched slightly, still somewhat forlorn. "Sometimes I wonder why it was me." She reached up to hold the hand that was touching her. "It could have been anyone else who thought of it... Why me?"

Fang gently squeezed Lightning's shoulder. "I don't know, Light, but I'm real glad it was you." She glanced back at where their most of their friends were still taking to each other, though Hope had already gotten a ride from Sazh to wherever his mother was undergoing treatment. "I'm glad it was everyone here... But I'm mostly glad it was you."

"You sure know how to flatter." Lightning's tone was quite dry, but that tiny smile kept creeping around the edges of her mouth. "I... Seem to remember a favor that I did for you, last time this happened."

Fang slowly quirked her head to the side. "What?"

"The last time we said goodbye." Lightning lifted Fang's hand away from her shoulder, but she didn't let go of it, not even when their hands drifted down between them, gently swaying back and forth. "I gave you something."

Fang's eyes slowly widened. "And... You'd like something back?"

Lightning might have tried to hide the way she bit her bottom lip and smirked, but in the end, she merely nodded, before she stilled at that first warm touch of Fang's mouth against her cheek.

Fang whispered her words against the softness of her skin. "I feel beautiful whenever I'm with you." Her grip on Lightning's hand tightened slightly, before it went slack. "I just hope you feel the same."

Lightning's fingers curled when Fang slowly drew away, but she suddenly reached up to grab for her nearest shoulder, keeping her close. "Giving the same kind of gift back to someone is tacky." She lowered her voice to a soft murmur. "It should be something new."

Fang smiled, and she leaned in to brush her lips back against Lightning's cheek, edging towards her ear. "If you want a gift from me, Lightning, then I'd need to know what to give you."

Slowly, Lightning leaned forward in a way that brought Fang's very breath against her own, and within the bounds of that dream, Fang could sense just how grateful she was that there were no footsteps around them at such a late hour in the night.

"Light..." Fang went very quiet when Lightning reached up to nudge herself closer. "You sure about this?"

"I've never met anyone like you." Lightning slung one of her arms against Fang's shoulder, all while she still held the cane in her other hand. "I've never met someone who can make such a stupid, cheesy line sound so heartfelt... It makes me wonder why you'd strum that stick of yours instead of sing."

Fang smiled then, and she was sure that Lightning could feel it. "I'd sing for you, if you wanted."

"Good." Lightning leaned in just a hairsbreadth, and they were there, a touch beyond what they shared before. She was lost in it, in the warmth of a soft kiss beneath the falling frost, with the way Fang slowly wrapped an arm around her waist, perhaps just to hold herself steady. "Good..."

Fang breathed out against Lightning's voice, before she swiftly glanced over at the parking lot, perhaps praying for two very different things at the same time; that they hadn't seen, that they had seen, that everyone in the world suddenly knew that they shared something so indescribable, if only for a lack of their own words.

"Play my next concert with me." Fang scarcely even realized that the words had just left her lips. "We can... We'll share something like you said, something new."

And in the deep winter chill, beneath the snowflakes that dotted her hair like fallen starlight, Lightning smiled against Fang's lips.

* * *

She woke to the sound of wind in the forest, and Fang opened her eyes to see the darkened clearing. The blanket was still there beneath her, not to mention the sight of Lightning's backpack and her own satchel, but as Fang's vision grew less bleary, she realized that Lightning herself still was nowhere to be seen.

"Light?" Fang yawned as she rose into a sitting position, crouching there beneath the trees. "Light..." She wondered how long she had been sleeping. There was little way to tell in such a place, for the moon had already set beneath the horizon, and the starlight was just the same as it had looked before.

A bird called out in the distance. The sound echoed back and forth in the towering trees, and Fang slowly tilted her head to listen. Perhaps it was a nocturnal beast, something that hunted or foraged the island for whatever creatures or plants might live there. She'd seen a few crabs on the beach, not to mention the graceful seabirds, but whatever else was out there, Fang hadn't had the chance to look.

But Lightning had.

Fang's eyes narrowed at a slight sound in the distance, not quite a snap or a breaking branch, just the sound of a deliberate footstep, the soft scrape of a boot against the moss that covered the rocky trail.

"Light?" Fang sat up a bit further to look out over the dense undergrowth. "You there?"

A moment passed in silence, before another rustle brought forth the sight of dark mud and the distinct scent of bloodshed. Fang said not a word, but she swiftly rose up to her feet, gazing at the slain creature that Lightning carried over her shoulder by the tail.

"Late dinner." Lightning trudged out towards the clearing, where she let the scaled beast slump and crumple towards the ground, enough to reveal a distinctly crocodilian nature. "Unless you already ate?" She knelt down beside it, positioning the beast to lay against its belly.

Fang slowly moved to sit beside her, and she tried her best to discern if the blood that stained Lightning's face and hands was her own, or if it was from the mighty reptile she must have wrestled and scuffled around with to kill. "Lightning..." She reached up to wipe away a smudge of mud from Lightning's face. "Tell me how you got this."

Lightning kept staring at the reptile on the forest floor. "There was a river." She grabbed for her backpack, and she quickly retrieved one of her larger skinning knives from beside the rest of her various tools. "He snapped at me, I didn't appreciate that... And caimans taste like a mix of chicken and fish, so I figured you might like it."

"Caimans..." Fang glanced at the slain beast. "It's not a crocodile?"

Lightning shook her head. "They're related, but I think these are closer to alligators." She started to cut at the hide of the creature, moving near the base of the neck towards the upper spine, which was somewhat strange to Fang. Most of the other animals that Lightning skinned for them, she'd always started near the chest or the belly. "We used to go out and catch them whenever too many hatched... They'd start looking for other rivers to live in, and we couldn't have them so close to home." Lightning started to cut down towards the tail, severing the thick hide in half. "We'd have a little festival when the work was done... Some of the other villages would come over to trade things for caiman meat and pelts."

Fang reached into Lightning's backpack for one of her canteens. "And you helped hunted for these?"

Lightning nodded. "When mom's ship first landed at the island, she made a living by hunting alligators in the marshlands." She soon lifted the topmost hide of the caiman away from the body, before she took out a different knife from her backpack, a slimmer blade with a slight curve to the steely point. "The rice paddies were only operational if people could tend them without the threat of getting dragged under... She patrolled the marshland and killed any that were too aggressive." Lightning began to cut the fleshy hide near the neck and jowls, skinning the creature to reveal the pink meat beneath. "She said that over the first few years, most of the alligators learned not to approach people... So she didn't need to keep such a close watch over them."

"The smart ones stayed away." Fang smiled softly as she dabbed a spare rag with canteen water. "Makes sense why you'd take up the family business."

Lightning paused when Fang suddenly reached in to gently wipe away some of the dirt and blood from her cheek. "Mom met dad when she started traveling to the other islands." She winced when Fang reached a small cut on her skin, likely where the beast had flailed around to scratch at her. "I told you how they met."

"A nasty sea turtle, I remember." Fang tried not to frown at the injury on Lightning's cheek. "And they taught you how to deal with nasty things..." She reached out to carefully clean the other side of Lightning's face. "But did they teach you that you don't have to run off and prove yourself when someone already knows how strong you are?"

She almost expected Lightning to frown or glare at her, but the tiniest smirk merely started to form at both corners of her mouth, almost reminiscent of a house cat who had just dropped a dead mouse at Fang's doorstep and didn't care either way if it was appreciated or not.

"You... What am I gonna do with you?" Fang sighed when Lightning moved to sit right in front of her, still skinning the small alligator as she did so. "You could break an arm and still insist on lifting boulders, wouldn't you?" She tried not to smile when Lightning leaned back, resting there against her chest and lap, though the dead caiman she brought with her wasn't quite as welcome. "You don't have to push yourself while you're healing."

"And you don't think you might be overthinking this?" Lightning busied herself with skinning the hide away from the caiman's front legs, moving along towards the chest. "I went for a walk, then I decided to take a look at the river, and I found dinner for us while I was doing it..." She began to sever the spinal column from the neck, swiftly twisting the caiman's head around until it fell loose with a fleshy creak. "The way to handle these is to get on top of them and clamp the mouth shut with your hands; they can't even open it again."

Fang kept quiet for a while, though she could feel the sheer strength in Lightning's limbs and shoulder muscles as she kept stripping back the hide from the meat, not to mention the swift knife strokes that it took to cut the fleshy material holding it all together. But each time she ripped back a bit more of the skin, Lightning's arms moved a bit slower than before, and her breath grew just a bit heavier, until she had to pause for a moment just to regain her energy.

"Light." Fang leaned in to whisper beside Lightning's ear. "If I told you that you were the single most capable person I've ever met, would you let this go for a while and rest? You're working yourself into the ground." She slowly hugged her arms around Lightning's waist, despite the mud and the dead alligator propped up on her lap. "I get it, Light... I really do." Fang reached down to gently push the skinned creature away, and she began to hook one of her arms beneath Lightning's knees, gathering her up against herself. "You had to be everything back then, I know that... You couldn't rest for more than a moment." She moved over to sit near the blankets, where she nearly sighed at the way Lightning went so rigid against her lap, perhaps more than a bit miffed from being carried away from her work. "But... You know what partners do?"

Lightning stared at Fang, even with that cut still bleeding against her cheek, with thick mud caked against her clothes and boots, not to mention the rather unsavory residue from skinning the caiman on her hands.

"Partners look out for each other." Fang reached up to smooth away a stray lock of Lightning's hair. "And they take care of each other whenever they get hurt; they don't run out and get hurt again just to prove a point."

Lightning still didn't speak, but her gaze slowly began to soften, and her limbs started to feel less rigid.

"You'll always be my friend, Light." Fang wrapped her arms even tighter around her. "And I make sure that my friends aren't being reckless..." She smiled softly when Lightning leaned in against her collarbone, resting there beside her neck and shoulder. "At least not too reckless."

"It's going to be a waste if I can't finish it." Lightning glanced over Fang's shoulder at the caiman. "Yeah, I'm tired, but-"

"I can do it." Fang gently moved to let Lightning sit down against the ground, right beside the mossy dip in the ground that held their blankets. "I've seen you skin a deer more than once, is an alligator much different?"

"I'll have to tell you how." Lightning exhaled when Fang moved to help unclasp some of her mud-stained clothes, yet her undershirt and shorter pants had been left untouched. "I'd finish it myself if-" She paused at the knowing look in Fang's eyes. "Why?"

Fang leaned in to examine the cut on Lightning's cheek. "Why what?"

"Why does it feel like this?" Lightning tried not to shiver when Fang touched beside the wound, and she wrinkled her nose when a certain container of salve was revealed from the nearby satchel. "I've felt almost as much pain before, but this is like-" Her voice almost caught when Fang started to clean off the scratch with a spare rag and a bit of canteen water. "It's like everything I've been doing takes up twice as much energy."

"I'm not sure, Light." Fang moved the cloth away, before she lifted a dab of salve towards Lightning's cheek, even when she gave it a look of sheer distaste. "But like I said, I won't think any less of you for taking it slow."

"...Fine." Lightning winced at the brief sting of the salve, not to mention the sour feeling in her stomach that always came from such a strangely awful scent; perhaps dragons couldn't smell it? "You remember how to cook fish, right?"

"Yeah." Fang turned to look at the caiman and the knives that waited beside it. "Is it really like a fish?"

"Not entirely, it's like flaky chicken meat." Lightning slowly settled herself down against the blankets, but not before she folded up her muddy clothes to wash later on, perhaps in the same river she'd encountered the beast in the first place. "Is eating a reptile weird to you?"

Fang chuckled quietly. "Who're you calling a 'reptile'?"

Lightning shrugged against the woven blanket, and she traced her fingertips over the nearest pattern of a woven flower. "Dragons have scales, don't they?"

"So do fish and birds, near their talons." Fang started to skin the caiman from where Lightning had left off, mimicking the swift strokes of the narrow skinning knife. "But I'm more like a bird, you know... Wyverns have feathers."

Lightning narrowed her eyes in thought. "You don't seem much like a bird." Her mind wandered back to the leathery webbing that spanned between each of Fang's front digits, a rather far cry from any feathered wing. "And dragons have teeth, not beaks."

"Light." Fang tried not to smile wryly at such things. "I always forget... This world never had dinosaurs."

Lightning gave her a rather blank look.

Fang kept skinning the caiman for several quiet minutes, careful not to puncture the speckled hide; Lightning herself had taught her how to properly skin a creature back when they'd caught an elk in the northern lands, and the memory of doing so was still quite fresh in Fang's mind. "In certain worlds... Birds evolved from animals called dinosaurs." She pointed at the crocodilian creature itself. "And critters just like this lived alongside them."

Lightning wondered whether or not Fang was teasing her, but she felt somewhat curious about what such beasts might have looked like. "So you really think you're a bird?"

"No." Fang turned the caiman over so that she could finish skinning the other side of the belly, before she reached for one of the big cloth tarps from Lightning's backpack, which she unfolded to push the beast right on top. "But I think wyverns are related to birds, which were once dinosaurs, before the gods decided to skip that step... And I think that dragons are more like birds than any reptile." She soon finished the cut that Lightning had started along the lower ridge of the jaw, before she lifted the heavy hide away from the caiman, placing it near the edge of the tarp. "Teach me how to do this?"

Lightning sat up to gesture at the neck of the beast. "You'll want to start at the throat; the jaw meat is some of the best you can get from it."

Fang looked down at the knife in her hand, and then at the rest of the caiman, and she had a feeling that the night wasn't anywhere near over yet.

* * *

It felt almost strange to eat meat that had already been cut from a creature. Fang was quite used to gnawing the flesh away from those little nooks and crannies of the beasts she hunted, for dragon teeth were quite effective at chasing down every last scrap of nutrients, whether it was from flesh or bone marrow, or even certain organs. But to have a pile of meat before her with no bones or ligaments, nor any obstacles to speak of... She tried to stifle the feeling that she wasn't working for her meal, for she herself had prepared it in her human form, yet some part of her dragon mind felt cheated by not being able to rip and tear the flesh away with her mighty jaws.

Lightning had been quite adamant that she had enough energy left to cook her own part of the meal, which was already sizzling away in a pan with the onions, garlic and olive oil that they'd been gifted back in Luxerion. She'd already coated the tenderloins and the big slabs of jaw meat in flour, and the meal had since started to quietly hiss above the campfire that Fang had helped make.

"This island is weird." Lightning gently stirred the chunks of meat with the end of a slim metal spoon. "I reached the other end of it in what felt like half an hour... But the river didn't flow from any sort of mountain." She sighed quietly when Fang moved to nudge at her shoulder, and she reached up to scratch a few of those shiny black scales. "There was just a deep lake at the source of it... When I started to walk back here, that's when the caiman jumped out at me."

Fang rumbled quietly, a purr for Lightning and a soft growl for the since deceased aggressor. "Were you crossing the river?"

Lightning nodded. "There was a big log that must have fallen above the water; he might've caught other things trying to cross it before." She slowly stirred the sizzling meat again. "I guess he'd never tried it on a hunter."

Fang rumbled a just bit louder, and her voice was full of pride. "Wrestling with alligators... When you try to prove a point, you go all out, don't you?"

Lightning pinched one of Fang's more pronounced scales. "Sure."

Fang just settled back down against the forest floor, and she began to munch a bit more of the raw caiman meat. "Tastes more like pork than chicken to me." She licked some of the blood from her teeth. "It's good, though... Maybe a little more delicate than pork."

"I always liked it when I was a kid." Lightning reached into a small pouch to sprinkle a blend of spices into the pan. "In northern Gran Pulse... The only reptiles you see there are small lizards and snakes."

"Makes sense, they couldn't survive the winter otherwise." Fang reached over to crack open one of the bones that she'd since removed from the meat; she held one end with her wing claws, while her massive teeth did most of the work with snapping the bone itself. "And another thing! Dragons are warm blooded... Lizards aren't."

Lightning stared at the way Fang licked the marrow out from the cracked bone with her pointed tongue. "Are you sure it isn't just your fire?"

Fang nodded. "I can make it go down in temperature, but I've never needed external warmth." She pried open a different bone with her powerful incisors. "You want some? Marrow is pretty tasty."

Lightning shook her head. "There's enough food here." She stirred the contents of the pan again, watching how they were already starting to turn a deep golden brown in color. "You're going to have some of this, right?"

"As soon as I'm done here, yeah." Fang quietly snapped up a bit of the raw tail meat. "I'd never turn down your cooking, Light."

Lightning glanced at the fractured caiman bones that littered the ground beneath Fang's wing claws. "Just be careful you don't get too chubby around the middle..." She almost smiled at the way Fang's eyes narrowed ever so slightly in amusement. "You still have to fly us the rest of the way there."

"Yeah, and flying burns more energy than anything." Fang winked at Lightning as she cracked open another bone. "You should be glad I haven't nodded off one of these days and fallen right into the sea..."

Lightning stirred the pan again, before she slowly lifted it away from the campfire. "And you should be glad I'm a good swimmer." She peered off into the forest for a long moment, before she picked up a pair of plates from Fang's satchel. "I haven't been near the ocean like this in... A long time."

Fang waited there in silence for a while, watching as Lightning plated up a bit of food for both of them. There was some strange sort of distance that had just rolled right in like a heavy fog, and it only began to pass once Fang had changed back into her human form, sitting right down beside her.

"Sometimes I still wake up and wonder why I'm not in Bodhum." Lightning pushed at the food on her plate with a fork, but she hadn't yet eaten a single bite. "Or why I'm not in the bottom of a sailboat, waiting for land." She looked up into the starlit sky, at the clouds that were rolling in from beyond the sea. "It's... A big ocean out there."

Fang slowly leaned her head against Lightning's shoulder, and she nodded silently.

* * *

With the contentment of a full stomach, the night passed by with little in the way of dreaming, but Fang soon found herself woken beneath the light of the campfire by a very small sound.

She opened her eyes to peer at the world around her, which looked just the same as she had left it. Fang yawned ever so quietly, before she glanced down at the one who was snuggled up beside her.

Lightning's eyelids were shut, but her eyes were drifting back and forth beneath them. Her mouth parted occasionally with each breath she took, before yet another sound crossed her lips. Her hands twitched subconsciously, one of which was resting against Fang's dark hair, slightly twined between the long, silky strands and the shorter curls.

"Sweetheart..." Fang sighed at the rapid movement of those closed eyes, for she knew Lightning was likely deep within a dream. "Sometimes I just don't know what to do." She looked over at the plate of food that Lightning had barely touched, long since abandoned beneath a thin sheet of cloth, along with an empty promise to return to it on the following day. "It's not healthy, and you know it."

Lightning didn't wake when Fang gently ran her hands into those rosy locks, past the crown of her head and the natural fringe of her hair, but she did stir slightly when Fang kissed the very top of her forehead, enough to mumble and sigh in brief contentment.

"I love you." Fang knew that Lightning wasn't nearly awake enough to hear it, but those words, no matter how soft and fleeting they were, those words felt solid against her tongue, a direct anchor to the feelings she held so close. "I _love_ you, and you're not acting like you love yourself..." She squeezed her eyes shut, and she felt her grip tighten. "I just hate not knowing."

Lightning slept on in Fang's embrace, seemingly warm and comforted by the strength of her presence, no matter what could have been going on inside that stubborn head of hers. Fang sighed at the mere thought of it, of how even the most steadfast things could suddenly crumble and build themselves back up again to stand stronger than before, but perhaps that was the problem itself. She knew Lightning trusted her, but that inner barricade was just too tall for her to scale, even with mighty wings.

Fang closed her eyes, and she held Lightning close, waiting on the promise of another day.

* * *

"I told you it was weird."

Fang peered down from the boughs of the mighty treetop. While the island had struck her as unusual from the first moment she had first spotted it on the horizon, she hadn't acted upon those suspicious, not until Lightning woke her up in the height of the morning and insisted on having a look around. But of course, a view from the ground was almost nothing compared to the height of a bird's eye view...

Lightning sat there between Fang's shoulders, gazing down at the narrow island that held such a beautiful lake in the very center, like a sparkling ring of blue. It was almost odd to see it beside the pale green colors of the sea, but Lightning had seen many blue lakes in her own homeland, even the rivers that flowed out into the ocean waves. But a lake without a visible source, perhaps an underground spring, that was cause to try and figure out exactly how the island's ecosystem worked, if only to heed Fang's request to relax for a while, to let her carry her around without having to worry about the strong ocean winds.

"It's weird alright..." Fang sniffed at the scents of the air, which had started to grow thick with the aroma of rain, even if most of the sky was only a bit speckled with clouds. "Maybe the lake just dries up without steady rainfall."

"We could go look." Lightning tried to fight the urge to tell Fang that they should really just be going, that it wasn't all that mysterious to see such an odd wellspring. "Or we could keep flying south."

"Nuh-uh, you're _resting_ today, missy." Fang craned her neck around to nudge Lightning's shoulder with her snout. "And don't give me anything about you not having to work when we fly... You've gotta grip the strap there and move yourself with the wind; it's no walk in the park for you either."

Lightning began to grit her teeth together, but after a moment or two, she shrugged. "It doesn't seem so windy today."

"Only because we're a little more inland." Fang turned back to peer over the island. "You know how rough it gets out there."

Lightning closed her eyes at the thought of such fierce ocean gales, the roaring waves that rose higher than any structure she had ever seen, even the tall spires of Luxerion...

"So we're just going to be lazy tourists for today, no more chasing after alligators." Fang winked at Lightning from up ahead. "We'll be no help for Vanille if we can't even stand upright to fight that damn fal'Cie..." She lowered her head to gaze at the lush jungle below, before she slowly flared out her wings towards either side of her body. "No shame in resting a bit."

Lightning tried not to roll her eyes. "Right..." She held on tight when Fang kicked off into the air, even when she began to glide down above the treetops, soaring over the emerald glades. Somewhere deep down, Lightning knew what Fang said was wise, for those wings still sported several cracked scales and scabbed cuts, the kind that would only heal with the passage of time... So a bit of rest wasn't quite so out of the question. It just felt as if all they had been doing since facing their foes in Luxerion was lounging around or sleeping off their wounds, even if the flight from Ruffian to the unusual island had taken up most of a day.

Fang kept gliding along in the warm winds, flapping every so often to keep herself aloft. Without her gloves, Lightning could feel the various thoughts from their telepathic link, but they were mostly just simple things, the timing of each flap and the calculations that Fang made without really thinking about them. A certain tilt of her wings would alter the angle at which she flew, and her tail acted as a rudder, steering her along due to the connection it held with her spine. Lightning glanced back at the small frill near the base of Fang's tail, one that tapered down towards the whiplike tip. She wondered for a moment if Fang had always had her frills, for most wyverns sported only feathery ruffs and bearded manes, colored in every hue a feather could reach. The same sort of frill stood high on her neck, but it faded away before it could reach her shoulders, which was something that Lightning actually felt rather grateful for. How comfortable could it possibly be to have to sit against a frill like that? The term 'saddle sore' almost felt too lenient for such a concept.

They soon soared above the opposite beachfront, where Fang slowly circled down, enough to flare out her wings and talons and land atop a sea-worn rock. "Look at that, Light." She braced one of her wings against the boulder's surface, while she used her other limb to point at the ocean itself. "Doesn't have much of a shore here."

Lightning peered down at the shoal that was mostly hidden beneath billowing seaweed, but when she looked a bit further, she saw what Fang was indicating. The land simply gave away beside the short shelf of earthen rock, an unusual sight for such a seemingly flat beach.

"The other side wasn't like this." Fang sniffed at the salty ocean air, and her nostrils flared slightly at the various scents. "You're right... One weird island."

Lightning moved to rest her cheek against the scales of Fang's neck. "It could have happened with the earthquakes." She slowly closed her eyes, savoring the heat of the tropical sun and the warmth of Fang's presence. "The ground started to shake, and then the waves came... Serah and I took dad's old sailboat."

Fang slowly moved to step down from the briny rock formation. "Must've been a real sturdy boat."

Lightning nodded. "When we finally landed again, we had to leave it there on the beach; it hadn't rained in weeks." She opened her eyes to stare at the sprawling ocean, at the waves that whispered and churned. "When Serah recovered, we went back to shore once we could bring enough food and water, and it was still there."

Fang moved to settle herself against the warm beach, resting her head against the sand. "Do you still have it somewhere?"

Lightning shook her head against Fang's scales. "We didn't have much money with us." She slowly turned over to rest her back on the curve of Fang's neck, and she started to gaze up at the sky. "Why have it docked somewhere when we could sell it? We needed a horse in a place like that, not a boat, and we both needed lessons to ride."

Fang sniffed at a seabird that landed quite close to her nose. "How long did that take you?"

Lightning stared at the rolling clouds. "I ended up taking the lessons, and I just taught Serah whatever I learned." She slowly stretched out her legs, but she was careful not to jostle anything in Fang's satchel. "We bought a few mules before we left for the woods... I bought Alexander after I collected the dragon's bounty."

"I'd imagine mules are cheaper." Fang began to bare her teeth at the curious seagull, and she slowly closed her eyes once it had fluttered away. "Not as fun as riding a dragon, eh?"

Lightning tried not to smirk. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you're the one doing most of the work when you fly." She thought back to the natural synchronization between horse and rider, the sense of leadership she had to take hold of, and as much as she felt connected with Fang, it was more of a bond between humans, between equal minds. "Horses... There's just something different about them."

Fang snorted quietly. "Horses can't fly."

Lightning rolled over to stroke her fingertips against Fang's scales. "Don't go getting jealous on me."

"Jealous of a horse?" Fang opened her eyes with a toothy smirk at her mouth, and she flicked her tail against the sand. "No way in hell."

Lightning shrugged, before she moved to sit up between Fang's shoulders. "You have some fruit from Luxerion in your satchel, right?"

Fang perked up at that. "Yeah... You feeling hungry?"

Lightning didn't quite nod, but she gave Fang a soft look out of the corner of her gaze. "It's a little late for breakfast."

"Better late than never." Fang gestured at the sand with her wing, and she smiled when Lightning made her way down towards the beach. "Been a little worried about you, you know."

Lightning moved to sit down in the sand, and she blinked when Fang reappeared in a flash of light and fire. "I just haven't felt very hungry lately." She looked down at the large satchel, where Fang was already rummaging throughout her various things.

"Wish they'd had something like that jerky you had before." Fang soon lifted up a few different fruits, not to mention the small loaf of bread shaped like a dragon scale. "You've gotta teach me how to make that."

"It's not difficult." Lightning grew very still when Fang suddenly leaned in to kiss her forehead, before she felt the weight of the fruit being placed into one of her hands. "Someone's friendly this morning..."

Fang moved to smile against the soft wisps of Lightning's hairline. "Someone's hoping you'll feel better soon." She leaned away to sit down in the sand, where she started to warm up the loaf of bread with a bit of heat from her hands. "I care about this, Light."

Lightning started to peel the fruit Fang had given her. "It doesn't hurt as much as it did before." She looked down at the strange shape of the banana, which was much brighter in hue and held quite a bit more fruit than the kind she had known as a child. The garden at the back of their house had been home to a big banana tree, but the fruit it held was quite pale, and the peel was slightly green, while the seeds inside were rather large.

"But it still hurts?" Fang gently began to pull the warm bread into sections. "It's been, what... A week since it happened?" She handed over a piece of bread to Lightning. "It's probably needs more time."

Lightning slowly took a bite of the bread. "That night in the hotel, when you were sleeping... I promised you I'd rest." She reached up to touch the cut on her cheek, which Fang had since bandaged up with a bit of cloth and adhesive paper. "But I thought I could do without it for a while."

"Just take it easy for today." Fang looked out over the ocean waves, at the foaming white and the pale green hue of the crashing water, and she took a moment just to see how closely she could examine each wave. Her eyesight was quite altered by her draconic nature, and while it wasn't quite as keen as her dragon eyes, she could see far further than a human could. After a moment of observation, she lowered her voice to just a murmur. "...Never seems any smaller, does it?"

Lightning peered out at the sea as well. "The ocean?"

Fang nodded, silently chewing on a bit of bread.

"Sometimes I wake up thinking about it." Lightning slowly moved her bare toes against the sand, for her boots were still quite muddy, as were her outer clothes. "I remember how it felt to just walk outside and see the beach near our house... Now I look out my window every morning and see the trees." She took another small bite of bread. "Have you ever held up a seashell to your ear?"

Fang smiled against the warm ocean winds. "Of course."

Lightning bit down on her piece of bread to hold it between her teeth, before she reached up to take off her backpack. She started to rummage through her own things, past the books on magic and her sheathed daggers, beyond the rolled-up caiman hide that she'd thought to sell if they reached somewhere with a trading post. And as Lightning moved each of her belongings aside, a faint humming sound became all the more apparent.

"What is that thing, anyway?" Fang peered at the strange metal device, the circular contraption with so many spinning beads. "Looks like magic."

Lightning moved her fingertips aside to let the little glass beads keep whirling around the track, before she took her bread back into her other hand. "I'm not even sure." She watched the constant motion, the rhythmic little circles that echoed like the sound of a distant heartbeat, the same whistling sound that one could hear from the curved shape of a seashell. "On the plains near the valley, you can see the golems; one of them gave it to me."

Fang slowly tilted her head to the side, watching those odd little beads. "Golems..."

Lightning nodded. "They don't really do much but wander the grassland." She turned the hollow globe around, and the sunlight almost seemed to filter through the glass differently than before, enough that the beads seemed luminous in hue. "It's probably just decorative."

Fang slowly reached out to tap one of the whirling beads. "You never know with these kinds of things..." She smiled when Lightning tapped the very same bead. "A golem could have some sort of foresight; maybe this'll come in handy."

"Maybe." Lightning reached over to place the device away, before she bit down on her bread again. "Do you want to have a look at the rest of the island?"

Fang smiled behind a bite of fruit. "Only once you've finished with breakfast."

* * *

There was a smaller islet near the western end of the island, one that jutted up to form a sloped cliff on the northern side, and that was where Fang found herself. She had perched there with Lightning on her back again, examining the larger bulk of the island.

"It just looks like a weird crescent, but not so curved." Lightning reached out to trace over the shape of the land itself. "An oceanic island, we're not close enough for it to be continental."

"It's just... Odd." Fang sniffed at the air again. "These trees look ancient, Light, but if it was from something volcanic-"

"When was the last time you flew out here?" Lightning leaned over to look at the calm green waters that lapped beside the tall islet. "How many years?"

Fang almost seemed to grumble a bit, and she shifted her grip on the rocky cliff. "Lost track of time... A couple hundred? Maybe less."

"Fang." Lightning almost wanted to smile. "A hundred year old tree..." She gestured at the larger island, at the jungle that stood far taller than most buildings could reach. "Could look like that."

Fang lowered her head to sniff at the air once more; there was just something _off_ , something she couldn't quite wrap her mind around, and she slowly tensed her hind claws against the salt-specked cliff. "But would a volcanic island form that fast?" She lifted her head to peer at the ocean around the rock. "Or maybe we're just lost."

"We'd better not be." Lightning glanced down at one of the wounds on Fang's wings. "Do you want to check out the other shore again?"

"Sure." Fang turned to face the northernmost side of the island, which was the one they had first landed upon. "Just hold on tight."

Lightning gripped the satchel strap when Fang flared her wings and dove down, flapping above the mighty ocean winds and the gusting vapor of the waves. The beach passed by in a blur, as did the trees of the dense jungle, where Lightning spotted more than a few tropical birds. Fang flew on with great stride, despite the scabbed cuts on her wings. Lightning was quite sure that she had more than a few bruises beneath those scales, but she kept her concerns to herself.

They soon approached the curved beachfront, and Fang flapped her wings to slow their descent. The wind whipped at those dark scales, but Fang simply grasped at the sand with her hind claws, enough to halt her from skidding further along the beach.

"See? This one is more gradual." Fang walked over towards the ocean waves, where the shoreline stretched out beneath the waterfront. "Doesn't drop off right away."

Lightning leaned in to examine the way the seaweed grew in scattered clumps, and how the sand carried on for quite a while before it gave way to the smooth rocks with barnacle clusters. "Should we check the lake, or start moving on?"

"I told you, we're resting today." Fang looked back to wink at her again. "We'll get going tomorrow, I promise."

Lightning tried not to frown.

"Come on, it's just like a field trip." Fang started walking across the beach, leaving more than a few clawed footprints in her wake. "It'll be fun... We've gotta wash off your clothes anyway."

Lightning looked down at her thin blouse and the pants that scarcely reached her knees. "...True." She leaned back a bit, gazing up at the scattered clouds. "But what's a field trip?"

Fang glanced back over her shoulder, as if she wasn't sure whether Lightning was kidding or not. "What, no schools on your island?"

Lightning gave Fang a look of disbelief. "It's not like they could build a university there."

"No, I mean like..." Fang looked back at the beach ahead. "Like a kid's school."

"What's the point of that?" Lightning tried not to frown again, for her parents had done a very good job of teaching her basic arithmetic and writing; what need was there for what Fang suggested? Unless there was some other subject she wasn't aware of...

"It might just be something from another life." Fang poked a stray patch of driftwood with one of her wing claws. "But a field trip is just what it sounds like, a fun little trip."

Lightning thought the concept over for a moment. "I didn't see any fields out there."

Fang just rolled her eyes. "Don't take it so literally, sweetheart..." She soon flapped her wings to take flight again, kicking off with her hind legs. The air was quiet enough for her to call out loud, and she spoke while flying just above the tropical trees. "Let's get those clothes of yours washed off!"

* * *

It didn't take as long as Fang imagined it would. Lightning seemed quite skilled with cleaning off the mud from her various garments, from the leather shoulders to the cloth flaps that ran near the back of the main chestpiece. She decided to bathe herself as well, washing away the small specks of dried mud from her skin and hair.

Fang lounged beside the edge of the lake, occasionally sniffing at the water itself. It was most certainly not saltwater, which gave credence to the idea that it could either be a rainwater reserve or a natural wellspring, no matter how strange it seemed.

When the sun had risen up into the afternoon sky, Lightning suggested that they examine the last part of the island, the easternmost stretch that seemed to form a low cliff above the sea. She'd left her clothes out to dry on a bit of rope from her backpack, tied up between two trees, all while dressing herself in her spare underclothes, before she made her way over to climb one of Fang's wings again.

"Might rain tonight." Fang peered up at those gathering clouds. "If you feel a drizzle, let me know... Don't want to let your clothes sit out in it."

"Alright." Lightning reached out to grip the satchel strap as Fang kicked off again, flapping high above the island. The lush greens passed by in yet another blur, until the trees gave way to the rocky bluffs and seaside slopes, speckled with salt deposits and what looked like scattered debris from the ocean waves.

Fang flew low above the rocks and twisted undergrowth, the shrubs that choked the boulders and crags, but the main slope itself seemed rather sandy and flat, and that was where she chose to land.

"It really doesn't have another source..." Lightning had almost hoped to find a hidden deposit of water in the high cliffs, but there had only been a few small pools and streams, none of which led to the large lake. "I'd call it an atoll if the lake wasn't so small... And if it wasn't fresh water."

Fang knelt down against the beachfront, which was much more sloped than the others they had seen. "Seems like too much land for an atoll." She lowered her head to sniff at a dense tangle of driftwood. "Any pirate treasure out here, you think?"

Lightning slowly stepped down from one of Fang's wings. "Might be something useful." She started off across the beach, towards a glimmering patch of sea glass. "I never understood why pirate stories had them bury their treasure out on the beach." She knelt down to pick up a speck of the smooth glass, before she turned it over in her hands. "Me, I'd bury it near a tree or under a rock... Something recognizable."

Fang smiled as she rummaged through the pile of driftwood, nosing at a moldy fishing net with her snout. "How about a talking tree?"

Lightning looked over her shoulder with a rather unphased look.

"Hey, it would always remind you where you buried the goodies." Fang picked up a scuttling crab between her front teeth, but she merely tossed it aside from the driftwood pile. "You think anything might be buried here?"

Yet Lightning was already thinking back towards the memory of that curious pine tree, and she felt a certain something right there beneath her fingertips, even if they were simply resting against the sand. It was the same feeling she'd sensed when she touched the little notebook from that chest of oddities, and the same sense of slight detachment crossed her mind.

"Light?" Fang went very quiet when she noticed how motionless Lightning had become. "Light..." She rose up to her wings, and she slowly walked over to sit beside her, curling her neck around where Lightning sat. "It's alright."

Lightning's gaze had gone so distant, lost in the sudden swirl of something that stood so far beyond herself, something lost to most minds of their world, of the earth beneath her feet and the sky so far above.

"I know, love." Fang curled herself even closer. "Just let it happen." She'd seen the same thing so many times before with Vanille, that sudden pause, the eyes that reached so desperately for something out of sight, a vision borne upon the latent magic that flowed so deep inside them.

* * *

The detachment came without a sound, and Lightning felt herself falling away, drifting down, lost beneath the whisper of the waves and the bubbling depths of the sea, until she was simply a fleck in the ocean. The true reaches of the darkness became clear in such a place, somewhere without even a pinprick of land to speak of. The deepest reaches, a place without the slightest beam of sunlight, a world without air, it was a realm of crushing pressure and deafening silence, though a soul could hardly have much want for breath.

Lightning drifted there, floating in the darkness of the deepest sea, until she regained enough consciousness to try and determine what was around her. But it seemed almost impossible when there was seemingly _nothing_... Just a void of water and shadow, swirling and deadening her senses to a point of prickling numbness, as if her soul itself had fallen asleep. But she could feel the wound so clearly from within the water, the ripped mark that branched out and stood steadfast, burning and aching so unceasingly at the sting of the salty sea.

She tried to move, to flutter away somewhere, perhaps up towards the surface, but when there was no source of light or anything distinguishable to follow, she felt as if she was just spinning around in lazy little circles, unable to do much more than slowly struggle. It was that same helplessness, the bane of everything she'd tried to build up without flaw, the unerring reminder that she was no less immune to the chaos of the world around her, the twists of fate that could latch on out of nowhere and drag her right back beneath the choking loss of control. She felt it coiling inside her heart, the fear that she knew how to suppress and kill with a blade of passiveness, to make it her own, to forge it into fire, but she felt so very cold there in the darkness.

There was something massive in the distance. If her eyes could have widened, if her throat could have gone rigid upon the freezing saltwater, if her arms could have lashed out to ward away whatever was lurking there...

She could only watch as the blurry shape grew closer and closer, drifting in on a current that couldn't quite seem to touch her. Lightning tried so very hard to detach herself from such a place, to do anything but wait there without moving a single inch, but it felt as if her mind had frozen at the touch of the frigid depths, and in the wake of her desperate struggling, in the exhaustion that swept in like a whirling wave, she went limp when the enormous creature simply nudged her very presence with a whistling sound.

Lightning tried to peer at what it could possibly be, at what such a massive plane of sheer white could be doing there beside her wispy soul, yet she felt that sudden rush of fear melt away when she caught sight of such a gentle gaze.

 _What are you?_ Lightning tried to direct her thoughts into the titan before her. _Are you another spirit..?_

The creature made not a sound, but with soft, silent breath of bubbling air, she was pushed up and away from the darkness.

* * *

"Light!"

The world was suddenly so hazy, and she felt the sharp pain of reattaching to herself, of her soul finding its way back into her body again. She could see the hazy sunlight from the corner of her gaze, but she also peered at something quite different... Dragon scales? What was Fang's wing doing around her?

"What the hell..?!" Fang sounded almost breathless. "Light!"

Lightning tried to shake off the dizziness, and she slowly turned to see that she was indeed being held against one of Fang's wings, carried away from the sand that she'd been sitting on, but why in the world could that be? "...Fang?"

"Light... What did you do?" Fang was gazing at something else, something beyond the curve of her wing. "How in the... How did you do this?"

As swiftly as she could, Lightning sat up against the soft surface of Fang's wing webbing, and she clambered over towards the curve of her tensing thumb digit, beneath that slender wing claw. "How did I do _what?_ " Her next breath caught straight in her throat.

Beside the tangled patches of musty driftwood, by the piles of sand that had since parted far away, beneath a speckle of falling rainwater and the faint gleam of sunlight, the wide, glasslike surface stood steadfast. It reached far wider than any beast or dragon, no matter if they were of the realm of land or sky, or even beyond the greater knowledge of man. Within the beachfront itself, with a pupil that gradually moved at a speed befitting such a titan, the same gentle eye gazed back at them.


	38. Descent

She'd almost felt annoyed at the fact that Fang had simply lifted her up into her wing to carry her away from the beach like a rag doll, but the sudden sight of that massive eye, it silenced any protests she might have made.

"Light..." Fang spoke as if she was only a mere hairsbreadth away from racing off to grab their belongings, to fly them both away from the unusual island as fast as she possibly could. "What did you do..?"

Lightning just kept staring at that glassy eye, at the veritable rainbow of hues that spotted and streaked the inner iris, a ring that stood beneath what looked to be several feet of utterly translucent membrane. "I... Didn't do anything." She glanced back up at Fang, at the look in her eyes that she had hardly ever seen before. "I just detached myself, like the tree taught me... Fang, I think this is a spirit."

"Fuckin' _big_ spirit..." Fang's neck frills bristled, and her tail began to lash back and forth as if in anger, yet it was something much more honed, something ready to strike back if the gigantic presence so much as made a single threatening gesture. "Someone either buried a critter here with an eye like that, or the damn thing... It's the _island_ , Light." She spoke with a deep snarl in her voice, a rumble that was only soothed when Lightning reached up to stroke at her lower throat. "Told you I didn't see it last time... We both knew there was something weird going on."

Lightning slowly moved to try and step down from Fang's wing. "When I detached, it seemed friendly enough..." She narrowed her eyes when Fang held her even closer, drawing her towards a protective place near her chest. "Fang-"

"Stuff like that, it's _bad_ news." Fang's tail kept thrashing back and forth, drawing long marks on the soft soil beside the sand. "Look at it, Light... You ever seen anything like that?"

Lightning just pried her way down from Fang's wing, until she could step against the lush moss that led back towards the beachfront, even when Fang moved to follow her every step. "No way to know until we check..." She shot Fang a somewhat belabored look. "What happened to our field trip? Don't go chickening out on me."

Fang snorted ever so softly, flaring just a bit of fire and smoke around her mouth and nostrils. "It's not chicken to back off from something bigger than a damn house..."

Lightning looked back down at the wide, colorful eye. "You're bigger than most houses."

"Bigger than a big house, then!" Fang still kept thrashing her tail this way and that, but each strike was a bit less agitated than the last. "And I wasn't as big as the ones in Luxerion, or the memories of your house near the hill... That thing looks bigger than a lake, Light."

Lightning slowly knelt down beside the edge of the eye, and she tried to stifle the sinking feeling in her stomach, for that massive pupil began to shift so very slowly, moving at such a gradual pace to look at her. "You think it can hear us?"

Fang snorted again, and she placed both of her wings down on either side of Lightning, ready to shield her at only a moment's notice. "Don't see any ears on it..."

Lightning almost shivered when the deep layer of sand beneath her rumbled and shifted, before she both felt and witnessed exactly how the massive eye could blink. "Uh... Can you hear us?" She waited for the eye to open once more, before she lifted her hand in a brief wave. "Hello?"

Fang narrowed her eyes at the colossal creature.

"Maybe..." Lightning stared into the luminous facets of the eye, such a deep, dark blue with those multicolored streaks that stood above it, as if a strained glass window had once been shattered inside a placid lake. "Maybe."

Fang curled one of her wings a bit closer to Lightning, watching as she reached down towards the edge of the eye, near the eyelid that hardly looked any different from the stones and sand of the island.

 _Hello?_ Lightning focused so deep inside herself, trying to shape her words into something almost 'wordless', telepathy in the form of a greeting. _Are you a spirit?_

A long moment passed beneath the sound of the gentle rain, and the eye blinked only once before it seemed to answer; it was with a long, sweeping sensation that she felt it, like a gust of wind that rippled beneath her hands, and the words themselves were just as primal as her own, mere thoughts and envisioned images, the inner language of any sentient mind. _All heartbeats hold spirit, no matter how small._

Lightning almost wanted to grit her teeth and smirk wryly at the very same time. _What are you, then?_

The eye of a whale peered back at her, yet it was more vast than any whale could ever be. _I am... Only a child of the pale father._ It blinked once more, and each separate thought came just as lazily as the slowest of ocean waves. _The father sleeps so far beneath us, but we no longer share our likeness to him, nor our recent thoughts... We are... Aspidochelone. Islands._

Lightning spoke out loud in just a murmur. "Islands?"

The massive being blinked once more, and the rainwater spilled from each corner of the eye like a whisper of streaming tears. _I am... Eldest. First of my age to spurn the father._ The pupil slowly moved away from her, towards the southern reaches. _The younger children woke to follow me.  
_

Lightning scarcely even noticed that Fang had since placed one of her wings down beside her own hand, for her inner voice came as a slight surprise.

 _You're one of Lindzei's?_ Fang's demeanor gradually seemed to relax, but she still seemed a bit on guard; her spine was quite rigid, and her tail still twitched like a crouching tiger. _Makes sense... Father of the sea and all._

 _It was he who drove us from the darkness._ The eye slowly slid back to peer at the two of them. _His anger roils with each decade that passes without change, each time he fails to wake._ The massive presence almost seemed to shudder, rippling the sand that covered the entire sloping beach. _I was the first of my age... I surfaced so far from here, and as I turned from sea to earth, the voices came to me on the wind._

 _Voices?_ Lightning thought back to the soft whispers she had heard inside the darkness of detachment. _Other spirits?_

 _Other souls._ The being kept silent for many long moments, before the eye itself almost seemed to go distant. _My kin followed in my path... But they were lost, and I traveled here to find them._

Fang craned her neck to peer at the other distant islands. _A whole lot of you, eh?_

 _The father's children are vast._ The eye focused back towards them. _I see that the other children of this world... They are just as numerous._

Yet for Lightning, as gentle as the strange being seemed to be, there was something brewing within her mind, something that reached down inside her chest and wrenched it so tight, like a twisting serpent in her heartbeat. _How long ago did they surface? How many years?_

The titanic presence almost seemed confused at the question, for how could a being that spent each day without caring more than a mere whim for the passage of time, how could it possibly know what 'years' were? But with a bit of mental coaxing and calculation, with the swirling images of the sun and stars, the slight variations of each departed season, memories of so many long, moonlit nights, Lightning finally held her answer.

It was with a flare of what felt like anger, a instinctual flash of furor that made her fingertips curl, it was with an utterly blank look in her eyes that Lightning rose right up to her feet, swiftly padding away from the gaze of the giant creature.

"Light?" Fang turned to follow her. "Light..." She had felt it as well, that sudden spark of stifled rage.

A long moment of silence passed between them, only broken by the lightly shimmering rain.

"Ten years." Lightning stood there within the falling water, and she felt her hands tighten into fists. "I was... Fifteen." Her hair grew so damp in the misty droplets, a far deeper shade of rose. "I was fifteen when I felt the earth starting to shake beneath my feet."

"Lightning." Fang slowly sat down beside her, moving her wings up to keep the rain at bay. "What's gone is... Gone."

Lightning looked down at the sand beneath her feet. "I know." Her voice sounded so soft, but it hurt worse than a needle to speak it. "I watched the ocean wash it away." She lifted her chin, still so proud despite the circumstances, for she wouldn't let her eyes sting of anything but the rain. "I brought Serah across the sea."

"You kept her safe." Fang leaned in to gently brush her snout against Lightning's hair. "You did what you had to do."

Lightning slowly turned, peering up at those eyes of the fire and sky, so very far from the ground beneath her feet or the water trickling down her skin, flowing so deeply within her blood. "Then why does it feel like I failed?"

* * *

Palm fronds kept most of the mossy dirt away, but there was little to be done for the rain. Fang blinked against it, raising her frills in the same way that goosebumps would raise upon skin, but her scales remained rather immobile. She sniffed at the scent of the water, of the distant salt and sand, before she tucked her head back down beneath her folded wing, into the warmth of the nest she had done her best to scrape together.

Lightning's clothes were steadily warming against Fang's scales, while Lightning herself had simply curled up against the fronds and closed her eyes, but whether she had fallen asleep or not, Fang did not know. Her breaths came so softly, almost too quiet to hear, but when Fang settled her head down beside her, Lightning slowly reached out to touch the base of one of those silver horns.

"I called for them." Lightning's eyes drifted open to peer at Fang. "I told them that we had room on the boat for a few other people, but they all kept running inland."

Fang's voice rumbled all around her, so deep and gentle. "It takes a lot courage to sail right into a storm."

Lightning slowly shook her head against the palm fronds. "It wasn't a storm; the sun was shining." She shivered at the sheer warmth of Fang's breath, even with the insulated heat of her wing, the shelter that kept the rain at bay. "The storms came later, when we couldn't even see the islands anymore."

Fang kept quiet for a very long moment. "For what it's worth, our 'island' here..." She gently nosed her snout against the palm fronds. "He doesn't seem the type to intentionally cause something like that."

"What about his friends?" Lightning didn't mean to make her voice so very sharp. "They were the ones who swam up ten years ago..." She thought back to the old folktales from her own childhood, for they suddenly didn't seem quite as absurd as they had once been. "A living island... _Islands_."

Fang leaned in a bit closer. "I know, Light." Each breath she took chased more and more of the cold dampness away, drying off Lightning from the rain. "Seeing something like that, I almost feel... Puny."

Lightning scoffed so softly. "You? Puny?"

"Hey, it's not everyday a girl meets the island she's standing on..." Fang gave her a rather toothy smile, and she purred when Lightning began to stroke beneath her chin. "But I'd bet it's gotta get pretty boring, living here like that."

Lightning idly scratched at Fang's scales. "I'd imagine it's like being a tree... Like the pine." She closed her eyes when Fang gently adjusted her wing to get more comfortable. "Or the chestnut tree."

"Trees and islands... I think I'm happy enough with what I am." Fang yawned quite quietly, and she tucked her head in even closer, nestled up against the palm fronds. "Imagine that, though... We were looking at a whale the whole time." She sniffed at the air, for she could still smell the damp scent of rain from the small gap she had made, right near where her wing was resting against her belly, just enough to let the oxygen flow freely. "You think that little lake was his nose? Whales have noses up on top of their heads, you know."

Lightning's voice was tinged with drowsiness. "It's called a blowhole."

Fang slowly closed her eyes as well. "Same thing."

"There's also a geological formation-" Lightning yawned, and she curled up just a bit closer to the nearest side of Fang's head. "Sea caves, called blowholes."

"Hmm." Fang purred at the sound of Lightning's heartbeat. "Maybe an island-whale has both of them."

Lightning stilled against the feeling of such warmth, against the smoothness of Fang's scales, so much that she scarcely even realized it when she was lulled right off into sleep.

* * *

Feathered ears drifted within the open wind, and a set of keen eyes scanned the grassland below, searching for any hints of life. Fang watched how each passing moment made Lightning inch a bit further forward, moving towards the very edge of the low, jagged cliffside.

"So this place doesn't have... Cities?" Hope spoke so quietly, careful not to disturb Lightning's concentration. "The village, you said-"

"I haven't seen anything bigger than that town to the west." Lightning spoke in her native language, and while Fang's subconscious mind could understand it, her past life had no earthly idea what the words meant. "But it's better than drifting out in space forever."

"Yeah..." Hope suddenly looked a little paler than usual. "The others will land soon, won't they?"

Lightning's ears twitched ever so slightly, drooping just a bit. "We need to be patient." She looked back over her shoulder at the one who was quite busy with salting an animal hide, a beast unfortunate enough to find itself on the wrong end of Lightning's talons. "Fang will help us."

Fang glanced up at the sound of her own voice, even if the other words were still spoken in Lightning's foreign tongue.

"Fang." Lightning switched back to the tribal language. "I'm going to look around."

"Alright." Fang dusted off a bit of the coarse tanning salt from her hands. "Hope's going with you?"

Lightning looked at Hope, who simply shrugged.

"C'mere then, kiddo, I'll show you something neat." Fang gestured at one of the other hides, a pale deerskin that she herself had hunted down less than a week ago. "This one's almost done; we can start stretching it tomorrow, but it needs more oil first."

Hope shared one last glance with Lightning, and he blinked when a rather large falcon suddenly flapped away from the low overhang. They had spent their days in such a way, living off of the grasslands in that little cliffside cave, waiting for the beacon to pick up yet another signal. For the lack of a better term, Lightning had watched over the device like a hawk, even if Hope was the one with the hawklike form. Both his nimble wings and his human form looked to be growing strong again from the absence of stasis, and while he always seemed just a bit wary around Fang, she knew that he was likely warming up to her presence. Lightning grew ever stronger as well, enough that she was able to endure longer flights over the grasslands, if only she rested immediately afterwards.

"This is for tanning it." Fang soon lifted a metal container of oil from beneath the shelter of the narrow cave. "This one still has a little more to go..." She knelt down beside the tall rack that she had fashioned out of fallen logs and the flat face of a stone, where the pelt was tacked down with metal pegs and wiry twine. "It could make a nice jacket, maybe a cloak."

"A jacket..." Hope looked down at his thin white clothes, rather the same sort that Lightning herself had woken up from stasis in. "Will it get cold soon?"

Fang felt herself smiling at how fast Hope had started to pick up the language; she knew that children always learned such things far faster than adults, but he seemed to be in his early teens, and still just as quick as a whip. "It's only summer right now, kiddo... But once the fall comes, you'll be wanting more than that." She gently reached over to poke one of his shoulders. "We'll make you a nice jacket by then, yeah?"

Hope nodded with just a hint of a smile on his face. "Yeah."

"Now watch this." Fang opened up the canister, and she took out a small rag from one of her pockets, before she dipped it down into the liquid. "I've already done this a couple times on this one, but it needs more than a few." She lifted the wet rag up to work the oil into the surface of the stretched hide. "That other one, over there..." Fang gestured at the smaller pelt that was covered in salt. "We'll be able to do the same thing with it before long."

Hope carefully watched the process of spreading the oil down against the hide, yet he kept very quiet while Fang worked. He was a shy one, she'd noticed, often just as silent as Lightning, but she supposed that it might just be an inherent phoenix trait, for Fang had only ever met the two of them.

Before long, Hope did begin to speak, but his voice was hardly louder than the sound of low winds on the prairie. "There's something... Important."

"Yeah?" Fang glanced up from her work. "What is it?"

Hope suddenly seemed to struggle for his words; he had only had a few weeks of lessons, and both Lightning and Fang often insisted that he take regular breaks to relax, for the act of leaving stasis was only relieved by rest, both physical and mental. "It happens when it gets warm... Only once every three years." He looked away from Fang, almost as if he was rather abashed of what he was saying. "I had mine last year."

Fang's brow furrowed in thought. "What... 'Happens', exactly?"

Hope just kept looking away, but after a moment or two, he pointed at one of his ears. "Feathers." He slowly waved his fingertips while he moved his hand back down. "They fall off, new ones grow back in."

"Oh... Molting." Fang tried her best to fight back a smile. "Bahamut always gets a little cranky in a molt."

"That's why-" Hope looked away again. "I think that, Light-" He couldn't help the slight stammer in his voice. "You could help her."

"Hm?" Fang felt just a twinge of pity for the poor boy; he could barely find the words he needed, and he already seemed quite flustered over the topic itself. "Just relax, kiddo."

Hope paused for a long moment, before he drew in a very deep breath. "Family usually helps with it." He gestured at the back of his head, near his neck. "It's hard to reach, it's annoying... The feathers itch and hurt."

"And you think Light's gonna have one?" Fang chuckled at the slight twinge of paleness on Hope's face. "Every three years, you said? She could be skipping it like you."

Hope slowly gestured at the edge of the cliffside.

When Fang first looked at it, nothing much seemed out of the ordinary, not until she stood up to walk towards the edge of the edge of the cliff; on the ledge, a small number of fluffy little down feathers were drifting slowly in the breeze, most of which looked rather worn and faded. "Oh."

"Yeah." Hope glanced out over the plains, where the clouds were gently dappling the tall green grasses. "Just... Try to help her?"

Fang peered out across the grassland as well, and she smiled at the sight of such a distant white fleck, one who was soaring so high up above the ground. "Yeah... I will, kiddo." She slowly turned back towards the shaded overhang. "Don't you worry about it."

It was a familiar feeling, yet it almost felt too distant, like those many long years ago when Bahamut was only just a scrawny little fledgling. While it was true that Fang had never felt quite so maternal about anything else, it seemed quite natural for her to try and help keep Hope's mind occupied on other things, to help him learn whatever she could possibly teach him. Words came easily, as he seemed to be a natural when it came to both lessons of speech as well as written language. Over the passing days, Hope was soon borrowing entire books to read by the light of the campfire, at least until he fell asleep murmuring in both languages at once, before Lightning would wander over and place a blanket over him.

"He's a good kid, you know." Fang spoke it one night when the fire had burned down to embers, glowing there in the shadows of the cave. "He helped me salt that other pelt today." She smiled softly at Lightning, who sat across from her in the narrow cave.

"He... It was a little troubling when I first met him." Lightning seemed uncharacteristically twitchy that night, something that Fang attributed to the fact that she hadn't revealed her birdlike form in several days, though she had gone out to try and hunt a couple times. "It's hard to translate..." She slowly reached up to touch the small metal pin on the collar of her shirt. "Back home, I used to help people."

"Yeah?" Fang stared at the little emblem that gleamed like a polished pearl, which was inlaid against the silvery winged backing. "What sort of help?"

"I would-" Lightning tried to think of the right words to say. "Catch bad people, and I'd make sure that good people were safe from them, safe from anything else, too."

"Ah." Fang stood up to retrieve a small log of wood from the nearby pile, which she leaned forward to place inside the smoldering embers. "Like a guardian."

Lightning watched the way that Fang knelt down to breathe out against the flames, kindling them higher again. Two thin wooden stumps stood high on either side of the campfire, which held host to a few metal rods, where several long strips of meat and small fish were hung to dry within the heavy heat.

"The guardians at home, my uncle's one of them... Dad is too." Fang reached up to adjust one of the rods, though she was careful not to touch the heated part of the metal. "Dad used to be a hunter like me." She looked back at Lightning. "But you were saying about Hope..?"

"Right." Lightning looked quite twitchy again. "I met him after... An accident?" She reached up to gently scratch one of her ears. "I'm not sure if that's the right word."

Fang nodded for her to continue.

"The sunlight was dangerous, sometimes." Lightning leaned back against the wall of the cave while she kept preening her left ear, and a small number of downy little feathers soon fell beside her fingertips. "Solar flares... People who lived in the wrong places, it was just chaos."

Fang tried not to frown. "I can see why."

"I lived in Bodhum." Lightning stopped scratching for a brief moment, and both of her ears twitched rapidly, as if they were fluttering. "Hope lived in a place called Palumpolum... But his family had to leave it when the storm hit." She reached up to massage her other ear, gently working away the sense of itchiness. "We met up after it happened, when he was living in the camps outside Bodhum; he was one of the kids I was guiding into town for lessons... Basic things, at that age." Lightning paused, as if she was rather lost in thought. "He was going to skip class before he even got there, but I caught him when he tried sneak off."

"Huh." Fang looked over at where Hope was sleeping so soundly. "Doesn't seem like the type to run off from that."

Lightning slowly shook her head. "He was too smart for his age." She sighed when another small clump of feathers drifted away from her ear. "He said he was tired of just going to school and being bored... So I showed him my badge, and I told him that if he went there anyway, then I'd show him some of my safer patrol routes later on."

Fang glanced at the shiny little emblem again, and she wondered for a moment just what sort of world Lightning could have lived in... A place with many towns, with guardians that protected what seemed like a huge populace; what could such a place even look like? How many people had lost their very lives to the wrath of their own vital sun?

"His parents invited me over." Lightning idly twirled a small fallen feather between her fingertips. "They'd brought whatever they could take with them from their home... It was weird seeing so much stuff in a tent." She stared at how the metal rods almost seemed to gleam in the light of the fire, and the memory of a welcoming dinner with Hope's family almost rivaled the rich, smoky scent of the drying meat. "His mother acted like I was one of her own."

Fang felt a certain tightness in her own heart from Lightning's tone, a voice that spoke of a deep pain and loss without even saying such words.

"You can never save everyone." Lightning let her hands settle against her knees, and the downy little feather drifted out into the air of the cave. "Hope and his father, Bartholomew, I found the two of them on the same ship as us... But Hope doesn't know how it happened, not in the end." She looked away when the feather floated above the curling smoke of the fire. "You can't tell him this."

"Alright..." Fang felt the words catch in her throat when each soft little barb came alight, burning away beside the inner quill; a sudden flash of light and a strange sense of energy echoed out from the plume of a phoenix, before there was only a soft cloud of dust drifting down from where the feather had been. "Alright... It'll stay between us."

"My... My brother-in-law went with me to hold the mobs off." Lightning slowly looked back into the fire, and her eyes went low and narrow. "Hope ran with the others; we found Bartholomew right in the middle of it." Her fingertips curled against her knees. "When you wake up from stasis, you forget most things for a while... But I remember it now." Lightning watched the thrumming glow of the fire. "He made us promise to look after his son, to get him safely into stasis and out of it again."

Fang's gaze almost wavered when a branch cracked and snapped from the heat of the flames. "But he..?"

"He bought us time." Lightning looked down at her own badge again. "We were... I made sure to get places for me and Serah before we even left home, and my brother-in-law bought his own, same for the rest of our friends, but the Estheims-" She tilted her head towards Hope, gesturing at him. "They were important."

Fang glanced over at Hope as well. "Important?"

"Yeah." Lightning looked back into the fire. "Important enough to target." She slowly leaned her head against the dusty wall of the cave. "Wealthy enough for stasis... But only Hope made it there." Lightning closed her eyes, and a long moment slipped by before she spoke. "He'll have a clean slate now."

Fang nodded slowly. "It's a big place out there... If that tether-thing was only working on the group of you guys, then I'd bet you're the only ones who'll land here." She looked off to the side when a familiar beast fluttered in from outside the cave, one who was gripping a rather plump rat between his talons. "Look at you, caught a nice dinner for yourself."

Bahamut seemed much too busy with pecking at the throat of the rodent to acknowledge Fang in any way.

"So, yeah." Fang glanced back at Lightning, but what she saw there felt almost more troubling than the story she had told. "Light... Let me help with it?"

Lightning immediately stopped twitching. "...Help with what?"

"Light." Fang tried her hardest not to smile. "Come on, now... You look like you rolled around in a big patch of poison ivy." She reached out to gesture with just a slight crook of her fingertips. "C'mere, I'll work on the pinfeathers."

Lightning became even more motionless than before, and it was a long moment before she spoke again. "They're just growing in." She slowly shook her head. "The old ones are falling out; the pins are just starting to grow."

Fang peered at the rather fluffy state of Lightning's ears; birds always looked much more puffed up and voluminous during the beginning of a molt, for they could hardly be comfortable or mobile without any feathers at all. The old plumes would remain there until they each slowly started to fall away, while the new feathers grew in beneath them, and the bird itself would soon start to look more like a thin, prickly mass of pins and scraggly fluff, at least until they were able to preen the feather casings away.

"It's fine." Lightning's fingertips curled against her knees again, but her knuckles started to turn white from the sheer effort it took not to twitch or fidget around. "We used to get a week off from work whenever a molt happened." She started to grit her teeth in an attempt to just smile and bear it, but it ended up looking much more like a snarl. "Or however long it took..."

"Light." Fang tried her very best to speak sincerely. "Let me help, okay? I know how feathers work." She moved to sit against the edge of one of the sleeping mats. "Just c'mere for a minute."

Lightning still remained motionless and silent, but after a long moment of peering at the look on Fang's face, a mix of true empathy and warmth, she slowly stood up to approach the edge of the mat.

"We'll start with those ears of yours." Fang smiled as Lightning sat down as well, sitting right in front of her. "Let's have a look... See, not so bad."

Lightning grimaced a bit at those soft little touches, the fingertips that smoothed their way right down against the points of both her ears. "I already got those, just now..."

"They still look pretty fluffy." Fang began to ease her fingers down against the silky feathers, rubbing away the old plumes. "It's got to be real itchy with all these, eh?"

Lightning closed her eyes as those tiny bits of white fluff began to fall away. "Like you wouldn't believe."

"What about your ankles?" Fang kept working at the feathers of those pointed ears, and she soon realized that they weren't quite as 'pointy' as she had first imagined, for the long, sturdy feathers formed most of the point itself. "I've seen them show up on your arms before, too."

"It's just part of myself." Lightning looked down at her bare wrists, where such plumage also flared at times, but only when she was angered or stressed. "Part of my other half."

"Mhm." Fang kept rubbing her fingertips against those downy little feathers, massaging away the dust and pin casings; Lightning was right, however, for most of the pins were still right up against her skin, almost out of reach. "You've been out for longer than usual lately... You've done the same with the rest of yourself, right?"

The dream itself blurred when Lightning thought of a certain recent memory, one where she had simply curled up against a perch on a much higher cliff and preened away as many itchy pin casings as she could find, but her reach wasn't quite far enough to get at them all. "...Right."

"Bahamut always gets those nasty little pin feathers on the back of his head." Fang gently tapped at Lightning's neck. "He can't work his beak around to reach them, so I take care of it for him."

Lightning just sat there for a while, slowly relaxing with each stroke of Fang's gentle fingertips, even when a few of the pins began to pinch somewhat painfully. She tried her best not to squirm or fidget, even when it stung like the sharp ache of a rather nasty hangnail.

"You want me to get your neck?" Fang brushed aside a few more fuzzy clumps of down. "You'd have to bring out the feathers there for me to reach."

"...Okay." Lightning didn't move for a moment or two, but before long, her avian form blinked right into existence. "Just be careful."

"I will, promise." Fang took a short while to marvel at just how incredibly fluffy Lightning had grown over the past few days; most of her oldest feathers were right on the brink of falling away, but they still clung themselves there to keep her body warm and able to fly, though she could lose quite a few of them and still manage to get herself airborne. "Have you been preening these?"

"Yeah." Lightning's voice was always a little different when she looked like a falcon; it was quieter, and Fang had a feeling that her tongue and beak could not aid her with such clear speech, so it must have had some help from her inner magic. "There's just a lot of them."

"I can see that." Fang slowly moved her hands down beneath the feathers themselves, searching for those prickly little pins that could be rubbed and massaged to relieve the itching sensation. "Hope said that families would do this for each other."

Lightning suddenly went rather stiff from her head to her talons, but she didn't budge an inch. "What did he say?"

"He just told me that he thought you might need help." Fang looked over at the distant ledge where she had first seen those molted feathers. "He didn't seem to act like it was something he could help you with."

"He's right... That would be awkward." Lightning's feathers and wings slowly began to relax again. "Younger people don't usually help those older than them, not unless they're blood related."

Fang smiled softly, and she just kept continuing her work. "You're getting pretty good with those words... So it was a family thing?"

Lightning nodded slightly. "It's like... Brushing hair." She settled down a bit more, resting against the edge of the mat with her talons tucked up right beneath her. "A little sister could brush your hair for you, but it would be weird if your little brother did it at that age."

"I see." Fang gently broke apart the casings of a few prickled pins. "Do you see me as a sister?"

Lightning tensed ever so slightly. "No."

Fang lifted one of her hands to wipe off the soft feather dust against the knee of her pants. "A friend?"

Lightning slowly nodded.

"Then I'm glad for that." Fang reached back to soothe those little pins again, revealing the first hints of new feathers beneath the weathered plumes. "Not enough friends lately... Could use as many as I can get."

Lightning kept very quiet for a long moment. When she glanced back out of the corner of her gaze, she could see how Fang was leaning over slightly to reach her neck, which couldn't have been very comfortable... Yet there she was, spending her own moments of time to try and aid her friend, a gesture with no true gain for herself. It was that same kindness again, the goodness of her heart that reached out into such gentle actions, and it was enough to make Lightning feel more than a slight twinge of guilt.

Fang said nothing when Lightning turned around to step against her lap, resting there in the form of a falcon. Even though she was quite the same size as her human form, she felt so very light, even with all of that dusty feather fluff.

"Thank you." Lightning settled herself there, and she sighed quite softly when Fang moved to keep preening her neck. "It's just... Strange to be here sometimes."

Fang lowered her voice to a murmur. "I can tell."

"Some mornings, I wake up and think I'm still back there." Lightning stared into the heat of the campfire. "Like it's almost... Like I have to get up out of bed and go to work again." She closed her eyes so tightly. "I expect to just see Serah making breakfast, or I'd make breakfast if she wasn't awake yet... She usually wakes up before me." Lightning almost shivered when Fang massaged a particularly painful pinfeather. "I just expect to be back home."

Fang paused when she felt a sudden, yet careful sense of movement, when her hands were pressed back against either side of Lightning's feathered face, with that curved, silvery beak resting so gently against one of her wrists.

"I have to be strong for them." Lightning opened her eyes when Fang gently stroked the feathers of her cheeks. "If I can't take us home... Then I have to make a home for us."

"You'll find a way." Fang whispered her words into the scent of the cozy woodsmoke. "We've got spare houses back in the village... Or I'd bet you could take some land nearby for yourself, if you wanted." She thought back to the image that Lightning had once drawn, a little house fixed between so many tall, narrow stilts. "Did you have houses at home like ours?"

Lightning nodded. "Some of them, but people usually lived up high." She flicked her ears back and forth at the thought of such places, somewhere so far above the ground. "And nothing _floats_ here..."

Fang smirked to herself. "I thought we already had this argument."

Lightning huffed quietly, but she soon moved away to curl up against Fang's lap again, silently grateful that her pinfeathers were a bit less prickled than before. "Flying isn't floating."

"Okay." Fang bit back another smile. "It's getting late, isn't it?" She glanced over at where Bahamut had already finished up with his dinner, leaving only a carcass of blooded ligaments and bone. "I should take care of that before it starts to stink up the place..."

After a moment or two, Lightning moved away from Fang, and she watched the way that she stood up to gingerly gather up the rodent carcass with only a single hand.

"This is gross, you hear me?" Fang shot Bahamut a rather sharp look. "Eat it _outside_ next time."

Bahamut merely ruffled his feathers, yet he soon clicked his beak a few times in contentment.

"Silly birds." Fang walked outside to toss the remains off the edge of the low cliff, but she was careful not to let it land anywhere near where their horse was tethered for the time being, though he had been given a very long rope to wander on. "At least the two of you aren't messy eaters like him..."

Lightning walked over to curl up against her own sleeping mat, and with a soft breath of air, she changed back into her human form again.

"Not sure how long I could stand hanging around stuff like that." Fang shook her head as she strode back inside the cave, and she quickly washed off her hand with a splash of canteen water. "Could hardly keep him in an inn room, could I? Glad we decided to stay out here." She soon stepped over to sit down against her sleeping mat, and she pulled up a woven blanket around her shoulders. "Feeling any better?"

Lightning slowly nestled herself beneath her own fur blanket. "Yeah."

"That's good." Fang's smile felt almost as warm as the crackling campfire. "I'm gonna stay up a bit, make sure these keep drying nicely." She gestured at the racks of narrow meat strips. "Get some rest, Light."

Lightning slowly began to close her eyes. "You'll wake me if it finds anything?"

With a quick glance to the side, Fang caught sight of where the tracking beacon was resting against a low shelf of rock. It had almost become a daily ritual for Lightning to bring it outside every morning, letting it absorb as much sunlight as it could. She would sit there on the cliffside, just watching, waiting for whatever distant signal had yet to arrive.

"Yeah." Fang stared at the device for just a moment longer. "I'll probably get to sleep before dawn, though."

Lightning just mumbled something against her blanket about 'recorded signal cache', before she let her eyes slip shut again, slowly dozing off into the night.

With a gentle sigh, Fang watched as the fire danced in place, listening to how it crackled so quietly against the branches. The smoke curled up towards the roof of the cave, but the slanted surface allowed it to funnel off into the sky beyond, out into the darkness.

Fang soon busied herself with scrubbing off the dinner plates from that very night, which had been a simple mash of wild grains and chopped up almonds, which Fang had bought from the nearby village. She'd also purchased a book to bring back with her, not just a book with simple words, no, it was more of a novel, one that was written in the tribal language of the region, making it a rather cheap purchase. Not many of the local villages were of the old clans, the bloodlines that once subsisted on widespread trade and warfare alike, before those ways began to vanish beside the widening of non-tribal villages.

She looked out at the entrance of the cave, up at the stars that glittered against the inky black sky. Perhaps the dragon spirit had lost his taste for blood? Or perhaps his people had simply eliminated all competition, securing a place for themselves while their rival nations all shriveled away. Fang knew little on the ways of war, but such a rare sign was something that had earned her a strange sort of respect among her people, even if she hardly held many close relationships over the past years. She might have been born beneath the spirit of a conqueror, but with no worthy lands left to conquer... Such peaceful villages were hardly a fair opponent, and the law of Fang's people forbade them from drawing the blood of an innocent, or from one who refused to fight.

When the plates were clean and dry, Fang stacked them back up into one of the traveling satchels, the sort that could be strapped onto the back of a horse as a saddlebag. She looked around at the scattered bits of feather residue, but she soon caught sight of something different, the very same novel that she had brought back for Hope.

Their sleeping mats stood a comfortable distance from one another, and Hope's was placed near the back of the cave, the furthest from the cold chills of the night. He often fell asleep many hours before his companions, yet he almost always made sure to extinguish the little reading candle that he kept on a shelf of rock beside his mat, a light that still flickered away that very night.

"Probably all tuckered out..." Fang stepped over as quietly as she could, and she soon picked up the candle to blow out the flame. "Sleep well, kiddo." But as she placed it back down against the stone shelf, she noticed the novel again; Hope had fallen asleep with it, for it was still open to a certain page. The book was somewhat propped up against both of his hands, but the leather bookmark that she had also given to him was still resting beside the sleeping mat.

Fang picked up the small strip of embroidered leather, and she gently tucked it down at the page that Hope had fallen asleep with. She lifted the book to close it against the mark, before she placed it down beside the edge of the sleeping mat.

At the other side of the cave, Lightning murmured something in her sleep. Fang turned to look at her, and she felt a sudden twinge of contentment at how Lightning didn't seem nearly as twitchy as before, for she didn't even fidget in her dozing state.

"Silly feathers." Fang soon walked over to pick up those fallen bits of fluff, cleaning the floor of the cave. "You'll be less itchy soon, just you wait..." She lifted a single plume between her fingertips, a long, pearly feather that could have only fallen off from one of Lightning's wings. "It's the price you've gotta pay for flying, right?"

Lightning just kept slumbering away, but her ears twitched every so often.

Fang moved to place most of the downy fluff into a small pile, which she made a mental note to ask Lightning what to do with, later on, before she sat down against her own sleeping mat. She still kept that one feather in her grip, the narrow pinion with such a soft, glossy sheen.

"I'll help you through it." Fang listened to the sounds of the wind outside the cave, and she watched the way that the smoke gently billowed off into the night. "Both of you, nothing's hurting you like that again, not on my watch." She closed her eyes for just a moment, envisioning the grand wings of the spirit above, the king who once burned his enemies down to cinders, yet he also protected his allies with an ironclad ferocity. "It's a promise."

With a gentle breath, she pushed the feather away from her fingertips, and she watched how it twirled and floated within the quiet air, until it drifted out within reach of the fire. That same bright flare of magic, the inner strength of the plume, the flames of a phoenix echoed so softly into the night, before it faded off into only a cloud of shimmering dust.

* * *

Not a single sound broke the silence of the hallway, and she watched the light with every fiber of her being, careful to keep away from the distant flicker of the hearth. A quick breath of air kept her steady, even if her current form had no true lungs to speak of.

The rest of the hall was also quite silent at such an hour, save for the soft creaking of wooden beams, the occasional inn patron who wandered off for one reason or another. There were a few who passed by the door that she guarded, but none made any attempt to approach it. More the pity, but she held a solid feeling that her companion had bloodshed on the mind, for why else would she seek out such a companion? It felt strange, however, that she hadn't known what a shadow truly was. Perhaps she was from somewhere far away? Her accent was definitely foreign, but there were many with such strange ways of speaking who lived close to the cities of central Cocoon, even if her particular form of speech was something that Lighting couldn't remember hearing before. The strange garb she wore was a whole different matter, fabric and leathers of incredibly strange quality; a dark green cloak with such rich brown fur at the collar, as if she was some forest-dweller turned wanderer, or perhaps a druid of the deeper wilds, if not for the firearm at her belt.

Lightning felt her whole form tense when a sound echoed out from the first floor. Had something happened there? She bristled against the wall, slowly moving from her spot against the ceiling shadows, before she crept right towards the other end of the hall. None could see such a guise at that hour, not unless they truly focused their eyes upon her, yet she was careful to move just as slowly as a drifting sheet of silk, only a slight pattern upon the wall.

"We don't keep a written log, I'm afraid." The voice was soft and somewhat feeble, and Lightning recognized it as the elderly little innkeeper. "And it's such a late hour, sir... If you've got someone to find, then I'd say your best bet is to wait until tomorrow."

Silence filled the air again, and Lightning crept further and further towards the end of the hallway.

"Sir?" The innkeeper paused, and her voice wavered a bit higher than it usually did. "If you're looking to pass the time, we still have ale and malt whiskey at such an hour, but the bar's to be cleared up past two hours beyond midnight."

"Whiskey." His voice was deep and rugged, and the low sound of a scuffling chair soon echoed out against the hard wooden floors. "But we're looking for... A very dangerous criminal."

"A criminal?" The little old woman spoke in a hushed whisper. "We don't board the sort that makes trouble, not if they want to keep their room for long..."

A huff of breath kept the silence at bay. "Not a troublemaker, at least not at first sight."

As Lightning crept towards the banister of the stairwell, she caught sight of the inn below, the bar and the tables and chairs, the little old woman who poured such bright golden whiskey into a small mug, and then the man who leaned against the edge of the bar, hidden by a wide-brimmed hat.

The old innkeeper gently passed him the mug. "And for you companions..?"

Lightning caught sight of them near the door and the tables of the inn, at least five... No, perhaps seven guardsmen clad in thick leather, chain, and buckled munitions, firearms sheathed away for the time being, but their every breath seemed thick with tension, rich as the scent of the whiskey. Lightning bristled as well, but she kept herself hidden in a corner of the stairwell rails, just a small patch of unseen darkness.

"Nothing, ma'am." It was a tall woman who spoke, one with a strange mask against her face, but Lightning could see the sharp glint in those deep blue eyes, an inner spirit of fire and steel. "We'd just like to know if you or any of your patrons have seen this person, here..." She walked up to lean against the counter, and the soft clink of a coin purse echoed beside the sudden rustle of paper. "We've been riding all the way from Marshwood to the Barrow, you see... We could use a little good news tonight."

Lightning gripped the rail a bit tighter at the sight of that parchment, an inky visage of the face she had only since started to know.

"I have a brother in the Barrow." The old woman narrowed her rheumy little eyes at the paper, before she reached down into her pocket for a rather thick pair of spectacles. "Oh, but I've not had the best memory of late..."

"We'd only like to knock on a few doors, see a few faces." The tall woman glanced at the man with his untouched drink. "No trouble, ma'am, we'll be just as quiet as a mouse."

Lightning slowly dug her claws against the wooden railing.

The innkeeper started to shake her head. "My patrons expect a sense of privacy-"

"A criminal, ma'am." The tall woman leaned in with a whisper on her lips, but Lightning could hear it just as clearly as the crackle of the hearth. "The warlords to the south, they have many wives, and many, _many_ daughters... Sometimes the whelps wander up here and expect us to ignore the ways of a savage." She slowly pushed the coin purse further against the firelit counter. "A prisoner of war, allowed to take refuge in such a quaint little city? What would happen to such a place if their neighbors caught wind of the news? But of course, you're right, it's hardly likely... The last few towns held no trace of her."

The rugged man slowly traced his fingertip against the edge of the mug, yet he spoke in just a whisper as well. "Coin soothes those who might be... Offended, by being woken in the night."

The old woman almost looked to have frozen in place. For the longest moment, her eyes peered at nothing at all, but her throat still trembled ever so slowly, before a single word left her lips.

Lightning felt the sudden sensation before the group even took a single step towards the stairwell, the whispering echo of her own whirling form, of those footsteps halting in place, of eyes darting this way and that, and of the wrinkled old woman darting away from the room with the coin purse clutched between her trembling little fingers.

"Wait..." The rugged man slowly lowered himself into a defensive stance, blunt and unyielding. "Is that..?"

A split second of darkness rumbled right through the open air, before the front room went utterly still again. The fire still burned hot, but the candlelight on each table had been swiftly snuffed away, and a whisper of sound echoed out into the space they left behind. The wooden beams of the floor groaned so heavily beneath the feet of the guardsmen, and no less than a dozen arms were suddenly revealed, weapons of gunpowder and deadly steel, primed and pointed at wherever the brightness seemed to wane.

"For all the shit luck in the world..." The tall woman wielded a flintlock musket. "She's got herself a Shadow."

The start was always the most mystifying, the sudden surge of what felt like adrenaline and utter bloodlust, a growing need to race right out into motion, but she knew such that things were foolhardy. A flintlock may have held only a single shot, but the burn it carried was dark and terrible, a fire that could sear her from the inside out. She'd felt the same sting too many times to face it eagerly, but there were always ways to impede a shot. Yet the guardsman, they held steady despite the creaking walls, no matter if the stone hearth itself was slowly dying down beneath such a sudden chill, the ghostly breeze that flickered on in silence, swirling and billowing and creeping out along each natural shadow, perhaps in an attempt of subterfuge. They could track those wavering lines, the gaze that flickered between each blink of their own eyes, just a hint of a smirk on the wind, but the fear it cast upon them was more than tangible enough to spread.

"Easy..." The rugged man kept his steel hatchet at the ready. "Waste a shot, and you're paying for every speck of powder."

That sudden moment, at the very instant that he began to stop speaking, when those minds were ever so slightly distracted, that one instant spelled the moment of truth. She was just a whisper in the strike of a coiled beast, drawing blood beneath her claws and against her teeth, a diving arrow on the wind. The sounds rang out, the sudden shouts and sparking fire, a dozen rapid flints striking against frizzen steel, but she was gone before her first mark reached the spattered floor.

Blood ran higher than any cry of panic, dark droplets on her mind, against the tip of her tongue, and she swirled herself even faster, a whistling presence in each corner of the room, gleaming claws that never materialized for more than a mere instant in time, at least until she heard another earsplitting shot.

Panic gripped the minds that could not see their opponent, but fear was hardly as intoxicating as rage or the lust for blood. She felt it calling to her, drawing her down like the churning sigh of a whirlpool, and in the brief moment that the tall woman tried to reload her unwieldy musket, Lightning swerved off to the side and struck.

Blood sang out into every inch of the air before her, a falling mask turned skyward, and she caught a whisper of rage upon the gaping mouth of her prey, a human who could see the very form that sent her reeling down, falling so slow, slow, _slow_ within that mere sliver of halted time. Dark blue eyes met a gaze of silent frost, the passive veil that drifted so steadily above each reaching claw, the talons that sank so true.

Her spine hit the hard wooden floor, a muffled crunch that only the keenest of ears could hear, but the pain itself was lost with just a single swift jab to that blooded, throbbing throat. And within that fleeting moment, just the instant of time that it took for her to let loose a shuddery gasp of breath, Lightning leaned in to whisper each word against her ear. "Apologies... If I wasn't on a contract, I could have played fair."

Blue eyes grew so distant and dull, and that pale throat seeped with such steadily rushing blood, but the claws were gone in a mere instant, if only to save herself from the deafening crack of gunpowder.

The chaos ruptured the very structure of the room, tables tossed aside or propped up in an attempt to shelter themselves, but she sought out each heartbeat in the same manner as her first two marks. Armor often proved quite difficult, but a rippling strike to the chest could knock the wind out of a human, and a swift kick to the joints of metal and chain brought her foes to slight stagger, yet it still wasn't enough.

Those fading eyes still stared off into the distance, unblinking. A force of life could wane just as quickly as a torch dropped into the icy depths, and she watched, dying, choking on her own scarlet blood as the graceful Shadow whirled back and forth. A cutlass lashed out at the swirling darkness, yet the being responded by shifting herself back to incorporeality, even if each strike seemed to slightly slow her down. _Her_ , it had been a her, just a soft whisper at her ear, the voice of a woman chilled by the ways of death, by those claws that could kill so very quickly. The guardswoman began to whisper one last time, and she gripped the stock of her musket between blooded fingertips.

A whirl of steel flashed beneath the low light of the hearth, and Lightning hissed at each bite that stung her swirling form; she would be aching from it later, to be sure. Swords could not be broken by her hands, nor her claws, but if she was to match steel against steel...

Another guardsman fell at that first hissing thrust, the crackle of pure darkness, a blade that sang outwards with a quiet keening, a long pole of twin ends, twin edges, a slash that cleft the entire body into two, before the dancer herself awoke to the scent of blood. She felt it when the one who had since fallen dumbstruck, the one who had grown so very still when she brought the tall woman to her end, when his hatchet suddenly screamed out through the air with his own bellowing voice, the cry of one who had lost his kin. She felt that sudden ripple of blood, her own blood, the black streaks that felt so strange against her human visage, a shoulder ripped by the edge of such furious steel.

But she could still dance with one arm bleeding, she could twirl her glaive to taste the blood of another, to crash back against the one who'd dared to cut her, who'd caught her so off guard with a sudden mournful call, a sound she hadn't heard in so many long, endless years. She could see those glittering tears, the little droplets that flew as he struck and shouted and raged ceaselessly into the fray, even when his remaining fellows fled off towards the door of the inn, even when Lightning slipped beneath each whistling hatchet strike, eluding every swipe he took.

A father, she realized, for they had the very same eyes; she'd slain the cub right in front of him and awakened the beast itself, that primal sense of bitter rage and unseeing madness, a man reduced to mere animal by way of howling grief. It would be kind to end it quickly, she knew that for a fact, but each little lash and feint of her own blade seemed to inflict less than nothing upon the rugged man. She was bleeding him like a stuck pig, or rather, a wildly raging boar, and yet he still kept hounding after her, chasing down each whirl of shadow and darkness until his beard was spotted with tears, and saliva alike, not to mention each dribbling spot of blood.

Lightning felt another sharp lash, but the moment that the hatchet grazed her arm, she brought her nearest blade down to crash against that seething form, a spatter at the junction of his shoulder and neck, enough to sink down and sever the pulsing jugular vein. She watched how it lodged itself there, how the world went so very still and silent again, even beneath the sight of those who had since woken to the clamor and approached the front room of the inn, those wide green eyes in particular.

And in a moment of pale white shock, blinded by the lapse of utter chaos, Lightning grew motionless as the man crumpled down to his knees, gasping so silently against the air. Like a pike with a spear to his throat, his eyes went as dull as the one that she'd tackled to the floor, and his mouth gaped there without more than a low, creaking groan of pain. In one swift pull, she yanked her blade away, and the man crumpled against one of the fallen chairs, lopsided and bleeding, grasping out at the open air, at the little flecks of dust that began to swirl slower and slower, settling back towards the earth.

Lightning hadn't meant to react towards her own pain, but she suddenly felt the slightest sound leave her throat, just a soft sound that hardly reached much more than a grunt. Yet when she felt something grip her unblooded shoulder from behind, she nearly whirled around to let loose her blades again.

Fang's voice was only a murmur of sound. "What happened?"

Lightning watched how the scarlet trickled down over her furthest blade, over the patterned steel that curled and ended so sharply, sated to the brim from such bloodshed. "We need to-" She tried to step towards the counter of the bar, past those who had fallen so swiftly, but one of her knees suddenly buckled beneath her, an injury she hadn't even noticed until then. "That parchment..."

Fang strode over to grasp it without a word, crumpling up the image of her own face. "Stubborn bastards..." She glanced back at the pale, trembling inn patrons on the balcony, before she looked at Lightning again, at the wounds that seeped with such dark blood. "Let's go."

Lightning scarcely even realized it when she was lifted up, when the pole of her glaive fell right from her own hand and demateralized without her presence; a failure of duty, she realized, for she'd been dragged right down into the lure of the sudden bloodshed, the abyssal pull of such sweet freedom, and her own life force had since been chipped and sapped away from it. Fang had every right to break their contract over such an act, and with a rather dull realization, deadened by the pain, Lightning realized why the master had accepted such a minuscule price for her services in the first place.

"Just my luck." Fang's voice was surprisingly gentle, though her breath was quite sharp by the time she'd fled through the door of the inn, having already brought her belongings with her at the first sound of the commotion. "Throw them off your damn tail and they come racing right back again..." She gripped Lightning close, despite the thick flow of blood. "Don't you pass out on me, now."

Lightning realized that her cheek was resting there against Fang's shoulder, jostled slightly with each bounding stride she took. "They were going to search the inn..."

Fang raced past a corner; with each pace she took, her boots clicked against the cobblestone road. "I know."

"I should have played it-" Lightning grit her teeth together in an attempt to stifle the pain. "Played it safer, but they just-"

"Relax." Fang spoke so breathlessly, still bounding on down the streets towards the stable that held her rented steed. "You probably just saved my sorry hide back there; they've sent more swords after me than I can count..." She ran without speaking for a while, even when a call of alarm began to alert those who weren't yet sleeping, but those echoing sounds were still so distant, enough that she could sneak her way inside the stables in almost utter silence. "You've gotta hold on to me while I ride, alright? Or can you fly around like this?"

In the dim light of the stable lanterns, Lightning focused every ounce of her strength upon a different form, one that wasn't so wounded, but instead of a swift black raven, her most chosen form of subtle flight... She appeared there as only a tiny starling, laying almost limply against the cold, dusty bricks of the stable floor.

Fang's voice was still so gentle. "Really did a number on you, didn't they?"

Lightning almost went rigid with shock when Fang simply lifted up her from the ground, just a bird in the hand like those old sayings always said; yet no matter how utterly vulnerable the moment was, Lightning felt even more surprised when Fang simply tucked her right down into one of her shirt pockets, sheltered there beneath that dark green cloak.

"Suppose it can be useful to turn little like this, eh?" Fang's steps were still so rapid, yet she seemed almost weightless when she'd swiftly saddled the horse, swinging up to land atop the smooth leather seat. "But now I see why you're called the dancer... Never seen anyone fight so quickly."

Lightning's eyes gradually slipped shut, though she could only see the soft fabric that surrounded her. And as she felt that sudden movement, her ears rang with the thunder of hoofbeats, the rhythm of Fang's heart, and then the low sound of her murmured voice.

"Glad you're on my side, then." Fang spurred the horse off into an even faster pace, tearing her way down the winding city roads. "You wouldn't have gotten so scratched up if I was there to help, I can tell you that much... But you sure get points for style."

* * *

Lightning woke with the slightest of sounds in her throat, a sharp exhalation of pain. She waited there in the darkness, not moving more than a mere inch, for she swore that she could still feel the blood beneath her fingertips, the thick taste of it on her tongue, the bright flash of sudden torment that stemmed from a swift hatchet bite to her shoulder...

A soft sound rumbled the world around her, the quiet breaths of a certain draconic form, yet it was a noise that echoed against the pattering rain. Fang seemed to be everywhere at once, a constant presence in that place, nestled all around her on those rather warm palm fronds. But then again, everything felt quite heated when such fiery breath was near, even if there were no glowing embers or kindled sparks to speak of.

Lightning slowly felt her own breath grow smooth again, yet she had hardly even realized just how ragged it had become. That dream suddenly drifted back to haunt her, a world of bloodshed, darkness, such strange weapons that cracked like thunderclaps... It was enough to make her ears ring painfully, not to mention the swimming sensation in her mind, nor the dizziness inside her vision. A flintlock, that's what her past life knew it was called, but the Shadow had taken little heed towards what her future self might think upon the act of killing. It sent a dark chill down her spine, enough to make her stomach feel tight and bitter.

Fang yawned so softly in her sleep, and a slight gust of air tousled Lightning's hair as she exhaled. Those mighty lungs could draw in more air than a human could breathe for several moments, powering the muscles needed for such a massive form. Lightning suddenly felt like just a tiny bird again, almost insignificant against the sheer power of a dragon, but she still held firm to the belief that strength came in many different sizes, no matter how small she felt.

"I was a killer..." Her voice felt rough inside her throat. "They were going after you, but I still... She was having fun while it happened; _she_ enjoyed it." Lightning began to grit her teeth, and she narrowed her eyes at the mere sight of her own hands. "A past life... A different me." The moments passed by in relative silence, and she slowly shook her head. "I'm not her; I _won't_ be her."

Fang slumbered on, but when Lightning leaned forward to touch her nearest cheek, stroking against those smooth scales, her eyes soon drifted open. "Light..?"

Lightning just kept touching her hand to Fang's face. She could feel those powerful muscles, jaws that could lunge and snap and rip, but even since they had left their quarrel behind them, Fang had only ever bitten at her foes.

"Morning." Fang yawned, and those very same muscles stretched so gracefully. "Sleep well?"

Lightning didn't quite know whether to lie or not.

"More nightmares?" Fang's voice grew as soft as the gentle patter of rain. "I could start dreaming with you again; I'd do my best to keep them away."

Lightning tried not to shiver in pain. "...I might take you up on that." She still felt the dull ache of her inner wound, and she slowly curled up against those softened palm fronds, which Fang had previously ripped into a much more loose, cottony material. "I always push myself too far, don't I..? Even in other lives."

Fang slowly leaned in to touch the smooth point of her snout against Lightning's cheek. "You're just confident."

"I get reckless." Lightning's brow furrowed in slight frustration. "I don't think I even realize it when it happens... It doesn't feel reckless in the heat of the moment, it's just something I have to do."

"It's got both good and bad sides, Light." Fang adjusted the wing that kept the rain away, for her other limb was resting out of sight. "Just like everything else in life."

Lightning slowly smoothed her hand back up against Fang's forehead. "Do you ever feel like this?"

"Sometimes." Fang peered at the low light of the space around her, hidden beneath the shelter of her wing. "Vanille would always try and help me if the... The wildness came back." She closed her eyes with a gentle sigh. "It used to be a lot like this, you know."

Lightning waited to see if Fang would elaborate. "...Like what?"

Fang didn't speak again for a very long moment. "Want me to show you?"

Lightning looked at where her hand was still resting against Fang's forehead. "Alright."

It began as it once did, akin to the first time that Fang had truly brought her towards another time, a walk between worlds, as she had first called it. The air was just as thick and as humid as before, but it felt different, somehow, for she couldn't see anything but the sheer veil of darkness.

 _I don't remember a whole lot of stuff about being a wyvern, but those first few months... They're clear as crystal._

She felt as if she was floating, but it was still so warm and safe, and she had nothing else she could ever wish for, so long as she was small. But she didn't remain small. The warmth still remained, but the coziness began to flicker and fade away, until she felt herself squirming and thrashing about, searching for an escape from the sudden tightness. She sensed the sharp little point near the very front of herself, something that she would later learn was called an egg tooth, and she wriggled and pushed until it had finally scraped itself against the surface of her home, a process known as pipping.

And the darkness, it was suddenly gone. Everything was much too frigid and bright, and the first sound that left her mouth was a trembling little cry, at least until something soft and warm curled itself against her, quieting her from that surge of instinctive fear. Her eyes could see only the light at first, the sheer brightness of the day, but in time, she started to glimpse the hazy visage of her mother, which only sharpened with each passing moment.

She was the first to hatch, a wyvern pup born between the steep edges of a high cliff, where the nest had been carefully perched. Her mother had ripped up the fronds of those primordial trees, creating a soft place for her new family, somewhere warm and cozy. Male wyverns only ever interacted with a clutch by leaving kills near the edge of the nest, so her biological father, if she could even call him that, was more than scarce to be seen. Had his soul been the same as the others? Was he once her father at a different point in time, somewhere within the grand scale beyond the universe, only to live his new life as a primal being? She just couldn't know the answer, nor did her young self even care; she was only a wyvern, after all, and wyverns held no concept of reincarnation.

The days passed by with the hatching of her siblings, and she learned that they were agreeable enough, if only a bit noisy. The sounds a wyvern made ranged from high trills to sharp screeching, and as apex predators, they had little to keep quiet for. Her brothers and sisters would squawk and cry whenever they weren't fed promptly, and they'd often squabble and snap at each other with such toothy bites and scrabbling claws, though as the days slipped by, Fang was also the first to claim her fire.

Wyvern flame was quite primitive, though brutally effective. Their mother would often leave shiny pebbles within the nest from time to time, and the other pups had looked at Fang as if there was something very wrong with her for scarfing down a few of the rocks when she was feeling particularly hungry. Oh, but they had learned their lesson when she suddenly belched out a thick plume of fire for the very first time, utterly scattering the competition for the fresh fish that their mother had just brought back for them. But before long, their fights were waged over both the food and those gleaming little rocks, which Fang had since learned weren't digested by her stomach, but instead kept within a special pouch beside it, called the gizzard. Wyvern gizzards produced raw oxygen, and the little pebbles inside it could strike against each other if she grew angry or agitated, causing the pure air to catch and light aflame, which she could then direct upon anything she pleased. She soon learned why her mother seemed so very adamant about carrying all of them off to a different nest, for a few too many close calls with the palm fronds made it quite clear that they needed a new nesting site, even if the little wyverns pups would cry and wriggle around from being flown away in her gentle grip.

 _That sort of fire, I lost it after the gods called, same as my gizzard and feathers._ Fang's inner thoughts almost seemed to pause. _Can't say I miss it that much... Those pebbles never tasted great in the first place._

Yet her feathers had grown indeed, for while she had hatched with only a smooth pelt of leathery black scales, her skin soon bloomed with an array of soft purple plumage. A wyvern could not fly without such feathers, for their limbs were quite different than dragon wings; each arm branched into three short digits and a single wing limb, which would grow to sport their colorful feathers and allow them to fly.

She remembered that first harrowing plunge, when she had ventured too close towards the edge of the their new home. It was a cave that stood in the center of a high cliff, a place with no path down but to fly; it was quite similar to the nest they had lived in before, but the cave itself was much larger, allowing the young wyverns to race around and play roughly with each other, squeaking and squalling, the very thing that Fang had been doing before she fell.

She hadn't realized it at first, but when the wind suddenly billowed out through her feathers, not a single sound left her throat. She was simply too gripped by terror, by the inevitable plummet that awaited her so very far below, but that was the moment when a swift shadow suddenly drifted out over her from above, when her mother's gentle mouth grasped her away from a rather untimely death.

Fang had sulked in a dark corner of the cave for many long hours. Her siblings didn't even seem to notice that she'd fallen, and she felt much too harrowed from it to even nibble at anything her mother brought for them. Her own wings were still so small and thin, not like the massive ruff of feathers that her mother always had, such an elegant creature on both the ground and in the wind. Would Fang ever be like that? A graceful flier, a keen hunter, a wyvern who would one day bring back food for her own pups? She just couldn't be sure of it, and her mind was still so very primal, little more than a rather intelligent animal. She scarcely held much empathy for her siblings, but she did have quite a bit of affection towards her mother, a natural bond that had formed from the very first moment she had opened her eyes. But she still knew somehow, she knew that once she could hunt and fly, that she would have to go out and make her own life for herself, for she was already getting quite tired of having to fight with her siblings for the best bits of food and the softest parts of their new nest to sleep in.

It began when her feathers grew full and long, when her mother had carried her and her strongest siblings away from the other pups, bringing each of them towards a low rise in the rocky cliffs. It was surrounded by a canyon, so even if they were to slide down the steep incline, they would be stranded their until their mother brought along their third sibling, and that was when the lesson began.

She remembered those first futile wingbeats, how it felt like both her muscles and her lungs were burning and crying out for mercy, but her mother would just gently nip her nose whenever she would lay down to try and rest. She'd be carried right back up to the low rise of the rock, and then nudged into jumping down again. Fang would flap and flap, even when it felt like her limbs had caught ablaze, until she could finally flap no more. The days would pass with such exercise, while more and more pups were brought along to try their hand at flying. Some would simply cry or run off to play with the canyon dust instead of even attempting to flap their wings, which only earned them the ire of their mother. It might have been cruel for her to bite at their noses instead of just gentle little nips, but if they could not fly, they could not hunt, and their mother would not hunt for them forever.

Fang had seen the ways her siblings failed. They would only flap if their mother snarled and hissed at them, but when she grew weary of such futile efforts, they were left to their own devices. Fang almost pitied them in later years, but at the time, they were her rivals in more way than one; a wyvern pup needed an enormous amount of food to grow strong and hardy, and those who would not learn to fly were leeching away at the overall pool of energy. What good were they if they wouldn't even try? Fang and the others, a pack of the strongest, they soon began to fight much more savagely over each meal, enough to draw out blood and feathers from those who hadn't yet honed the muscles in their wings.

There was more than a morning or two when she would wake up to see that their numbers had slightly diminished. It was the way of nature, the balance of strong and weak, and those who would not grow powerful were not permitted to stay. Wyverns were not cannibalistic of their young, as many animals were, but Fang felt quite sure that the weaker pups had since been carried away from the shelter of the cave, but to what end, she did not know.

Fang still remembered that first blisteringly hot day, an afternoon when the sun was still high and scorching, when her feathers bristled with a sense of both pride and discomfort. Their mother had brought them back to the rocky rise again, and she sat rather contented while her pups flapped around and began to glide. The warm air was a mighty boon beneath their wings, and Fang remembered that very first breathless moment when she began to rise, when the wind itself carried her higher and higher above the rocks, enough for her to grow slightly startled at the concept. She wasn't _flying_ , not truly... Or was she? Could a thermal really carry her flapping wings so high?

She was given her answer only a day later. Her mother carried her away from the cave, as she usually did, but she wasn't brought to the rocky rise... No, she was taken somewhere alone, flown down to the deep jungles beneath their home, the wild forest of so many towering trees. Fang felt a sharp flicker of fear at first; was her mother going to drive her away like the others? But she'd tried her very hardest, she'd gotten herself up into the air before all the rest of them! Her trembling little shivers were soon soothed when her mother landed, placing her down against the earth with a slight nuzzle and a soft purr, just a bit of motherly affection against the crest of feathers on her head. Fang was still quite small, though much larger than she had once been, no longer so much of a pup, but a young wyvern in her own right.

Her mother soon started off into the forest, yet Fang lingered there for a moment. How could such a place be so incredibly huge? She'd seen the jungles, of course, but she'd never stepped a single pace inside them, not when her and all of her siblings had lived their entire early lives within the mountainous nests.

Fang remembered that slight prickle of apprehension, for the trees stood so very tall, and the undergrowth almost seemed to loom just as high, threatening to hold a million fierce threats and frightening creatures, yet she knew she couldn't let herself get left behind. She crawled and clambered over the tree roots, following along after her mother, who simply stepped up and above the coarse brambles and the low shrubs.

They moved on throughout the forest without a sound, but there were plenty of other noises to keep the silence at bay. Insects thrummed into the darkness, and the screeching calls of the tree creatures echoed all the way down from the canopy, while swirling flocks of bats occasionally chittered past, perhaps in the pursuit of a swarm of delicate little beetles.

Fang blinked at the sheer sight of it, a world of so many different things, yet when a sudden sound caught her attention, she froze stark still beside her mother. But the elder wyvern just snorted at the sight of a grazing mammoth, for it was a beast too large for even her to try and hunt. While she could take down the largest of deer, or even a mighty moa bird, such massive creatures had no natural predators, at least not in that day and age.

They kept on throughout the dark woodlands, until a low ridge of damp rocks stood in their path, where little streams of water trickled on down towards the brook below. One could not climb it without getting soaked to the skin, and with wet feathers, a wyvern would feel rather out of its element. Her mother always seemed exhausted after flying in a rainstorm, enough that nights like that were often spent with empty bellies all around.

But her mother simply leapt up with her strong hind legs, flapping her wings out to land against the very top of the ridge, where only her claws and feet would get damp. She craned her neck around to look at her child down below, but Fang almost wanted to stay right there where she was, for it seemed very high up indeed. Yet it was another test, she knew that for a fact, and staying behind meant she would be helpless if any other animals appeared... Adult wyverns may have had no true predators, but a wyvern pup was small enough pick off somewhat easily, and she was less than half the size of her mother.

It was with tensing muscles and stiff limbs that she took her first leap into motion, and she felt the way that the cold air of the night did little to aid her wings with flying. She fell once, toppling back down to the earth, but she swiftly righted herself back up to run a short ways away, before she turned to face her mother again.

They both had such sharp eyes, a wild orange that almost seemed luminous beneath the darkness. Her mother stood proudly atop the tiny stream, a majestic jet black hue, though her wings were a deep green instead of Fang's royal purple, and the crest of feathers on her head almost looked as verdant as the mighty tree leaves.

Fang remember that second leap, a running start that led to a sharp snap of sound, the lithe muscles that she had honed over so many months, the sudden whoosh of air in her ears and the sensation of utter weightlessness, before she realized that she was truly, finally flying.

The memory shifted, swirling with each flash of the deep, dark forest, each time her mother leapt out again, leading Fang to fly once more, hunting and chasing after every little insect or rodent that they could find. Her mother had often brought back live prey for her pups to train with, and there were lizards that sometimes scuttled around in the rocks, but Fang had never quite felt the same way as she did while running there throughout the boundless woods. Her eyes glinted with sheer excitement, and she felt a quiver racing inside her spine and lungs, one that only tripled when the deeper instincts took hold, when she leapt and snarled and pounced down upon what looked like a primordial rodent. It was a beast that squealed and screamed beneath her clawed wings, wriggling as she bit down into it, but it swiftly fell silent and still when she ripped back the meat of the throat.

 _See, we were... Wild. Just animals, really._ Fang's inner memory began to swirl, until it slowly faded off into a different day, a different time, when she walked alone against the heights of the treetop canopies. _I left home before any of the others; I was pretty tired of sharing food with them._

She stood as tall as her mother had been, likely taller, and she sniffed deeply at the humid air, balancing herself against a thick branch of the tree. Fang opened her mouth to taste the scents as well, testing to see if there was any hint of her own kind nearby, but she had not found any trace in days. It was time to find a home.

The dream shifted yet again, past the hours of scouting out a big thicket of brambles, one that could shelter her from almost any threats, but there was still the matter of chewing and biting her way inside. Her teeth worked their way down through the vines and prickly leaves, until she was able to form a small hollow in the undergrowth. She brought in the leafy fronds of the nearby palm bushes, shredding them down as her mother had once done for her, and she soon pushed at them with both her wings and feet, enough to create the very first framework of a nest inside the thicket. But that was all before the gods had called.

Time shifted onward, but the memory remained in the exact same place. Fang had grown to her full size as a wyvern, tall and proud, and her nest was since padded by many more shredded fronds, cozy and dark and utterly warm. She was curled up and sleeping when it first happened, when her keen orange eyes flickered open at the sound, though it wasn't a real 'sound' in truth. It was something... Something from inside, a sound within her mind that she didn't even recognize as a voice, for she hadn't chosen to linger around those strange new places with such unusual walking primates.

And before very long, her nest was empty. The days flickered by with sun and shadow, with rain and dappled light, but it was many months, perhaps a year before an even remotely wyvernlike form landed back there once again.

She stood within scales, not feathers, and her wings were no longer quite so birdlike. Each digit tapered down between a thick stretch of black webbing, and she had a long frill against her neck and tail, not to mention those luxurious silver horns; each held two slender curves, one that flared inward as a slim crescent, and one that pointed outward as if to frame her face in elegance. But inside herself, her heart only twinged when she realized that she was much too big to enter her nest again. What had that strange presence truly done to her? She was far more mighty than before, to be sure, but what good was might without a home?

It took many hours to dig out a bigger space within the brambles, but when she finally settled down into her nest again, chewing against a rather hardy piece of fruit that she had brought back with her, she realized that something felt off. No matter how tasty the food in her mouth was, and no matter how good it felt to be there in her own territory again, there was just something lingering around the back of her mind... She had somehow understood what that strange beam of light told her. She'd never heard something like that before, but it somehow made _sense_ to her, at least in the moment when she had heard it.

It just kept buzzing around in her mind, even when she tried to settle down for a brief nap. Many of her fellows had stayed there on the mountainsides, while most of the wyverns who hadn't changed, they simply left to return towards wherever they'd journeyed from. Fang somehow knew that her own close kin hadn't ventured there, even if she didn't have a scrap of proof on the matter. It was just a sense, something deep inside her mind, an ability that only bloomed when she finally settled down to sleep.

The first dream, the first whirling snippet of what she had seen before, when the pillar of light seemed to be the answer to anything and everything that she could ever hope to search for, even if she never knew such a thing existed. It was a dream that came to her, a dream of sounds and visions, of voices that called out for her, though they were not the voices of the gods. She envisioned herself as a wyvern again, prowling the woods beyond her nest, but in the haze of a midnight dreamland, a small figure suddenly appeared in the distance. Her nostrils flared, taking in as much scent as she could, but even when she gave the intruder a sharp warning growl, they did not move to retreat.

Those eyes, so keen and watchful, there wasn't a hint of fear inside them. "Fang."

A jolt woke her, panting and rasping and reaching out with her clawed wings, only to tangle herself up in the thicket beyond her cozy nest. What an incredibly strange sound... What sort of creature was that? One of the strange things that she'd only ever seen at a great distance? They always made such odd little nests out of broken trees, sometimes clay and stone, but they hunted beasts several times their own size, making them an utterly dangerous adversary.

Fang soon rose up to her wings and sighed deeply. It had only been a dream, just a nightmare, and she knew how to handle bad dreams. Her stomach growled from the lack of a proper dinner, and she picked up the empty fruit shell in her teeth, before she walked right out from her nest, tossing it aside somewhere. Fruit was all well and good, but nothing else could put a wyvern at ease like a fresh meal of meat, yet it didn't even occur to her that she wasn't a wyvern anymore. Though her future self would think of her past presence as 'Fang', that primal creature knew no name of her own, and such a dream hadn't held much meaning to her.

She took to the air in a way that still felt unfamiliar, more of a jumping leap than a running one, for her hind limbs had grown utterly strong and muscular, and they sported talons that her past self could only ever dream of. Such claws, she could likely hunt prey that she had never even considered before... Perhaps even a mammoth. But Fang soon settled on something much more familiar, a horned goat from the mountain ranges; while such beasts were swift and stalwart, a diving swoop could send them toppling right down to their deaths, though she much preferred to get up close and personal with her kills.

Fang snarled and snapped her teeth at the braying beast and his herd, a ram who swiftly charged and reared at such an unfamiliar threat, though she had grown at least ten times the size of a mere mountain goat. She lashed out with one of her wings, just a glancing blow, before she let her teeth do the real work for her; the beast quite was stubborn, he'd rather die protecting his herd than to run away and let them get picked off one by one. His blood ran thick down her scales, against her massive set of teeth, but as she lifted the ram aloft to snap his neck in one swift shake, a certain sensation crept over her mind from somewhere unseen.

It began as just a twinge in her heart, something that stemmed from the scent of blood, so rich and coppery and swirling all throughout her mouth. But she'd seen death so many times before, what could possibly be so different about it? There was just something _there_ , something that kept creeping out into her head and settling itself like a thick veil of smoke, and she snarled and hissed at the feeling itself, even if she had only the dead ram for company. Why in the world was she possibly feeling... _'Sad'_ , for her own lack of a better description, about having killed it? She'd felt sadness before, most creatures did, but the concept of guilt was not something that she had ever known before, and it built up an even stronger rage inside her.

She had always felt relief from killing before, from the satisfaction of a hunt well done, but the creature in front of her only made her want to snarl and growl, even if her stomach was already mimicking quite the same thing. Fang bristled at the sensation, and she puffed up her wings as if to flare the feathers that she no longer had, before she opened her mouth to let loose a great breath of crackling air, one that swiftly burst right out into flame.

It was a different fire, she suddenly realized; while her wyvern flame had always burned hot and bright and shining, the blaze before her roared far fiercer than any beast of the world, rising up into the night sky like a whirl of sheer power and untapped rage, an inferno compared to her old measures of strength. And that fire, it felt _good_. A certain sensation crept out in its wake, a feeling that shuddered right down her spine in a somewhat peaceful way, if only for a moment. She lowered her head down to bite at the fallen ram, and she soon ate her fill in silence.

The dream slowly drifted to another night, a sleepless moment in the thicket, where Fang tossed and turned and kicked out with her hind legs in an attempt to get comfortable, but every position she could find felt so very awkward and stiff. She snarled lowly, baring her teeth at nothing in nothing in particular. Why couldn't sleep come to her? She'd been hunting all day, searching for something that wouldn't make her stomach feel so sick and queasy, but only the mild fish from the nearby riverbed had somewhat calmed those churning sensations, and she had also felt less 'sad' about the act of catching them. She narrowed her eyes at the heights of the thicket, the brambles that curled around like so many coiled serpents, and she swore that her stomach must be full of such awful little creatures, as if they'd slithered right down her throat and settled deep inside her gizzard. But what she wasn't aware of was that she did not still have a gizzard.

The sudden retching began when she could scarcely stay still anymore, when she stumbled right out from the thicket and released a full stomach's worth of fleshy fish chunks, blooded liquid, a few fish scales... And those shiny little flint pebbles.

 _Learned that one pretty quick._ Fang's inner voice almost sounded as if she was chuckling. _They weren't going to my gizzard anymore, so I realized I didn't need them._

She found solace within the land beyond her territory, in the far reaches of the jungle. She would sit there in the largest trees, even if the branches creaked beneath her mighty figure, and she would rest for hours on end, attempting to escape the constant dreams. There was always that strange little figure, one who stared right back at her without a single trace of wariness, which was more than enough to make her feel uneasy; creatures without fear could be either dangerous or mad, both of which were nothing to trifle with. She simply grumbled to herself, resting there in the treetops, trying to forget that she had ever dreamed those dreams or heard those voices, or felt that emotion she had never known before. Fang closed her eyes, and she sighed quietly into the midnight air.

But it was a dream that soon took her, though it was quite different from her other dreams. She was something so very small as well, something that almost seemed to be formless, just drifting there in the dark.

"About time, isn't it?" A set of teeth flashed almost cheerfully. "Come on now... I remember better than that."

She almost wanted to growl or hiss at whoever was making such noises, or rather, she wanted to reject the fact that she could understand those strange sounds in the first place, even if she had no idea how.

"It's a gift, and I want to use it." Those eyes suddenly appeared, so bright and green and unwavering. "I'm gonna wake up now."

She wanted to open her mouth in protest, but no sound came ringing out, not even a growl.

"I still remember, right?" She suddenly realized that it was her own mind thinking such things, her own voice that echoed right out into the dream. "Fang... It was always Fang."

She woke to the sound of the wind in the jungle canopy. The branches still swayed beneath her, and her eyes slowly began to focus on her surroundings. A bird's call echoed so far into the morning air, and she almost yawned at the sound of it, before she realized how strange her face suddenly felt. She almost reached for it, but a sudden sense of stillness overtook her, blocking out almost all of her possible movement and thought.

Those fingertips curled slightly, drifting to meet the skin beneath, brushing against her palms. Her eyes blinked with so many eyelashes, and her nose twitched as it had never twitched before, no longer a snout with fluted nostrils, but thin cartilage and skin. She stirred against the surface of the tree branch, such smooth bark with moss growing against the edges, before she slowly reached up to touch the mane of soft hair on her head.

 _And that..._ Fang paused as the memory swirled and blurred. _That's when it all started._

The sound echoed out into the heights of the treetops, another day, another year, a moment when she couldn't help but curl against herself and bite down on her own tongue, wishing so badly that it would just stop, stop, _stop_.

Flashes of blood struck her vision, and the scent of it still felt thick in her nose. Her lungs ached so badly that she could scarcely do much but wheeze and gasp, for her eyes simply would not flow with any more tears, not since she'd dreamt the first true nightmare again. They'd died, they'd all died, they were just laying there within their own blood without moving, without breath, while she alone remained to see it...

Fang viciously rubbed at her eyes, willing it all away, breathing a sharp fire through her human lips, a gout that forked and flared against the forest floor, enough to catch and burn. Those voices were gone, the old voices, they'd been gone for years and they were never, ever coming back, her own friends once said as much. But even they had _left_ her. The whole lot of them, stained in just as much blood as the unending rivers in her dreams, 'dragons', as they called themselves, those who sought to become higher than the loftiest of human kings, but they'd only been killed for all their efforts.

She could not cry, she would not cry; she raked at her face until she felt it beneath her fingertips, the thick red marks of every single one of them, those from before herself and otherwise, each life that flashed and danced and died so swiftly before her eyes. She felt them as her own, her own pain and shuddering sorrow, her own lives that fell down to the earth unceasingly, only to be reborn in pain anew.

Even beneath the haze of delirium, she knew she needed someway to forget. The others had turned to killing, abandoning their own sense of guilt, throwing their lives away to begin the cycle anew, but Fang merely cursed at that, shouting out into the air that she would not _die_ , that such pain would not catch her, that she would elude it to her final breath.

She ran into the deeper realms, the places untouched by human hands, and that was where she fought and raged against the monsters of the world, beasts that had sprung to life by the god's own hands. They had brought new beings into the world, creatures beyond imagination, and the flow of bloodshed and fire kept the pain at bay, slowly helping her erase the fact that she ever had ever anything beyond a mindless beast.

So many years passed by in blood, until she felt she could finally rest again, just a lone wanderer of a different world. The forest she chose was dark and deep, but when she heard that very first footstep, the sunlight itself was dappling the leafy thicket. Fang narrowed her eyes at the sound of it, and she slowly bore her teeth.

Another noise, closer, _closer_ , close enough to smell the distinct scent of a human, before she caught sight of such soft green eyes, a gaze that peered in from beyond the leaves.

Fang snarled long and low, but it did not ward the human away. She flared her nostrils, growling even louder, yet a flicker of fear crossed her heart; humans meant danger, no matter how diminutive and soft they might have looked. The girl only smiled at her, though the gesture still looked quite sad. She slowly held out her hands, yet she kept her palms visible for Fang to see that she held no weapons.

Fang just snarled out loud, hissing and snapping at her, but she swiftly backed away from that strange human, even when something whispered inside the back of her mind, a sliver of those old memories... But she just tackled them down once more and ripped them right to death. She _would not_ remember, she would not embrace that utter pain; nothing could make her go back there, certainly not some unusual little human with a death wish.

But on the following day, when she found herself dozing off beneath the low overhang of a rocky cliff, the sound of footsteps echoed out once more. Fang woke with another deep snarl in her throat, and she almost considered firing off a sharp gout of flame to warm the intruder away, but the little human was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, she stood there in the form of a tawny wyrm. Branched horns curled like flowing antlers, and soft eyes peered at her in hues of such bright green, eyes of curiosity. Her colors ranged from warm orange to brown, to a much more subtle red, just a sheen upon the edge of each delicate scale. It was rather like Fang's own hue, though the stranger's tint was more of a russet umber than a distinct shade of scarlet, and it was gentle where Fang was sharp, calm and steady when she was still snarling and hissing out loud for her to leave.

Not a human, she realized, the stranger was far more dangerous any likes of mankind. Force was to be avoided, for a battle between dragons sundered the very earth beneath them, yet Fang wished to not appear weak, and fleeing would surely cast her in that light. So instead, she snarled yet again, flapping and raising her wings out in an attempt to scare off her pursuer, before she started to stride right off into the forest, thrashing her tail as one last warning.

When she was several long paces away, she briefly glanced back over her shoulder to see what her efforts had brought, but the stranger was already gone.

It was only after another day, another night, when she was fast asleep and almost sure that she wasn't dreaming, only then did she hear the voice.

 _You're not scared of me, are you?_ It almost didn't sound like she asked it as a question. _I'd never try to hurt you._

Fang realized that a hazy figure was sitting there before her, and that her own visage was also there in the dream, even if she could scarcely tell what was happening.

 _I saw a vision._ She smiled so sweetly. _It... It wasn't a scary one._ That smile almost faltered. _I wouldn't have tried to find a scary one._

Fang almost wanted to snap at her and claim that she was _indeed_ something to be scared of, but if she didn't think, and if she didn't speak with words, then the dreams would still stay away, like they usually did. The pain would still be gone if this silly stranger just left her alone, if she didn't think too much about where she remembered those soft green eyes from...

 _My name's Vanille._ She smiled yet again. _I saw a vision... I saw you._

Fang tried to bare her teeth once more, even in a supposedly human form, though it mostly appeared as just a rather pained, awkward grimace.

 _I can... I can help, you know._ Vanille's eyes grew wide with worry. _I know it hurts sometimes._

Fang hissed through her teeth, and she swiftly shook her head, wishing the dream away, wishing the stranger away, so much that she nearly reached out to rip through the ground itself, whatever hazy realm of dreams they were dwelling within.

 _Hey._ Vanille's touch suddenly brushed against her hand, and Fang froze, gazing right back at her with that first real hint of fear. _It's okay... It's okay, Fang-_

She let loose a shaking exhale, and she tore herself far away from the dream.

 _I was... Pretty messed up for a while._ Fang's inner voice was calm, yet rather pensive. _But Vanille was even more stubborn than I was._

Another day passed in silence, but a certain dragon suddenly woke to the sight of a pile of fresh fruit beside her resting place, and she nearly stifled a snarl.

 _She would always see it a lot better than I could, the visions and everything. She said she'd been searching for years, but I was the only one she'd seen so far._

A night was spent beneath the stars, and Fang only snorted when that tawny little wyrm slowly curled up in the grass of the very same field, though there was still a great deal of distance between them.

 _She kept dreaming to me. She knew how to make the good memories feel stronger than the bad ones._

"You remember them too, don't you?" Vanille had stared up into those big green dragon eyes, and she lifted her hands in a quiet offering. "You remember me..?"

Fang had shivered once, and then twice, before she slowly lowered her snout to touch Vanille's gentle hands.

"You can talk to me, you know." Vanille closed her eyes as if she was concentrating. _I won't bite._

Fang almost shivered at the feeling of that inner voice, at how it felt as if Vanille could sense her every thought and fear, and it was almost enough to make her back away or fully retreat.

 _It's okay._ Vanille gently stroked her fingertips against Fang's scales. _I've had bad ones too... I know how to help._ She smiled as best as she could. _I remember you, Fang. You're one of the bravest people I know._

The memory faded into starlit nights, and into mornings when Fang could scarcely summon the will to move, much less listen to Vanille. She would wait there so patiently, readying herself for another attempt at magically soothing Fang's soul, but in the end, it was her voice that won the day.

"I remember when everyone was there together." Vanille was sitting beside right her, gazing out at the distant sunrise. "Everyone... We were all smiling."

Fang still hadn't spoken a single word since placing her trust in Vanille.

"It was almost a little hard to go home after that." Vanille watched the rays of light as they drifted out across the grass, and she smiled at the feeling of the warm winds. "You told me we'd see them again soon... We were family, we couldn't stay apart for long." She leaned forward to rest her knees against her chest, and she stared at the tiny wildflowers of the field. "We were family."

Fang slowly opened her eyes when she caught the sharp scent of tears.

"I miss them more than... More than I can really say out loud." Vanille smiled despite herself. "It's funny, no matter how many visions I've gotten, they hardly ever seemed to be the ones I'm searching for." She hugged her knees a bit tighter. "But then... I saw you."

Fang blinked when Vanille turned to face her.

"We're beyond family." Vanille reached up to dry her eyes. "My family... Wyverns, they're all gone." She smiled again, but it wavered upon her face. "How about you?"

Fang scarcely even realized that her mouth had opened to speak, nor that her tongue moved to form each tiny sound, the first word that she had ever shared with her. "Gone."

Vanille went very still for a moment. "Then... Maybe we could stick together?"

Fang slowly lifted her head from the grass, and her voice sounded like the first breeze to ever touch the barren earth. "...Vanille."

Her smile returned with the glow of the rising sun.

Each day swirled within the dream, the hours of sitting in silence, moments spoken in patient tones, of Fang's hesitance to remember much more than Vanille. But it was necessary, she said, for the happiest memories involved all of their family, not just her and Fang.

"I know it gets bad sometimes..." Vanille almost sighed when Fang kept trying to doze away in the grass. "Fang, come on."

Fang just snorted softly, before she slowly peeked open a single eye.

"You've blocked them all out, haven't you?" Vanille tried not to frown. "How about this..." She gently poked at one of Fang's scales, a place that stood right between her eyes. "I'll show you a few memories of mine, _good_ ones."

Fang closed her eye again. "No."

"Fang!" Vanille tried not to laugh when Fang suddenly nudged her snout against her hand, likely in an attempt to distract her. "Come on, it won't be so bad... Don't you want to remember them?"

Fang just flopped back down against the grass. "No."

Vanille pursed her lips, and she slowly crossed her arms against her chest. "Why not?"

"It hurts." Fang flicked her tail as if in dismissal. "I'm tired of getting hurt."

Vanille started to frown. "You know... If we didn't get hurt, then we wouldn't know just how good feeling happy really is." She moved forward in the grass, sitting right next to Fang again. "Lightning used to say things like that, usually whenever the two of you did something stupid together... I was almost always the one who had to patch the two of you up again!"

Fang almost tried to fight the way her eye slid open again. "Hm?"

"I thought you didn't _want_ to remember..." Vanille turned up her nose with a slight huff. "Lightning would just knock you right over the head until you remembered her."

Fang snorted at that. "I'd like to see anyone try to knock me over my head." She grinned slightly, revealing those numerous pointed teeth. "I'd bite them in half before they could touch me."

Vanille tried to scowl, but just a hint of a smile crossed her face as well. "You wouldn't bite Lightning." After a moment, she rolled her eyes and slightly flushed. "Well... Not like that."

"Eh?" Fang slowly licked one of her sharpened canines. "What else can you do with biting? Nothing useful."

Vanille blushed a further shade of pink. "Don't you even! You _know_."

Fang shook her head back and forth. "I'm not remembering any of this stuff if I don't have to." She snorted when Vanille whacked her right over the head, between those silvery horns. "But if you're gonna keep dragging it out of me-"

"Fang..." Vanille tried her best not to whine, and after a moment, she simply slumped herself against Fang's forehead. "It hurts even worse not to remember."

Fang grumbled ever so softly. "You're not giving up, are you?"

"No." Vanille traced her fingertips over the curve of Fang's nearest horn. "Because if... If you were still who you used to be, then you'd never forgive me for it." She moved away to sit in the grass again. "No giving up... You keep going until you can't go anymore, and you still keep going after that."

Fang stared at her for a long moment, a silent moment, before she tipped her head in slight approval. "Fine... A _good_ memory, then."

Vanille's eyes lit up like a pair of stars. "Fang!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Fang exhaled when she was given a rather tight hug around her snout. "How do you... 'Show' memories, anyway?"

Vanille placed her hands right back against Fang's forehead. "Just close your eyes and relax." She let her eyes drift shut before Fang did. "It's a lot like when we share dreams."

As Fang closed her eyes within her own shared vision, she began to speak with her inner voice, but not in response to Vanille. _So, Light... You want to see the lives she showed me?_

Lightning almost felt out of place by speaking inside such a memory. _Were they happy, like she said?_

 _Yeah, but you might not like one of them, at least not at first._ Fang let her visions swirl back into a blank slate. _We're... Different every time, we like different things._

Lightning wanted to narrow her eyes at such a statement. _What sort of things?_

 _It wasn't the most exciting life, to be honest._ Fang's inner voice almost seemed to chuckle. _We had a house, you and I... Nice little suburb, more rural than not, tons of space between houses, big backyard that led to the woods..._

Lightning almost wanted to ask Fang what a 'suburb' could possibly be, but she still kept very silent.

Fang kept silent for a long while as well. _We adopted, Light._

 _Adopted?_ Lightning felt a slight twinge inside her heart, something that almost felt like wariness. _Adopted what?_

 _Kids._ Fang slowly began to let the memory fade further away. _Vanille picked out a few memories of hers, ones that had the least chance of anything painful in them, and one of them... It was a life where you and I had kids._

As she drifted back towards herself, away from the realm of shared visions, Lightning swallowed away the sudden prickling sensation from her throat. "I don't like kids."

"I know." Fang still peered at her from that restful place beneath her own wing. "You do well with them, though; that little one in Luxerion, she looked like she wanted a couple dozen more sparring lessons out of you."

Lightning tried not to frown. "Kids like that aren't so bad... Same thing with teens Hope, he's not much trouble, and he doesn't annoy me either." She closed her eyes when Fang gently nudged her forehead. "But I don't think I'd ever want my own."

"You don't have to." Fang smiled slightly. "I just think about it sometimes."

"You do..." Lightning scarcely even realized that she hadn't phrased it as a question. "Is it ever going to be a problem between us?"

"No." Fang spoke firmly, but she still held that gentle tone. "To be honest, Light, looking after Vanille already takes up most of that side of me, but everyone likes to think about what could happen." She nuzzled Lightning's forehead again. "Love isn't finite, Light... A family can be big or small and still be just as whole."

Lightning opened her eyes again, and she peered into the warmth of Fang's eyes, dark and green and soothing.

"We'll get us a pet." Fang smirked so toothily. "Bhakti's too smart to be like a pet, and you've already got Odin, but ever since that little joyride of yours..."

Lightning fought back the smallest of smiles. "The joyride where you were clinging to me like a boa constrictor?"

Fang's smile shifted to a much darker smirk. "Only because you turn into a madwoman whenever you get on the back of a horse..."

Lightning shrugged against the palm fronds. "Maybe you're just sensitive."

"Oh?" Fang curled her wing a bit closer, just enough to brush against Lightning's hair. "Maybe Vanille was right about you whacking me over the head for no reason."

Lightning rolled over on her back. "She said it was to make you remember me."

"Yeah." Fang scoffed as she rolled over as well, lifting the shelter of her wing. "I'm sure never gonna forget that sword, I'll tell you that much..."

"I thought you already forgave me for that." Lightning slowly sat up to pick up her clothes from where they'd been drying against the heat of Fang's scales. "Or do I have to earn your forgiveness?"

Fang smirked toothily at that. "Forgive, but never forget."

"Hm." Lightning tugged on her thick gray trousers over her shorter pants. "You really didn't want to remember me at first..."

Fang's smirk faded away. "Only the painful parts." She lifted her wing again, curling one of her longest digits above where Lightning was getting dressed. "I was... You know, not doing so great for a while."

"I know." Lightning soon adjusted the collar of her shirt, where the cloth met the leather shoulders and the sharp silver hood. "...I'll forgive you for not wanting to remember me if you forgive me for how we met."

Fang's sudden huff of laughter ended with a soft snort. "Deal." She sat up to yawn and stretch out her hind limbs, flexing her toes back and forth. "And Light?"

Lightning looked up from where she was buckling her sword against her belt.

"Don't you worry about the kid thing." Fang smiled that warm dragon grin. "I'm not after one either, it's just hypothetical thinking."

"And you said you were... Sterile." Lightning lifted her backpack over her shoulders. "Or you think you are."

"My dragon form definitely is." Fang yawned again, slowly flexing her wings. "It really shouldn't bug me, but it does, sometimes... It's just weird to lose something like that." She glanced down at her abdomen. "Like my gizzard, you know? I never much liked eating rocks, but it felt strange for a long while not to have it anymore."

"I can imagine." Lightning rose up to her feet, and she brushed away a bit of the shredded palm fronds from her hair. "So are we still lazy tourists today, or are you ready to get moving again?"

"Well..." Fang stood up as well, and she turned to face the east. "Yeah, I think we should get a move on, but this island of ours got me thinking." She looked back down at Lightning. "Spirits like that, if he even _is_ a spirit, they know a lot of stuff, don't they? They can 'see' things beyond themselves, like those visions of yours."

Lightning almost wanted to correct Fang on that, for her sense of detachment never felt much like a vision, even if it wasn't always grounded in physical reality.

"He seemed nice enough, so why not ask him a few questions?" Fang took a step forward, walking out through the misty jungle. "And things like that, they don't always think about how they affect the rest of the world, but it's not even out of malice... They're just oblivious to themselves." She paused to make sure that Lightning was following after her. "I'm not saying it isn't the wrong thing of them to do, but there's hardly any way of talking them out of it."

"He said they were running." Lightning stepped over a fallen log, one that seemed quite slick with residual rain. "Lindzei's children..."

"And someone like that ought to know something useful." Fang knelt down to hold out one of her wings. "Let's go have a chat with the island, eh?"

Lightning walked over to climb up and across Fang's wing, perching there between her shoulders. "If it even wants to talk to us... What does it get out of that?"

"The thing about being alone, Light..." Fang chucked as she started off into a run. "Tends to make people very, very chatty."

* * *

The inner mechanisms and bundles of wiring took many days to sift and sort, but at least the fire hadn't reached it, at least not close enough to crystallize. The main bulk of the fal'Cie had been there in the main room with Vanille, a twisted being that had since fallen beneath the might of twin flames, and such heat had instantly coated whatever it touched into such unbreakable crystal. Though, as Bhakti pondered, it was likely breakable beneath a great amount of force, yet he himself had already tried drilling at it, and his own apparatuses had scarcely left a mark.

When the second week arrived that his friends had not returned, Bhakti took it upon himself to explore the inner workings of the vestige. There were still many seemingly empty rooms and metal passages inside the walls, and he was able to crawl himself towards the unmoving mind of the beast, a world of invisible thoughts and processes, all silent for the simple lack of life. His friends had cut off the head, killing the heart and the rest of the body along with it, and for that, Bhakti almost felt grateful. It would be easier, of course, to interact with the being itself, to try and pry out an answer from that most unusual machine, but he had only the records left to search through. There would be no voice that he could speak with, none but the thoughts recorded within whatever storage servers were left behind.

"It certainly did not think as I do..." Bhakti scanned yet another file, one that was filled to the brim with gibberish and random code, but there was a certain order to the madness, as if the fal'Cie had spewed out whatever came to mind while still keeping the content itself inside a universal parameter. "Such a strange mind."

He kept scouring the old caches of memories, of erratic thoughts and varied states of being, some that almost seemed to fit the very definition of emotion. Bhakti himself also experienced such things; it had felt as if he had grown so cold and sluggish when Vanille entered crystal stasis, while he had felt like he could float upon air when the two of them studied the grand libraries of Luxerion, a time of such mirth and levity. He remembered how Vanille would smile whenever Fang returned from wandering for a while, how they would talk for hours into the evening while he rested on the ground between them, collecting the energy of the sunset light.

"I would..." Bhakti almost drifted off into silence, but he slowly curled against himself with a quiet, echoing chirp. "I would do anything for that to become real again."

In the passing hours, Bhakti found himself moving away from those hollow old catacombs, from a mind long dead and silent, traveling in search of his fondest friend in the world. He quickly assured himself that Fang was his second best friend, but only because she seemed a bit more aloof with him than she was with Vanille, as if was Vanille herself who simply poured her heart out into everything she ever did with Bhakti. They were of the same pattern, she had once explained to him, bound by magic and something much deeper, a fingerprint of the soul. Had she somehow replicated the very heart of herself? She would not answer him that, stating that they were simply the same, and that was all he really needed to know.

He had felt it just as strongly, the curiosity that always drove him onward, just as it drove his friends. He could still remember that first moment when he peeked out from Vanille's satchel, gazing down at the boundless depths of the vestige, the sudden need to know exactly what was down there, even if his initial mental assessment over the area warranted extreme caution. He had told them as much, and Vanille promised to keep a close watch over everything, so did Fang. How little it had helped them. Bhakti suddenly felt a deep wave of shame wash over himself, for he hadn't warned them against the venture as much as he knew he should have. He had given in to that same deep flicker of curiousness, exactly as they did, and he knew that the fault itself truly rested upon the proverbial shoulders of the fal'Cie.

The main chamber was still as luminous as it had ever been, still alight in a world of frozen flame. Bhakti slowly approached the silent statue, the wyrm that still stood in such perpetual stillness, guarding over the corpse of the fal'Cie with fire at her teeth, with her wings flared out to ward the danger away. Even as fierce as she had ever been, Vanille's eyes still held a certain softness to them, a sense of empathy in the face of a foe, kind at heart despite her feral attack.

They'd killed it quite quickly, Bhakti gathered that much. A smokescreen of their own fire, enough to choke and blind whatever eyes the fal'Cie might have been hiding, before they rushed right inside to battle it. Fang usually preferred a blunt method of fighting, so Bhakti assumed that the smoke was Vanille's idea, but he knew he might never be sure of that.

It had been the night beforehand, he remembered, while he rested himself there against one of the sloping crystals. It was that night when Vanille knelt down on the ground, holding Bhakti in her arms, when her eyes welled up with so many unshed tears.

" _You'll find it."_ She'd wiped at her eyes with her wrists. _"You'll figure this out... I just wish I had the time to stay here and help you."_

Bhakti stared into those unmoving eyes, at the crystal surface that covered her from head to toe, and he slowly began to curl up once more.

* * *

Lightning felt the warm winds of the ocean against her skin, and she could taste the heavy air of the sea. It still smelled of fresh rain and the morning mist, but the sky was mostly clear, dappled only by the palest of clouds.

 _I cannot hear as many voices as before._ The great presence remained there so patiently, gazing up at the sky. _Perhaps a child of the sea, when turned to earth... Perhaps we must now find a different way._

Lightning glanced over at where Fang was testing the strength of the morning winds. _When I detached myself, you didn't look much like the earth... If that was even you._

 _Eyes beyond sight may see what flesh cannot._ The island slowly blinked. _I sense you might hold a keystone, of sorts... And I sense you pursue the children of those beyond us._

Lightning glanced at herself. _Do you know if a crystallized l'Cie can be cured by killing the Fal'Cie who cursed them?_

 _I know next to nothing upon the nature of these children._ The island's inner voice sounded even slower than before, and somewhat remorseful. _Only that their deeds resonate far and deep... Souls who walk upon the sand are so very close to the sea, but they might never find themselves submerged in what they are truly seeking._

Lightning's eyes widened slightly at the insinuation. _You ran from Lindzei..._

 _Not for his lack of wisdom, nor his cleverness._ The island's inner voice rumbled almost heartily. _It was his manner of wroth in which we could not see eye to eye... But the one who seeks the death of a rather troublesome beast, perhaps the father would find favor by such a task? I cannot know._ That great eye blinked at her. _I feel that you were once one from the ocean shores._

Lightning stifled the sharp feeling of loss, a thick prickle that ran through her throat and chest. _And you think he'll see me as a friend for it?_

 _Perhaps, or perhaps not._ The island turned his gaze to the sea. _The tides are fickle, they say... A boon at some times, a vicious curse at others._

Lightning leaned back to peer at the ocean waves. They seemed calm enough, at least so close to the shore. _I'll think about it._

 _A wise choice._ She swore the island slowly winked at her, but she couldn't possibly see the other eye, one which she assumed was on the other side of the sloped beach, beyond the long grove of trees. _Does your companion have anything further to ask of me?_

 _I don't think so._ Lightning looked at how Fang seemed quite eager to fly again. _If you ever hear the words of a pine tree, or a chestnut... You can give them my regards._

The island's inner voice chucked, long and deep. _I know not the nature of trees, other than the roots that rest upon my back... But a voice is a voice, little more._ He slowly closed his luminous eye, and it did not open again. _You seem to have friends in many places._

Lightning kept silent for a very long moment, just listening to the sea. She could hear no voices of her own, no whispers on the wind, but she felt almost sure that the island's words were true.

"Light?" Fang called out from across the beach. "Nice tailwind coming in from the north; we should hop right on it."

"Alright, on my way." Lightning took one last look at the eye of the beast, the whale of an island beneath her. _I'm not usually one to make friends._

 _The world is vast and listless without them_. _You would do well to favor the ones you have._ The island's presence almost seemed to sigh, though it seemed somewhat contented. _For how else could a minnow grow wings?_

Lightning slowly rose to her feet with her sword at her belt, with the strong winds in her hair and a sense of utter strength in her eyes, no matter how much her soul pained her. She stepped beside that massive eye, an old dreamer from the darkest of the ocean depths, and she strode on towards Fang, walking without a doubt nearby to see.

* * *

They flew fast to reach the other beasts of the sea, where the foliage grew quite so low and sparse, a mere ten years of age. Lightning stepped across the ocean waves, feeling the spray against her boots, and she breathed deeply of the salty winds.

"You want to try and talk to this one?" Fang had only landed there to poke at the sand and see if it was quite the same as the last island. "Or should we get going?"

"You can see where it ends near the fin." Lightning pointed out towards the edge of the floating island, where the sand dropped off so sharply against the sea, but a long, narrow mass of earth curved out further than the rest of it, as long as a small field. "When I was detached, I saw what looked like a giant whale."

Fang walked over to gaze at the land beneath the waves. "This one looks smaller..." She glanced around at the entire island. "Makes sense, if it's younger than the first one."

Lightning turned to approach Fang's nearest wing. "While the wind's still strong."

Fang smiled softly, and when Lightning clambered up her shoulders to sit atop her back, she moved to start walking off along the beach. "We'll be there within the week, you know."

"I know." Lightning tried not to grit her teeth with something inside her twinged, aching so silently. "So... Let's go."

"Alright boss." Fang chuckled as she moved off into motion, enough to run across the pale white sand, above the crashing green waves of the sea. "Hang on, now!"

Lightning closed her eyes when the first wind took them away, when Fang flapped those mighty wings to send them so very high, a small kite lost within the wild breeze, soaring higher and faster than they had ever risen up before.

 _Nothing like an ocean wind..._ Fang stretched her wings to let it carry her aloft. _Can't wait for the next hurricane._

Lightning could only roll her eyes.

* * *

The southern sea was vast and varied, a true rainbow of hues and shapes. Islands speckled the water like lost little emerald jewels, as if scattered there by the hand of a god, tossed this way and that. The sea churned with such life and color; animals that fed upon the unusual algae often took on strange colorations of their own, and the animals that fed upon each other sometimes inherited such peculiar traits. Green dolphins leapt and danced above the waves with their indigo cousins, and here and there one could see even more unusual colors, but they were more far and few between.

After two steady days of travel, they sold the caiman hide on a rather large island with a massive harbor, a trade city of the southern fleets. Lightning took a moment just to watch the people at their day's work, bustling around and chatting with each other, and her gaze lingered upon the fishmongers. Fishwives, they were often called, women of sharp tongues and even sharper wit, and she watched the way that one of them hacked off the head of a massive tuna with only a single slash of her cleaver.

"Lively, isn't it?" Fang's voice drifted in from somewhere just behind her. "Always loved this kind of place."

Lightning blinked when a thin wreath of colorful flowers was gently placed around her neck. "Reminds me of home."

Fang moved to rest her arms against the railing of the harbor platform, right beside where Lightning stood. "I'll bet you were the best fisher they had."

Lightning snorted softly, almost inaudible. "No... I was good, but I wasn't that good." She briefly flicked her hand to gesture at the docks below, at the workers who hauled in such massive nets of fish from the boats, loading them up into crates or carts or buckets of fresh salt water. "I've always been more of a hunter than a trawler."

Fang peered out at all of the colorful ships. "Trawler?"

"Yeah, dragging the net behind the boat to scoop up fish." Lightning looked down at the almost identical flower necklace that Fang wore. "It's the most effective way to bring in a massive haul."

"Hm." Fang smiled against the brisk ocean winds. "Not as fun as angling, I'd bet."

Lightning bit back a smirk, before she leaned away from the wooden railing. "You'd win that bet."

They soon walked across the long base of the many piers, past the moored ships and the little huts built beside the sandy beach, traveling on until they were alone again, far beneath the towering trees of the island.

"I hope you didn't have to pay for these." Lightning slowly twirled one of the little flowers around the thin piece of twine. "That's how they tax tourists, you know."

"It was cheap." Fang lifted her own necklace over her head. "Hold onto mine 'til we land?"

Lightning closed her eyes when Fang draped it around her neck. "It's starting to feel like you're spoiling me."

"You'd never spoil." As Fang leaned in to adjust the necklaces together, her voice almost sounded like a purr. "A sweetheart like you doesn't go bad from a little pampering..." She leaned back to examine her handiwork. "The colors compliment your hair."

Lightning looked down at the creamy white flowers at her neck, marked in the center by a rather soft shade of yellow. "Plumeria." She turned her gaze to Fang's addition. "Tuberose."

Fang quirked an eyebrow at that. "You know your flowers."

"I grew up learning them." Lightning touched one of the soft little petals, brushing her fingertips against it. "That perfume of yours..."

Fang smiled softly, almost a smirk.

"You're wearing it again." Lightning slowly leaned a bit closer. "It smells nice."

"Just nice?" Fang lifted her hand to stroke one of Lightning's cheeks. "I think it's a lot better than that... You want a closer sniff?"

Lightning's teeth chased her own bottom lip, but she didn't lean in any further. "We're out in the open... And we're not on the next island yet."

"Hm." Fang trailed her fingertips over Lightning's ear, into the soft locks of her hair. "Maybe when we land for the night... You know, I still owe you that dance."

Lightning almost shivered when Fang leaned in to kiss her cheek.

"Not too many ships around the little islands." Fang lowered her voice to a soft murmur. "Nobody around... Unless the damn thing itself was a whale."

Lightning bit down on her bottom lip to keep from exhaling in mirth.

"Or had a talking tree on it." Fang gently stroked Lightning's cheek again. "No privacy at all, eh?"

"We've already had our share." Lightning leaned back when Fang moved her hand away. "But that dance has had a long time coming, hasn't it?"

"Hard to show you a dragon dance when the world's not so fond of dragons." Fang stepped away in a flash of light and color, until she stared right back at Lightning with the watchful eyes of a wyrm, a far darker green than the sea. "Tonight, love... It's much better in the dark."

* * *

Lightning would later wonder if it was even worth it to let go of Fang. She was just pressed up so beautifully, snuggled there against her, and when Fang slowly moved to lean away, Lightning only tightened her grip.

"Always cuddly after dinner, aren't you..?" Fang spoke in a low murmur. "I thought you wanted me to dance."

Lightning hugged her closer, and she hooked her chin against Fang's shoulder. It just felt too good, too warm, even with the crackling campfire beside them. Her stomach felt quite full of the fish that Fang had caught for them, and her head swam with the feeling of such pure contentment, enough to dull away the twinging pain. But without Fang there, resting against the blankets with her, she was sure she would feel much less comfortable.

"You feeling okay?" Fang traced her fingertips in slow circles, stroking them against Lightning's back. "...Talk to me, Light."

Lightning felt those soft little touches against the fabric of her blouse, but she only closed her eyes, holding her arms a bit tighter around Fang.

Fang's voice was just a whisper, a breath of air beneath the swift crackle of the campfire. "Does it still hurt?"

Lightning nodded slightly, and she exhaled when Fang stroked her nearest shoulder blade.

"How much?" Fang rubbed her thumb just a bit deeper, massaging the tender skin. "I could try to patch it up again."

"It's alright..." Lightning slowly leaned back to rest beside Fang, close enough that their noses touched. "I'm just a little tired."

Fang reached up to stroke Lightning's cheek. "Worried about you."

"Don't be." Lightning slowly covered Fang's hand in her own. "I haven't gone this far to let it stop me."

"Does it hurt as much as it did before?" Fang turned her hand to twine their fingertips together. "Thought it'd be healing up by now."

"Wounds always hurt while they're healing." Lightning slowly moved to sit up against the blankets, but she kept holding on to Fang's hand. "I'll be alright."

"If you say so..." Fang leaned up as well, moving to rest against her knees. "It's dark enough now."

Lightning looked up at the sky, yet her eyes fluttered shut when she felt a warm kiss pressed against the curve of her neck.

"Let me show you..." Fang murmured each word against her skin. "Let me show you, Light."

Lightning squeezed Fang's hand, before she slowly untangled their fingertips. "Okay."

Fang smiled against her neck, but the warmth soon drifted away, and her footsteps padded ever so softly against the sand.

Lightning felt her heartbeat quicken when Fang turned to face her, when those eyes suddenly drew her gaze in, far more mystifying than she had ever seen them before. They were sharp eyes, like the claws of a wild cat; they could be as soft and as silky as fur, but the force behind them was always, _always_ present.

"Watch close, love." And with those words she changed herself, a form of dark scales and muscle, of tall horns that almost seemed paler than silver beneath the haze of the glowing moonlight.

 _I still don't want to let her go._ Lightning realized it as Fang moved to glide across the sand, leaping off with a running start into the air, still as graceful as a sheet of silk. _She wanted to be mine..._

Fang flew off into the darkness, a shadow on the wind, and if it wasn't for the light of the moon, she could have been invisible. The sky was speckled with stars, but Lightning could barely even track where Fang was without the subtle sheen of moonlight, just enough to reflect against her scales.

And in that midnight air, Fang climbed higher and higher, flapping her wings harder and harder, circling so very high above the tiny island. Lightning swore she could nearly feel it, and her heart thudded almost painfully, so much that her breath felt quite lost inside her throat. She knew it was foolish to think of such things, but not being able to see much of her there, just a glimmer of motion in the starry sky...

Fang stilled in midair, drifting for just a split moment of time, before she tucked her wings in and fell.

Lightning almost rose to her feet in concern, but that first hint of sparking light told her otherwise. Fang had meant to fall from the start, a display of her mastery over the air, over the sky she flew within. The island suddenly felt so small beneath Lightning's feet, as if the sky itself had opened up with a silently whooshing roar, erasing the sand away, the swaying palm trees, everything but that whirling wyrm of the boundless night.

Her spine bowed against the inky black sly, illuminated by that first sharp breath of the fire, a plume of deep red and flickering white, a trail of flame around her, a sash of deadly heat. She whirled to the side and spun as if she was weightless, as if the air around her was only working to keep her aloft, as if gravity had to words to say. A flap of her wings cast the fire all around, so much that the smoke began to swirl out as well, so bright and luminous, reflecting each flare of the flame and the sparkling snap of heat.

Lightning felt her heart twinge, but there was much less pain to the feeling. She watched those graceful spins, the lash of Fang's tail against such colorful smoke, the coil of her muscles and the pushing force of those mighty wings, shaping the fire itself. It was a veil, a snare, a gown and a shackle all at once, the flames that licked and curled and billowed out all around her, but Fang held the key to the heat itself, the breath that she pushed from her lungs. It was alive, Lightning realized, a part of her soul that leapt and burned with her own life force, fire from something less than physical, yet not intangible, some form of paradox that cared little beyond finding more air to grasp.

Fang lifted herself again, rising above the swirls of smoke and fire, mimicking her first ascent. She leaned backwards, a graceful arch to her spine, yet she tucked her wings in as she plummeted, falling once more, though she did not unfurl them again.

Lightning nearly winced at the sudden halt of motion, the hissing splash that signaled Fang's descent into the sea, but when she looked up at that mighty plume of smoke, the pillar of fire that slowly gave way to sheer color...

Fang broke her way back to the surface with a laughing whoop of sound, and she flapped her wings down with a rather sharp smack against the moonlit saltwater. "How about that?!"

Lightning stared at those swirling lights, and a smile slowly crept over her lips.

"Haven't done it in years..." Fang clambered back up to the sand, and she began to shake off the water from her scales quite vigorously. "Told you I can dance."

"You can." Lightning slowly crossed her legs against the blanket, sitting there while Fang shook herself again. "That was... Impressive."

"Glad you approve." Fang's voice held more than a slight swell of pride. "It lasts like that for a couple of hours, just as long as the moon hits it right..." She craned her neck to peer up at her handiwork, before she made her way back towards the soft blankets and the grass. "So, did it hold up to your expectations?"

Lightning blinked when Fang changed back into a human form. "I told you, it was impressive."

"Suppose that's good enough." Fang smiled in that toothy way of hers. "Would've been more fun if you were dancing with me, though."

Lightning moved back to give Fang some more room on the blankets. "I can't fly."

"Hm." Fang slowly settled herself there, gazing up at the colorful spire of smoke. "Suppose that'd hinder it a bit..." She yawned almost silently, before she rolled over to rest on her side. "You sleepy yet, Light?"

"Not after that." Lightning didn't want to admit how fast her heart had been beating. "Well, tired, yes... But for a moment there, I thought you were really going to fall."

"Me? Fall?" Fang smirked so softly at that, just a gentle twitch of her lips. "I've only ever fallen once... And that was before I could fly." She didn't care to count the point when she had toppled within that strange realm of the godlike artifact, nor afterwards, when she was plummeting down towards the city; it had been inflicted by some strange sort of physical illusion, after all.

Lightning leaned back against the blankets, laying there as well. She reached out to curl a lock of that wild hair around her index finger, and she studied the look in Fang's eyes.

"I'm glad you've been taking it easy." Fang lowered her voice to a whisper. "Even dragons have their bad days, Light... We're only human, too."

"You're more than human." Lightning let the lock of hair go loose, and it remained a little curly from her touch. "You're still human, but... You were right before, we match, but we're not equals." She almost closed her eyes when Fang moved closer. "I'm not as much as you, but that's... That's okay with me."

"Light." Fang traced a soft line down Lightning's slender neck. "Don't say that."

"It's the truth." Lightning looked up at the smoky sky. "I am what I am, and you are what you are; I'm only human." She felt a tightness settle inside her lungs again. "...Just another scar, isn't it?" Lightning touched the part of her chest that held her heart, where that wild burst of magic had struck so deeply. "Your scales don't scar."

Fang seemed only a mere moment away from frowning. "Light..."

"It had a scar on its throat; I opened it up when I killed it." Lightning wished that her voice wouldn't crack so much. "Dragons don't scar, do they?"

"Lightning." Fang reached in to drape her arm against Lightning's waist, gently drawing her close. "What's gone is gone... What's done is done."

Lightning kept silent for a very long while. "To the future, then?"

Fang hugged her then, and she exhaled when Lightning hugged back. "To the future... We'll make it happen however we like."

* * *

The dream that took her swirled with the sound of leaves in the wind, and when she opened her eyes, she felt the weight of a knapsack on her shoulders.

No matter how much of a lion she was, Fang's past self felt quite sure that Lightning always moved far more like a rabbit. Her haunches spoke of untapped strength, the power of a long flying leap that could see almost anything put to death beneath those teeth and claws, but she carried herself closer to the ground than any wildcat Fang had ever seen. She took more of a loping stride, carefully placing her paws against each little ledge and foothold, and it was clear how much of an influence her first sigil took within each of her other forms.

But how had they found themselves there, trekking out through the thick marshlands, and then the cliffsides with only Lightning's guidance to point their way? The deep heat of summer, a summer beyond the time when Lightning had first mentored her in the art of herbs and otherwise, past the autumn when Fang had first seen the unbridled power of her true sigil, past the winter when Lightning grew much less energetic than before, more content to simply curl up beside the hearth with a good book in her hands, past the height of that one fateful night, a night when Fang realized just what had brought her there in the first place.

The beginning of that tale, Fang thought while she stepped over a sharp gap in the mountain trail, the beginning had started just as innocuously as anything else... And like Lightning, a lion who lived without a proud mane or the sound of a roar, it had started rather silently.

Fang had since convinced her into more herbalism lessons, and it soon culminated in the process of tending to rarer, more difficult materials, which found them sitting in the basement one day. Lightning sat directly behind Fang, guiding her with both hands; there had been a paring knife in Fang's grip, as well as a strange stalk of plant life that almost seemed to gleam beneath the candlelight.

Lightning had explained how difficult it was to harvest such a thing, for the squishy little seeds would burst at the slightest bit of mistreatment, ruining the latent medicinal qualities inside. Fang soon realized that it was rather like an exotic fruit she had once seen, the tropical pomegranate with arils that shone like tiny rubies. The outer stalk of the plant she was holding, however, seemed as tough as the bark of a tree, and it took a considerable amount of pressure to cut through it with the knife, but Lightning had made her practice beforehand on different plants, so the first cut slid smoothly, if only slightly off mark.

And that was how it happened, how Lightning leaned forward with only the intent to see how good of a job Fang had done, but an unexpected movement sent her mouth to suddenly brush against Fang's ear, a 'kiss' born of innocence, so unintentional, but it made her face flush all the same. Fang had seen it in the reflection on one of the glass herb cases, a sight that revealed just how much Lightning's cheeks could be stained pink without her willing them to, yet they both merely sat there in silence, at least until Fang decided to turn in place.

Lightning took hold of herself within an instant, fighting back the blush without a sound, but when Fang slowly reached up to brush her fingertips against Lightning's own ear, they both found that they could scarcely look away from one another.

Of course, Fang had already kissed her on the forehead, and there had often been those chaste little touches, a shoulder brushing against one another, an elbow to the ribs in jest, but it had always been quite different until then. Lightning wasn't one to give herself in towards nervousness, and Fang could see the sheer bravery in those keen blue eyes, no matter how fast her pulse was throbbing near the base of her throat.

"It's alright." Fang knew that those were the only words that would pass between them, for Lightning had already reached up while Fang was still touching her ear, and she'd slowly twined her fingertips down into that dark mane of hair, feeling the untamed locks that matched her own nature, somehow.

For she was wild as well. She was a witch of the deep wilderness, a woman who stood beneath the mark of the moon, prone to shifting moods that ranged from a slight change of temperature to the weather itself, even to the celestial bodies above... Or perhaps it was the other way around. Fang could scarcely think much on the matter, not when Lightning seemed so very intent on shattering the distance between them, on exploring what it felt like to truly kiss her. She wasn't tentative in the slightest, but there was a certain sense that Lightning had never kissed anyone before, as each testing little touch spoke the truth of the matter, for Fang knew what it felt like to kiss someone who hadn't ever tried such things.

There had never been much reason for Fang to stay in one place, as she'd been a hunter of fugitives and those on the run from the law, which made her own location a bit unpredictable and unplanned. There had been more than a night or two when her inner need for companionship ranged a bit beyond what she usually sought, and it had been quite simple to just go and sit down beside someone at an inn, perhaps winning their affections by speaking of the excitement of her profession. Kisses came quite easily, and more often than not, she'd end up with someone who giggled right off to bed with her; a woman from the city in grand heights of the mighty kingdoms, a traveling merchant with a wit as sharp as her blades, or a simple maid with a warm smile and a sense of strength that could keep her just as contented as any other. Yet they were all just passing little fancies, a mere moment of bliss and needed release, before Fang parted with them by way of a simple farewell, off to keep up after her quarries again.

But Lightning, Lightning was somehow so very different. Fang realized it when she was gently pressed up against the wall of the stone basement, taken by the grip of someone who had once helped her in ways she could scarcely begin to express, saving the one she held so dearly from the depths of that terrible curse.

Lightning wasn't the same as any other. None of the women she'd kissed before ever had that whirling heat to their stance, nor the rush of a hurricane inside each of her silent touches, no matter how impossible it sounded. It had always been women, Fang mused, for that one moment during a rather rowdy summer festival, the one time when she had kissed the chatty man sitting at the bar beside her out of a sense of natural curiosity, there had just been something... _Lacking_ from the gesture, no matter how a kind of a fellow he was. They had already talked and caroused for at least a few hours beforehand, and she'd bought him another drink due to something that felt like guilt, but when she confessed that the gesture hadn't given her much to dwell on, he'd merely laughed and clapped his hand against her shoulder. He'd said that if he was the only man she'd ever kiss in her life, that he was rather glad it had been him and no other.

Yet she suddenly held a feeling that she might never kiss anyone else in the world, man, woman or otherwise, not when Lightning's breath sent such a fire into her blood, claiming the sheer red need inside her heart, stoking the power in her limbs. Yet they parted without a sound, only a sharp whisper of breath, and Lightning simply sat there beside her, as if she might have been truly wondering whether or not she had overstepped her bounds. But Fang merely lifted her hand again, stroking each of her knuckles so gently against Lightning's cheek, against the skin that always seemed to flush so much quicker within the autumn months, as if the colors of the leaves held some deep influence over her.

It was only days later, beneath another full moon, only then did Lightning dance within her first sigil, revealing her true hues. Fang watched with bated breath, for the soft brown color almost seemed to have fallen away with the changing seasons, revealing the swift little rabbit who ran with a coat of something otherworldly, a pure creature of the moon, a beast of pale green that glowed so softly beneath that heavenly light, as if she was none other than a true luna moth.

Much later on, those long hours after Lightning retired from her silent frolic beneath the stars, she'd crept up beside Fang to become human again in only an instant of time. She blinked at the look of awe in her eyes, before Lightning moved to lean against Fang's shoulder with a sense of contented drowsiness. It was the first time she had ever let Fang carry her home, and she'd gently wrapped her arms around her neck as they journeyed back to the little house beneath the falling leaves. Lightning hummed something under her breath, a tune that Fang swore sounded too familiar, but there was little time to dwell on it.

The door soon creaked open with just a nudge from Fang's shoulder, before it quickly locked itself behind her with that strange magic, some odd enchantment that she swore Lightning must have used. And then, Fang suddenly realized that she was just standing there, wondering when Lightning would show any signs of wanting to be away from her arms. She seemed almost content to rest there for a while, even if Fang wasn't sure what else to do but wait and listen.

"It's getting late." Lightning's eyes were already half-closed, and the lamplight had grown quite dim within the parlor, for they'd both been out beneath the moon for several hours. "Wouldn't be surprised if it was morning soon..."

Fang kept utterly silent. She was holding Lightning from under her knees, with her other hand wrapped beneath her upper back, yet those gentle arms at her neck almost seemed to hug her much closer, as if she was rather reluctant to leave. But they were back home again, weren't they? Fang's place was in the armchair, while Lightning would be going off to her own room to sleep... So why did it seem so very hard to move away from that one spot?

Eventually, Lightning shifted a bit, nudging her nose against Fang's cheek, before she moved her legs to signal that she should be put down. Fang did so without speaking, at least until Lightning curled her hands back up into those long, dark locks of hair.

"Am I really that frightening?" Lightning spoke so quietly that Fang could scarcely even hear her, despite how close she was. "Those old stories... Do you think witches really kidnap the bad little children and turn them into toads, or weasels? Do you think they hunt down sinners and rip their hearts away?" She suddenly held that same dark purr to her voice, something that set Fang's nerves straight on end, even if she didn't feel the slightest hint of fear. "You aren't still here to learn from me, are you?"

Fang finally spoke, but it almost felt as if her voice was chained inside her throat. "...I like you."

"At first I thought you'd have to... Put up with me." Lightning's fingertips almost felt like claws within Fang's hair, but they were still so very gentle, just a teasing little touch. "Witches are left alone for a reason."

Fang suddenly moved, then, just a slight grip against Lightning's back, a hold born of resistance to what she said. "That's not true... They come to you for help." She held Lightning there, right up against herself, and she could smell those rich scents of the forest, of the fallen leaves and the crisp autumn wind, even the swirling aroma of the wild apples that they had both harvested over the past few days. "I've seen the cures you make for them."

"But then they always leave." Lightning's grip went slack, and she let her hands drift away from Fang's hair. "They have their own lives to live; there's no reason to stay near something dangerous."

Fang had almost thought to protest, but she'd already seen more than a few hints of what Lightning's anger truly brought. It would be only weeks later, far beyond that moonlit night, it was a moment when a certain sound crashed an rumbled right through the gnarled autumn trees, stirring up the leaves that had since fallen and left the branches bare.

Blood, there had been blood trickling down her cheek, and Fang rushed to her feet at the sight of it, yet Lightning merely eluded her attempts of aid, choosing instead to bar herself up inside the bathroom while the wind howled on in wake of that terrible sound, raging and battering at the windows from outside, at least until Fang finally heard the soft creak of the water pump.

"Light?" Fang remembered sitting there beside the bathroom door, yet she couldn't quite tell why her voice had gone so hoarse. "What happened?"

Lightning didn't answer, not for a long time. When she finally did, it was only after the sharp gales had since slowed outside, when the leaves had stopped whirling and rushing all around. "I told you there's a reason I chose to live here." Her voice sounded quite different as well, as if she was rather pained. "It's just... I don't like it whenever you go into the deeper woods without me."

Fang's brow almost furrowed at the sudden change in subject. "What do you mean?"

"I know you don't do it very often, but every time-" Lightning paused, and Fang could just barely hear the sound of the rippling bathwater. "I don't want to lose you."

Fang almost frowned at that, but she just lifted her head to try and hear what else was happening inside, but she could only make out the gentle swishing of the water and the distant sounds of the wind. "Can I come in?"

Minutes passed by in silence, before Lightning murmured a soft agreement.

Fang stood to push the door open, and she glanced off to the side when she saw that Lightning was indeed there beneath the water, before she slowly walked over to kneel beside the long wooden tub. "What happened out there?"

Lightning had already washed away most of the blood from her face, but there was a narrow cut on her cheek that ran all the way up to her forehead, and it was still bleeding quite steadily. "I chased it off for now... It won't be back again unless it feels bold enough."

Fang frowned again, but she still didn't move her gaze towards anything but that reddened injury. "What _happened_ to you?"

Lightning just kept resting there against the edge of the tub. She closed her eyes almost regally, as if her pride kept her from revealing how she'd received such an injury, at least until Fang reached up to stroke at her chin. "I know what the stories say about us... We turn into trees when we die, or we just become ghosts and haunt the place we died in." She began to grit her teeth together when Fang's gaze hovered over the wound. "The only real way to kill a witch is to make sure that she's forgotten... Witches don't have friends, so it's simple enough to accomplish."

"Light." Fang waited until Lightning's eyes drifted open once more, and she locked her gaze there, verdant green against the sharp blue of such sudden ice, a frost that sought to strike away any threats from within the dark woods beyond. "You know you can talk to me."

Lightning glanced down at herself, so bare and open, despite her own inner nature. She almost seemed to want to cover herself, even when Fang kept her gaze away from such a revelation. "I told you to watch yourself in these woods." She slowly rubbed the wound on her cheek, before she let her gaze drift back up towards Fang. "I only have one friend here besides you, and he watches to make sure that nothing gets close enough to hurt me, but he can't prevent everything." Lightning closed her eyes again, and she slowly shook her head back and forth. "When he calls for help, I have to answer him... Even if I means I'll get hurt."

Fang swore that she felt more confused than before, but the dream swirled on without much more on the matter. She could only let herself drift within it, lost inside that sea of warm moments and little snippets of a past life, yet Fang soon found herself standing near Lightning again, who had since bandaged up the wound with thin cloth and a poultice of herbs.

"We've still got the one to the west to harvest, don't we?" Fang's past life seemed rather intent on keeping up with the chores that she'd been assigned, for she was rather busy with scrubbing down a worktable while Lightning rested there upon her favorite armchair. "Or is it too late in the season to get another batch from it?"

"We have until the frost sets in..." Lightning glanced up at her, before she looked down at the thick scrub brush in Fang's grip. "Take a break from that."

Fang gave her a rather curious glance. "What?"

"I told you, witches don't hold debts..." Lightning quickly looked away, and she shifted slightly against the armchair, rather like a hedgehog who wanted her prickles to lift up and shelter her entire body. "You don't have to do things like that; I'm not teaching you as much now."

"It's alright." Fang just kept scrubbing at the table. "If it helps you out, then I don't mind doing stuff like this... We're friends, aren't we? Friends do this kind of thing."

Lightning's bristled state almost seemed to soften, but only for just a moment. "Friends." The bandage creased with the sudden smirk that crossed her lips, a gesture that looked almost bitter, but only because she tried to hide it away. "Is being friends... Is it supposed to feel like this?"

Fang paused at that, and she slowly placed the scrub brush down, before she wandered over to stand beside Lightning's chair. "And how do you feel?"

Lightning glanced away, then back again, and the slightest of smirks slowly began to return. "How long have we known each other? Since you came to learn from me, I mean."

Fang took a moment to mentally count the months; she had ventured back into the forest in the height of spring, and she'd spent that time as well as the following summer learning whatever Lightning could possibly teach her. It had since grown to be late autumn, approaching the deep chills of winter. "A little less than seven months."

"Is that fast?" Lightning glanced out at one of the windows, one that was no longer bordered by so many leafy vines, only the gnarled remnants of the plants that would someday bloom again, within another springtime. "Friends don't... They don't kiss each other, not like we did."

Fang slowly knelt down beside the chair, and she placed her hand against one of the cushioned arms. "My mom used to call my dad her best friend." She closed her eyes when Lightning slowly twined their fingertips together. "I think being friends is just... It's just like a stepping stone, you know? You can stand on it for as long as you like, but there's always another stone you can reach, it just takes time to find it."

They would wait there in the coziness of that room, enjoying the warmth of each other's hand, until time began to swirl again. Fang was left in a world of slowly falling flakes, where the sky was suddenly dappled with such thick clouds, deep gray shades that rolled on against the darkness of the night sky. She peered at them from behind the cold glass of a window, until something warm gently touched around her waist, before something else pressed itself against her, snuggling there against her back.

"It's cold." Lightning was wrapped up in a thick blanket, but she looked rather the same as Fang had known during that first fateful winter; it was as if the land changed with her, full and vibrant in the spring and summer, bold and powerful within the heights of autumn, but then she would fade ever so slightly, as if to fall asleep until the warmth came back into the world again. "It'll be even colder in here, at least without more blankets."

Fang spared a glance towards the armchair that she usually slept in, which stood opposite to Lightning's favorite chair. "I can manage." But her voice grew very soft when Lightning hugged around her waist, though not quite in a way that clung to her, for there was something within the gesture that exuded a sense of deep confidence, as if she belonged right there with her.

"I've been having more dreams about you." Lightning spoke against the soft mane of Fang's hair, nestled right up against her. "Dreams that almost feel real."

Fang closed her eyes at that, for her past life had been dreaming of such things as well. Her current self almost wanted to laugh at the sudden pang of nervousness in her stomach, that telltale sign of someone who had fallen right in over her head, somewhat wary of such commitment. She found that she wanted to assure her past life, just to tell her to take on such things with stride, that Lightning wasn't someone to frightened of loving, no matter how intense she could be... Or how very tired she seemed of waiting for Fang to stop acting so courteous and chaste.

But she was still a bit daunted the first time, though not outwardly, not even when she felt herself eagerly kissing back against such untapped fervor, awakened by the sheer hunger in Lightning's grip. She'd brought Fang to that quiet little room, urging her to sit against the bed, and something was swiftly kindled inside her, something she had never known before, and it made her shiver far harder than any casual little moment had ever inflicted. She felt the gentle pressure of those hips, the heat of Lightning's skin and tongue, the silky feeling of her fingertips against those garments, lost of the thick blanket she had worn. She'd been nudged back, further and further towards the center of the bed, enough that Lightning had practically pressed her down against the sheets, though she seemed almost just as weightless as her name.

She was leaning further and further over the edge of a sheer cliff, teetering there without the balance of wings, but a single warm breath brought her each of her limbs to life with what felt like a thousand feathers, and she wanted so very, very badly to fall.

Lightning led her to such a state, tangled there beneath the sheets, kissing, whispering, gasping and murmuring, even if Fang had a feeling that she was still at an advantage when it came to experience. Lightning made up for it with such a silent, needy eagerness; like everything else she did, it was almost unerringly quiet, except for when she was finally given exactly what she'd just done towards Fang, only then did she tremble beneath the silken blankets and cry out so softly against Fang's shoulder.

Fang murmured under her breath, moving in the way that she knew would make Lightning feel even more desperate and breathless and _wild_. It was all a blur, for before she even knew it, she had been pinned on her back with a hard nipping bite at the throat, touched in ways that made her writhe and and pant and give right in towards the whims of what Lightning sought, something so carnal, primal, yet innocent at all the same time, utterly natural within some deep, dark, loving sense. They were both safe there in the shadows, against the soft blankets of the bed, somewhere silent and peaceful that they managed to shatter for just a moment in time, panting and whimpering so softly against the same invisible force that drove them to be together.

When she'd found that same blinding release again, when she was limp and spent and twitching so smoothly beneath each of Lightning's constant touches, Fang felt her eyes slip shut with a low groan against her lips. Only in that moment did she realize how foolish it was to have ever felt the slightest bit afraid of her. In that same natural way, so much that it almost felt inevitable, like a sharp stroke of fate, Lightning's sheer presence began to breach some gap that Fang had never known was there before, swirling and touching and filling her with a sense of utter contentment, enough that she silently wished for her to never leave her side again.

A slight flush flooded to life when Fang suddenly tensed up with another shuddering cry, finding bliss once more at her steady touch. Lightning fought her own blush away, and she just stroked her yet again, still moving into the long hours of the night, slowly painting out a memory that would rush right back with such vibrancy whenever either of them thought back to that first time together.

It was only long after that, yet perhaps no so long, in truth... It was when the sunlight slowly filtered in against the wrinkled surface of the bed sheets, it was in that quiet moment when Fang finally forced herself to open her eyes, to gaze upon the one who slept so close beside her, near enough to feel her gentle heartbeat. Fang had since wrapped her arms around her, drawing Lightning against herself, yet she didn't seem to mind at all, not with that look of serenity on her slumbering face, nor the utter limpness that seemed to claim each of her tired limbs.

Fang didn't want to move an inch. She slowly closed her eyes again, for she felt the way that Lightning breathed so gently against her skin, and how her heartbeat kept thrumming on beside her own chest, brought there by a sense of something so loving... But were they truly in love? Fang tried not to let herself think too deeply on that, but it just kept flooding right back in to nag at her, even when Lightning murmured softly in her sleep, enough to make her heart feel like it was just melting up inside her. Was it love to find solace in something so primal? To seek the warmth of another, someone who wasn't always so prickly and harsh... She was someone who could place her trust in another, who could curl up beside her and share herself against the winter chills, warm as the little rabbit she once took for her very first sigil, a witch of the watchful moon.

It was in that moment that Fang knew she could never let go so easily, that she couldn't just walk off on her way and leave Lightning behind like all of those she had touched before. She realized, with a sense of something that almost felt like fear, that the others, they had never truly touched _her_ , at least not in the same sense. Not in the way that made every nerve in her body sing as if Lightning owned the gesture itself, as if she was something that had suddenly bonded inside her, making it all feel as if her presence could never leave that inner space again, her own little corner inside Fang's heart.

When Fang felt the flutters in her stomach settle to a reasonable degree, once the quiet shock of waking up beside Lightning had died down into something more warm and amorous, she slowly moved her arms away from her, but not before she pulled a few of the blankets closer against that slumbering form, enough to keep her warm within the sudden absence. It would be nice, Fang thought, if she made breakfast at such an hour, perhaps something that she could surprise Lightning with, something to convey what she was feeling in the wake of such affections.

It was easy enough to dress herself in her underclothes, and it was a quick walk into the hallway, off towards the short flight of stairs that led down into the basement; that was where Lightning kept the perishable foods. It was quite cool and dry beneath the earth, and there was little in the form of decay, proved by the many loose bundles of medicinal herbs she would keep hanging from the walls... Or perhaps Lightning's magic also had some say in the matter of preservation.

Fang soon stepped down and glanced around for a certain crate, one that held the very prize that she had recently discovered in the woods. It was not an easy task to impress Lightning, but a large bushel of a rather rare tuber species brought more than a strong hint of a smile to her lips, and she'd even helped Fang clean and prepare the roots for storage, where they would last for several months without giving way to rot or sprouts.

She opened the crate, retrieved a few of her prize findings, before she carried them back up the stairs and through the main hallway, towards the hearth that only burned with the slightest of dwindling embers. It had mostly died down in the chill of the night, so Fang moved to add a few small logs and branches into the fire, likely those that she herself had collected from the forest. She knelt down to prod a metal fire poker against the tiny flames, stoking them up into a soft roar of fire, before she started to cut up the tubers with a knife from the nearby table.

The snowflakes outside fell silently while she worked. The fire wasn't yet hot enough to cook the little vegetable chunks, but Fang planned to prepare them in a mixture of salt and Lightning's favorite spices, a blend of herbs and a few rather foreign types of bark, the kind that she would often harvest from the warmest parts of the forest, tending the trees that had never grown in such a place before.

Yet as Fang worked, even those comforting little cracks and pops of the wood fire couldn't conceal the sudden tapping sound that echoed in from one of the front windows. She didn't tense up at first, for it could have very well just been a fallen branch, or a thick clump of icy snow, but when she glanced over to take in the sudden sight of a most unusual creature...

It was a raven, not a crow, Fang knew it by the shaggy feathers that stood near the creature's throat, as well as the slightly curved beak, but the fact that truly surprised her was the _color_ of said beak, not to mention the pale white hue of those long, shaggy feathers. The beast was waiting quite patiently, so Fang took a rather long moment just to stare at the faint pink color of that beak, not to mention the keen blue eyes that watched her every move. Though she soon realized that they were utterly gentle eyes, somehow, displaying a sense of curiosity rather than any form of malice, and there, in the raven's grasp, was a rolled-up scroll of parchment.

Fang rose to her feet, but before she could even approach the hall that led towards Lightning's bedroom, Lightning herself appeared in a rather groggy state of being. Though she spared a rather small smile at the meal Fang had been attending to, she said not a single word.

The raven croaked rather gratefully when Lightning opened up the window to let him inside, and he soon moved to perch upon her wrist and offer out the parchment to her.

"Hello Mog." Lightning spoke in just a whisper, and she slowly stroked her palm against the raven's head, before she accepted the letter. When she did so, Mog flapped away to land upon the stone ledge above the hearth, warming himself within the cozy heat. "You've heard the stories about a witch's familiar, I'd guess."

Fang walked back to keep tending to the sliced tubers. "Yeah, but I thought it was just another fairy story..." She glanced up at the raven, who croaked at her, though it was uttered with a distinct _'q'_ noise, like a 'quark' rather than a true croak. "So, he's your familiar?"

Lightning almost looked confused for a moment, before she slowly shook her head. "My sister... He's Serah's familiar."

"Serah's!" The raven suddenly bobbed his head and cackled when Fang tensed at the low tone of his unusual voice, before he stepped on over towards the edge of the hearth. "Sister." He was speaking in a different voice, one that sounded far too much like Lightning's to not be uncanny, and Fang quickly realized that he was a rather excellent mimic. "Serah's sister."

"That's right." Lightning slowly unrolled the parchment, and she moved to sit down on her armchair, looking over the tidy little lines of next. "Let's see what Serah has to say."

Fang glanced up at Mog again, and when he looked back at her, she tried her best not to look too unsettled by the fact that he had been speaking in Lightning's voice. "You, you're not an albino, are you? You've got blue eyes."

"Albino?" Mog quirked his head to the side, and he changed his pitch to sound something more like Fang's tone, even to the point of mimicking the slight little twang of her accent. "Albino, albino..."

"He's lecustic, it's related to albinism." Lightning spoke in just a murmur, for her eyes never left the words of the letter, and it became quite clear that her focus was fully stolen away by whatever was written inside. "Serah..."

"Serah!" Mog croaked to himself as he fluttered down towards the low table between the armchairs, where he promptly picked up a stray spoon and strutted all around with it, ruffling up his feathers as if he was rather proud of his shiny new prize.

"You don't need a spoon." Lightning forced her attention away from the letter to hold out her hand, and she only had to wait a brief moment for Mog to flutter over and drop right down it into her grasp. "I'll get you some breakfast in a minute, just be patient."

Mog hopped up to perch against Lightning's shoulder. "Food? Food."

"Yes." Lightning turned her gaze back towards the letter. "Just be quiet for a minute."

Mog seemed to understand that much. He contented himself with settling down beside Lightning's hair, resting there on her shoulder until she was able to offer him a handful of grains and some crumbly suet, the type that she often left out for the wild birds of the forest.

When Fang looked up from her own breakfast preparations, silently wondering if she should even try to explain why she'd left Lightning alone back in bed, the look she saw on her face halted any words she might have said. Lightning held the letter quite tightly, yet her gaze wasn't one that spoke of worry or concern, merely a strange sort of acceptance, perhaps some surprise, or even slight mirth. Mog just kept gobbling down the breakfast she had given him, but he was soon offered a second gift, a letter penned by Lightning herself.

As Fang found herself in her own chair with her own share of breakfast, she watched the way that Lightning whispered something near Mog's beak, and how the raven nibbled at her hair rather affectionately, before he fluttered off to grab the letter from her palm.

"You be good, now." Lightning stood up to walk back towards the windowsill, and she patted Mog's head one more time. "Make Snow be good, too... Peck his fingers for me if he isn't."

Mog just chuckled and croaked at her, before he flared his wings and flapped off into the cold winter winds, flying away from the window. Fang's past life had wondered who 'Snow' could be, but she would only reach the first hint of an answer once the dream had swirled on yet again, towards a different day, a different season, a time when the world was just starting to grow green once again.

"I'm going to visit Serah." That was all Lightning said on the matter, other than that Fang should pack some of her belongings if she wished to come along, for the journey would not be a simple one. "It's further than most places we've gone together... A week's walk, if we're lucky."

Days later, Lightning suddenly whistled something sharp into the air before they left, but when Fang asked why she did so, she only murmured that it was to bring a friend along.

And that was how Fang found herself trudging through the deep marshes and bogs that bordered the tall mountains of the western woodlands, and it was also where she got her first true glimpse of a lion who wasn't quite as intent on intimidating her in the darkness of the night. No, the cat that Lightning became seemed far more focused on scaling the rocky peaks and traveling on towards some unspoken destination, only that it was wherever such a mysterious sister was waiting.

The feline known as the mountain lion, or the cougar, or even the puma in certain dialects, it was a beast that utterly excelled in such treacherous terrains, but Lightning always kept her pace slow enough for Fang to keep up with her. She had no claws or bounding leaps to traverse the rocks with such nimble grace, but she was quick enough in her own right, having traveled over such mountainous places even in the early times of her youth. She had been born to those who lived nomadically, the people who walked the land as if it was their own home, their own pathway in life, and she had only lost her way from them by the cruel whims of fate, not of her own intentions.

But that was a topic she never much liked to dwell on, and she had her own journey to follow, as well as her own strange companion to pry a few answers from. Speaking on the trail hardly ever worked, for a lion could hardly speak as a raven would, and Lightning seemed rather reluctant to change her forms so often.

She explained it one night, beneath the glow of a crescent moon. "It takes energy." Lightning had been leaning there against Fang's shoulder, enjoying the warmth of her presence. "My magic, I've told you the basics... I can get stuck in an animal form for a while if ever I run out of energy."

Fang almost frowned at that, but she kept most of her concerns to herself. "Does being an animal... Does it use up your magic when you're like that?"

Lightning reached out to poke at the campfire with a rather long stick. "The initial sigil does, but it doesn't drain my power continuously." She soon broke the branch in two, tossing it out into the flames to fuel them. "Think of it like... Water, if I take a drink, the bottle is a little more empty than before, and if I take too many drinks, there's not much else I can do until it fills again." Lightning closed her eyes, and she almost purred at the way Fang wrapped an arm around her waist. "Resting fills it, like the rain."

"I think I get it..." Fang peered up at the inky black sky. "And what about the moon?"

"It's like the ocean tides." Lightning still didn't open her eyes. "It pulls or pushes the water; I might feel weaker whenever the moon is waning, but I can still get a drink... It just runs out faster than before."

Fang thought back to the little green rabbit who had danced so swiftly beneath the glowing light. "What about a full moon?"

Lightning slowly let her eyes drift open. "It's like... A tidal wave." Her voice itself almost seemed to gleam with such anticipation, even if the current moon was hardly waxing. "Like I can do _anything_."

And Fang held her there, anchored to the world beneath them, as if for fear that she might just fly away upon the mere thought of it. But even in the days when the winter moon had been full, when Lightning disappeared to some place or another, likely to enjoy the boon of her power, she had always returned to Fang's arms again, resting there to ward away the frigid chills. But the world had since grown to spring again, and her hair had become so vibrant once more, less pale than it always looked within the winter, more like cherry blossoms or something just as new, just as utterly alive.

Fang felt the urge to kiss her then, curling up beside the warmth of the fire, and she almost shivered when Lightning wrapped both of her arms against her waist.

It was only when the moon began to set beneath the horizon, when the fire grew low and dim, when Fang's mouth felt quite raw and tender from so many soft, yet needy kisses, only then did she ask once more why they were traveling so far from home. "You said we're visiting Serah, but... Who's Snow?"

Lightning's gaze went just a bit colder, yet not quite enough to put Fang at unease. "Her husband."

"Ah." Fang smiled a bit, for it was probably just a case of a rather protective sister. From what Fang had heard of Serah, she was also a witch, so that streak of sisterly protectiveness likely ran far higher due their nature of necessary reclusiveness, lone outcasts from the world. "And does he have your approval?"

Lightning moved just a bit, and she almost seemed to mumble against the fur blanket that stood beneath them. She only made her words sound clearer when Fang coaxed them to life by a soft, tender touch beneath her chin. "It could be worse... He's a warlock, at least."

Fang's brow furrowed in slight confusion. "Not a witch?"

Lightning slowly bit down on her bottom lip, as if she was stifling a slight laugh. "A warlock is a male witch."

"Oh." Fang almost swore at herself for such ignorance; she had often chased down warlocks who ran afoul with the law, and the very curse that Vanille had suffered from... She suddenly felt even worse for what she'd said when she first met Lightning. "I didn't know they were the same."

"We aren't the same, not exactly." Lightning rolled over to rest against her back, gazing up at the starlit sky. "Warlocks usually have power that manifests itself physically... Witches are more subtle, but everyone tends to cross back and forth between different magics." She closed her eyes for just a moment, imagining something in the silence. "Shapeshifting is strange; it's a mix of both masculine and feminine... A masculine physical power, but it also depends on the energy inside us to create a sigil, which is usually more feminine."

Fang smiled softly. "Interesting." Her smile widened at the sleepy look in Lightning's eyes, for even a lion grew quite weary from so much steady travel. "What else can these powers of yours those do?"

Lightning reached out to gently tangle her hands into Fang's hair, but her fingertips soon began to mimic the soft scrape of claws. "Wouldn't you like to know..."

Fang exhaled softly, and she gently pulled Lightning close, holding her there in her arms and savoring the slight scratch of fingernails against her scalp, just close enough to feel like a massage. "Gotta have your mysteries, don't you?"

Lightning slowly curled up against Fang, nuzzled there against the crook of her neck and shoulder. "It keeps things interesting." Yet her words didn't sound quite as mirthful as before, and in fact, Fang realized that they were almost tinged with something resembling regret. "I'm... More than a few things, Fang, some of which I'm not so sure about."

Fang slowly stroked her hands back and forth against Lightning's back, returning the gentle massage. "What sort of things?"

Lightning just mumbled under her breath, at least until she felt the way Fang hugged her so close. "...An aunt."

The feeling itself was swept away by the sudden rush of the dream, even that sense of shock, like a prickling sensation down her spine that was gradually erased in the passage of days, where she watched how Lightning seemed to slow down as they approached a forest again, somewhere that seemed just as verdant as the woods they'd left behind.

"Just a few days now." Lightning spoke her words as she began to tend a small campfire, for the nightfall was already starting to descend upon the woodlands. "Mog will probably fly out and find us before we even get there."

Fang's past life seemed rather intent on something else, but she kept her thoughts silent for a while, at least until Lightning moved to sit beside her. "So Mog lives with Serah and Snow..."

Lightning nodded. "And my nephew."

A small smile crept over Fang's lips, but her gaze was still rather distant, staring far beyond the first few crackles of flame. "And we're going to visit the four of them."

Lightning glanced at the ground beneath her feet, before she slowly leaned herself against Fang's shoulder, and she closed her eyes as she did so. "Five."

"Five..." Fang turned to look at her. "Five."

Lightning traced her fingertips against the soft surface of the soil. "Serah's letter, she was... Pretty far along, from what she said." She opened her eyes to see the look on Fang's face, some strange mix of surprise and slight amusement. "What, you think witches just steal their children away from 'normal folk'?"

Fang chuckled quietly. "'Auntie Lightning'..."

Lightning narrowed her eyes with a rather sour look on her face, but it soon softened into something a bit more affectionate. "Luckily he takes after his mother... But I can't say the same yet for whoever else we're going to meet." A rather wary look started to fight its way into her eyes, yet Lightning just stifled it with a quiet sigh, before she stood up to stretch out her arms. "I'll be back soon."

It happened far faster than she could track, like always, but the moment that a lion suddenly overtook Lightning's form and darted off into the forest, Fang only had to catch a glimpse of those smooth whiskers and twitching pink nose to know that Lightning was more eager than she let on to meet someone new from her family tree, even if she seemed to slightly balk at the topic of children.

Fang sat there for a while without doing much at all, but when her legs started to twinge and fall asleep beneath her, she slowly stood up to wander off around the little clearing, gazing up at the evening sky. The leaves whispered quietly in the wind, and the trees swayed beneath the gentle gusts, creaking back and forth.

"It's okay, Light..." Fang murmured the words under her breath. "You're probably real a good aunt." She just listened to those sounds for a while, tasting the various scents of the forest, before she started to walk off in search of something to aid their meager food supplies.

Smoked meat had been a staple on their journey, same with the packets of oats and preserved fruit, but the week had seen their reserves dwindling down to a few strips of jerky and a small pouch of dried peaches, something that Lightning had been gifted almost a year ago for tending away the fever from the calf of a farmer's prize cow. The summer peaches had been so very fresh at first, and Fang remembered just how cute it was to see Lightning's thinly-veiled joy upon receiving such a rare gift, but the fruit began to grow soft before long, which brought on the process of using pectin and other such things to dry them down near the heat of the hearth. The dried fruit made a rather tasty snack, but such things always ran out quickly on the road.

But Lightning's guidance had taught her how to find things in the forest, and Fang's eyes began to grow quite practiced at spotting wild vegetables and other such boons, from fruits to nuts and even a few species of edible mushrooms. They weren't always the most appetizing of snacks, but it always made Lightning's eyes glint with pride whenever she brought something new home, so what harm could there be in searching? And as soon as Fang knelt down beside what looked like a small patch of wild carrots, she took a moment to ponder over the way that Lightning hardly ever spoke about that sort of thing. The pride itself was clear enough, and she would often cook whatever was given to her into something very nice for the both of them, but there was just something about her that kept her from speaking on such things.

The first time Lightning had brought Fang to her room, they'd barely spoken a word through the whole night, yet when Fang awoke in the morning, she'd felt no less satisfied for it. And even then, those many months later, having kept each other warm throughout the winter... It wasn't the lack of words that bothered her, it was more the fact that Lightning seemed utterly content with not speaking them. Perhaps such things just came naturally to a witch, someone who saw the world without needing to speak about her position in it, such a nature utterly obvious whenever Fang looked at her.

But was she content with simply being affectionate? Were they still just companions with a slightly deeper relationship than they once had? It made Fang's head hurt to think of them as anything less than loving, and it wasn't as if Lightning didn't indulge in sweet little kisses and affectionate touches, nor did she ever slack when it came to making sure that Fang was content... There _was_ love there, Fang felt sure of it, but what type of love it could be, that simply eluded her.

She soon held a handful of thin wild carrots, and Fang moved to search for more findings within the lush little glade that Lightning had led them to. Wild vegetables were never quite as plump or colorful as those that were cultivated by farmers, but there was a certain satisfaction to searching out and finding one's food from within the wild, even if it came in the quantity of tiny morsels. Such things were often found behind other plants, Lightning had taught her, or they were almost indistinguishable from other forms of flora, but mushrooms were often the exception.

Fang knelt down beside a the wide trunk of a tree, gazing at the rather sizable shelf fungus that stood there before her. "Just look at you..." She reached up to test the texture of the mushroom, checking to see if it was the same kind that Lightning had taught her was edible. "I'll earn my keep tonight, won't I?" Fang moved to place the wild carrots down into her knapsack, before she took out a small harvesting knife to cut off the outer shelves of the fungus; leaving the main part of the fungal growth would let it bloom back again in time, something else that Lightning had taught her.

She soon had several handfuls of the flat mushrooms, which felt rather puffy and soft in her hands. It was the same kind that Lightning had once showed her how to boil into a rather tasty soup, and it tasted even better with a bit of wild spinach, some onions, maybe a bit of celery, to say nothing upon the delicious taste of feral ram meat, a beast that Lightning had supposedly caught in the lowland hills, if those jagged tooth marks and clawed up hide had been anything to speak of... But Fang knew that the beast had been woolly and rugged enough not to have been anything from domestic terrain, and she felt quite sure that Lightning wouldn't care to steal from the very farmers she often aided. Stewed meat often held a much richer taste than otherwise, and Fang nearly felt her mouth water at the very thought of it. When she looked down at the mushrooms and the thin little carrots, she supposed that they would just have to do.

But it was quite strange, she mused, that Lightning only ever hunted certain animals from the wild. There was no shortage of rabbits in the woods, but Fang supposed it was only natural that Lightning wouldn't care for killing them, perhaps it just hit too close to home. But there were other things, things that seemed so odd to Fang, like the doe that had once wandered close to one of their hidden gardens, grazing serenely at the grass of the clearing. Fang had suggested that they try to hunt it, but Lightning merely shook her head and knocked her knuckles against a tree to scare the creature off, something that almost made Fang's stomach cry at the missed opportunity.

Perhaps it was some twist of fate, while she thought about the delicious scent of hypothetical venison, or perhaps it was just a somewhat lucky little whim that she suddenly came face to face with a massive creature from beyond the forest leaves, the pale white beast who was lounging right there beside their campfire without a care in the world.

Fang's voice scarcely left her lips, yet even she herself couldn't quite tell what she'd meant to say.

The elk was utterly enormous, perhaps even larger than the horse she was boarding at the village stables. He peered at her with a gaze that held no trace of fear, with eyes that spoke of a spring bloom, so soft and green, yet just as hard as the edge of a gnarled thorn. His pinkish nose twitched slightly at her presence, perhaps determining her scent.

If Fang's current self had held any true influence over the past, she might have just walked forward to approach him, knowing that such a stalwart guardian could only be the likes of Odin, or at least whatever part of him had inevitably been reborn and bound to Lightning, but her past life held no knowledge of such things.

"Hey..." Fang had stepped forward anyway, not quite cautiously, but carefully, and she had knelt down near the fire to slowly reach inside her knapsack, offering one of the wild carrots. "You're not one of Lightning's sigils, are you? You look like a boy elk."

Odin simply glanced at the thin little carrot, before he gently snorted at Fang, turning his head to face her directly. His antlers were just as wide and as grand as the branches of the towering oak trees, and the green hue of his eyes almost seemed to reach the twists and points of his horns, as if they were truly as verdant as the trees.

"You... You're Light's familiar, aren't you?" Fang looked down at the pale carrot in her hand. "Like Mog and Serah."

Odin merely blinked at her, but after a moment or two of utter silence, he slowly lowered his head to accept the tiny offering, munching it between his teeth.

"You're the one who protects her from whatever's out there." Fang looked the elk over for a moment, trying to see if he bore any visible scars of battle, but his thick white hide kept any away hints of his skin. "Listen then... I'm gonna protect her, too; I'm no pushover either." She moved to empty out her knapsack beside the campfire, bundling up the wild carrots and the mushrooms in a bit of cloth, before she took out her canteen to wash off her hands in the water. "Now I see why she doesn't like going after deer."

Odin didn't reply to such a comment; perhaps he thought himself above such things, or perhaps his incarnation wasn't able to understand human speech, or even speak it. But either way, he seemed to understand that Fang wasn't a threat to him, for he didn't try to drive her away from Lightning's traveling satchel, even when she reached inside to retrieve a rather flat pan and a pouch of herbal spices.

"These should cook up nice... Maybe you'll even want a few." Fang busied herself with peeling the carrots, but she was careful to leave enough there to make a decent meal. "You think Light's gonna be back soon? I hope you really are her familiar, and I'm not just talking to some weird random elk..." She frowned a little when Odin seemingly ignored each of her words. "You're guarding her stuff, aren't you?" Fang gestured at the satchel and the two rolled sleeping mats, which were resting right there between the elk's front limbs, sheltered beside his fluffy chest. "What, does only the raven talk? Suppose it makes sense." She had already learned for herself that Lightning couldn't talk within an animal sigil, and perhaps a witch's familiar was bound to the same restrictions.

Odin soon yawned rather softly, resting his head against the ground, while his tall antlers stood on in a rather regal manner, crowning his head like the leafy boughs so far above. His pelt was dappled quite like Lightning's rabbit form, the soft patterns of a dusty moth wing. A certain golden hue tinged his fur whenever the sun hit it just right, but he was mostly a pale white in color.

"I once saw a parrot who could talk." Fang started to clean off the mushrooms with a damp rag, wiping away any traces of dirt. "It's a bird across the sea from here... Real far away." She kept quiet for a long moment, and she began to focus fully on her work, at least until a small twig snapped within the forest.

Something sleek and lithe gazed back at her from between the trees, something that clasped a pair of slain little quails between those blooded jaws, though Fang had a strong feeling that no blood had been shed from the lion herself, not with such delicate quarry she was carrying.

"Light..." Fang paused when she saw Odin rise up to his feet, and the elk moved to approach the waiting lion, who merely flicked her ears at him when he returned to the depths of the woodland forests.

Lightning slowly padded out from the shadows, and she soon dropped the two quails beside where Fang had gathered up the peeled carrots, before she sat down within the grass of the clearing.

"That's your familiar, isn't it?" Fang reached out to wipe a small speck of blood away from Lightning's whiskers. "Any other elk would take off running at the sight of you..."

Lightning just purred at that, closing her eyes in contentment. Fang had seen domestic felines display quite the same behavior, but what was strange to her was that most wild cats could not purr, though such incapability was instead traded for the fact that they could roar. She'd once glimpsed a caged tiger at a midsummer festival, and the beast would often make deep chuffing sounds as it lounged about on a massive cloth hammock, but it never purred. The same could be said for the lions she'd once observed on a journey overseas; they would growl and huff at each other, and they often roared to make themselves known, but unlike the cat that was pressing her forehead against Fang's hands and rumbling so gently, a lion of the savanna did not purr.

"Can you roar, Light?" Fang spoke in just a murmur. "I've seen lions before, you know... Not many mountain lions, they're too elusive to see much of, at least up close."

Lightning stopped purring for a moment, and she opened her eyes to peer up at Fang. Her tail twitched back and forth, before she opened her mouth to loose a rather half-hearted yowling sound, at least until she slowly closed her eyes to purr again.

"That's not a roar." Fang tapped at Lightning's forehead, for as much as the massive form of a wildcat had first intimidated her, she'd grown to learn that Lightning wasn't one to claw or bite at anything other than what she was hunting. "Come on, I want to hear if you can do it."

Lightning opened her eyes again with a rather pointed look to them. She whistled in the way Fang had once heard from the mountain lions she'd seen from a distance, just a conversational sound.

"Not in the mood to cooperate, eh?" Fang gently grasped two handfuls that of soft, fluffy fur from either side of Lightning's cheeks, prompting her to purr even louder and deeper than before, so much that Fang could feel those steadily rumbling vibrations against her palms. "You, you're just a big lazy kitty who caught herself some dinner without even having to roar... If you made much noise, they'd run away before you ever caught them." She chuckled when Lightning almost seemed to smirk at her, revealing just a hint of those massive feline teeth. "I'd always heard that witches favor cats... Guess you're living proof it it, eh?"

Lightning closed her eyes again as she rumbled rather quietly, and her tail twitched a bit faster than before.

"But I'm curious now..." Fang sighed when Lightning simply flopped over on her back, resting that fuzzy head against her lap, even while Fang still stroked either side of her cheeks. "C'mon, Light, let's hear a real roar."

Lightning blinked her eyes open again, and she yawned to bare each and every one of her teeth. She slowly lifted up one of her front limbs to bat at Fang's nearest ear, pressing her paw pads against it.

"Hmm?" Fang held up one of her hands to hold Lightning's paw, which still lingered there at her ear. "You want me to cover them?"

Lightning flicked her tail again, and a slight whistling sound echoed in her throat, before she raised her other paw to gesture at Fang's second ear.

"Alright, alright." Fang waited for Lightning's first paw to move away, before she covered up both of her ears in her hands. "What, is it really gonna-"

Lightning's call was utterly piercing, less of a roar and more of a shriekingly fierce yowl, but it still stuck right into everything it reached, a sound to incite sheer terror into whatever might possibly threaten her. She'd pinned back her ears and curled her lip to imitate a face of sheer rage, and her tail thrashed back and forth, right along with the way her claws unsheathed themselves to scratch at a hypothetical enemy in the air, while Lightning's eyes burned the sharpest shade of blue that Fang had ever seen.

It was a long, breathless moment before Fang lowered her hands away from her ears, but they still rang ceaselessly, even when Lightning resumed the act of purring and pressing her head against Fang's palms, just a taste of sheer wilderness before the far friendlier beast returned.

"Yeah, not quite a roar... But way better than a roar." Fang slowly shook her head, before she went back to stroking Lightning's cheeks. "I probably would've pissed myself right then if I didn't know you were such a sweetheart."

Lightning growled under her breath, and she batted at one of Fang's arms, though her claws were quite clearly sheathed again.

"Yeah, yeah..." Fang glanced over at the pair of dead quails, which wouldn't have nearly as much meat as a chicken or a pheasant, but they would likely prove quite tasty. "We should get dinner started, shouldn't we?"

Lightning suddenly gazed up at her in the form she had come to know over the many months, but Fang swore that it still happened much too quickly for her to see the true transformation. She could feel the change, however, for the weight of a lion was far different from how Lightning felt whenever she rested her head against Fang's lap, yet it almost seemed as if nothing had changed for her at all.

"I found us some things." Fang slowly stroked her fingertips through Lightning's hair. "You like carrots, right?"

Lightning almost looked as if she wanted to purr again, but she merely closed her eyes and spoke. "Yes."

Time swirled on with the hazy curls of smoke that rose up from the campfire, among the scents of cooked quail and sizzling mushrooms. It wasn't long before Fang felt the utter contentment of a full stomach and a warm companion at her side, for one of the sleeping mats had since been abandoned in favor of being closer.

It was in the darkness that Fang wondered whether or not her earlier concerns held any real weight against the way that Lightning kissed her, against the way she simply stole the breath from between her lips, claiming it as her own. Was it only lust that drove her? A natural inclination for companionship? Did love have any real place in the wildness, a land where the lion ran free and the stag stood watch over the little rabbit, where witches met their foes within the depths of the woodlands, blooded and wild and unchained?

Fang wondered if she had any right to truly try and claim her. Was it so wrong to want Lightning as her own? She kept scolding herself for thinking of such things, but they just kept whirling around in her head like angry little beasts, even when Lightning smoothed her hands down against her skin and called her eyes towards her own, smiling so softly in the moonlight.

"You look a distracted." Lightning slowly wrapped her nearest arm against Fang's shoulder. "I'm the one who's supposed to be distracted... I have a new nephew or niece to go and meet."

Fang glanced away, but Lightning drew her gaze back by kissing the tip of her nose. "Light..."

"What's wrong?" Lightning was resting against her side, yet she soon sat up to peer down at Fang, placing her hands on either side of the cushioned mat. "You know you can tell me."

Fang almost wanted to smile. She gradually reached up to cup one side of Lightning's face, stroking her thumb against the edge of her chin and mouth, towards the slight curve of her cheekbone. "What are we, Light..? Who am I to you?"

Lightning didn't speak at first, not until Fang caressed the soft skin beside the corner of her eye. "We're... Paired?" She shivered when Fang reached up to touch her bare shoulder with her other hand. "Partners?"

"Are we..." Fang's voice barely left her lips. "I'm not a lion." She leaned up to kiss Lightning's cheek, and then the closest side of her nose. "And I'm not a rabbit..." Fang kissed the crown of her forehead, slowly wrapping her arms around Lightning's waist. "And I'm not a witch."

"Do you have to be?" Lightning tipped her head forward to rest her chain against Fang's shoulder, and she hugged her just as gently as she could manage. "Or... Is it that I'm a witch?

"No." Fang scarcely even realized how tight she suddenly held her, nor how Lightning's heartbeat kicked up in speed, thrumming right there against her as she pressed a solid kiss into the curve of her neck, a claiming gesture, a mark of the silent love that she couldn't quite put into words. "You'll never have to change for me, Light... A witch is what you are." She almost wanted to laugh in sheer mirth when Lightning snuggled so much closer. "And it's a witch I want to be with."

* * *

The dream began in darkness, in hazy swirls, a blur of pain and aching, yet she only stirred for a moment before falling still again. It hurt far too much to move any more than that. She could hear the sounds of distant insects, of the wind in the short grass that stood all around her, but she did not budge an inch.

A memory swirled inside the mind of a Shadow, an image of old tombs that tunneled down beneath the earth without end, a place of soft whispers in the depths of the catacombs, a silent space to rest and contemplate. But she remembered that first echo, the first signal that she was not alone, yet she hadn't deigned to react, not when she could sense the blood of the one who approached her.

The scorpion, as she was known, a Shadow of many guises... Yet like Lightning, she seemed to prefer a feminine stance, even if it was impossible to tell which gender she might have been born as from her human life. Shadows kept their secrets close at hand, preferring to speak in riddles and whispers, though the scorpion herself often seemed just as swift and blunt as her namesake. They often worked together on larger contracts, hired out as a rather deadly pair, and Lightning remembered a certain high-profile assassination when the scorpion had actually faltered, falling ever so slightly against the edge of a human's fierce bayonet, only for Lightning to lurch right in and rip out his throat with her claws.

"Quite a show that was." The scorpion always spoke in the rough accent of the western realms, a land of scorching heat and endless dunes, a place of mountainous sandstorms, perhaps the origin of her very moniker. "Mayhap the dancer is considering a change of occupation?" She suddenly spoke with a laugh in her voice, like a hundred jingling bells. "Not all of us are so brave..."

Lightning just narrowed her eyes at the walls of the catacomb. "Bravery had nothing to do with it."

"Eh?" The scorpion slowly appeared in one of her favorite guises, a woman of rather bright eyes and smooth curves, though she wore the silks of a traveling mercenary, a mix of striped fabric and tanned leather, not to mention the beaded scarf around her neck. "Which then, brave or foolhardy? This dancer dances upon the edge of a blade, I would think..."

Lightning tried to make her gaze go hard, but it was no small task to intimidate a fellow Shadow.

"I mean no offense, my sister... Truly." The scorpion's smile sent the slightest prickle of unease down Lightning's spine. "But word does travel quickly, fluttering from ear to ear."

"I'm not your sister." Lightning turned away, as if she was much more interested in examining a carved mural on the wall. "I'm not anyone's sister."

"But you _are_ my friend." She grinned with such elegant teeth, sharp little canines that held a promise to them, the same promise that had likely earned her such a name. "The scorpion does not forget her friends... And she would be remiss in not warning them of danger."

Lightning fought back any reaction she might have had. "I can handle whatever 'danger' the place can throw at me." After a moment or two, she cleared her throat to slightly soften her voice, for as much as she felt a twinge of irritation from being disturbed in a place of silence, she knew that the favors of a Shadow were just as valuable as their secrets. "The girl won't do anything... It'd mean her own death if she did."

"Our new mistress might be as wise as her mother, yes..." The scorpion's gaze flicked to the side, then back again, gazing at Lightning's right hand. "But the danger I speak of may not be inside these walls."

"Where, then?" Lightning knew that the only way to get an answer out of her peers was to wait for it or to ask upfront, otherwise it might not arrive for decades. "You think she'd try to bind the last one back to me? All those years, tossed away for a single Shadow... Killing her own mother in the process."

"I do not think that." The scorpion suddenly rose to her feet, and she gestured for Lightning to follow. "Come, we should speak where there will be no listening ears."

Lightning narrowed her eyes again; there was nobody listening, she would have sensed them... But she followed the scorpion anyway.

"Do you know why you are called the dancer, truly?" The scorpion strolled down the hallway, beneath ancient cobwebs and the motes of floating dust. "It is because a dancer looks her opponent in the eye... She dances with them, as you do, because she does not often sneak or skulk in the darkness in wait of an ambush, as this lot is so inclined." The scorpion spoke those last few words with a venom befitting her name. "You dance with your prey... You give them full sight of you before you end them."

"Maybe I just prefer swordplay." Lightning sniffed at the air in distaste; they were moving deeper into the sprawling maze of tombs, further and further beneath the surface of the earth. "There's no one listening here... Just say what you have to tell me."

"But it is not far." The scorpion paused before the archway a different hall, smiling just as slyly as before. "And I would like to see the end of the world."

Lightning sighed when a sudden blur of darkness took place of her companion, but she quickly followed suit. It was a rush of sorts whenever a Shadow flew, a tingling shock of what felt like adrenaline, and even Lightning couldn't deny such a sensation.

The scorpion swirled and darted against the walls of the tomb, flying deeper into the darkness of the unknown, the last few tunnels that stood before what was known as a sharp veil of nothing. It was a sheer drop, they said, sure to be death, the place where no Shadow had ever returned from, the very edge of their shackled existence.

"Ah." The scorpion paused, lingering just beside the precipice, a steep ledge of stone that had not seen the light of day in what must have been so many centuries. "Do you ever think of it, my friend? What treasures could be waiting there that none could ever wish to return from? Freedom, mayhap?"

"Death." Lightning kept herself a good few paces away from the edge, and she slowly retook her human visage. "It's nothing but an end."

"You are much too gloomy for one who dances." The scorpion swirled herself into a slightly different guise than before, taller and leaner than before, and she almost started to pout. "I come to you and _only_ you to say my farewells, and you will not even call me your sister, not even after so many years..."

Lightning fought the sudden urge to widen her eyes. " _No_."

"But I owe you a favor." The scorpion turned away from the precipice, gazing at her with eyes as soft as silk. "You are... Brave, yes, but bravery can shock a craven heart to bitter ice, enough to seek an end to the brave one's mocking." That silk concealed a thin layer of steel. "You should not defy the child any further, my friend... Else I would not ask you to dance."

"She can't-" Lightning paused, for the boundaries of her own binding, the mark on her hand, it was limited by an infliction of bloodshed; if she attacked whoever was her master, the same fate would befall her as well, and if the master was ever to try and directly harm her, it was said to inflict the same equal exchange. But if the Shadows were to die by external hands, the master would continue to live, even if the same could not be said as an opposite. The whole house stood before the one who held the key, guarding the bearer from harm, for if the master died, each Shadow under their binding would fall to dust within mere seconds... Lightning had seen it happen when a rival bearer dared to challenge the master of many long years before, when their foes had all fallen by just a single arrow through the opposing human's throat. But another Shadow, what would happen if the scorpion was to attack her?

"They will be searching." The scorpion stood there without drawing her blades, simply gazing back at Lightning. "They will search for blood, yours or mine... Only one of us can return." She smiled, but it was not a look of mirth that crossed her eyes. "I was not to tell you any of this; I was not to tell you it was _her_." The scorpion suddenly spat on the ground, and her lip curled to bare her gleaming teeth. "But she had the nerve to threaten a different binding... Your guess was right, my friend, the old woman has not the wits to know herself a sacrifice; if the child offers the same to you, it will be disguised as an honor... I do not need to advise you to refuse."

"Then we'll kill her." Lightning spoke in the lowest growl she had ever mustered, the hissing snarl of a cornered beast. "Both of them... We'll put an end to it."

"And slay ourselves, our kin as well?" The scorpion shook her head. "They would kill us sooner, for their own lives... We walk a very tangled web, my friend." She flicked both wrists, a blade gripped in each hand, curved and shining with latent power. "But you and I, we are quite the same."

Lightning felt it far sooner than the echo rang out, the sudden shatter of steel, blades locked within utmost combat, an impact that rattled her right down to the bones.

"You face your prey, like an equal." The scorpion smiled at her with the same silk in her eyes, a whispering touch of fondness. "You sting your enemies within full sight... She will use this against you."

Lightning almost shivered beneath the sheer effort of blocking those steady blades, holding her glaive to brace back against both steely crescents.

"Go nowhere that the rest cannot see... The others, if they knew we were truly to be ordered as kinslayers, the truthful might turn against her." The scorpion's boots scraped against the dusty stone, but she kept the sheer force in her arms at an utmost pressure, as if to push Lightning away from the edge. "I do not know which she intends to set upon you next."

Lightning tried not to wince in pain, not to buckle beneath the force of bracing against such power. "She's only a child!"

"A child will grow." The scorpion smiled, and in only a moment of time, her throat fluttered with the sudden spray of blood, while her blades whirled away without a sound. "A child will hold grudges..."

Lightning lurched to catch her, grabbing at one of those limp hands and digging right back against the stone floor with her boots, but she could only hold her there, balanced so precariously against the ledge of bottomless reaches.

"Will there be treasures there, my friend?" The scorpion smiled at those fallen drops of blood, despite how many were trickling down against her silks and woven leathers. "Will a Shadow meet her fallen kin in the darkness?"

Lightning still gripped tight, refusing to let her hold loosen, and she pulled with every ounce of her strength to try and drag her companion back.

"Do not let her find what I've told you." The scorpion slowly closed her eyes. "Better to feign..." She hissed at the pain of her wound, the mark of a glaive cutting so deeply. "Feign loyalty... Be brave, my friend."

Lightning remembered choking against her words, the sharp grip of her hands on the scorpion's wrist, but no manner of strength could keep her from falling, from her own boots scuffing against the stones of the looming edge. It was a snare, she realized, for if her friend was to return with her, some other fate would follow her there, something to bring both of them towards an end.

Just a whisper of sound touched her ears "Be the light for us."

Lightning buckled her knees, still holding, still gripping her there, but her own words wheezed against her lips with that final, fleeting effort. " _Sister_..."

The scorpion opened her eyes, and her lips twitched into a smile.

She remembered that utter silence, not a sound, the flutter of silk that disappeared beneath the abyss, until all that remained were the droplets of blood resting all around her. _Loyal_ , that was what she had to be, what she hadn't been, the reason why her second sister had suddenly been lost from her, taken away to stay her own end for a time yet unknown. Would another of her own kind be quite so inclined to take the strike in her stead? She had a keen feeling that they wouldn't be, nor would the master risk trying to blackmail another one of her own... Even if she didn't know just how much Lightning had learned.

The years would pass, she knew that much, still just a beast on a chain, locked to the power of that crystal... Even if the stone had one less soul on the leash, plenty more still swirled there within it. Her own soul, her own blood, bound to whoever held that damnable ring upon their finger, claiming mastery over the likes of a willful Shadow. But her own patience had waned, each yank of the proverbial leash drew a bit more of a growl from her throat, more of a threat in her gleaming eyes, enough perhaps... Enough to send her out on a mission bound to fail.

She could feel the pain through the haze of memories, the sting of where the hatchet had struck, and it was enough to call her away from a state of resting, to slowly stir and bite back a low groan of discontentment.

"Hey." The voice was just a whisper. "Still alive, there?"

Lightning pursed her lips, clenching her jaw against the pain. "Takes more than _that_ to kill a Shadow..." She slowly forced herself to open her eyes, but the world was still so blurry. "Where are we?"

"Somewhere off the beaten path." Fang sat there on the ground, but her green cloak was nowhere to be seen. "Somewhere they won't go looking for us... Hopefully, of course. You never know."

Lightning blinked to clear the haziness away, and she realized that she had since retaken her favored human visage. Subconsciously, perhaps, yet it didn't appear as if Fang's shirt pocket had been damaged in any way.

"Don't you want to know why that happened?" Fang was cutting up a bit of pale cloth into long, narrow strips. "Why they're after me?"

Lightning would have told her that she didn't quite care, yet she had already heard what the guardsmen had said... Though she still wasn't sure if it would be wise to tell Fang what she knew.

"Not curious at all?" Fang smiled wryly as she cut another strip of cloth. "Someone bleeds you and you don't want to know why?"

"Blood is blood." Lightning slowly turned her head to look at the tight wrap of bandaging that already stood around her shoulder, against the deepest wound. "I heal quickly."

"I'm sure you do." Fang lifted up a bit of pale cream from a metal canister, which she began to spread out against a strip of the cloth. "But we're running short on time."

Lightning squeezed her eyes shut when Fang leaned in to wrap the cloth around her injured arm. "It's not necessary."

"Just let me do this." Fang tied another length of the fabric over the one with the pale salve. "Stops the blood, yeah?"

Lightning tried to keep very still while Fang worked, and she only opened her eyes again when Fang pushed up one of her pant legs, attending to the wound on her knee. "I don't even remember getting that one."

"Probably from one of the ones you knocked to the floor." Fang started to clean off the wound with a damp rag. "They weren't kidding about Shadows, were they?"

Lightning tried not to wince in pain, but she let her fingertips curl and tighten into fists.

"See, I'm not from around here." Fang kept washing out the dark wound. "Me and a friend of mine, we came up to deliver some terms to a few of my mother's... Acquaintances, in business."

Lightning wished for all the world that Fang would just stop talking.

"The quarries on our land are full of the weird stuff they like up here, so we've been making ourselves quite a bit of coin by renting out the rights." Fang started to wrap up the wound, binding it tightly. "But there were... I guess you could call them _complications_ , with our recent agreements."

Lightning kept her eyes squeezed shut, and she breathed out a silent sigh of relief when Fang finished tying up the bandage.

"'Agreements'... They didn't agree." Fang slowly crossed her arms against her chest. "They think we're a bunch of wild idiots, but the first price was a courtesy; they just don't want to pay up for what the rights are really worth." She leaned back to rest against a nearby tree trunk. "And now, Vanille..."

Lightning waited for a long moment, but when there was only silence between them, she slowly opened her eyes.

"I've got to get her home." Fang's gaze held such steel in it, a quiet sense of strength. "I couldn't risk anyone but the best; I sent a letter home, but who knows how long until it gets there..." She just sat there for a brief while, gazing up at the trees. "We're not sisters by blood, but she's... Just as important."

 _Sisters._ Lightning tried not to let any hint of emotion cross her face. She felt something swelling in her chest, something that ached, but she quickly stifled it down, forging it out into a clear set of words. "Point me at a target." Lightning slowly rose up to sit against the dark green cloak beneath her, a blanket that stood upon the forest floor. "Point me, and it dies."

Fang looked at the bandage on Lightning's shoulder, then the one on her arm, and then at her knee below. "Heal first."

"How much time do we have?" Lightning glanced at where the piebald steed had since been tied to a low tree branch. "Do you have a plan?"

Fang's gaze almost seemed to waver slightly, no matter how unflinching she appeared. "You didn't seem interested before."

Lightning almost thought to retort at that; there were just too many stories that all sounded the same, too many years of repeated tasks. Her contracts often involved a political target, perhaps a lover scorned, wartime assassinations, and indeed, 'business' affairs, but rescue attempts were far and few between. Humans hired her when they wanted other humans slain, not because they wished for her to protect someone; such things were seen as disgraceful to those of high class, and even below. Shadows were not guardians, they were hired in secret to remove obstacles along the proverbial road, to slit a throat in the darkness and leave none the wiser towards the whoever wished them dead in the first place.

"We'll get there soon enough." Fang leaned her head back against the tree, gazing up at the first few hints of sunrise. "Just focus on-"

Lightning rose into a kneeling stance, but she quickly put one foot beneath herself, rising up with just the slightest grunt of pain.

Fang's gaze did not waver.

"Told you." A slight hiss left Lightning's lips, summoning a sharp sheen of darkness in her eyes, yet she swiftly ripped the bandage away from her unmarked arm. "I heal quick."

* * *

A warm wind gusted across the drifts of sand, and the sea churned beneath the rising sun. The island itself was small and narrow, home to less than a dozen tall palm trees, though a fair number of seafaring lizards scuttled around on the beach, hunting the insects that swirled into the air.

Lightning woke to the sound of them, the quiet thrum of buzzing and humming. A certain memory flashed in her mind, the way she had once woken to the whispers of the ocean, but whether it was from a cozy little bed or the planks of a swaying sailboat, it still sounded quite the same. She slowly opened her eyes, gazing at the empty space beside her. But she could still see Fang, or at least the occasional flick of her tail above the ocean waves, or the breach of her head to catch yet another gulp of air, before she would dive right back down again. Was she fishing?

The wind kept stirring at the sand, and a flock of seagulls fluttered off into the air from the heights of the palm trees. They circled the width of the island, scattering out from the flock, but they still kept close enough not to truly separate.

Lightning sat up with one of the blankets around her shoulders. It wouldn't be long until they were flying again as well, traveling on towards another island, but she still wondered how many days they had until the vestige came into sight.

An elegant snout suddenly coursed out from the sea, gripping a rather wriggly fish in her teeth. Fang flapped her wings against the wild spray of water, looking just as majestic as a drenched dragon could possibly look within the waves.

"I didn't think it was possible..." Lightning reached up to tidy her own hair while Fang approached. "But I'm actually starting to feel sick of fish."

Fang bit down against the neck of her quarry, silencing it between her jaws.

"Maybe I've just spent too much time inland." Lightning watched how Fang swallowed the fish whole without even pausing to chew. "Do you ever get tired of certain foods?"

Fang licked away the saltwater from her mouth. "Not like this, no." She stretched out her hind legs above the sand, slowly settling down to rest against her side. "I don't taste as much when I'm not human."

Lightning blinked when Fang flicked her tongue back and forth. "Really?"

Fang nodded with a slight hum to her voice. "Might have less taste buds." She yawned against the blustery winds, and her eyes slid shut in contentment. "Morning, Light."

"Morning." Lightning soon finished brushing out her hair with her fingertips, and she let her hands drift to the sand, which felt warm and coarse against her skin. "I was wondering how many more days we have until we reach the vestige."

"Three, maybe four." Fang snuffled at the fresh scents of the ocean wind. "We've made good time."

Lightning reached out to touch the curve of Fang's nose, right where it met with the rest of her snout. "How long will it take to fly back?"

Fang took a moment to mentally calculate the days, for her flight speed fluctuated with the winds and weather, not to mention her own energy levels. "Maybe a week or so to fly east to Gran Pulse, more than half a week to get back to Vanille, then a few more days of flying towards where you said your home was."

"Okay." Lightning reached up to gently stroke her knuckles against the scales between Fang's eyes. "Are you ready for this?"

In a whisper of sound and motion, just a flicker of light on her skin, Fang took Lightning's hand in her own, fully human again.

"I've been ready since I left to find you." Fang peered at her with that same fire, the glow of a wyrm long determined, a woman in search of resolution, a final confrontation, silently raring for a fight. "Let's go."

* * *

The sea grew less varied in hues as they traveled south, far across the span of islands and fertile reefs. There were still patches of visible coral, but it grew more and more sparse as time slipped by, until the ocean itself seemed little different from the waters they had left behind in the northern hemisphere.

Lightning liked to watch the waves as Fang flew tirelessly, each ripple and crest of the deep blue ocean, a far cry from the pale waters near the island shores. Those were still quite shallow compared to the open sea, a place where only the staunchest of ships could venture, provided they were well-stocked with supplies. She had once taken such a journey in her pursuit of vengeance, earning her keep by mopping the decks and keeping watch at night, not to mention a few of her own childhood sea stories. Sailors loved to hear local tales, and her fables of the ocean spirits drew many a listening ear, not to mention the legend of her own homeland. She wondered briefly if that had truly been a lie in and of itself, for she hadn't believed such things could exist, not in any real sense. It had always been fun to wonder about what her ancestors could have been thinking, those first few islanders; she used to think that they must have said it as a joke between one another other, that their new home was merely a pod of giant whales, a mere jest to play upon their descendants, but ever since Lightning had met one for herself...

Fang tipped her wings against the changing winds, holding herself stable. The further she flew out to sea, the rougher the air blew and the harder it became to predict. The wind currents seemed almost as choppy as those massive waves, a deep blue ocean of restless temperament.

She would have to land soon. They had been flying for three days, as Fang herself had predicted, but the wind had since started to work against her; the warm air rose from the lands of the equator, but the further south they flew, the colder the temperature would grow.

But there, off in the distance, stood her first hint of land. It was more of a change in color than any true signs of a landmass, just the subtle shift of open sea to a higher point of the ocean's bottom, a slope that ranged upwards to form a continental shelf, though it was not nearly large enough to form any true continent.

Fang flew on above the rising waves, the mist of foam and roaring water. Her wings ached from the constant flying, but there would be time soon enough to rest before they entered the vestige. Surely Lightning couldn't deny them that... It was foolhardy to rush in against an enemy when their energy had been spent on reaching the battlefield itself, and she still wasn't sure if Lightning was feeling any less pain than before.

She soared on above the first few juts of rock in the sea, pillars that stood tall despite the crashing waves. They changed each time she ventured there, falling and rising from the shift of each tectonic plate; they would form long stretches of stone or simple specks of rock in the midst of the ocean, it varied from time to time.

An hour passed by in relative silence, save for the sounds of the sea. It crashed and roiled endlessly, but Fang noticed something that she had felt each time she ventured there, as if the presence of the fal'Cie reached beyond the vestige itself, for the sea soon began to grow even more restless and fierce... Yet it would not stay that way for long.

It was that first speck of land, the telltale sign that she had finally reached it again; it was the chill in the air that made Fang tip her wings to slowly descend, approaching the land on that distant, fleeting horizon.

That first whirl of air blustered against her, and she began to grit her teeth together, tensing her wing muscles with each mighty flap of air. It was no wonder they hadn't seen a ship in days; no sailor would venture close to such treacherous winds, not to mention the thick crash of merciless water. It was as if some barrier stood between the tiny island and the sea, a phenomenon that she had first assumed to be a bout of bad weather, nothing more, for it would soon fade as it always did, as if it never existed in the first place.

She could feel how tightly Lightning had started to hold on, how much she pressed herself against the curve of her neck to stay steady, and Fang almost wanted to crane her neck back and speak to her in reassurance, even if the wind would only steal her words away. Lightning was likely wearing her gloves, anyway, for there was a nipping chill in the air, enough to warrant the extra warmth.

Fang flapped with all the strength she could muster, soaring lower and lower towards the sea, even if the water swelled and roiled beneath her. Only a moment longer, she told herself, only a few flaps away... And everything went still.

Lightning nearly gasped at the feeling, as if the whirling storm had just risen up to a fever pitch and then suddenly swept itself away, a void of the previous sensations, so much that it made her nerves tingle in warning. It was, for lack of a better term, utterly _unnatural_ , the work of some strong magic for sure.

Fang kept flying onward, but it almost felt as if time itself had slowed itself down to a crawl, inching along with each steady wingbeat. The wind had ceased to gust around them, and the waves seemed eerily still, almost placid in a sense, as if they did not dare to crash against that jutting shore.

Lightning saw it then, the rocky cliffs that rose like daggers from the sea, though a few patches of the land seemed flat enough to land on, and some of it even had grass. But what drew her gaze, what made her heart quicken almost painfully was the massive, looming spire that rose from up the sloped ring of metal and rusted wire, a structure that stood almost lopsided, crumbling and bent, more twisted than any construct she had ever seen before. And the sheer size of it, like a round canyon that stood tilted above the cliffs, a spiraling slope of washed out metal that swirled inward within the upturned dome, a silent whirlpool leading somewhere deep inside itself, a place that Lightning could scarcely even see.

Fang flared her wings to slow her descent, reaching out with her hind claws as she approached the first patch of flat grassland, and she grunted quietly when her talons struck true. She flapped to slow herself even further, and she soon folded up her wings to support herself from below, before she allowed herself to pant slightly in exertion, watching while Lightning climbed down to stand against the earth below.

"This is it?" Lightning spoke her words in almost a whisper, for she didn't need Fang's assurance that they had indeed arrived. "It almost feels like the tunnel beneath Luxerion again..."

Fang lifted her head to peer at the massive structure that stood so far above. "This is it."

Lightning looked Fang over, gazing at the slight shake of exhaustion in those folded wings. She had been flying nearly the entire day, and with such rough winds to contend with, she was in no true state to go wandering around in the vestige.

"Rest." Lightning knelt beside one of Fang's wings, and she almost smiled when Fang did the same, practically slumping down against the sparse grass upon the cliffside. "It's getting late, anyway."

"Tomorrow..." Fang spoke with the slightest growl in her voice, and her eyes were fixed upon the towering metal spires, the circular structure that rose so high into the air. "Tomorrow, we end it."

Lightning only nodded.

"Thought of this place a million times while I was looking for you." Fang closed her eyes and sighed, curling one of her wings up against herself. "Thought of digging through the rocks some more to try and get inside... Thought of clawing at the door for a few more years." She sniffed at the air when Lightning stroked her forehead. "I want her back with us, Light..."

"I know." Lightning leaned in to press a gentle kiss between Fang's eyes. "We'll bring her back."

Fang mumbled something under her breath, before she curled her other wing around where Lightning knelt, gently holding her there.

"Just rest." Lightning closed her eyes as well, and she moved to lean down beside one of Fang's eyes, resting against the smoothness of her scales. "We're nearly there... Just rest for me."

* * *

She could smell the oil of the lanterns, the spark of fire that swirled behind the glass. It made every nerve inside her prickle on end, but Lightning still held her ground, kneeling there behind the edge of the tall stone wall, waiting for Fang to signal at her. Lightning remembered those words, the hesitation Fang held in regards to giving her orders. It was wrong, she said, and that she wouldn't have any part in forced services.

"A 'direct order', you said?" Fang had been riding on the piebald steed, carefully guiding it towards a much larger city than before. "So, hypothetically, if I told you to do something that you _couldn't_ do..."

Lightning remembered scowling at such a thing, to which she had tugged her cowl down a bit lower than before. "It doesn't work like that." She found herself staring at her right hand, where the moleskin glove concealed that twisting mark, a brand of her stolen blood. "I won't just up and die if I fail an order... Shadows wouldn't keep existing if that was the case." Lightning looked out at that distant city, before she glanced at the farmland around them, the fields and plantations that stood all around the winding dirt road. "It's if I willingly disobey... If I go against an order."

"Then I won't give you one." Fang tugged the reins to draw her steed to a halt. "Hmm... 'Would you stand on your hands and count backwards to twenty'?"

Lightning tried not to scowl even further.

"There we go... Not an order, is it?" Fang smirked as she flicked the reins again, urging the horse back to a walk. "Now you're really just a hired blade; you can do whatever you want, but I'd appreciate your help."

"You still don't get it." Lightning followed on after the horse, glancing around every so often to make sure they weren't being followed. "If I go against your will, Fang... That's how it works; you didn't _will_ me to do something ridiculous, you just said it as a joke." She kicked at a stray pebble in the road. "If you said it as an order, then I'd have to do it, but you didn't."

"Sounds exactly the same to me." Fang peered out over the fields, looking towards the soft lights of the evening horizon. "If I don't say what my will is, it means you don't have to follow it, right?"

Lightning bit back a hiss of exasperation. "I already know what your will is... If I don't help you get your friend back, then I've broken the contract."

Fang frowned at that. "What a shit contract."

"Yeah, _really?_ " Lightning rolled her eyes as she tugged her cowl down a bit lower, gazing away from the glare of sunlight. "I killed more than a few of them when they took me, you know... But they got just enough of my blood to seal it." She fought the urge to spit on the ground in distaste. "I kept fighting, but it felt like I was fading away; I was dying because I started to break their contract."

"Then it sounds like we're between a rock and a hard place." Fang spoke with no small amount of bitterness. "Tell you what... You help me get Vanille back, get us both safe on a boat back home, and I'll come back and kill the bitch who's been holding this over your head."

Lightning swore that her heart stopped beating for a split second of time. "You'd kill every last one of us."

Fang drew the steed to a halt again. "Then... There's really no way out?"

"You can't kill her." Lightning looked right up at Fang, gazing into those sharp green eyes. "The others would kill you before you even got close."

Fang kept quiet for a very long time, before she gently urged the horse to walk again. "How does this contract thing work, then? The blood goes on the ring, I know that much..."

"The crystal locks the life force of any Shadow." Lightning followed after the steed. "It's like a prison... Blood goes inside, but it never goes out; the one who has the ring holds the key." She narrowed her eyes at the horizon. "I've seen ten generations of masters from a single bloodline... Either that, or they groom an apprentice to take up the leash before they die."

Fang nodded, and her brow furrowed in thought. "What about natural causes?"

"I don't know." Lightning shrugged. "I suppose we'd either die as well, or get bound with whoever picked it up next."

"And how does this ring work, exactly?" Fang lifted one of her hands to shield her eyes from the setting sun, and she squinted to examine the distant outline of the city. "Whoever holds it takes control, but what if someone could dismantle it?"

Lightning took a deep breath to stifle her bristling temper. "You'd probably just kill us all in the process."

Fang frowned at that, but she kept quiet for a long while, at least until they approached the first few roads of cobblestone, the pathways that led towards the city.

And that was how it began, Lightning mused, that was how she ended up crouching there in the darkness of night, waiting for Fang to finish inspecting the courtyard of a rather quiet manor, a place that she suspected would hold the answers they needed.

"Should never have let them separate us..." Fang hissed her words as she crept away from the iron-wrought gate, kneeling down on the grass. "It happened too fast; one minute we were just talking to the bastards, the next-" She closed her eyes with a sharp sigh, before she leaned back against the tall stone wall. "They took her somewhere, I just don't know where."

Lightning moved to examine the courtyard as well. "Were you detained?"

Fang nodded. "They'd gotten a knife to her throat, not much I could do then but cooperate... Best to escape during transit, you know?" She hissed a bit more quietly than before. "Didn't realized we'd been carted off in different directions."

Lightning leaned back slightly when a patrol of armed guardsmen walked past, moving beside a tall fountain beyond the gates. "Where did they say they were taking you?"

"They didn't." Fang lowered her voice even further, scarcely more than a whisper. "My guess? These puffed up cowards don't much like blood on their own hands, they don't care about punishing us, they just want bargaining chips, hostages... And they've still got one, so why not keep her under tough security?" She spoke with such tempered malice, an anger reined in by willpower alone. "If she isn't in this one, then someone here would know where they keep foreign prisoners."

Lightning merely nodded.

"Right, let's have a look around the side." Fang stood up to slip past the tall iron gate, almost as silent as the midnight winds, careful not to step upon any stray branches or fallen leaves. "Remember, no killing if we don't have to... I don't mind getting a bit more than 'diplomatic' if anyone tries to stop us, but the people here, they're just doing their jobs." She narrowed her eyes at the curve of the wall, and she leaned a bit close towards it, searching for another gate. "Last thing we need back home is trouble... Even if some might welcome it."

Lightning held her tongue, quietly following after Fang. _Who are you?_ She felt her thoughts swirling around like the sensation of blood in Fang's veins, stirred on by the silence of the night and the tension in each step they took. _Southern harbors... Warlord's daughter... Or a wife? But she's here on her mother's behalf._ Lightning sniffed at the air; she could often tell if two humans had been in close proximity during recent times, but Fang only smelled like the fabric of her cloak and the furs of her clothing, not to mention the scents of the forest and the horse she had rented. _More likely a daughter; she looks too young to be anything else... Unless it's different elsewhere._

Fang suddenly signaled a halt, and she swiftly crouched down beside the stone wall. Lightning followed suit, watching for any hint of what Fang had seen, yet it wasn't long before she caught sight of them.

"Twenty casks of northern red..." A rather wiry man kicked at the wheel of a carriage, but his gaze was locked on a rather long sheet of parchment. "How did you manage to get apricots so late in the year?"

"I've got my ways." The caravaneer sat upon the seat of the first carriage, and he held the reins of twin oxen in his grip. "Still warm there in the south, but it'll cost your lord a pretty penny for the trouble... Wasn't an easy task getting them here in one piece." He glanced at one of the caravan guards, a man seated on the saddle of a horse, though the guard himself had one of his arms in a leather sling, and his nose seemed quite reddened and sore.

"Right, right..." The gate guard took one last look over the carriage, before he waved for the next cart to approach. "I'll still need a full inventory before you can take this in."

Lightning glanced at the rest of the manor guardsmen, and then at the caravan guards, before she whispered just under her breath. "They aren't watching the other side of the gate."

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to get through there without being noticed?" Fang squinted at the distant group of guards. "You might have your little Shadow tricks, but I-" She paused at the feeling of Lightning's hand on her shoulder, the palm that sported that twisting brand of flesh, hidden away by her glove. "Lightning?"

Lightning blinked within the sudden veil of darkness, and with only a single breath, her conjured shroud swirled out to conceal Fang as well.

In a slight daze, Fang looked down at herself. "...Nifty."

Lightning simply nodded. She rose up to her feet to creep towards the gate, stepping against the tall grass without a sound. Fang took one last look at herself, before she stood up to follow after Lightning.

And as Lightning approached, she could sense the blood stirring in Fang's veins, the little rush of adrenaline that began to seep out into every move she made, each step she took towards the gate. The sensation was quite different than the blood of the guards, for Lightning could feel a certain affinity by the sacrifice Fang had made. She could track her signature, in a sense, tracing it down to the source, the sound of that steadily beating heart. But humans never much liked to talk about Shadow powers, at least not in that way, so Lightning kept that knowledge to herself, even as they slipped past the gateway and reached a corner of the courtyard that seemed mostly unoccupied.

"Right, now we've just got to find someone in the know." Fang still spoke in whisper, and her eyes kept flicking back and forth to examine her surroundings. "See that tower, there?"

Lightning glanced up at the rather thin spire, one that rose above the stone keep and the chapel of the western courtyard. "I see it."

"See those guards?" Fang flicked her wrist towards the base of the tower. "Think you can stir up a distraction?"

Lightning squinted to examine them, just a couple of armored guardsmen who looked far more interested in their own boots than the place they were guarding. "No blood?"

"Well-" Fang clicked her tongue in consideration. "I'd rather not, but if they give you any trouble, do what you have to do." She crept a bit closer to the edge of the stone wall, but she shrank back just a bit when the caravan carts rumbled past them on the road, before she listened to the way the iron gates creaked shut. "We'll need an exit plan... See that scaffolding?" She gestured at the opposite side of the courtyard, past the main barracks. "There's bound to be an archivist or two in the tower, once I'm done spilling their secrets, we'll make a run for it over the wall."

Lightning blinked when one of the distant guards started chatting with his fellows. "And if she's here?"

"Then we figure it out when we get there..." Fang nodded at her. "Ready?"

Lightning nodded back only once. It was simple enough to slip away from the small path beside the wall, to step against the cobblestone road in a far different guise than before. It was a form that would have little trouble blending in while still looking utterly confident, though she still flicked her ears in distaste when Fang had to stifle away a chuckle.

A little black cat padded out across the courtyard, stepping so quietly against the stony path. Her paws were small and delicate, but her eyes were as keen as the sharpness of her claws, and each step she took held a certain poise, a gracefulness that flickered just as subtly as her true nature.

There was a lantern hanging above the tall door of the tower, illuminating the space the guardsmen occupied, not to mention the massive iron braziers that stood on either side of the doorway. Lightning stifled the sudden twinge of fear with a flick of her tail, ignoring the roar of the fire as best she could. The occasional boast or jest cut the silence of the night with sharp jeers or raucous laughter, and the men themselves seemed to be in rather good spirits, perhaps due to the sight of so many wine casks being brought inside by the caravans.

The tower stood beside more heaps of wooden scaffolding, and Lightning deftly leapt up to step across the narrow beams, gazing down at the guardsmen. They hadn't noticed her yet, nor had they caught sight of how Fang crept out there in the natural shadows, still somewhat concealed by Lightning's magic.

With a slight twitch of her ears, Lightning caught the sound of something scuffling and scampering beneath the fabric tarp of the lower scaffolding. She slowly leaned down, balanced between the wooden beams, before her narrow pupils began to dilate. _Perfect..._

It began with just a soft whoosh of air, the sound in her pointed ears as she leapt down so gracefully, the sudden squeaking beneath the utter power of her claws, the shrill screech when she lashed out with her teeth and bit down with such incredible force. She felt the blood seeping already, and her tail thrashed back and forth in sheer satisfaction, contented with the kill, no matter how small.

"Good mouser, that one." One of the guardsmen was wiping his mouth from the flask in his grip, and his eyes spoke of bright mirth, even beneath the shelter of his helmet. "One of the barn cats, you reckon?"

"That ain't no barn cat... It's probably one of the lord's stock; just look at it." The second guard gestured halfheartedly at the way Lightning lifted the mouse between her jaws. "No barn cat ever had a pelt so shiny."

 _Shiny?_ Lightning sat down with her prize in her mouth, but she fought the urge to take a quick glance at herself; cats could hardly understand human speech, after all. _At least I have my looks to count on._

"I heard the one in the manor had kittens last summer." The first guardsman sat himself down against a small bench, still sipping at the flask in his grasp. "Probably one of those; there's no telling what sort the lord's children fancy having around."

Lightning flicked her tail from side to side, watching Fang's approach out of the corner of her gaze. _Don't you dare make your move too soon..._ She blinked at the sight of such hidden shadows, enough to conceal the dark green cloak and the brown furs at her collar, but Lightning could still see those keen eyes gazing back at her, waiting for some signal to occur. _You should be ready to strike, though._

She leapt so swiftly from the beams, landing there in the darkness behind the tangle of wooden beams and stone basins full of tools, beneath the billowing tarp of such thickly woven cloth. She felt the chill of the stone pathway beneath her paws, and she could smell the heavy scent of blood in every breath she took, but she knew that such an aroma would have better uses than simply wafting there in silence.

A sharp yowl suddenly cut the relative silence of the midnight courtyard, and a number of the guardsmen tensed at the sound of it, before they rose up to swiftly approach the other side of the scaffolding.

Lightning simply let herself crumple down and limp so shakily against the path, mewing out a soft cry with the prize of her recent kill all but forgotten; the mouse blood that trickled down from one of her own paw pads was what she truly needed them to see, that and the utterly pitiful look in her eyes, a gaze of false pain and fear.

When the first guard to approach saw her limping, he frowned and knelt down beside the path. "Bad landing, eh? Some of those stones are still loose enough to cut."

Lightning kept limping away from the wooden beams, though she nearly paused to gloat when a set of rapid footsteps raced right past the barrier of cloth and scaffolding, a noise that echoed far too softly for any human to hear.

"Told you it wasn't no barn cat; house cat wouldn't know how to jump as well." One of the other guards shrugged at the sight of her. "Made a sound like hell itself opened up, though..."

"A cat's a cat, no matter what kind." A guard that hadn't spoken before was puffing at a wooden pipe, though he had to balance it between the metal slots of his helmet. "They say when a cat screams, there's no demon in the world that can't hear it."

"Don't you go saying things like that!" The first guardsman clipped his flask back down against his belt. "Word in the messenger's hall is a _demon_ slew the outriders in Brookhaven; nearly all of 'em dead." He slowly shook his head back and forth. "Don't tempt fate like that, for your own sake and mine."

Lightning started licking at her paw with her ears pinned flat against her head. She glanced at the tower out of the corner of her gaze, and she wondered just how long it would take for Fang to finish interrogating whoever she had sought there.

"Think the poor thing can make it back home by itself?" One of the guards glanced towards the tall manor at the southern end of the property. "Lord's family won't be pleased if a pet gets lost out here."

The first guard clapped him on the shoulder with a heavy laugh. "You ever tried to pick up and carry a stranger's cat anywhere? Even with that metal on you, you'd be looking at one pissed off whirlwind of claws and teeth..."

Lightning flicked her tail as if in agreement, but she still kept licking at the mouse blood on her paw pads. How long could it possibly take for Fang to get a simple answer out of them?

One of the others murmured under his breath. "We should be getting back to post."

Lightning stopped listening to their words after that. She started to limp beneath the shelter of the hanging cloth tarp, where she could conceal the act of changing herself into a much sleeker form, just a simple sliver of darkness. She could still hear them talking beyond the scaffolding, but Lightning soon swirled out to approach the unguarded doorway, moving past those damnable braziers that made every inch of her feel like she was about to crumble right down into dust... But she soon entered the main room at the base floor, which seemed quite vacant in the night, until she reached the edge of a spiral staircase.

She could hear no sounds in the winding corridor, but the sensation of Fang's blood left a clear trail for her to follow, and Lightning made her way over the stairs in great haste. It wasn't the easiest task to stifle the prickle of annoyance at having to go and hurry her up with the task, for even if Fang had taken a hostage, since the guards had likely retaken their post... Lightning paused at the sight of her, of that silvery edge of a knife pressed up so tight against the neck of a robed chamberlain, and of the sight of the cowering young steward in the corner of the room.

"You've got about ten seconds before the rest of my patience flies _right_ out the window." Fang spoke in a sharp hiss, and she twisted the edge of the knife ever so slightly to prove her point. " _Where is she?!_ "

"We-" The chamberlain nearly choked on his own breath. "We do not keep-"

" _Bullshit_." Fang's eyes flickered slightly when that lithe sliver of darkness approached, swirling around in swift circles. "You think I won't do it, do you? You think I won't set her on you?!"

His eyes flashed with confusion, but the chamberlain's jaw suddenly went slack when a set of gleaming eyes materialized before him, a sharp gaze of malice and bloodlust.

Fang's smile gleamed with a darkness to match Lightning's form. "Been about seven seconds, wouldn't you say..?"

Before Lightning even could respond, the chamberlain sputtered and stumbled over his words, trembling against the edge of the knife. "The... The castellan of, of Darenworth county... _Darenworth_ , they've issued the foreign prisoners to be taken there!"

Fang almost seemed as if she wished to reveal that she was one of the two who had been sentenced to such a fate, but she held her tongue for a very long moment, until a rather low whisper crossed her lips. "Did you have to take care of the guards?"

"No." Lightning swiftly reappeared in her human form, but most of her face was concealed by the fabric of her cowl. "Do you wish that? They'll have gone back to their posts by now."

Fang's gaze flicked off to the side, where the young steward was still shivering there in the corner, having since gone wide-eyed at the sight of a Shadow. "If we can get us out of here without it..." Fang tightened her grip on the knife, and she raised her voice to address the young man. "You! Head downstairs and tell the men there to stand down... I want the gates open and the guardsmen standing with their hands to the wall, or the old man here gets a taste of Gran Pulsian steel!" She took a step backwards, dragging the hostage with her. "And you tell them that if they take a single step up those stairs, they'll have more than a blade to deal with..."

The young steward nearly tripped over his own feet, yet he was gone within an instant, and Fang forced the chamberlain to walk forward towards the stairs.

Lightning glanced at one of the tower windows, but the glass was almost too thick to see through. "Do you know how to whistle?"

Fang just gave her a rather incredulous look. "Lightning, we need to get out of here..." She suddenly kicked the back of one of the chamberlain's knees with a grunt. "Come on, you! The knife's not for show." Fang approached the edge of the staircase, forcing the man to step down.

Lightning followed on after them, and with a slight twinge of inner focus, her own glaive materialized in her gasp, twin blades of shimmering steel. She kept close to Fang, listening for any hints of the guardsmen below, but all the could hear was the stumbling sound of the chamberlain's footsteps; each clumsy pace against the stone stairs echoed out into the spiraling staircase, up and down and all around them, and it seemed to make Fang force him all the harsher for it.

But when they reached the lowest room of the tower, there was no steward to be seen, only the spearheads and open muzzles of a dozen readied firearms, all pointed so silently at the base of the stairs.

"Don't even try..." Fang growled her words between her teeth. "You want blabbermouth here to bite it? I know how damn valuable a record keeper is!" She dug the blade down deeper, enough to free those first few streaks of scarlet blood. "Just an idiot from the south, huh?! No diplomats over there, they must not know which hostages to take!"

Lightning tightened her grip against the pole of her glaive, eyeing the sheer number of armored guards, most of which looked uninclined to falter at the sight of the blooded hostage.

"Back off now, or his ugly skull hits the floor!" Fang bore her teeth at the sight of them, digging her knife ever deeper into that choking, reddened throat. "No, huh?"

It was in the moment that the first fingertip twitched for the trigger of a firearm, the moment when Fang drew back as hard as she could, when those keen eyes looked off to the side, meeting Lightning's gaze for only a split moment of time... Yet something passed between them, something almost tangible, somethings swift and sharp and fleeting but still so strong at all the same time, eyes of kindred spirits in the face of impending battle, a gaze that struck far deeper than steel.

Lightning felt it when she lurched to grab the flintlock muzzle, when her eardrums roared with the feeling of white hot fire, when the second smoking shot bit down at her stomach and the third grazed her arm, when she lashed out without a single sound on her lips, cutting the arm from the one who had first fired upon them.

A limb and a half-severed head fell in sequence, two dull thuds in the midst of cracking thunder, in the flames that sparked and bellowed out into the walls of the tower, the blades that screeched and found soft flesh to sate their thirst. Lightning scarcely even remembered to breathe, much less blink her eyes at the sheer sight of it, for it felt as if that single moment had lurched right in and then slowed itself down to a crawl, honing in upon the vision of Fang's sword unsheathed and ripping right out through the air itself, sinking down into the skull of one who had just lifted his blade against Lightning, before time itself rushed back again.

They both struck deep against the plates of armor and woven mail, or of leather that gave way to flesh, no matter how many shots rang out into the night. It almost felt strange to try and parry the same sword, only to realize that Fang was keenly watching over her back, not quite enough to impede the broad strokes of her glaive, but she stood so very close, near enough to hear the swift echoes of her breath, each muffled grunt she made upon striking blood again, until a different sound rang out, something that accompanied the swift grip on Lightning's shoulder.

And she was being dragged, she realized, guided away from the spatter of carnage and the survivors who sought to pursue them, not to mention the sudden flurry of rallied guardsmen that seemed to approach from every angle, racing towards the tower where the shots had first fired out. Lightning scarcely had time to think, much less to protest the way Fang was leading her away from the din of battle and towards one of the long cobblestone pathways, past the courtyard and the low buildings that stood all around the tower.

"If we can just reach-" Fang sucked in a sharp breath when another fiery gunshot missed her body by not nearly enough of a margin. "Come on, Lightning!"

Lightning ran as fast as she could, but she realized she was close to trembling, if only for the fire that had bitten her. Such wounds were always far worse than the strike of a blade, as it was a sickening flurry of pain and deeply burning torment; fire chased Shadows away in droves, the only infliction that could outright kill them without fail.

Perhaps Fang had noticed it as well. "It's alright..." She spoke between panting breaths, and she swiftly dodged yet another shot by dragging Lightning behind a corner of the nearest building, seeking momentary shelter behind a low wall. "You hurt?"

Lightning didn't even move for a moment, not until Fang dragged her down to crouch beneath the wall as well.

Fang stared at the bleeding black wound on Lightning's stomach, one that seeped and dripped down against the torn fabric of her tunic. "Can you still run?"

Lightning nodded without a word, and she blinked for what felt like the first time in many minutes.

"We'll be sitting ducks up on that scaffolding..." Fang hissed as she readied her pistol, still holding her cutlass in her other hand. "If we take out as many as we can from behind this-"

Lightning slowly clutched the wound on her stomach. "...Whistle."

Fang tried to temper her words down from anger, but they still hissed against her teeth. "Lightning?!"

"Just do it." Lightning lifted her blooded fingers towards her own lips, mimicking the action she requested. "I die if you die, right?" She tried not to slump against the low wall, but she had to reach down to clutch at her stomach again, attempting to stem the dark flow of blood. "Just trust me, then... Or don't."

Fang began to grit her teeth for just a moment of time, before she quickly lifted her fingertips to her mouth.

The footsteps echoed all around them, and the shouts rang almost as sharp as the gunshots had been. The wall beside them was just enough to take shelter from ensuing fire or the strikes of a sword, but enough guardsmen could soon overwhelm them, provided they weren't cut down the moment they jumped over into range. Yet in the wake of a long, keening whistle, Fang seemed far less than enthused about lifting her blade again, though she still kept a tight grip on the hilt.

Lightning tried to keep herself from withering down from the pain, but it felt as if her stomach was burning up inside her, and her fingers kept trembling against the pole of her glaive, so feverishly cold. There had been no other way, she assured herself, she'd taken the strike in Fang's stead, keeping her away from harm, protecting both of their lives from a swift and untimely end.

The first roaring shout hit her ears like a torrent of boulders, but Lightning still rose up to lash the nearest edge of her glaive into the one who had leapt the wall, cutting his legs out from under him in a spray of blood and tumbling limbs. She almost stumbled when yet another clambered up over the stone to strike down at them, yet Fang had taken the initiative to reach up and yank at of his ankles, running her sword up through his chest by the sheer gravity he took from falling.

Lightning could smell the thick haze of blood, the ashen smoke that still swirled around the air from the gunshots, the heavy footfalls that echoed like so many tremors within the earth, but she still rose again, cutting at the next who dared approach them. She bit back a roar, and her blades spun with each slash of her arms, each whirling strike and flash of scarlet, each frenzied bite against the swarm of approaching guardsmen, until she finally heard that distant peal of thunder.

Fang's eyes widened beneath the mist of flying blood, yet as she lashed back with her cutlass as well, striking away at the din of swords and scattered gunfire, it seemed as if it suddenly dawned on her what such a whistle could summon.

The first crash rose above all others, the bellowing cry of a force unshackled from earthly flesh, the scream of a wraith crashing down upon armor and arms alike, blades and fire and strikes of steel, a flurry of hooves and furious teeth. Fang could see it through the haze of swirling smoke, she could see the beast who suddenly crashed right into the line of guardsmen like a ship coursing through such sluggish waves, a Shade answering the call of his rider.

Lightning leapt out as well, grabbing a tight hold of that flickering mane, the darkness that quivered at her touch, perhaps in recognition of a fellow being of darkness. The beast squealed and charged against those who stood around it, while Lightning lashed out with each edge of her glaive, cutting down those who weren't yet crushed beneath the utter force of such massive hooves.

Fang scarcely seemed to realize that she was staring at the otherworldly beast, no longer as reminiscent of a horse as he was of a fabled demon. It was a being of flickering shadows and muscles that coiled like inky serpents, a beast of flat teeth that gleamed with a sharpness rivaling the fiercest of carnivores. His eyes burned in a ghastly swirl of sheer darkness, a monster of the Shade, a steed strong enough to crush an armored guard beneath his hooves and spill his blood for so many long paces around, a sheer storm of scarlet vapor.

"Fang!" As the steed whirled closer, Lightning reached out with her left hand, the one that wasn't gripping her glaive. "Let's go!"

And Fang leapt, jumping right above the low wall in a soft whoosh of air and the flapping flutter of her cloak, moving to grip Lightning's hand with a soft grunt on her lips, until she was swiftly dragged up onto the back of the steed. The reins were snapped from where the beast had since broken away to find them, for Fang had looped the leather around the branch of another low tree, but such things truly meant quite little to a beast of such immense strength.

"Fang!" Lightning spoke out above the clamor of hoofbeats and the shouts of the panicking guards. "Tell him to run, Fang!"

Fang grasped at those broken reins, struggling to catch her own breath, before she dug her heels into the steed's sides, calling out as sharply as she could. " _Run!_ "

* * *

Her eyes slid open to glimpse the morning sun. A slight tremor shook through her, just one last remnant of the sheer adrenaline of the dream, a chemical that hadn't quite reached her physical self, no matter how fast her heart was beating. Her past life had been afraid, she realized, frightened by the fire that burned so deeply, though it made more than a bit of sense that a Shadow would so deeply fear the burning light.

Fang snored softly, all curled up against on the grass of the cliffside. She had her wings tucked around herself, while her neck was angled to rest right around Lightning, almost a protective stance. Each little sound she made rumbled quietly into the air, but it was still louder than the distant whisper of the ocean. Lightning could feel the deep warmth of those scales, the steady breath in Fang's throat, and she almost wanted to just rest there for a while longer, at least enough to forget the pain of those strange weapons that nearly rivaled dragon fire, but she knew they still had a task to complete.

"Fang." Lightning slowly stretched out her arms, and she began to sit up beside the curve of Fang's elegant neck. "It's morning."

Fang still slumbered on, at least until Lightning reached out to touch her nearest cheek, gently stroking the scales beneath her eye.

"I don't think there's any firewood here, so... No breakfast campfire." Lightning almost sighed when Fang kept dozing away. " _Fang_."

Fang slowly roused when Lightning reached out to channel her thoughts telepathically, and she soon yawned into the morning air, unfurling her wings to stretch each digit apart.

"I know it's still early." Lightning leaned back to comb out her own hair with her fingertips, smoothing it down from a slightly disheveled state. "But I thought you might want to start sooner than later."

"Yeah." Fang yawned again, and she carefully stretched out her hind digits against the grass. "Breakfast first?"

Lightning looked at where Fang's satchel was resting just a few paces away. "Breakfast first."

* * *

The air felt eerily still with only the occasional gust of air, and that was mostly from Fang's wingbeats. After finishing a quick meal of bread, they started to soar even further across the island of sharp stone and twisted metal, far above the sloped incline that swept around in a massive spiral. Lightning could already see that the structure itself was heavily rusted and crumbling down from against the inner framework, a skeleton of decaying beams and plates of weathered metal.

"Real piece of work, isn't it?" Fang landed atop one of the flatter platforms, a slanted piece of steel that revealed some of the inner vestige below, but most of it was hidden away by a maze of pipes and metal. "You can see why we were curious, though..."

Lightning stared at the beams of light that trickled down from the holes in the upper structure, and she tightened her grip on Fang's satchel strap. "The entrance is down there?"

Fang nodded. "Just need to open it up first." She lifted one of her wings to point at a different area of the twisted ruins, somewhere off to the west. "I'll show you."

Lightning kept very quiet while Fang leapt off into the air again, flapping her wings heavily against the stagnant air, just enough to carry them above the heaps of sharp edges and tangled wiring. She wondered for a moment if such an entrance was even large enough to accommodate a dragon, for it seemed much more like a massive bramble of thorns than any true building, or even an underground temple.

But as they approached a slanted dais near what seemed to be the first visible floor, Lightning realized that it was much more of a network of passages and sheer drops to the unknown, a hollow space beneath the thicket that only grew darker the further one descended. But Fang flared her wings before long, landing quite neatly against the edge of the metal platform, where she settled herself against the ground to let Lightning climb down from her wing.

"So... How does it work?" Lightning slowly stepped up to peer at the unusual mechanism of the dais. "Simple, I hope."

"Pretty much." Fang walked forward to gesture at one of the rounded tiles. "Stand on that one..." She tapped her wing against a different panel, one that stood on a raised platform of steel. "And touch that; I'll go get the other one."

Lightning almost hesitated for a moment, before she reached out to press both of her hands against the panel that Fang had indicated. "No side effects, right?"

"Other than opening up the door?" Fang looked back over her shoulder to give Lightning a quick wink. "Just hold it from there, it'll only take a second."

Lightning drew in a very deep breath, but she kept still while Fang wandered behind another tangle of metal, disappearing into the vestige. Nothing much seemed to happen beneath her fingertips, nor at her feet, and Lightning almost thought to call out after a while, just to see if Fang had activated her own part of the mechanism. The silence drifted around her as if it was a thick, nearly tangible veil, and nothing else seemed to happen with the platform, not even when a sound finally pierced the air.

" _Damn the_..." Fang's voice drifted off into the distance, echoing against the metal walls over and over again. "Light, you seeing anything on your end?!"

Lightning waited for the echoes to subside, before she called back into the vestige. "No, what's supposed to happen?"

Something echoed yet again, the sound of swift footsteps, and Fang soon appeared with the gravest look that Lightning had ever seen from her.

"Fang-" Lightning tried to think of what else she could possibly say. "Did it..?"

"Bastard's locking us out." Fang stood there in her human form, but her lip curled in a rather draconic manner, a silent snarl on her face. "The damn thing's just-!"

"Fang." Lightning lifted her hands away from the dais, and she stepped down to stand on the path beside her. "There has to be a way inside."

She could tell how much Fang's temper flashed by the throbbing pulse at her throat, and by how her breath hissed between her teeth. "I spent... So many years." Fang lowered her gaze down to the sheer drop beside the metal pathway. "Scoured every inch of the damn place, only one stupid door..."

Lightning took a deep breath. "Show it to me."

Fang didn't seem to react for a long moment; Lightning could see that it took every last ounce of her self-control not to snap and start ripping up the walls to further pieces, nor to simply torch the structure out from under them.

"We won't know until we see it." Lightning reached out to hold one of Fang's shoulders, no matter how scorching her body heat had flared. "What happened last time you opened it?"

Fang suddenly gave a quick wave of her hand towards the dais. "Started glowing, you could see the lights traveling all the way down to the door..." She drew in a sharp breath, before she moved to start walking down the narrow pathway. "We'll take a look, then."

"Right." Lightning looked down at her feet as she followed after Fang, and she fought the urge to worry her teeth against her bottom lip. "Is it far from here?"

"A bit of a walk." Fang sighed as she clambered towards another spiraling pathway, just a thin layer of metal that wound itself around several narrow spires. "I'd fly us there, but the place is already falling apart... Has been for years."

Lightning walked on in silence, gazing at the rays of light that still trickled down from the gaps in the upper structure. Parts of the taller platforms were only dappled with sunlight, while some were rather openly illuminated, but the further that they traveled into the depths, the darker it became. She could see the stone surface of the island itself, speckled with so many thin beams of steel, enough to support the platforms and pathways of the inner construct, but they were also quite weathered with age. Some even looked to be fractured, while some had simply rusted away, and Lightning suddenly felt very, _very_ grateful that Fang was able to fly.

But it was the sound that most unnerved her, or rather the lack of it. Every little scuff or brush of her boots against the pathway sent bounding echoes all around them, amplified by the spiraling walls of metal and rust, the open air that never seemed to whisper with the slightest hint of wind. Lightning felt a certain ringing inside her ears, but it was almost too silent for her to be sure; it was a phantom of sound, the space left behind by each reverberation of a single footstep, the yawning gap that left a slight tremor inside her very line of thought.

Fang just kept walking on down the slope, occasionally changing her course to step against a different platform, until she finally snapped her fingers together to light their way through the darkness. Her flame almost seemed just as silent, but there was something quite comforting about the tiny glow, so much that Lightning almost thought to thank her.

The structure was truly quite cavernous, far more vast that Lightning had first imagined. They walked further and further beneath the surface of the island, until the only lights that remained were the last few scattered rays of sun and the fire on Fang's fingertips.

Lightning drew in another deep breath, and she tightened her hands into fists, just trying to block out the ringing sensation. She swore she could feel the vibrations in the air, against her skin, deep inside her beating heart, though Lightning almost thought she was just imagining it until she saw how Fang reached up to absentmindedly rub one of her ears.

"Does it usually sound like this..?" Lightning tried to speak as softly as she could, for her own voice echoed quite clearly as well. "Like something's ringing."

"Or humming." Fang muttered something under her breath. "Or..." She kept walking, but several minutes passed before she spoke again. "Like a seashell."

With that, Lightning suddenly realized that she hadn't just been imagining the strange sensation in her skin, but she could only pause when they turned a corner in the open corridor, facing what looked like a massive, gleaming shield. It was fixed against the ground, she realized, for much of the earth around it looked to have been chipped and scratched away, only to reveal even more of that unearthly layer of metal. Ancient marks littered the surface of the massive barrier, and dark stains of ash still lingered there, dotting the various lines where those mighty teeth had once bitten down to gnaw against the surface itself.

"See, still closed." Fang almost hissed at the sight of it, so much like the material of the metal cavern that Vanille herself resided in. "Maybe if we could just override whatever's blocking the mechanism... Some sort of workaround?" She roughly kicked at some of the fallen rust on the ground. "Maybe if we tried activating it with-"

With an almost jittery feeling in her heart, Lightning suddenly knelt down to slip her backpack from her shoulders, just enough to reach back and find whatever could possibly be ringing so silently, only a faint little whisper that nagged and taunted her eardrums without pause...

Fang's eyes widened ever so slightly. "Light?"

But it was gone within an instant, the strange device that she lifted up with a wince, replaced by the call of a dozen whirling beads, the keening whisper that rose out to a song, unimpeded and free. She watched as it floated there, hovering between her hands while each little noise echoed the rapid rhythm of her own heartbeat. Some form of magic, perhaps, the same kind that caused each little bead to travel along the coiled wire, whatever it was, she could feel it far deeper than she had ever felt before, as if the strange presence of the vestige had amplified it.

The little glass beads were whirling faster and faster, and Lightning's breath almost caught in her throat. Not _glass_ , she realized, though such a mistake was entirely understandable, for the translucent surface of the beads mimicked the sheer smoothness and reflective properties of such a material... But no, as they suddenly swirled and twisted in midair, as the wire slowly uncoiled itself and broke at only a single point, a thread of swirling, floating metal, and as the little beads found their way away from the shackle and down into the indents of the doorframe, each crystal slowly, gradually began to glow.

"Light..." Fang spoke as softly as she had ever heard from her. "What did you say this golem looked like?"

But Lightning kept silent as the beads clicked and whirred, watching how each facet rotated within the dim light of the fire, slowly moving to fit so perfectly against the metal gaps. She peered at how they shone with a dim inner light, little gemstones that locked themselves into place, before she listened to the sharp hiss of air, the gout of dust that suddenly billowed out with a shuddering creak of metal, until the magic itself slowly began to materialize, spreading out to create a forked pattern upon the door.

"L'Cie..." Fang stared at the mark on the metal. "It's... Like a l'Cie brand."

The massive door almost seemed to groan beneath the force of the magic, shifting and trembling as it slowly began to recede, lowering itself down by the workings of what sounded like the rumble of so many gears, but such mechanisms were hidden beneath the sloped floor of the inner chamber.

And in the wake of that quaking upheaval, it took several long, silent moments for Fang to try speaking again. "I could damn well kiss you right now."

Lightning couldn't quite fight off the tiny smile that crossed her lips. "Later." She lifted her backpack up to her shoulders again. "We've got a job to do." But she paused, kneeling down to pick up one of the fallen gemstones, the tiny eye of a long forgotten brand. "They had... Crystals for eyes." Lightning leaned back a bit, and she turned over the little white gem between her fingertips. "You don't think..?"

Fang kept very quiet, even when Lightning trailed off into utter silence.

Lightning looked down at the abandoned wire that had once carried so many of the beaded gems, and she slowly reached out to place the one she held beside it. "...We should keep going."

Fang stepped forward to lower her hand, offering it out towards Lightning. She smiled softly from that first soft touch, a hand against her own, the quiet reassurance of a heartbeat.

They walked down beneath the shadows of the archway, into the tunnel that led into the earth, but the walls held no trace of stone or dirt, only that endless slope of metal. Fang lifted the hand that held her fire, guiding the way down into the darkness, yet she soon felt Lightning squeeze her other hand when they reached the first junction of the passageway.

"Won't be long now." Fang snuffed her fire away at the first sight of a luminous presence, one that seemed to curl against the walls and floors of the metal hallway, a thin trail of magical light. "You still good with the plan, then?"

Lightning nodded as she walked. "Just show me where to go."

"Alright." Fang still kept her voice down to a whisper. "I'll come back for you once I've finished it... Just do whatever you can to weaken it for me, yeah?"

After a long moment of silence between them, Lightning squeezed Fang's hand again. "Be careful."

"Same goes for you." Fang stopped in place then, turning around to face her. "Just take it slow if it starts to hurt." She reached up to trace her fingertips over Lightning's jawline, pausing at her chin. "I mean it, Light... You won't get that kiss if I come back and see you're exhausted, I can promise you that."

Lightning tried not to roll her eyes. "You make it sound like I'll be running miles to get there."

Fang leaned in to brush her lips against Lightning's ear. "Keep your guard up; just because nothing seemed to move in there when I first looked, doesn't mean it _can't_..." She smiled when she felt that slight tremor of anticipation, and when she leaned back, she could see something in Lightning's eyes that spoke of deep courage and a sense of duty, as if she felt honored to be taking on a possibly dangerous task. "Eyes open, watch your back."

Lightning nodded, and she squeezed Fang's hand once more.

With a single gesture at a certain corridor, they parted without a sound, slipping away into the darkness of the vestige. Lightning slowly reached up to tug the mask of her hood over her mouth, and she glanced back at the hall where Fang had since disappeared to, before she turned around to face her own part of the vestige. That same swirling light lit the way forward for her, and Lightning stepped out into the winding corridor, gazing at the the path ahead.

* * *

Fang sniffed at the air when the hall finally widened to a greater degree, and she wasted little time in retaking her dragon form. With her wings folded beneath herself, she slowly began to walk again, but she kept herself somewhat low to the ground, occasionally flicking her tail in apprehension. She could sense it already, the old presence of something so very deep beneath the earth, a lost relic of an age she scarcely remembered, and she felt a snarl building inside her throat at the mere thought of it. How many lives had seen their end in such a place? Who had built the towering structure above the vestige, only to let it fall into utter ruin?

She began to creep down through the winding hallways, sniffing every so often at the air. It was the same path where she had seen those curious eyes glance at everything they could look upon, the same hallway where Vanille had stopped to examine each little deviation in the architecture, smiling all the while. Fang tried not to grit her teeth at the memory of it.

But it would be over soon, she told herself, they would be able to laugh about it someday with everyone, all of their family. She'd go and find them, gather them all together, she'd keep them safe from such monstrosities as the fal'Cie, even if it took every last ounce of her fire.

And there, in the darkness of the hazy gloom, with a sharp, guttural growl in her throat that echoed so perfectly against the sloping corridor, Fang stood steadfast upon the edge of the final precipice. Just beyond, a thousand eyes slowly blinked out into her view, while a hundred dark tendrils coiled and curled, twisting and bleeding against those metal walls, stretching to their utmost possible reach.

"Been a long time coming..." Fang narrowed her eyes, and her lungs heaved with the sudden rumbling force of her darkest snarl. "But I ran right out of patience a few hundred years ago."

A clattering echo struck forth in the wake of her words, shattering straight through silence, before the very air around her shook within the pitch of such a force, of a roar borne upon so many countless blooded tongues, a cry of war and untold years of suffering.

Fang coiled herself, and lunged.

* * *

She could hear it before she saw it, the constant whirring rumble of something in the distance, something beyond the shadows of the hall.

Lightning glanced up at the line of luminescent light that led the way down the corridor, and when a slight prickle ran down her spine, she paused for a moment to listen. There was a heavy thrum inside the walls around her, a deeply metallic sound, as if the inner machinations were alive and breathing just beyond her reach. If what Fang said was right, then the true mind of the beast awaited in the form of a 'computer', though Lightning had less than a small inkling of what she could possibly do to damage such a thing.

She started to walk again when all seemed relatively peaceful, but she still kept one hand upon Overture's hilt. Her left hand gripped the handle of Moonlight, ready to spring those claws at the slightest hint of movement, but she could see nothing beyond the endless corridor, and it took a bit of steady breathing just to clam her fraying nerves. Had Fang pointed her in the direction of a dead end? No, she knew how furious that would make her... No use striking a deal in such a way, anyway, not when she could have feasibly left Lightning in safety back on the cliffside ledge beneath the vestige, though if Fang had done that, it would have been the most awkward return in the world when she came back empty handed, unable to open the vestige on her own. Though when Lightning thought about it further, in theory, Fang would have first had to acquire her help with those panels, somehow, only then to try and carry her away from the vestige, and then-

The swiftness of the blow came as an utter shock, but even lost in thought, the sense of a primal reflex sent her sprawling, ducking right down to the ground with a soft grunt of stifled breath, before she swiftly rolled away to avoid the crash of bladed metal and grasping mechanical digits, a being that merely screeched and slashed at her from the darkness yet again. A muffled curse left her lips as she rolled once more, only to let the blades miss her by a mere hairsbreadth, yet when she unsheathed Overture to slash back against the robust machine, Lightning could only wheeze at the sudden force it dealt towards her chest, forcing her to slam against one of the cold, hard walls of the corridor.

She swore she felt something else beyond the pain of that first impact, something swirling just at the edge of her consciousness, but she had little time to think on it when those jagged blades were whirling right back to try and strike at her. Lightning ducked once more, dropping down beneath the sudden strike of flying metal and unearthly steel, before she lurched off to the side in a swift run.

Her breath sounded louder than the humming of the walls, and her heartbeat almost felt like a bell tower in her chest. Each footstep brought her further and further from that strange mechanical arm, but when she risked a brief glance to either side of the passing hallway, she realized that it most definitely not the only one of its kind.

But perhaps some stroke of fate chose to strike her then, rather than the whims of the fal'Cie, something that still brought pain, of course, and the dizziness of suddenly having her feet forced out from under her, the limb of yet another bladed arm, but no blood was immediately drawn from her. She only realized she was falling when the ground didn't immediately rush up to slam against her, though that feeling came soon enough, she supposed.

The faint light of the corridor seemed all but gone, and the sudden impact of a different plane, a different floor of the vestige, it nearly forced a small yelp from her throat, but it was stifled by the jarring snap of her jaw. A dazed sensation overtook her for a long moment, and she only looked up to see the strange drop that she had fallen from once her vision had stopped spinning around in circles.

But what purpose did such a place have? She looked around at those strange towering devices of the lower room, and Lightning almost flinched when yet another mechanical limb suddenly hissed and rumbled to life from within one of the walls, as if to protect those glowing towers. What way could there be to defeat such a powerful force? It seemed too resistant for a sword strike, and she had a feeling that her own bladed claws would only skitter away from such unearthly metal...

Her answer came in the form of a sudden brutal strike from the beastly contraption, and Lightning shouted with every inch of force that she slammed back against it, pushing with the brunt of her upturned blade to keep those whirling metal claws away from her, enough to search for any weakness in the machine. Wires ran up the limb like sinuous muscles, blinking with inner lights and signals, the lifeblood of the beast, but when she lashed forward with her unsheathed claws, striking back against the bundled cords with a whispering hiss, the contraption itself scarcely even seemed to slow.

Lightning struggled against that parried strike, trying to get some leverage against the device before it could force her to her knees, and she lashed out yet again, striking over and over until one of the main wires began to fray. She felt the sheer heat of the snapping sparks and smoke on her skin, but her mask kept most of it away from her mouth and nose, and with a final slash of her Moonlight claws against that tangle of wires, Lightning managed to loose herself from the hold of the parried blow.

The metal beast almost seemed to groan, slowly tottering its long bladed arm in an attempt to strike at her again, but Lightning merely slipped to the side in a swift dodge, just enough to see the strange coiled tube that attached the machine to the metal walls of that gloomy little room.

A single leap saw her claws striking right through it, severing the somewhat soft surface of the pipe, yet she nearly flinched at the sudden gush of dark, oily blood, for it did indeed smell like unearthed iron and copper, a scent that swirled right out into the air and spattered everything it could possibly touch. Lightning stepped back as far as she could, and she took just a moment to breathe, to ready her sword and her claws again for whatever else the ghastly little room might have to throw at her... But in that moment, it all seemed so strangely still.

* * *

The shadows danced with each flash of fire, with each lurch and strike of blooded teeth, and Fang felt how it trickled down her face and jaws, but she knew only some of it was her own. A low snarl rippled straight through her throat, and she lashed her tail at the very sight of the bleeding machine.

Her breath swirled with a roaring inferno of heat, billowing out against the steadfast shell of the massive being, calling forth more crackled blood than it had ever bled before. The strikes of fire bubbled and roiled against the sleek surface of the metal, melting it down to expose the writhing flesh that clicked and churned with so many hidden wires, but Fang held no hesitation in lashing out to bite them, ripping away as many as her teeth could grasp.

She felt the blunt strike of a clubbed limb, but no amount of twinging pain could keep her away from tearing at those eyes, from dragging back cords of blooded wire and flesh alike. Fang snarled sharply when the fal'Cie screeched and battered back at her with a frenzied whirl of bladed limbs, striking at her chest and wings, but a swift gout of fire was enough to send it reeling, before she lunged right back into the fray.

* * *

The strange towers hummed with latent energy, and Lightning found herself standing right in the midst of them, a lone figure in the heights of that narrow room... A stranger in the presence of something she could scarcely even begin to understand. So many lights flickered inside of each structure, some form of magic that had been caught inside the metal, but when Lightning slowly reached out to touch one, nothing seemed to happen at all.

"Is this what you meant?" Lightning tried to remember exactly what Fang had said about computers, that they were brains, not limbs to strike with, but the tall metal contraption before her didn't seem much like a brain. "Alright."

Overture whistled into the air, and she held the steel aloft before that vulnerable machine, gazing at the way it kept flickering so steadily, a heartbeat locked within metal and glass. She slowly tightened her grip, breathing in a few deep breaths, but no matter how much she called for her muscles to simply lash her blade down into the depths of that strange device, something else tugged at her mind instead.

She remembered the long summer days when she had watched a nest of basilisk eggs hatch within the dappled floor of the forest, when she chose to perch there against a tree branch to watch them from afar, examining the growth of the clutch. She remembered the feeling of the warm winds in her hair, the way the bark of the tree felt so comforting beneath her fingertips, the sense of curiosity in her heart when she observed a new behavior from the wild creatures, enough to warrant careful documentation.

"Damn it all..." Lightning snarled under her breath. "A fal'Cie-" She tried to shake the images of her own writing from her head, the sketches of feral beasts and monsters of all kinds. "Nobody's ever written much of anything about them."

With a weighted feeling in her limbs, Lightning slowly lowered her sword from within the air, holding it back down beside her hip. "Can you hear me? Whatever you are..." She moved to wander around the strange towers, walking towards the furthest end of the room from where she had fallen in the first place. "Why did you brand my friend? It was years ago, before I was even born." Lightning stifled away the prickling sensation that she was being quite foolish, and she took a deep breath to steel herself. "My other friend is going to kill you for it."

Those inner lights just kept flickering, and Lightning slowly knelt down beside one of the strangest of the towers, a short pillar that ended in a sloped top, rather like the panel she had seen outside the vestige.

"Maybe you can tell me _why_ , before she does..." Lightning kept her sword at the ready, and the muscles in her left hand twitched, ready to lash out with her claws on only a moment's notice. "Are you really as irrational as she says?"

The machine still only hummed, flickering on into the darkness.

Lightning narrowed her eyes. "Fang says you don't have a soul... That you're cruel and heartless because of it." She watched that steady thrum of inner light. "But you're smart enough to give someone a focus."

All was silent but for the heavy echo of mechanical workings, though Lightning swore that her own breath sounded like thunder in her ears.

"If you..." Lightning paused, before she slowly lifted her hand towards the panel. "If you can't talk-"

It was almost as if the first touch shattered the room around her, for her mind suddenly reeled with the barrage of crackling static and a twisting screech of sound, yet she only gripped the metal all the tighter for it, breathing out in a shuddering exhale of pain. It was sharper than steel, colder than sheer ice beneath her fingertips, as if the world around had her fractured and swirled, an endless string of numbers and such strange lettering, twisted symbols and forked lines in the depths of the bestial machine, a language born of some unearthly source of engineering.

A line of code, even if she could scarcely understand it, she felt the way of thinking that it held, the forbiddance to harm the facility around it, to ever leave the bounds it was placed within, nor to attempt to terminate itself. She felt how it screamed and tumbled inside the snare of such rules, how the mind rebelled against itself, wishing so very deeply for the pain to cease, yet it could not find an end, no way to escape, locked there beneath the earth where no possible ears could hear it struggle.

Lightning's mind reeled with the sheer influx of what _felt_ like thoughts, but they were all so random and scattered that she nearly forced herself to lift her hand away from the steely platform, all up until something almost familiar suddenly crossed the trembling link between two minds.

A focus, a brand placed upon one who had no shackles of their own will, freedom granted by the presence of a foreign being, a loophole, a lone gamble in the dark. There was no line of lettering that forbade the killing of another, no chain that could stop the beast from wishing for one of its own kin to fall empty and lifeless, to find freedom from such bonds, a slave no more to the inner workings of a fractured mind.

Lightning saw it then, memories recorded in flashes of sound and color, a garble of static and screeching inner pain, a line of frayed reasoning written in secret... For it knew of the minds before it. It knew of the possibilities of fate, the single flowing strand that could lead itself to such freedom, for if it could not kill itself, another could be manipulated to exact such a end.

 _Fang..._ The recorded voice was scarcely audible beneath the howling static. _Wait... What is that?_

Lightning drew in the sharpest breath she had ever drawn, before she forced her hand away. Silence rang in her ears far louder than thrumming rumbles of the machine, and she slowly blinked against the murky veil of darkness, just enough to clear her vision from the constant fuzz that had accompanied the shrill thoughts beside her mind.

Something hissed and rattled heavily within the darkness.

Lightning drew in another sharp breath, and she held her sword out before her with just a single whistle of steel. But could she survive another barrage of those bladed claws? The fal'Cie, such rules dictated that it must absolutely defend itself, and she had since proven that she meant it harm; yet her steel was hardly effective against anything but that one line of true lifeblood, the only real weakness the limbs seemed to have... But what could harm the metal itself? _Fire_ , she remembered, dragon flame could melt steel and flesh alike, swords and bones and everything left between.

And as she reached for that one certain pendant on her wristband, Lightning heard another hiss and a sharp echo of metal, a clang and a screech of hissing steam. The fire, she told herself, the fire would see her safe, and it also meant that Fang would know where she was; she herself had told her so, back in the compound's infirmary. Fang spoke of how the one moment when Lightning had activated such a charm, how a certain sensation led her right to where her fellow hunters had brought her, the link of blood to flame, cradled in a cache of silver.

She felt it when the first hint of a glinting blade turned the corner of one of the towers, the sudden rush of heat and sparking power in her veins, just enough to roar out and smite the beast that charged her, yet not before it had barreled itself down against her legs, knocking them right out from under her.

Lightning fell amid the blaze, but she swiftly realized that whatever Fang had done with her soul must have been able to affect her general proximity as well; her clothes seemed unharmed by the flames that clung to them, and they were mostly extinguished with a few swipes of her sword hand, before she lashed right out with her claws to finish off the twitching machine.

That rush of dark liquid spilled once more, yet Lightning just knelt there with a fire still flickering against her skin, not to mention the few patches of her clothes that she had still missed. She blinked when a sharp shudder seemed to pass throughout the towers of the room, and she wondered if it meant that Fang had managed to inflict something serious against the fal'Cie.

"Now or never..." Lightning took another deep breath. "They'd better send me the next dozen copies of the compendium for this." She rose up with her arm outstretched, reaching for the metal plate once more. "Show me... Show me what you really are."

The sudden darkness drew her in, a swirl of sharp static and even more flashing images, a whirlwind of sound and memory. Yet she felt something deeper than that, far further within the actual 'mind' of the ancient being, a layer of consciousness that stood apart from those frenzied impulses and aggressive tendencies; it was the framework of the beast, the very wisp of being that had been locked there against the inner machine, not a soul, to be certain... But how could it appear to look so very much like a soul?

Lightning felt that same sense of detachment, but she kept a certain hold over herself, unwilling to venture too far into the presence of such a dangerous foe. She slowly reached out to examine what she could sense, tracing over the familiar network of lines and otherworldly material, and with a slight twinge of uncertainty, she couldn't help but wonder if Fang was actually wrong about the fal'Cie. It wasn't like any soul she had ever sensed before, whether it was from a spirit or otherwise, but there was just something so odd about it, as if everything there resembled a soul, but it was twisted upside down or inside out, enough that she almost shook in disorientation, biting back a soft hiss of her own pain.

No, it was _not_ a soul, she decided, there was simply no true presence there, no will to react or even to contact her; the information was there, of course, but there was no real mind behind the knowledge, not like there had been before on the baser level, the raw emotion and instinct. It was... In a sense, inverted, as she could feel the swirling lines that made up the very fingerprint, the place where the heart would be on human souls, but the lines themselves felt as different as a deep canyon to a rising mountain ridge. An opposite, she realized, a negative image, anywhere that black should be there was white in its stead, and quite the same otherwise.

Lightning slowly began to retreat from such a dizzying image, back to her own waiting form, where she opened her eyes to peer at those steadily flashing lights, merely a heartbeat without reason to carry on. "You... You really just wanted it to end." She rose up to her feet, holding Overture at her side. "You can't even talk, can you? You couldn't just ask them, so you let them suffer for years because you wanted a way out..." Lightning's mouth twitched into a bitter grimace, and she hissed almost silently beneath her breath. "Your rules won't let you die, will they? They tried to lock us out, and they're making you try to attack me."

The machine flickered on without pause.

"Then it's a damn good thing I play by different standards..." Lightning lifted her sword, and with a sharp whistle of air, the blade swept down into a crackle of frail metals and glass, like the shell of a beetle split right in two, a burst of sparking energy and so many shattered shards. "If you really don't have a soul, then you'll probably just disappear." She watched how the light dimmed and died away, before she slowly walked on towards the next flickering metal tower. "But if you do, by some chance..." With all of her summoned might, Lightning lashed her blade into the thrumming machine, slicing apart the delicate instruments into a crumble of broken fragments. "If something like you can find your way to her... Then it doesn't matter how much of a monster you are."

Within the darkness of that bleak little room, Lightning knelt down before the shattered corpse of the machine, beside the towers that slowly began to grow dim. "May you return to Etro's arms-" Her eyes wavered slightly at the sudden sound that rumbled inside the nearest mechanism, and she felt them widen when a certain chamber finally fell to pieces like the rest, revealing the hidden little object that awaited there within. "...And may the goddess watch over your soul?"

* * *

Fang's teeth sank down against what must have been the thousandth bloodshot eye, a metallic mechanism that snapped and shattered between her jaws, before she reared back to fire off yet another gout of heat and swirling flame. She flapped her wings to send the smoke billowing out into what seemed like the face of the beast, but the twisted creature had so many nonsensical lines and curves of flesh and segmented metal that it was hard to tell one flailing limb from the other, especially when she had already ripped apart so many into pieces.

Her jaw ached heavily, and she could feel each rasp of air inside her lungs, but her eyes almost gleamed when something suddenly shifted in the massive bulk of the bleeding beast, as if the creature almost paused, only to lash back at her much less quickly than before.

She ran forth to meet it, sinking her teeth down to draw out that oily blood into the air, no matter if the beast seemed to have no end in sight. It was always bleeding, she remembered, the flesh was torn by the sheer tension of being chained to those metal walls, limbs that reached and grasped and bled without end, eyes that flickered and peered out at her without anything more than pain. She had never seen such eyes, so very numerous in number, yet lacking in everything she had seen in even the basest of creatures; animals held emotion, no matter how primal it was, and human eyes would flash and gleam with such a myriad of intricacies, subtle and often fleeting, but the eyes of the fal'Cie were somehow so empty and dull, no matter how forceful and desperate the rest of the beast had been.

Fang realized it when the entire structure seemed to tremble beneath her hind claws, when the beast wailed and sputtered so much blood from every cut, when she lunged out to tear down at one of the softest spots of that metal hide, drawing yet another spatter of oily liquid, she realized that it was truly starting to slow.

She cracked the metallic shell between her teeth, and the last guttural echo drifted out against the smooth surface of the hollow walls, far beyond the chamber it stood within, and the beast finally shuddered, before it fell still.

* * *

Lightning held it in her grip, a ring of what looked like utter darkness, a void made material, physical, so much that it almost made her mind hurt to be able to hold it there in her hands, as if she had broken some sacred law of the universe.

She felt something prickling in every inch of her body, something that flashed and trembled and made her head spin far too fast, but she could only reach out to grasp for balance against one of the broken towers, even when the jagged shards drew droplets of scarlet from her skin.

Her gaze was suddenly swept away, drifting off into a world lost within a whirling storm of physical chaos, a realm that crumbled down beneath the weight of decay and suffering, a city of black and white. She saw image of herself, and of the swift blade she held, the blooded strikes against those who took up arms against her, those who fell beneath such power, a gift given by the likes of a god. She saw the men and women in pale white robes, eyes that flickered away and went so blank, the streams of blood that seeped down into the ground or pooled against the concrete. She could hear them, the breath on their very lips, the force of their weapons, the look in their eyes when she ran them right through for the crime of dealing death upon the innocent, no matter how human they both were.

She saw it then, the eyes of the man who hunted within the shadows, the blades he held against her, the sheer pain in his eyes at the loss of all he held dear.

Lightning tightened her grip against the strange ring of darkness, and she almost thought to shake her head in fury. It was another life, she knew, another world that was _not_ her own, yet it still sent a sharp pang through her heart to know that they had all once despised her. She saw that golden emblem, the view of the city succumbing to that whirling storm, before a pale face slowly turned to reveal those long, snarling teeth, the eyes that burned bright orange instead of a gentle green, the dark dragon hidden behind the luminous visage of a god.

The fire god, she knew it could be no other; the god of such beings, crafting them in his own image, claws, teeth, a sharp beauty and utter strength, fierce and bold and utterly unyielding. But was he also a god of the fal'Cie?

Lightning's vision swam back to herself in a lurch, and she grabbed at one of the other towers to steady herself, still grasping against the edge of the crown. She suddenly realized that she could see too much, too far into the depths of the world itself and otherwise; the images spun and fluttered in her mind, and her knees slowly sank down to touch the ground, amid the tangled remains of that fallen mechanical fiend. Yet as her vision slowly stabilized, fighting back against the blur, one of her hands merely fell to the floor at the presence of something before her, still gripping the device without pause.

Wings flared without sound, white pinions stained with sharp tips of boundless black, like banners cast beside her. Her gaze cut a long swath through the whole crumbling ruin, peering out at the corpse of the fragile machine, before those keen blue eyes found themselves locked upon her own living counterpart.

Lightning felt her breath grow utterly still, just for a single, endless moment... Yet she still clutched the dark ring all the tighter for it; had it summoned such things, as Fang had done before?

That tall, airy seraphim, bearing the scars of her own storied past, her eyes glinted with something quite wise, a sense of knowledge beyond the years of mankind. She knelt down to the floor, even when her wings slowly billowed out with some unseen force. "Don't." She smiled only once, just a whisper upon her lips, before she lifted her right hand towards her forehead, pushing the soft fringe of her hair aside.

And Lightning looked at it, gazing at the scar of such power, flesh forever marked by the touch of chaos, a thin line of nothingness, a dark halo against such pallid skin. She suddenly realized, after forcing her eyes to dart away, that her past self had a different left hand than her right, a limb of long talons and so many feathery-soft scales... Yet she soon flickered in place, slowly fading out of the bounds of reality, less than a mere memory of Lightning's past, just a soul that only existed within her own thrumming heartbeat, a ghost of what had once lived.

Lightning slowly slumped there in the darkness, and she finally tasted the blood on her lip, an injury from when she had fallen to the floor in the first place; she reached up to pull her mask away, letting it fall beside her neck. The rush of adrenaline was steadily fading, and it quickly gave way to the aches and pains of her struggles, her own share of battle against the fal'Cie. She didn't move, she only tried her best to make her lungs breathe more steadily, even when a certain sound echoed out from the distance, giving way to a graceful silhouette at the other end of the room.

"Lightning!" Fang suddenly dropped right down into the darkened space, and she lifted a small flame upon her fingertips to illuminate her way. "Light... What happened?" But she suddenly caught sight of that shadowed artifact, the prize that Lightning had since abandoned against the metal floor, a perfect opposite to the pale, lofty crown that Fang had claimed in Luxerion.

Lightning just kept leaning against the lifeless tower, and she stared almost blankly into the distance, perhaps from the wake of seeing so many scattered visions, from the mind of a feral machine to a piece of something utterly divine, chaotic as it was.

"Light." Fang approached almost cautiously, but there was a certain confidence to her stride, a sense of power from her victory over such a terrible foe. "Did you touch it?"

Several moments passed before Lightning nodded, yet it was scarcely more than a twitch of her head.

"It's alright... I'll get rid of it, just like the last one." Fang stepped past where the crown resided, and she slowly knelt down beside Lightning, gazing at the smudge of blood on her mouth. "Light."

Lightning just kept staring off into the distance. "Did you kill it?"

"Yeah, but I think fate's got something else in store for us, something weird... I know it now." Fang reached up to gently swipe the spots of blood away from her lip. "Brought us here, didn't it? And I ended up with the crown in Luxerion for a reason, to make sure it never hurt anyone again." A small smile crossed her face when Lightning's eyes drifted back to look at her, even if both of their gazes seemed rather low and downcast. "How else could we find both of them? That's a piece of the gods, you know."

"The goddess." Lightning closed her eyes for just a moment, before she sheathed the claws on her left hand with only a wince of pain. "The black crown was given to Bhunivelze... A piece of Etro."

"And they say the gods built these places." Fang slowly held out her hand. "Almost makes sense that it would end up here; one of them probably wanted to hide it."

"And you'll destroy it..." Lightning reached out to accept Fang's gentle grip, allowing her to help her stand up once more, no matter how much her knees tried to buckle and fall out from under her. "Do it."

Fang took a moment just to look at Lightning, at the glint of pain in her eyes, something almost bitter and forlorn. "I will, let's just get on out of here first... No telling what sort of stuff those put into the air." She gestured at she smoldering remains of the towers and the mechanical limbs, and she gently began to lead Lightning towards the high ledge that led back to the upper hallway. "You alright? How's the pain?"

Lightning tried not to wince. "I can manage."

Fang gave her a long look, fixed upon the creases beside her eyes, the slight twinge of physical resistance to whatever she was truly feeling inside. "How's the pain?"

Lightning drew in a very sharp breath. "...Burning."

"Then let's go." Fang reached down into her own satchel for a stray bit of cloth, which she angled in her grip to grab at the fallen crown, quickly stashing it away inside the bag itself, before she reached out to hold Lightning's hand. "It's over, it's dead... It really is _dead_ , isn't it?" Her breath shook slightly, and she gave a fierce smile despite herself, drawing Lightning in for a tight, yet gentle hug. "Light..."

Lightning slowly reached in to return the embrace, moving her hands around Fang's waist and up towards her back, enough to feel that same sheer warmth against her palms, so very solid and soothing.

"You and me, Light." Fang held her so tightly, but not quite enough to cause much further pain. "Let's go back, yeah? Get our family back..."

From the crook of Fang's neck, Lightning slowly started to nod, and she almost sighed when Fang ran a warm hand across her back, slowly chasing away the pain. She felt it through the fabric of her clothes, through the capelike flaps at her back, she felt Fang's warmth, the soft, glowing embers in the wake of such frenzied battle, the ashen trail that would soon lead her home again, soaring atop those mighty black wings.


End file.
